Random Musing of a Doctor

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Fashola Appeals To Doctors, Nurses Against Incessant Strike

Gov. Babatunde Raji Fashola

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola on Tuesday appealed to the doctors and nurses in the state never to resort to strike actions as means of settling disputes irrespective of provocation and disagreements with the government.
Fashola who made that appeal at the 2015 State Council ‎on Health meeting held in Lagos said frequent strike actions by workers endanger ‎lives of the residents, noting that the role played by health workers in any given society is too critical to embark on strike action at any slightest disagreement.

He added that the health workers are the only set of workers who must never contemplate strike action no matter the nature of disagreement, saying their role in continuous human existence cannot be overemphasized.
Harping on the crucial role of the health professional, he said doctors and nurses are the only set of people who can instruct highly paced persons to do anything, especially regarding to medical advice.

Fashola said, “Doctors, physicians are the only set of people who ask me to take off my

Blindness is the inability to see. The leading causes of chronic blindness include cataract, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, corneal opacities, diabetic retinopathy, trachoma, and eye conditions in children (e.g. caused by vitamin A deficiency). Age-related blindness is increasing throughout the world, as is blindness due to uncontrolled diabetes. On the other hand, blindness caused by infection is decreasing, as a result of public health action. Three-quarters of all blindness can be prevented or treated.

Definitions

There are 4 levels of visual function, according to the International Classification of

Also called graviola, soursop is a large, spiny, green tropical fruit with a sweet flesh that is the basis for several beverages, ice creams and other sweet foods popular in South America. Beyond its usefulness as a food, however, soursop also contains natural compounds with medicinal properties, making it potentially beneficial for your health. The graviola tree, or Annona muricata, produces the sweet soursop fruit, also called custard apple, paw paw or, in many Spanish-speaking countries, guanabana. The tree reaches a height of 25 or 30 feet and produces large fruit that may reach a length of 12 inches. Although its rind is quite bitter, the fruit's flesh is soft, smooth and sweet, and provides carbohydrate as its major nutrient. Soursop also contains abundant vitamin C and several B vitamins such as thiamin, riboflavin and niacin, along with calcium, phosphorus and a small amount of iron.

Uses and Components

Practitioners of herbal medicine recommend the fruit and leaves of the graviola tree to relieve stomach distress, fever, pain and respiratory problems such as cough and asthma, and for many other medical problems. Soursop contains a number of natural substances

As per a report from Nigeria daily newspaper site The Nation Tooth rot and gum infections have been recognized by the Nigerian Dental Association (NDA) as a percentage of the normal maladies influencing oral health.
According to the President, Dr Olurotimi Olojede stated there was need to anticipate the afore mentioned diseases by brushing the teeth two times daily (Morning and Night) with a medium texture toothbrush for around the range of two minutes and seeing the dentist at least once 6 month to stop any new improvement.
Olojede talked on the occasion of World Oral Health Day (WOHD) in Lagos, entitled Healthy teeth for Healthy life.
He stated healthy teeth gums and mouth play an essential part in individuals' capacity to work or mull over without consistent pestering and tormenting toothache.
Portraying tooth rot, he said: "This is when acids in the mouth break up the external layer of the mouth."

Chairm Person, Product and Commitee of NDA, Dr Dunni Ogundana, said people develop tooth situations on the grounds that a mess of individuals don't brush their teeth while those who don't brush fittingly and at the right recurrence.
She stated individuals might as well brush in the morning and night before they head off to

The Federal Government reaffirmed its resolve to eradicate bird flu in the country soon through multiple approach.

This was disclosed in Abuja by Dr Ademola Raji, Director, Animal Production and Husbandry Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, during a media chat.

Raji, said the Federal Government was working tirelessly to ensure that bird flu also called Avian

Midnight Series -What Do Women Really Know About Men (EXPLICIT R18)

The average woman dates with her eyes shut. She knows all the questions she should ask a man on a date, but settles for the information that he volunteers. She overhears comments he makes to other people that contradict things he’s said in the past, but will front as if she didn’t hear anything. When a girl does ask a serious question, they rarely follow up, not because they don’t want to know, but because they’re afraid to know too much. The majority of females would rather fall in love under the rules of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, because history has proven that too good to be true guys are often revealed to be full of shit under cross examination. Why test a man you know will fail, when ignorance feels so fucking blissful? By the time a woman enters into a legit relationship with a non-vetted man she’s so accustomed to ignoring “the small things” that even the brightest of red flags is filed as just a misunderstanding. YOU DON’T GET IT, HE’S DIFFERENT is the rally call the first month when your head is buried in the sand. I KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP, WHY DIDN’T I LISTEN TO MYSELF is the remorse felt after your head is forced out of the sand. Men are horrible liars, but a male’s saving grace is that women turn a blind eye depending on how thirsty she is to make him fit into the boo box. One woman recently told me, “I wanted it to work so bad that I convinced myself that my mind was playing tricks on me.” Think about that. You would rather convince yourself that you’re crazy than rock the boat by confronting a man or having a deep conversation about the holes in his story.

