Last year, the Russians started digging an Archeological site in Siberia. After digging 500ft, they found some copper wire dating back 5,000 years. Thus, they concluded that their ancestors had been using copper wired telephones as far back as 5,000 years ago.

Not to be outdone, the Americans started digging their own site too. At 800ft,they found some Fibre Optic material dating back to 8,000 years! The logical conclusion? Their anscectors were better than the Russians. They had Fibre optics way before the Russian copper-wired telephones.

As the debate raged, the Nigerians decided to commence digging somewhere around Jigawa state( I was in the Archeology team )...We dug all the way to 1,200 feet and found---nothing . The obvious conclusion? Our fore fathers had been using WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY over 12 thousand years ago...

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A strong young man at the construction site was bragging that he could outdo anyone in a feat of strength. He made a special case of making fun of one of the older workmen.

After several minutes, the older worker had had enough. "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is," he said. "I will bet a week's wages that I can haul something in a wheelbarrow over to that outbuilding that you won't be able to wheel back."

"You're on, old man," the braggart replied. "Let's see what you got." The old man reached out and grabbed the wheelbarrow by the handles. Then, nodding to the young man, he said, "All right, get in."

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One day, 4 men went up to a mountain to give a sacrifice to their god. they were Nigerian, Chinese, English, and Indian.

English man: "this is for my people". and he jumped down the mountain.

Chinese man: "this is for my people" and he jumped down.

when it was the Nigerian's turn, he says: " this is for my people" and he pushes the Indian man down the mountain.

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funny jokes about plane crash

A plane was about to crash and 3 women were planning how they would be rescued after the crash.

The jewish woman put on her expensive diamonds...''the rescuers will see the sparkle and rescue me first'' she reasoned.

The French woman started applying her make-up..''well, I hope they see all the colour combination and they get to rescue me first''.

The Nigeria woman stripped Unclad just a few seconds to the crash. ''Why did u do that?'' the other ladies asked her.
''Well, everybody knows that the first thing they look for after a plane crash is...the black box!''

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There was a plane going overseas. The pilot realized after they had taken off that the plane was carrying too much weight. If they didn't lighten the load they were going to crash.

So they dumped the freight.

The plane was still too heavy. Then they dumped the luggage. Still too heavy! So the pilot announced to the passengers what was going on, and asked for about 15 volunteers to jump off the plane with a parachute. The navy had been alerted, so they would have ships waiting for them below. And they would get a pass to fly free on this airline for the rest of their lives.

No one budged.

The pilot asked again, still no one moved.

So the pilot says: "OK, we're going to do pick people to jump, but fairly.

We'll go by alphabet, race by race: Please All African Americans step to the front of the plane now!"

No one moved.

He then says: "All Blacks, step to the front, please."

No one still moved.

"All Coloreds step to the front, please."

Still no one moved.

At this point a little boy asked his father: "Dad, aren't we African American or Black or Colored?"

The father says: "No, son, today we're Negroes. And if someone doesn't hurry up and step up to the front, we're gonna be Zulu!"

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heart chelation therapy ii

Study finds heart chelation therapy effective  but raises questions    ii

By Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield, CNN
November 6, 2012

(continued)

Dangerously low calcium levels


According to the Mayo Clinic, some doctors think chelation helps heart patients because the medication being infused into patients binds to calcium in their clogged arteries, sweeping it away.

But "sweeping" calcium away is a double-edged sword. While it might help unclog coronary arteries, it might also lead to deadly low calcium levels in the blood, as happened to the three people whose deaths were described in the CDC report.

That's one reason why the National Institutes of Health required that the infusions be done at a slow rate -- over a period of three hours or more -- so problems like low calcium levels could be caught easily.

In a series of letters to the study's authors, the Department of Health and Human Service's Office for Human Research Protection cited several concerns about the study, including that the researchers hadn't followed the rules about doing the infusions at a slow rate.

In one letter, the government overseers expressed concern that infusions were performed in "shorter than recommended" times in 440 instances, involving 251 subjects.

The study was stopped from September 2008 until June 2009 to respond to the government's concerns.


A question of significance


In addition to possible safety problems, there are concerns that the study was poorly done and doesn't actually show that chelation works.

In the study, researchers divided the patients into two groups. One group of 839 patients received 40 infusions of a chemical drug solution called disodium EDTA.

Another group of 869 patients received infusions with a placebo solution of salt and sugar water. Neither the patients nor the doctors knew who was receiving which treatment.

Among the patients receiving chelation, 26% went on to have a cardiovascular event, such as death, heart attack or stroke. Among the placebo group, 30% went on to have a cardiovascular event.

