Feet-related problems can now be a thing of the past. The MBT shoes have an answer to your multiple problems. Designed as orthopedic shoes in Switzerland, they are slowly gaining popularity in Europe. Helping in weight management and elimination of back and neck pain, slouching etc the shoes offers one multiple benefits.

The shoes are an output of technology, but in terms of fashion they have the potential to become a major trend. And if you like trekking long distances then you can do so with ease. The curved bottom of the shoe alleviates any discomfort and at the same time keeps your legs toned and lean.

So here you finally have shoes that will make you fall in love with walking, so much so that the feeling equals to walking barefoot in the soft sands.

Against the dark black sky it is a show of glittering lights. The entertainment zone added to most occasions. Fireworks clearly make everything bright. Or do they? Global warming is a bitter reality today. Fireworks may make a day out of our nights, but a recent research from the University of Munich published in the journal Angewandte Chemie tell us about the choking truth this entertainment can lead us to.

Technology has improved. Nothing is impossible. Environment friendly firework products can be produced by using more nitrogen rich compounds which changes the chemistry of the product making it more safe with better colour quality and better intensity than the regular fireworks.

So you can light a few more fireworks without worrying about the smoke the pyrotechnics, used in fireworks, create. About pyrotechnics, the recent research published says that Pyrotechnical materials contain an oxidizer and a reducing agent. When the firework are set off, they release a whole lot of poisonous materials including heavy metals like lead, barium, chromium etc and smoke particulars like sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide etc which are harmful to both the environment and humans and can lead to a host of complex diseases.

So time for a change has come. We can still entertain ourselves with light shows produced by the glitzy fireworks, only the product changes. It becomes better. The new firework product will definitely cost more, but a few extra money can pave its way for better and healthier air in the future.

Via: Courier Journal

Your table is cluttered and your things keep falling. Pencils, easers, keys or even notes that keep flying off the table. Well not to worry. Just hand them over to Q- man and he will hold all that for you.

Q- Man has a very flexible personality for he is made of pliable rubber and all of his limbs have a magnet within. The flexibility of the material and the magnet allows the Q- Man to bend or move freely in various positions to hold on to things, thus aiding you in your firm catch of objects in your hands or to prevent things from falling off your table, time and again.

The Q-Man Flexible Magnet is available in stylish, funky and attractive colours, so one has a variety to choose from. Small, but cute little inventions to add spice to life.

“Smoking is harmful to Health” - This is a statutory warning printed on all cigarette packets. Yet the question arises as to how many people pay heed to this warning. Statistics will reveal a very small number. Majority knowingly jump in the fire or continue to smoke, risking even the lives of those around them, due to passive smoking.

A recent research has revealed that smoking kills almost a million people in India per year. More so the high smoking risk among Indians was a surprise when actually Indians start smoking at a later age and even smoke less than their European and American counterparts.

Also smoking results in most Indians dying from Tuberculosis rather than cancer as Indians prefer Beedis, that are traditionally leaf wrapped and hand rolled rather than manufactured brand filters. And since most of them never quit till death, the risk just doubles.

The study also revealed that almost 120 million people smoke in India, majority being men. Due to smoking most men in India get infected with asymptomatic tuberculosis - that is, smoking damages the lungs to such an extent that the latent infection cannot be sustained, eventually leading to death.

Illiteracy is one of the evil causes of smoking, for half of the Indian smokers are illiterate and barely 2% quit smoking in their lives. For the other half literate people who continue to smoke in spite of being aware of the dangers involved, the Indian health authorities are rooting for tobacco companies to print images of diseases that are tobacco related. But politicians want to save their vote banks in the name of protecting jobs of tobacco workers.

The research which was recently published was based on a study of the smoking history of 74,000 Indian who had recently died and 78,000 Indians living.

Well research or no research, smoking is injurious to health - is a known fact. And yet people continue to...smoke!

Image Credit: Funpic

Via: Reuters

Your very own house, floating in water. Seems an exciting prospect doesnt’it. Well, the factors causing it can be dangerous.

Global warming and its harmful effects are evident all around the world. One cannot undo the fury of nature now, but to deal with it effectively, that art still lies with man. To deal with rising water levels, because of faster melting snowcaps that have become a threat to people and their homes, an architectural firm Waterstudio, have started designing houses that can float on water in times of such crisis, but still keep the families safe in their homes.

This is Modern architecture, which faces the future situation bravely rather than fleeing from it. The foundation of these houses can detach and float when flooding occurs. The houses and their designing are unique because the foundation of the house is based on the river bottom. When the water levels in the river rise to a flooding point, the house and its foundation rise along with the water, where as flexible pipes keep the house well connected with electrical and sewer lines.

Many families residing close to river banks in Netherlands have already started living in such homes.

Source: GreenDaily

Cadbury just got a new face. The 20 year old, glamorous, soul star singer Joss Stone has been a fan of the Cadbury Flakes chocolate bar since 1959. She will now star in a TV advertising campaign to be launched next spring to revive one of Britain’s oldest and most preferred chocolate brand. According to Cadbury’s spokesperson, Joss Stone reflects ‘the Flake Girl’s attitude to life’ and hopes that as Cadbury’s new face she will take Flakes back to the top of chocolate charts. Cadbury had earlier aired TV advertisements with previous Flake girls, but the raunchy advertisements had provoked controversy. The main focus in these adverts was on the girl enjoying their own private Flake moment. But after some complaints one was even taken off air in 1970.

The first of these Flakes advertisement appeared in 1959, before the commercials were killed off in 2004. But in order to give a boost to their sales, which had fallen by 15 percent in the past two years, the commercials were relaunched again this year and the Cadbury officials hope that Miss Stone who has been rising to fame since 4 years of age will help boost the Flake sales.