The truly insane thing is that women are natural detectives. They do drive-bys, break into phones, hack emails or social media accounts, and then sit on their discoveries because they don’t want to be judged as insecure and paranoid. The real issue isn’t the invasion of privacy, it’s the source of this cowardice. The real reason you’ve allowed yourself to devolve into the ratchet version of Veronica Mars is that you are in love with a person who gives you little reason to trust them. Nine out of ten women are currently in relationships with men they don’t trust.Poll these chicks and they will tell you how trust is the most important thing they need to get into a relationship, but they refuse to practice what they preach. When faced with a man that’s good on paper but suspicious in his actions, women keep their mouths closed. A girl will keep her hand raised when questioning her friend’s man, but when it comes to her own it’s, “I give him his space…” Why are you so fucking hypocritical and weak? He has a career and doesn’t live with his mother, therefore you aren’t going to ask

By Bunmi Sofola

A study last year showed that energy drinks can change heart rhythms. A team of researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany scanned the hearts of 17 people an hour after they’d consumed an energy drink. They found the left ventricle of the heart, which pumps blood around the body, was contracting harder after the drink. Frane’s public health agency has said young people who drink energy drinks are at risk of sleep disorders, daytime drowsiness and developing addiction to other substances.

“A third of young people who consume energy drinks say they’ve mixed them with alcohol. The caffeine makes the person feel less drunk, so they are less likely to stop, and end up drinking even more,’’ observes Andrew Brown of Mentor, a drug and alcohol prevention charity for children and young people. ‘’Energy drinks can have different effects on different

Your system benefits in countless little-known yet important ways when you get the seven to eight hours nightly that experts recommend. Sleep is your body’s time to heal, recharge, and restore itself. Skimp on it, it that sleep debt affects every body function, from your memory to your mood to the number of sick days you take and even your risk for a heart attack, says Shalini Paruthi, M.D., a sleep specialist and spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. In case you need more convincing, here are the 11 biggest ways sleep gives your body a major assist.

Sleep Keeps Your Heart Healthy

Add sleep deprivation to the list of risk factors that can leave you spending a lot of time in a cardiologist’s office. “Poor sleep quality is linked to heart health problems, from high blood pressure to heart attacks,” says Paruthi. Here’s why: Regularly shortchanging yourself on sleep can lead to a surge in stress hormones such as cortisol. The uptick in stress hormones compels your ticker to respond by working harder, and it doesn’t get the rest it needs, says Paruthi.

It Prevents You From Packing on Pounds

A good night’s rest won’t necessarily result in losing weight, but it can keep you from adding unwanted pounds. First, sleeplessness cranks up production of the hormone ghrelin, which boosts appetite, says Michael Breus, Ph.D., sleep specialist and author of The Sleep

A Pneumonia infected lung

Pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs. The lungs are made up of small sacs called alveoli, which fill with air when a healthy person breathes. When an individual has pneumonia, the alveoli are filled with pus and fluid, which makes breathing painful and limits oxygen intake.

Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide. Pneumonia killed an estimated 935 000 children under the age of five in 2013, accounting for 15% of all deaths of children under five years old. Pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, but is most prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Children can be protected from pneumonia, it can be prevented with simple interventions, and treated with low-cost, low-tech medication and care.

Causes

Pneumonia is caused by a number of infectious agents, including viruses, bacteria and fungi. The most common are:

Streptococcus pneumoniae – the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in children;
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) – the second most common cause of bacterial pneumonia;
respiratory syncytial virus is the most common viral cause of pneumonia;
in infants infected with HIV, Pneumocystis jiroveci is one of the commonest causes of pneumonia, responsible for at least one quarter of all pneumonia deaths in HIV-infected infants.

Transmission

Pneumonia can be spread in a number of ways. The viruses and bacteria that are commonly found in a child's nose or throat, can infect the lungs if they are inhaled. They

It may feel good, but health experts say you need to stop the habit now You’ve been told for years that you’re not supposed to clean your ear canal with a cotton swab. It’s dangerous and not very effective…. but it feels so good! So you do it anyway, day after day.