According to the authors' analysis, this four-percentage-point difference was barely statistically significant, leading Lamas to note that the difference may have been by chance, not because chelation actually worked.

Further watering down the report is the fact that a relatively large number of patients -- 17% -- dropped out of the study.

Experts say patients usually drop out of studies when things aren't going well -- when they're having bad side effects, for example, or when the therapy isn't working. But since they dropped out, their results can't be included in the study.

"This study was so badly done and the results are so marginal from a statistical perspective that this therapy can't be recommended," said Nissen, the Cleveland Clinic cardiologist.

"Making a treatment decision about a life-threatening disease based on poor-quality scientific data can be dangerous," he added. "History has taught us that when this happens, considerable harm can come to patients."


The future of chelation


Kalidas, the chelation practitioner in Florida, said he hopes these new study results will help persuade insurance companies to start paying for chelation.

But insurance companies usually only pay for treatments that are FDA approved -- and there's little chance the FDA would approve chelation for heart disease based on this study, experts say.

"This would never pass muster at the FDA," said Nissen, the former chairman of the FDA advisory panel that examines applications to put new heart drugs on the market.

heart chelation therapy

Study finds heart chelation therapy effective  but raises questions

By Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield, CNN
November 6, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Chelation therapy for heart patients involves a series of IV drug infusions
• A new study shows the therapy was effective at preventing heart problems
• But some experts are challenging the validity of the study and its results
• The study "raises more questions that must be answered," says one expert

(CNN) -- In results that are stunning cardiologists, a new study shows a "fringe" alternative treatment for heart disease was found to be very effective at preventing heart problems -- but the report is so controversial even its lead author is questioning the results.

The patients in the study had had heart attacks, and were assigned to receive either a placebo or a series of intravenous drug infusions called chelation therapy, an unorthodox treatment that has long been looked down upon by cardiologists.

In the report -- the first large, long-term trial of chelation for heart patients -- the therapy reduced the risk of heart attacks, deaths, strokes and other cardiovascular problems by 18%.

"If this were true, it would be significant. It would put this therapy in the same ballpark as high blood pressure drugs, or drugs used to lower cholesterol," said Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who doubts the results of the study.

A doctor with the American Heart Association warned that the results "should not be interpreted as an indication to adopt chelation therapy into clinical practice."

"(The study) raises more questions that must be answered before we're ready to act on the observations reported today," said Dr. Elliott Antman, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.


Even the lead author of the study tempered his enthusiasm about the results by warning that they might not be valid.

"The most exciting part of this study is that there may be an unexpected signal of benefit," Dr. Gervasio Lamas, chief of Columbia University Division of Cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, said in a press release put out by the American Heart Association. "We need to understand whether the signal is true, or whether it occurred by chance."


Safety concerns


Doctors who practice chelation welcomed the new study results, which were announced at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Los Angeles.

These doctors believe chelation can help remove heavy metals from the body. Chelation is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of lead poisoning, but doctors are free to use it for other purposes.


"I'll be pushing this data to my patients, and I'll be reaching out to local cardiologists, because chelation should be a part of the regular regimen for heart patients, like taking an aspirin or a statin," said Dr. Kirti Kalidas, who charges his heart patients in Orlando, Florida, around $3,000 for a full round of chelation treatments.


This enthusiasm is exactly what frightens many doctors. Chelation is already popular -- more than 100,000 people said they'd used it in the past 12 months, according to a 2007 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- and they fear the new study results will encourage more people to use it.


In 2006, the CDC reported that two children and one adult had died after receiving chelation. They all developed dangerously low calcium levels, which can cause the heart to stop beating.


In this new study, one patient receiving the therapy died and another had a "severe adverse event." Both events were "possibly or definitely related to study therapy," according to the study author's slide presentation. A patient who received a placebo solution also died, and another had an adverse event.


It wasn't clear from the presentation exactly how the patients were harmed, and Lamas, the lead study author, declined to answer questions about the study until the research is published in a medical journal.


Some doctors worry patients will hear only the positive results of the study and not the possible dangers, and would opt for it over proven treatments such as bypass surgery.


"I'm fearful that patients will hear the sales pitch for this treatment and, not being well-versed in medicine, will succumb to the seduction of this therapy," said Nissen, adding that chelation might sound more appealing than an invasive procedure like bypass surgery.


Dr. Kimball Atwood agrees. In an article about the chelation trial, Atwood and his colleagues labeled the $30 million study funded at taxpayer expense by the federal National Institutes of Health "unethical, dangerous, pointless, and wasteful" and called for it to be abandoned.