According to The Grocer, Flakes ranks tenth in the list of top selling chocolates and one of the reasons for the fall of sales is the customers switching to new and different varieties. Cadbury has spent about $5 million to give Flakes a new packaging.

Via: Postchronicle

Climate changes have reduced the amount of time the polar bears can hunt for food and today the polar bears of Canada’s Hudson Bay area are battling for their survival.

From a population of 1600 to 2200 the numbers have drastically reduced to just about 965. This fall in population in a very short span of time has been attributed to global warming.

Polar bears being carnivorous mammals, their main meal are the seals in the Hudson Bay area who come to the surface of the water for air. The bears hunt when the bay is frozen, the ice thick. The remaining part of the year, when the bay is not frozen, they are in fasting mode.

But in the last many years due to climatic changes the pattern of the polar bear’s arrival has changed, cutting down three weeks from their diet time including the spring weeks when seals are pupping as pup seals are easier to prey. Because of this change the bears cannot put on enough weight to survive through the fasting season.

Since they cannot find food on their own natural frozen hunting ground, the bears are now entering into towns and this has resulted in the tourism industry drawing in more tourist to see these mammals before they completely disappear.

However the spotting of more bears in the towns have led the locals to believe that their numbers have increased. But its just the opposite. The animals are desperate for food, but don’t have much time to hunt. Also the bears seen are much skinnier than they should normally be.

According to enviornmentalist and biologist, the negative effects of global warming have already started and the polar bears are going to be the first ones to suffer. And maybe the loss of these charismatic species like the polar bears will make the world wake up to the dangers of global warming.

Source

Normally when an individual is born, he/she inherits a copy of each gene from each parent and both copies are active, working in tandem with each other. But if one copy of the gene becomes mutated due to which it cannot work properly, the other copy compensates for its loss.

However imprinted genes or genetic imprinting destroys the backup of the the copy gene too. This means that a person may inherit an active copy of the gene only from one parent. Molecular signals imprint the other copy from the other parent to be silent.

As a result if one tumor suppressing gene is inherently silenced and the active one gets mutated the person becomes susceptible to cancer.

Silenced genes occur because sometimes, imprinting goes wrong before birth. A normally silenced gene becomes active and an active gene may become silenced. This faulty gene imprinting may lead to some devastating developmental disorders like Angelman Syndrome which causes mental retardation.

The Duke scientists have verified 40 such human imprinted genes and identified 156 more. Many of the newly found imprinted genes are in the regions of chromosomes which are already linked to development of obesity, cancer, diabetes and other diseases. Foe eg one may help to prevent bladder cancer and the other may be responsible for various types of cancer.

Behavioural and environmental factors also play a role here. They may reprogram the operation of some genes, by making them speed up or slow down or making the genes work at a wrong time. Factors like food, stress, pollution etc interact with the genes which determine why some people get sick, while others do not in the same situation.

To show how environment can re program some genes, pregnant mice were fed different nutrients to alter the coat colour of the babies. The feed affected the chemical signals that controls how hard a certain gene works, which determines if the babies had yellow coats like their mothers or brown ones.

According to the researchers it is not just about the sequence of the genes but how the sequence is affected by environmental exposures that determine whether a person will be healthy or not.

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The chair developed by chiropractic pioneer Dr. Randy Weinzoff is slowly replacing the conventional office chairs. It has created a revolution of sorts in office and home furniture.

The chair acts as an effective tool for strengthening core muscles and improving spinal cord alignment.

The exercise ball chair set includes a removable 52 cm balance Ball, which cannot be inflated to its full capacity initially, but after some time when the ball becomes more flexible, more air can be added.

The set also includes an adjustable support bar, easy glide casters, an air pump and a desktop guide. It is designed for people with a height between 5′ to 5′11′.

The chair helps you to live a better healthier life even during office hours with the best possible care for your body.

Source

For people who are at the risk of developing an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, thanks to their genes, a brain scan may now help detect the same, a new study has found. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD is an anxiety disorder, where a person is forced by irrational thoughts and fears, making him to repeat an action again and again.

It is evident in the form of repetitive behavior like washing one’s hands or cleaning the house repeatedly or checking on locks and doors time and again. OCD may be present in only 2-3% of the population, but for an individual it hampers one’s normal life and seems to run in families.

According to the study published in the latest edition of the journal Brain, the genes causing the OCD risk are unknown, but they appear to change the brain’s anatomy, therefore persons with OCD and their close ones have a distinct pattern in their brain structure, which may help in the diagnosis of the disorder.

With the help of magnetic resonance imaging, brains of approximately 100 people were scanned, which included those with OCD and some others who were close relatives of people suffering from OCD.

Participants underwent a computerized test of pressing a right or left key as quickly as possible when arrows appeared. The sounding of a beep indicated that the participants had to attempt to stop their responses. The goal of the exercise was to objectively measure the ability to stop repetitive behaviors.

While the control group did good in the computerized test, people with OCD and their close relatives fared real bad. This has been linked o the decrease in the grey matter in the orbitofrontal and right inferior frontal regions. These are the brain regions playing an important role in suppressing one’s responses and habits.

However impaired brain function, in the areas of the brain that are associated with suppressing motor responses are responsible for the main characteristic feature of OCD- compulsive and repetitive behaviour. These brain changes appear to be genetic and a risk factor for developing OCD. This knowledge of the hidden causes may help in better diagnosis, in order to improve clinical treatments as compared to only the subjective diagnosis of OCD as available with most psychiatrist today.

This may also help to identify other contributing factors to OCD apart from genes, because not all family members with similar brain structures develop this disorder. The study may only be like a drop of water in the ocean but has the ability to open up new avenues to study the larger cause of Obsessive Compulsive disorders.

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