The truth is, earwax serves a purpose. It’s lubricating and antibacterial, and without it, your ears would feel dry. And even though you think you’re doing your body a favor by cleaning out your ears with a cotton swab, health experts say the opposite is actually true.

Why You Need To Back Away From The Swabs

Sujana Chandrasekhar, MD, an otologist/neurotologist at the New York Head and Neck Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital, sees patients all the time who attempt to clean wax out of their ears with swabs because it feels nice. Eventually, the practice turns into a habit. “Once you start, you don’t feel complete if you don’t do it,” she tells Yahoo Health.

People will stick all sorts of things in their ears to get wax out, Chandrasekhar says, including bobby pins, pens, the earpiece of glasses, even keys. At least with a cotton swab,

Rests, breaks, relaxations, and vacations play an important role in our individual health and wellbeing and can help determine what good or evil we contribute towards peace, harmony, and progress of our families in particular and the world in general. Earlier, we discussed rests and breaks. We now look at relaxations and vacations.

Relaxation can be described as a temporary state of bodily, mental, and spiritual freedom. Different degrees of relaxation are desirable for different situations, conditions, and places in life. If relaxation is freedom, we want to examine freedom from what?

Life is full of potential stressors. Your work can stress you up. The sight of your rich neighbor’s car can stress you up. The presence of a rival throws you into competitive mode. In these days of heightened materialism (good, bad, or indifferent), many of us are stressed

By Arianne Cohen

On Your Skin

The problem: Jowls and wrinkles may be the result of eating too many processed foods. As sugar digests, it bonds to collagen and impairs the molecule’s function (a process called glycation). High-fructose corn syrup causes about 10 times more glycation than glucose, the sugar found in starches.

The solution: Rebuild collagen by eating lysine, which is found in fish, lean meats, and low-fat dairy. Or get a really great wrinkle cream.

On Your Waistline

The problem: Fructose, which is often added to processed foods (even ostensibly healthy ones like whole-grain bread), causes energy to drop at the cellular level. “This leads to a

Gov. Rabi'u Kwankwaso

Kano State governor, Rabi’u Kwankwaso yesterday, destroyed drugs worth N315, 383, 437. 64, at Mariri in the outskirts of Kano city.The consignment consist of fake drugs worth N134, 600, 860, expired drugs worth N27, 774, 895. 50 and Tramadol worth N153, 007, 680. 44.

This is the tenth time the government is destroying huge consignments of such products in the past two years, which according to analysts, is a breakthrough in the Kwankwaso administration’s war against sale and consumption of illicit drugs in Kano State. Speaking shortly after setting the drugs on fire, Governor Kwankwaso explained that the drugs were intercepted at various places within Kano city by the state Task Force on Drugs.

The governor reiterated that his administration is determined to get rid of all kinds of fake

Nigerian Plantain Porridge dish

Nigerian Plantain Porridge is a rich meal that all plantain lovers will surely enjoy. It can be prepared with either ripe or unripe plantains or a combination of both. Even if you're not a plantain lover, you should give this meal a try, because plantains are rich in fiber, minerals(potasium, magnesium, iron, phosphorous) and Vitamins(A, B6 and C).

The green plantains is said to contain more healing properties than the ripened ones, but all the same, they are both okay for this recipe. Plantains, also known as plátanos, are closely related cultivars of fruit or dessert banana. In general, they treated as vegetables in the kitchen much like fellow tropical produces such as potatoes, taro, breadfruit, yam, sweet

By Winifred Obgebo

It’s almost two months since the National Health Bill was passed into law. Winifred Obgebo, in this piece, x-rays the bill and what Nigerians stand to benefit with its implementation

Nigeria’s maternal and child health indices are among the worst in the world. Needless to say, such indices are very important in measuring a country’s development.

A public health practitioner, Dr Seun Asala, said despite investments in the health sector, the health system, especially at the grassroots remained weak as evidenced by lack of coordination, dearth of resources, including drug and supplies, inadequate and decaying infrastructure, inequity in resources distribution and access to care, and very deplorable quality of care.He gave other contributory factors as the shortage of qualified personnel and finance, inadequate transportation, inaccessibility to communities, lack of maintenance culture and political instability. Lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities among the different levels of government, he also noted, had compounded the situation.

Asala identified human resource for health as being a challenge, pointing out that “attrition, misdistribution, non-engagement, especially at PHC level, poor and inequitable

A report by the Preventive Dentistry Department of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) revealed that more than 90 per cent of Nigerians have dental caries, otherwise known as tooth decay. This is by far worse than the global average of 35 per cent. The worrisome aspect is that majority of the cases are left untreated, resulting in severe pain, tooth loss and sometimes complications that could lead to death, especially for those with low immunity. The report further said that periodontal disease (or gum infection) has been found in the range of 79 to 90 per cent of the total population and indicated that this might lead to increased morbidity in the nation. Although this study was conducted more than 20 years ago it is still relevant, as little has changed since then.