"These new study results will encourage chelationists, and state medical boards will be loath to step in because the chelationists have this study on their side," said Atwood, a clinical assistant professor of anesthesiology at Tufts Medical Center.

"Every now and then somebody will get killed," he added.

Kalidas, the doctor who practices chelation, disagreed, saying this study would help -- not hurt -- patients.

"Chelation has been lifesaving for hundreds of my patients," he said.

Red wine and resveratrol:

Red wine and resveratrol: Good for your heart?  Resveratrol in grapes, supplements and other foods 

Source :- Mayo clinic/health

  

The resveratrol in red wine comes from the skin of grapes used to make wine. Because red wine is fermented with grape skins longer than is white wine, red wine contains more resveratrol. Simply eating grapes, or drinking grape juice, has been suggested as one way to get resveratrol without drinking alcohol. Red and purple grape juices may have some of the same heart-healthy benefits of red wine.
Other foods that contain some resveratrol include peanuts, blueberries and cranberries. It's not yet known how beneficial eating grapes or other foods might be compared with drinking red wine when it comes to promoting heart health. The amount of resveratrol in food and red wine can vary widely.
Resveratrol supplements are also available. While researchers haven't found any harm in taking resveratrol supplements, most of the resveratrol in the supplements can't be absorbed by your body.
 
How does alcohol help the heart?
 
Various studies have shown that moderate amounts of all types of alcohol benefit your heart, not just alcohol found in red wine. It's thought that alcohol:
Raises high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol
Reduces the formation of blood clots
Helps prevent artery damage caused by high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol
 
Drink in moderation — or not at all
 
Red wine's potential heart-healthy benefits look promising. Those who drink moderate amounts of alcohol, including red wine, seem to have a lower risk of heart disease. However, more research is needed before we know whether red wine is better for your heart than are other forms of alcohol, such as beer or spirits.
 
Neither the American Heart Association nor the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommend that you start drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease. Alcohol can be addictive and can cause or worsen other health problems.
 
Drinking too much increases your risk of high blood pressure, high triglycerides, liver damage, obesity, certain types of cancer, accidents and other problems. In addition, drinking too much alcohol regularly can cause cardiomyopathy — weakened heart muscle — causing symptoms of heart failure in some people. If you have heart failure or a weak heart, you should avoid alcohol completely. If you take aspirin daily, you should avoid or limit alcohol, (from Nga --- I think you just take it different time and in limited red wine) depending on your doctor's advice. You also shouldn't drink alcohol if you're pregnant. If you have questions about the benefits and risks of alcohol, talk to your doctor about specific recommendations for you.
 
If you already drink red wine, do so in moderation. Moderate drinking is defined as an average of two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women. The limit for men is higher because men generally weigh more and have more of an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol than women do.
 

 

Sirtuins Resveratrol

Sirtuins  Resveratrol

by RealSelf Blog 
 
What are Sirtuins?
 
Sirtuins are a family of proteins found in organisms ranging from bacteria and plants to humans.
 
According to Los Angeles plastic surgeon John Gross, MD “sirtuins occur naturally within the human body, and when stimulated they can stop the aging clock.” More specifically, sirtuins are defined as a class of seven different naturally occurring enzymes essential to the survival of cells, regulation of metabolic processes and in some cases even as a biological defense mechanism.
 
 
What do sirtuins mean for skin?
 
Basically, sirtuins help prolong the life of cells—so if sirtuins are stimulated then the aging of skin can be prohibited and promote cell longevity.
 
 
 
What stimulates sirtuins?
 
The original studies on sirtuins were actually related to sirtuin activation as a result of calorie-restriction; according to a New York Timesarticle (6/4/08) the studies, carried out on laboratory rodents, revealed a connection between tissue-preservation and a famine-like diet. In 2003, it was discovered that sirtuins could be activated by some natural compounds--resveratrol being the most touted. Resveratrol is an ingredient found in some red wines—it comes from the skins of red grapes. Resveratrol has also become a popular ingredient in anti-aging skin care.
 
You may have heard of studies that show animals on calorie-restricted diets live longer, are healthier and show fewer signs of age than those fed normal diets. Though we don't fully understand why, it appears that sirtuins are the key. A growing body of research shows that sirtuins may slow the pace of aging by delaying cell death and protecting cells from DNA damage.
It's unknown whether calorie-restricted diets have the same effects on humans as on fruit flies and monkeys, but it may turn out not to matter-we're learning that you don't need to starve yourself to put sirtuins into action.
A research company called Sirtris demonstrated that resveratrol, an antioxidant found in the skin of red grapes, stimulated expression of sirtuins. Mice placed on high doses of resveratrol improved insulin resistance, prevented weight gain and increased lifespan by 20 percent. When put on a treadmill, the mice were also able to run twice as far and twice as fast than those not given resveratrol.
 
