Did you know that sugar-free gum is good for your oral hygiene? Most people chew gum for ‘fresh breath’ or because they ‘enjoy the taste’ but the truth is that chewing gum offers much more. Over two decades of research has shown that chewing sugar-free gum provides various oral health benefits.

It’s important to remember that oral health and overall health are interlinked. Gum disease for example is capable of affecting other body organs through infection through the bloodstream. Sadly in India, only 2% of the population actually visits dentists and many of them don’t ever find out about their poor oral health. While any dentist worth his or her salt will tell you that a person should brush at least twice a day and floss daily and visit the dentist regularly. Unfortunately, that’s not possible in our daily life and hence the need for on-the-go oral care. This is where chewing gum can make a difference.

Chewing gum immediately after eating is a portable and convenient supplement to your oral care routine which helps fight cavities. It also helps relieve your mouth of dryness. Regularly chewing gum actually helps increase the production of saliva by 10 times. Additionally, research has shown that chewing sugar-free gum for 20 minutes after eating or drinking can help reduce tooth decay risk by up to 40%, which, along with regular dental visits, can promote a healthier and happier mouth.

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Washington, May 18 (ANI): Not many women may wash their hands after putting them inside their bag, but researchers have suggested that they perhaps should.

Researchers with the hygiene and washroom services company Initial Washroom Hygiene swabbed handbags to find the dirtiest parts.

They found that 20 percent of handbags that they swabbed had higher levels of bacteria-related contamination, which could potentially cross-contaminate other surfaces – and contained more germs than the average toilet flush, CBS New reported.

The research also found that face or hand cream were most-bacteria ridden items inside the bag, followed by lipstick and mascara.

One item that could be the reason behind spreading of bacteria in the purse is none other than the cell phone.

According to the study, leather purses were likely to contain the most bacteria, as the spongy material makes it a perfect breeding ground. (ANI)

ALLAHABAD: Contrary to the notion of food buffs that street food is perhaps the most authentic food in any culture a study undertaken by a public health expert has come out with revelations that would definitely force these food buffs into a rethink. The results which are quite alarming clearly convey the fact that the street vendors overlook basic norms of hygiene and cleanliness in every step from preparation to serving of food to washing of utensils thus rendering the food unfit for consumption.

Sharing the details with TOI, Sonia Pant, a research scholar in department of public health and food, at Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology ( SHIATS) said that street food is an extremely heterogeneous food category encompassing meals, drinks and snacks. It includes ready to eat food and beverages prepared and sold by vendors and hawkers in streets and other similar public places. Their USP is reasonable price and ethnic taste which is the reason why people remain oblivious of unhygienic practice. Head of the department Dr Neena Gupta told TOI that she would be forwarding the report to the state government and the health department for necessary action.

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A month ago, dna reported a case of a 27-year-old Bandra resident who was admitted to Lilavati Hospital with acute respiratory distress and multi-organ failure. Around 20 doctors and 150 tests couldn’t figure out the problem.

After aggressive antibiotic treatments, the patient recovered but doctors from across the city say such cases are becoming common.

Infectious experts say variants of influenza and viral respiratory disease have become acute and cases of people getting acute respiratory distress because of viral affecting multiple organs has become common.

“The viral respiratory disease and variant forms of influenza have definitely gone up with a fair amount of aggressiveness, which needs prolonged treatment,” said Dr Om Shrivastava, infectious disease expert, Jaslok Hospital.

Upper respiratory tract infections, which were a seasonal variation disease, now strike throughout the year. Every two out of 10 citizens are suffering from some or the other form of respiratory diseases.

“Mumbaikars need to follow proper hygiene besides eating healthy food. Sneezing without covering the mouth spreads diseases,” said Dr Jalil Parker, chest physician at Lilavati Hospital.

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Weight loss has become a major topic of focus, because of the huge number of people trying to lose weight. Weight loss is not always easy. This article can help you a lot in overcoming this and coming out lighter.

Importance of Fiber

Fiber is composed of a variety of dietary materials that are either soluble or insoluble in boiling water. Fiber is neither digested nor absorbed in the small intestine, but is fermented by bacteria in the colon. Fiber is essential for normal bowel function. Adequate fiber prevents constipation, diverticular disease of the colon, and hemorrhoids. Consumption of diets adequate in fiber may prevent a variety of conditions including obesity, diabetes, gallstones, coronary artery disease, or colon cancer.

There are two main types of dietary fibers:

1.Soluble (prebiotic, viscous) fiber that is readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts. Soluble fiber absorbs water to become a gelatinous, viscous substance and is fermented by bacteria in the digestive tract.

2.Insoluble fiber that is metabolically inert, absorbing water as it moves through the digestive system, easing defecation. Insoluble fiber has bulking action and is not fermented.

How much Fiber do you need

Current recommendations from the United States National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, suggest that adults should consume 20–35 grams of dietary fiber per day, but the average American’s daily intake of dietary fiber is only 12–18 grams.