These dismal statistics are a direct reflection of the poor state of the nation’s healthcare system. It is reported that Nigeria is among the countries with the lowest life expectancy in the world at a bleak 52 years. Nigeria also still has one of the highest maternal and infant

Nigeria's First Air Ambulance

The National Emergency Management Agency on Friday introduced its first Air Ambulance for emergency health care.The airplane, which was launched at the Trauma Centre of the National Hospital, Abuja, is for quick transportation of patients with emergency cases.

The Director, Research and Rescue of the agency, Ibrahim Mamman, said the project was part of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan. “The air ambulance can be used to transport patients with critical and traumatic health situation from anywhere the individual is,” he said. “As a matter of fact, the jet can go anywhere in the world; it has the mile range of 3000 miles.”He also said that the project was a demonstration of the beginning of air ambulance in Nigeria.

The director said there were plans to expand the project to make other air ambulances available to all parts of the country. Mr. Mamman commended the Director-General of

Medical practitioners have spoken out against the deplorable state of medical facilities across the country which have continued to have counterproductive results in diagnosis and patient care and management. They have are also advocating for implementation of public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives to address the situation. This observation was made at a diagnostic awareness forum organized by Initiative for Medical Diagnostic Awareness (IMDA) in Lagos state, Nigeria.

The medical experts maintained that a good number of medical laboratories in Nigeria have continued to deliver below standard as a result of the poor infrastructures they work with. The low performance was also attributed to quackery, and poor development and implementation of quality management systems (QMS). The attendants to the forum with theme, “Diagnostic Business Forum” stated that a Public Private Partnership might probably

Mr Celestine getting free physiotherapy at home

While Religious organizations have been associated with taking care of the spiritual needs of people, they still go an extra mile in ensuring the general well-being and health of its members. The Catholic Church for instance dedicates the 11th of February every year to pray for and take care of her sick members.

While empathy and attitude of people around can help improve the health of a sick person, it is still important for the church to go an extra mile by making use of its influence in the society to advocate for better policies needed to sustain the Nigerian healthcare system and save more lives.

I had the opportunity of learning about the case of Mr Celestine Chima who has been lying down since the 10th of February, 2014 after he an accident in Owerri, Imo State of Nigeria. He is middle aged and married with two young children, a boy and a girl. He was an artisan

Midnight Series-How To Upgrade A Situationship (EXPLICIT R18)

Q: I don’t know what we are. I’m waiting on him to tell me.

We’re working on us. It’s not official, but we only talk to each other.

A: What are things bitches in Situationships say?

Women fought to gain so many rights in the 20th century only to see 21st century women turn right around and give up one of their most important rights, the ability to demand an exclusive relationship. If a man tells you he doesn’t want anything serious, acts as if he doesn’t want anything serious, or looks like a nigga you used to fuck that didn’t want anything serious, then you follow his lead and fit into the box he wants to put you in. He doesn’t want a traditional relationship, you do, but you can’t look thirsty, so you pretend to be cool with being unofficial while still giving this man all the official benefits. Huh??? I always hear, “I didn’t want anything serious either, but it just happened.” OMG, you mean to tell me three months of spending every day talking to a person resulted in deep romantic feelings!? No, that’s impossible, how can that be when you said that wasn’t what you wanted. Because Science, dumb ass! Women want love, and to deny that part of your DNA so you can try to keep a man that is still playing the field in your life, is idiotic and demeaning.

A situationship is a relationship without a label where two people are more than platonic friends, but haven’t committed to being anything official for various reasons. What’s the difference between a situationship and just taking it slow with someone you want to eventually commit to? Treatment. Choice. Time Elapsed. A man who Treats you like a girlfriend, fucks you like a girlfriend, but doesn’t want to give you the title or commit to anything serious has no excuse for not committing. He’s using the lack of label as a loophole so he can exit whenever he wants. That’s like someone saying they don’t have a job because they don’t want to pay the IRS, but they wake up at 8am, got to the mall, pull an 8 hour shift, and collect a check at the end of the week. The IRS would call him out like, “You just put 40hours in, you’re employed my nigga, pay up!” Weak women don’t call men

Only humans have the ability to digest lactose as adults. Lactose is a sugar found in milk. Lactose intolerance is the inability to fully digest lactose, resulting in gastrointestinal issues about 30 minutes to 2 hours after consuming dairy products.