 
 
The New York Times/Well blog
Nicholas Wade
March 11, 2013
 
New Optimism on Resveratrol
 
 
A cloud has long hung over the intriguing thesis that resveratrol, a minor ingredient of red wine, activates cellular proteins known as sirtuins that promote longer life in laboratory worms, flies and mice.
 
Critics have suggested that there were errors in the original experiments and that resveratrol did not in fact activate sirtuins directly. If so, resveratrol would lose much of its scientific interest because its link to the sirtuin would be unclear. But a new study led by David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School, who in 2003 was a discoverer of resveratrol’s role in activating sirtuins, found that resveratrol did indeed influence sirtuin directly, though in a more complicated way than previously thought. Resveratrol appears to work by changing the shape of the sirtuin proteins in a cell. Thus activated, the sirtuins do several things, one of which is to switch on a second protein that spurs production of the mitochondria, which provide the cell’s energy. This would explain why mice treated with resveratrol ran twice as far on a treadmill before collapsing from exhaustion as untreated mice.
 
The exact knowledge of resveratrol’s mode of action, if confirmed, is welcome news for Sirtris, the company Dr. Sinclair helped found to explore whether resveratrol-mimicking drugs could avert the diseases of aging. Resveratrol itself is not ideal as a drug, for technical and patent reasons.
A version of this article appeared in print on 03/12/2013, on page D4 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Nutrition: New Optimism on Resveratrol.
 
 
 
 
 

Sources of resveratrol: red grapes, grapeseed and red wines.

The Recipe for Preventing A Stroke:

The Recipe for Preventing A Stroke:  1 Coffee, 4 Green Teas a Day    

By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living
 
 
Coffee lovers and green tea enthusiasts, unite! A new study out of Japan shows that people who drink both beverages every day have a lower risk of stroke than those who drink just one or the other (or neither). 
 
Researchers have been touting the antioxidant properties of green tea for years, and recent studies show that your daily coffee fix boosts more than just your energy levels. But putting the two drinks together—not in the same cup, of course—may help you reap the health benefits of both. 
 
Researchers looked at the coffee and tea consumption habits of almost 82,369 Japanese adults over 13 years and found that people who had a cup of coffee every day were 20 percent less likely to have a stroke (compared to those who didn't drink coffee at all). But that's not to say that coffee is better for you than tea. In fact, the study noted that people who drank four or more cups of green tea a day were also about 20 percent less likely to have a stroke. Since the two drinks help prevent strokes in different ways, drinking both can lower your risk of stroke more than just drinking one or the other, the study authors explained. 
 
"This is the first large-scale study to examine the combined effects of both green tea and coffee on stroke risks," the study's lead author, Dr. Yoshihiro Kokubo of Japan's National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, said in a statement. "You may make a small but positive lifestyle change to help lower the risk of stroke by adding daily green tea to your diet." 
 
The study was published this week in the American Heart Association's journal, Stroke. The results took into account differences in participants' age, gender, smoking, alcohol, weight, diet, and exercise habits. 
 
According to the National Stroke Association, a stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks an artery in the brain, or when a blood vessel breaks, causing an interruption of blood flow to the brain. Brain cells begin to die, damaging the brain and affecting the actions—usually speech, movement, and memory—controlled by the part of the brain where the stroke has occurred. 
 
"The regular action of drinking tea [and] coffee largely benefits cardiovascular health because it partly keeps blood clots from forming," Kokubo explained.
 
Green tea can have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body. It also contains compounds known as catechins, which can help regulate blood pressure and improve blood flow, Kokobo told National Public Radio. And coffee has more to it than just caffeine—it also contains quinides, compounds that can help control blood sugar, which cuts your risk of stroke by reducing your risk of Type 2 diabetes. 
 
The researchers wrote that the "combination of higher green tea and coffee consumptions contributed to the reduced risk of stroke as an interaction effect for each other," The Daily Mail reported.
 
Given that tea and coffee are consumed regularly in many countries, the results of the study could apply to people around the world, the researchers wrote. Americans may already be drinking enough coffee and tea to get the benefits: A typical cup of coffee or tea in Japan is just 6 ounces, while a grande coffee at Starbucks is 16 ounces.