Symptoms of lactose intolerance include:

Abdominal bloating
Stomach rumbling (borborygmus)
Abdominal pain or cramps
Diarrhea
Gas, or flatulence
Nausea, sometimes with vomiting

Importantly, lactose intolerance is not the same thing as a milk allergy, which occurs when your immune system overreacts to the proteins in milk. If you have a milk allergy, you will likely immediately experience typical allergy symptoms after consuming milk, including hives, wheezing, and vomiting.

How Lactose Intolerance Develops

When you consume food or drink containing lactose, an enzyme in the small intestine called lactase helps you digest the milk sugar via hydrolysis, or the chemical splitting of molecules with water. In effect, lactase catalyzes the hydrolysis of lactose, producing two simpler sugars: glucose and galactose, which are then absorbed into the bloodstream.

Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the brain that affects people in every country of the world. It is characterized by recurrent seizures. Seizures are brief episodes of involuntary shaking which may involve a part of the body (partial) or the entire body (generalized) and sometimes accompanied by loss of consciousness and control of bowel or bladder function. The episodes are a result of excessive electrical discharges in a group of brain cells. Different parts of the brain can be the site of such discharges. Seizures can vary from the briefest lapses of attention or muscle jerks, to severe and prolonged convulsions. Seizures can also vary in frequency, from less than one per year to several per day.

One seizure does not signal epilepsy (up to 10% of people worldwide have one seizure during their lifetimes). Epilepsy is defined by two or more unprovoked seizures. Epilepsy is one of the world's oldest recognized conditions. Fear, misunderstanding, discrimination and social stigma have surrounded epilepsy for centuries. Some of the stigma continues today in many countries and can impact the quality of life for people with the disorder and their families.

Signs and symptoms

Characteristics of seizures vary and depend on where in the brain the disturbance first

The first comprehensive survey by the United Nation (UN) on national mood has rated Nigerians as the 100th happiest people in the world. The report comes two years after Nigeria was rated in a 2010 Gallup global poll as having the “happiest people on earth”. The poll of 64,000 people from 53 countries around the world found Nigerians to be the most optimistic in the world in their outlook for 2011. It also found that the most optimistic people mostly live in low income countries, such as Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Peru and Bangladesh.

However, recent happenings have shown that suicide is becoming a common way among Nigerians as a way of avoiding the suffering in our land.
On Thursday, January 29, a well-dressed man who was driving in a cream coloured Toyota Sienna space bus parked on third mainland bridge, Lagos, walked calmly to the rails and Jumped into the lagoon thereby committing suicide.

A Psychologist, Mr Okey-Martins said, “I never really think Nigerians are generally a happy

Whether you love or hate your nose, you have to give it props for its diverse and impressive abilities: “Aside from playing a crucial part in your appearance, the nose performs vital functions, like breathing, preventing infections, determining your sense of smell and taste, and even affecting the resonance of your voice,” says Neil Kao, MD, an allergist in Greenville, S.C. “Just imagine life without all the benefits of your normally functioning nose — you’d be miserable!”
To perform these important functions, your nose is home to a whole slew of fascinating parts and processes, from sensing pheromones to producing icky — but immunologically necessary — boogers. Even a simple sneeze involves carefully choreographed responses from muscles all over your body. Read on to learn more fascinating facts about your nose.

There Are 14 Types of Noses — at Least!

A recent survey in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery identified 14 human nose shapes. When Israeli professor of chemical engineering Abraham Tamir, PhD, surveyed images of 1,793 noses, he determined that they all fell into these basic types, ranging from the Greek nose (straight) to the hawk nose (sharp and “downward hooking.”) Most common was the “fleshy nose.” But many experts feel those classifications can’t possibly cover all the variations. “The nose is a complex structure made up of numerous pieces of cartilage and bone,” says Spencer Payne, MD, an assistant professor of otolaryngology (study of the ear, nose and throat) with the University of Virginia Health System. He explains that nose shape is determined by the positions of nasal bones, upper lateral cartilages, and lower lateral cartilages. “Any combination of differences in these three areas can create a truly unique appearance, which can change even more depending on whether the nose is seen in profile, from the front, or on an oblique angle.” Nose shape is also highly dependent on ethnicity.

Your Sneeze Style May Be Genetic

Some honk, some shout, some just can’t seem to stop — your style of sneezing is one of the many things that makes you who you are. The basic process of sneezing (called sternutation) usually starts when some kind of irritant, from pollen to black pepper, is detected by the trigeminal nerve (it branches throughout the face and head to provide motor control and sensory information). his irritation triggers a sequence of reflexes to expel the intruder: a deep inhalation followed by the closing the glottis in the throat and a buildup of pressure in the lungs (“ah”), then the sudden opening of the glottis as the diaphragm forces air up through the mouth and nose, expelling the irritant (“choo!”). That expulsion has some real power — particles in an average sneeze travel 100 miles per hour, says Dr. Payne.
And the particular style with which you execute this basic process could be something you inherit, Dr. Kao adds. “I’ve empirically noted similar styles of sneezes in families, probably because sneezes are a neurologic reflex we’re all born with,” he says. “Since tissues are very similar within families, all muscle actions, including smiling and laughing, will be similar also.”

Cosmo Kramer Was Right About Beauty

When Kramer blurted out to George’s girlfriend that she was pretty except for her nose in the Seinfeld episode “The Nose Job,” he had a point — noses have a big impact on our perception of beauty. “The nose is the most prominent and protruding part of the human face, so it’s immediately noticed,” says Rod Rohrich, MD, professor and chairman of the department of plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He adds that nose shape has historically been considered an indicator of character. “In Greek and Roman times, a strong, long nose meant power and strength.” It’s hardly surprising, then, that rhinoplasty is the second most common cosmetic surgical procedure. More than 250,000 “nose reshapings” were done in 2010, second only to breast augmentation, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rohrich says the nose job is the most difficult cosmetic and functional operation done by board-certified plastic surgeons because it is a “surgery of millimeters” — the difference between a good and bad outcome may be only one millimeter.

The Nose Grows Downward

Your overall nasal shape is formed by age 10, and your nose continues to grow slowly until about age 15 to 17 in women and about age 17 to 19 in men, says Rohrich. But over time, the nose lengthens and droops due to the endless tug of gravity and the gradual breakdown of proteins collagen and elastin in your skin, especially in the nasal tip. “This is such a telltale sign of aging that I often do a tip rhinoplasty in my facelift patients,” Rohrich says.

Your Nose Is a Top-Notch Air Filter

The air that fuels your entire respiratory system enters the body primarily through the nose’s two humble holes called external nares (a.k.a. nostrils), which are lined with hairs that block everything from dust to germs. Once air enters your nose, it’s funneled along grooves in the walls of your nasal cavity that cause it to swirl like currents in a stream. This churning process warms and moistens the air in order to protect sensitive lung tissue (which is why it’s better to breathe through your nose than your mouth on a freezing winter day). The process also filters the air by bringing any remaining particles, such as pollen or cold viruses, in contact with mucus lining the nasal cavity. Each day the nose and sinuses produce about one quart of mucus, which contains infection-fighting enzymes and white blood cells, and helps humidify the inhaled air and wash the nasal walls of filtered particles. While we swallow much of this mucus, if the inhaled air is dry it will absorb water from the mucus, leaving it in the flaky or pasty form we recognize as boogers or snot. The runny nose that strikes when you’re sick is a result of your nose’s attempt to kill invading germs with extra mucus.

You Can Detect More Than 10,000 Scents

Here’s how your sniffer works: When you walk by a woman wearing Chanel No. 5, the perfume molecules enter your nose and waft over a patch of olfactory sensors on the ceiling of your nasal cavity, where they activate finger-like receptors that transmit chemical signals up to a central processor in your brain called the olfactory bulb, which registers the scent. This olfactory ability “plays a major role in the way we experience the world,” says Payne.
Humans have approximately 12 million olfactory receptor cells, according to the University of Washington, a number that decreases with age. This makes elderly people less sensitive to smells, which is why you may have a great uncle who hits the cologne a bit too hard.
How does human sniffing ability compare with that of other mammals? Not so well. The bloodhound, for example, boasts about 4 billion olfactory receptors. Top olfaction honors could go to the bear, which has a sense of smell seven times greater than that of a bloodhound, brags the American Bear Association.

Your Nose Is Connected to Your Memory Center

Now, back to the Chanel No. 5. If that scent transported you to your childhood on an evening when your mom was primping for a night out, there’s a good reason. “Olfaction, or smell, is directly connected to the limbic system, the part of the brain thought to be responsible for the attribution of emotion to events,” says Payne. In fact, unlike the neural signals for other sensations like sight and touch, which have to go through a brain relay station called the thalamus, smell is the only one of the five senses with direct pathways to the brain’s hippocampus (involved in memory formation) and the amygdala (which processes emotion and memory). “Since a memory is accentuated when it has a strong emotional component, smells often become closely linked to certain events that engender the emotion contained in the memory,” Payne says.

The Nose Helped Invent Smooching

Romantic kissing may have come about as a way to detect pheromones, chemicals that are released by many animals (and humans) to elicit behavioral responses such as sexual attraction. Experts believe that nasal grooves in our nostrils are “pheromone-rich sites,” says Dr. Rohrich. So sniff away and pucker up!

What Your Nose Can't Smell Can Be Lethal

As sensitive as your nose is, it’s unable to smell natural gas, often used for heating homes and cooking, which would make a dangerous leak undetectable. So gas companies add the compound mercaptan to give natural gas a perceptible odor. Another odorless danger, carbon monoxide (CO), is responsible for more than 400 deaths in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends changing the batteries in your home CO detectorevery six months. The most common symptoms of CO poisoning include headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion, adds the CDC.

Patience is Key to Nixing a Nosebleed

Also called epistaxis, a nosebleed is most likely to occur in winter (when low humidity combined with indoor heating creates dry conditions), and can be brought on by everything from nose picking to allergies, according to the National Institutes of Health. Blood thinning medication or conditions such as high blood pressure or even the common cold can increase your chances of a nosebleed. Whatever the cause, everyone seems to have their own advice for stopping one. But some of those are big no-no’s, like leaning back (which can cause blood to drain down your throat) or sticking gauze up your nose (though a hospital emergency room doctor may pack the nostril with a gauze “tampon,” doing this at home could cause infection). What you should do: Sit leaning slightly forward so blood drains out your nose; use your thumb and index finger to squeeze the soft part of your nose and breathe through your mouth; hold for a full 10 minutes before checking to see if the flow has stopped. Applying a cold compress to the bridge of your nose could help. If the bleeding continues for more than 20 minutes, see a doctor.

culled from everyday health.com

Bird Flu Hits Bauchi

THE avian influenza, also known as bird flu, has hit three local government areas of Bauchi State with no fewer than 14,666 spices of birds affected by the disease out of which about 4,508 have so far been culled by government officials.The outbreak, according to the Director, Veterinary Services, in the state Ministry of Animal Resources and Nomadic Resettlement, Dr Bala Lucshi, who disclosed this to journalists on Sunday, in Bauchi, affected five farms in Bauchi, Katagum and Toro local government areas of the state.

Lucshi informed that the birds culled by officials from the ministry included chickens, turkeys and pigeons, adding that the outbreak was first recorded in the state at Baraji Farms in Magama Gumau town in Toro Local Government Area on January 28.According to him, reports of the disease had also been

By Tare Youdeowei

AT the Inaugural Lecture Series of University of Lagos, Professor of Biochemistry, Mrs Olubunmi Abiola Magbagbeola, presented to the Vice-Chancellor, the university and the society at large, her findings in the focus areas of; Nutrition and Nutritional Status, FertilityRegulation/ Family Planning/ Contraceptive Technology, Infertility prevention and treatment, and Cervical and Breast Cancers, management and treatment, in a compendium;Reproductive Health of Women and Men: A Biochemist’s perspective which seeks to highlight the role biochemists play in human nutrition, female and male reproductive health.

Here are excerpts of her and her team of researchers’findings, contributions to knowledge and recommendations.

Nigerian medicinal plants

Plants, in addition to providing the animal kingdom with food, fuel and shelter also synthesize a large variety of chemical substances. These substances include basic metabolites as well as secondary metabolites which includes; phenolic compounds such as alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, sterols etc. Of great significance is the fact that many of the secondary metabolites have prominent effects on the animal system while others possess important therapeutic properties which can and have been used in the treatment and cure of human and other diseases since time immemorial.There is the claim that the stipular bud sheath of Musangacecropioides(Agbawo), contains substances that impede pregnancy. Based on this claim our laboratory designed a research to investigate the scientific basis of the claim.

A preliminary study was set up to: carry out the phytochemical screening of the plant; extract, isolate, identify and characterise any contraceptive agent(s) present in the stipular

There is a need to relate sperm functions to the ability of a woman to reproduce. It’s an established the fact that for fertilisation to occur, a female egg should come in contact with a sperm, which penetrates the egg and this results, in an embryo, which develops into a live baby at birth.

About 25% of all infertility is caused by a sperm defect, and 40% - 50% of infertility cases have a sperm defect as the main cause, or a contributing cause. It is sometimes difficult to know whether the sperm problem is the only cause, or just a contributing cause to infertility. Part of the problem is that too much emphasis is placed on numbers or statistics.

• Men with very low sperm counts can sometimes have children.
• Some men with normal sperm counts can be infertile.

The issue is not only how many or how fast they swim, but whether they can fertilize the female partner’s egg which is a biochemical issue.

It is also important to know that the severity of the sperm defect would indicate the actual treatment to be employed. Males with poor semen quality can be made to undergo

By Margaret O’Malley

The dreaded “C” word makes us cringe – and with so many people diagnosed every day, preventing cancer can seem insurmountable. But cancers don’t develop overnight, and there are ways you can dramatically reduce your cancer riskjust by tweaking daily activities like eating, drinking, and exercise. The World Health Organization has identified nine ways to reduce your risk and improve your overall health:

Don’t smoke – or use any form of tobacco. If you’ve never smoked or have already quit, congratulations – you don’t have to do a thing. If you do smoke or use tobacco products, you can cut your cancer risk by stopping right now. Quitting isn’t so easy, but the benefits are almost instantaneous: Medical experts have found that a person’s health can improve within minutes of the last puff (or snuff) – and the health advantages can last a lifetime. Here’s a simple stop smoking plan to get you started.
Make your home (and car) smoke-free. Okay, so you don’t use tobacco, but is the rest of your life up in smoke? All the cancer-causing ingredients in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes are also found in secondhand smoke. Even the remnants of tobacco smoke on surfaces, known as thirdhand smoke, can be a health hazard. If you live

Hey there! It's a wonderful Monday morning with the valentine euphoria still lingering in our minds... Here's to wishing you a productive day. Cheers...

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Midnight Series- Reasons Why Your Relationship Is A Lie (EXPLICIT R18)

It’s okay to grow apart, but it’s not okay if you won’t admit that it’s happened. There are so many fake, half-ass, holding on for what relationships that it’s hard to tell who’s in love and who’s in denial. While there are men who get open off certain women, relationship indecision is mostly a female problem. Real niggas are never confused about what they want. A man who wants a woman will always say, “That’s me. No nigga better even think about even adding her on Facebook, this is mine!” That’s the passion and hunger that’s reserved for the women we are impressed with and need on our team, and it’s called making a female our girlfriend. Men will also like another type of girl, but not on that level where they want to lay real claim, so they pull her in then push her away with fake indecision. Men call these girls, fuck these girls, and chill with these girls, but it’s all done on such a basic and minimal level that anybody looking from the outside in would see the hustle. However, there are women so in love with the idea of finding love that they take these scraps of a fake relationship and make a meal out of it. This man doesn’t really claim you, he doesn’t really spend time with you, he doesn’t really give a fuck if somebody else were to fuck you… but he does enough to make you think he does. All the fellas reading this know that with most girls you no longer have to commit fully, you just do enough to keep her hoping, and once she has hope, you can pillage that bitch like a Mongolian village. Every February I find it funny that so many women are quick to make side hoe jokes, when in reality they’re not even sure of their own relationship status.

Noncommunicable Diseases

A non-communicable disease, or NCD, is a medical condition or disease that can be defined as non-infectious and non-transmissible among people. NCDs can refer to chronic diseases which last for long periods of time and progress slowly. Sometimes, NCDs result in rapid deaths such as seen in certain types of diseases such as autoimmune diseases, heart diseases, stroke, most cancers, asthma, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and many more. While sometimes (incorrectly) referred to it as synonymous with "chronic diseases", NCDs are distinguished only by their non-infectious cause, not necessarily by their duration. Some chronic diseases of long duration, such as HIV/AIDS, are caused by transmittable infections. Chronic diseases require chronic care management as do all diseases that are slow to develop and of long duration.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports NCDs to be by far the leading cause of death in the world, representing over 60% of all deaths. Out of the 36 million people who died from NCDs in 2005, half were under age 70 and half were women. Of the 57 million global deaths

By Sola Ogundipe

It was a big relief for residents of Makoko, a slum settlement on Lagos mainland, last week as no less than 2,000 persons benefitted from a free medical intervention mission organised by the National Association of Seadogs, NAS. As early as 7am, hundreds of the residents of various ages, queued up to obtain free general medical, dental and surgical consultation, diabetes and HIV/AIDS counselling, medication for Upper Respiratory Tract infections, checking of blood sugar, HIV counselling, malaria, worm infestation among others.

Some received free reading glasses, plus medication. among other health education assessments from a host of medical personnel many of who flew in from Europe and the US as a selfless service that typifies the NAS which is wholly funded by contributions from members..

National President, NAS, Prince Ifeanyi Onochie, said the Medical Mission is part of why NAS exists. “This is part of who we are and what we do. We identify gaps in society and take decisions and action to fill those gaps. This is a medical intervention, all being done for free, because our members contributed funds to make it possible. We do it quarterly in a particular community where we have presence benefits. We do all the counselling all done