How to increase Fiber in your daily diet

When choosing foods to eat on a diet, pick items that have high fiber content. Fiber will help fill you up faster than a comparable amount of sugar or fat. It is also healthier, and will help keep things “moving”, which can be a problem when you first start out on a diet.

Consuming fiber will help you lose weight. You’ll probably get constipated as you start to lose weight, and fiber will help. Fiber will also help you to feel full longer, which will help you stay away from unhealthy snacks. Fiber is in most fruits and vegetables, and these also happen to be good for you.

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Emissions from car and truck exhaust have already been proven to have negative and lasting effects on the earth’s atmosphere and our overall environment. This week, academic researchers are suggesting the same emissions could have direct negative effects on human beings, transforming the “good” cholesterol in our bodies to bad. Bad cholesterol has been linked to cardiovascular diseases and can wreak havoc on the body’s arteries. This cholesterol transformation joins the other negative effects from the inhalation of vehicular exhaust, including early cell and tissue damage, inflation and hardening of the arteries. Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) helped conduct this study, including researchers from other institutions, and their results are now available in the online edition of the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

Urban areas are particularly subjected to emission particles, or pollutants from vehicle exhaust. According to the researchers, these particles are covered in chemicals that have been found to cause oxidation. Though this process has been discovered, it is not well understood. To find their results, the academic researchers subjected lab mice to these emission particles for two weeks. In this short amount of time, the mice showed signs of oxidation in their blood and liver. This damage was not reversed after being surrounded with filtered air the following week. Dr. Jesus Araujo, an associate professor of medicine and director of environmental cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, blames a transformation in HDL cholesterol for this oxidation in mice.

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Not every battle is struck by a wave of violence and not every fight culminates in bloodshed. 

When the opposition in question is an adamant disease like cancer, our armoury should be packed with a lifestyle of regular health check-ups and a diet including foods that double as anti-cancer agents.

When actress Lisa Ray was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a relatively rare cancer of the bone marrow, all she said was, “I’ll beat cancer”. Carrying this spirit of defeating a disease often labelled ‘incurable’, we try to find out diet methods, especially in the selection of spices that can avert the multiplying of malignant cells in the body that gradually mature into insurmountable cancer cells.

Our grandmothers would in no time prepare us a glass of warm milk with saffron sprinkled on top when we went crying to her with bruise on our knee or wound on the elbow. The herbal turmeric paste soothed minor cuts and healed all skin rashes. These age-old kitchen tricks are little more than mere quick-fix tactics. Spices like turmeric and saffron are inherent with medicinal properties that, when incorporated to our diet from an early stage strengthens our bodies against invasion of toxins, bacteria and virus.

Senior consultant surgical oncologist Dr. B. Niranjan Naik and senior clinical nutritionist, Fortis La Femme, Shipra Saklani Mishra, inform us about the goodness of Indian spices with cancer-fighting properties and the necessity of their inclusion to our eating habits.

Turmeric/Curcumin: This is the king of spices when it comes to dealing with cancer diseases, besides it adding a zesty colour to our food on the platter. Turmeric contains the powerful polyphenol Curcumin that has been clinically proven to retard the growth of cancer cells causing prostrate cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, brain tumour, pancreatic cancer and leukemia amongst a host of others. Curcumin promotes ‘Apoptosis’- (programmed cell death/cell suicide) that safely eliminates cancer breeding cells without posing a threat to the development of other healthy cells. In cases of conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the surrounding cells too become a target in addition to the cancer cells. Therefore, the side-effects are imminent.

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It is key that a food testing facility in India is not only accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), but also be recognised by the country’s apex food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and TUV India Pvt. Ltd, a leading food analysis facility, is doing its bit towards making this possible. V K Gupta, GM, lab services, TUV India Pvt. Ltd (a part of the Pune-based TUV NORD Group), shares details with Harcha Bhaskar. Excerpts:

What are the tests that are conducted in your lab and accreditations?
TUV India Pvt. Ltd is accredited under ISO 17025 in both the chemical and microbiological fields by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). The facility is also recognised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Agmark. The fact that India is a leading exporter of agricultural produce to the world, especially the European countries, mandates the certificate by APEDA, which is issued after the produce intended for export has been tested.

TUV India specialises in the safety and nutritional analysis of food. Nutritional analysis consists of nutritional labelling, as you can see on food packets. It consist of tests like protein, fat, energy, carbohydrates, sodium content, cholesterol, sugar and fatty acid profiles like PUFA (Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids), MUFA (Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acids), SF (saturated fats) and trans-fats. The nutritional labels on food packets provide the consumers information about the content of the food. The other information related to nutritional parameters covers amino acid profiling, vitamins (both water-soluble and oil-soluble), minerals, sugar profiling, etc.

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VARANASI: Is Varanasi heading towards epidemics? So far, overflowing sewage, heaps of dumped garbage, contaminated water supply through taps were hinting this situation. But now even the records of the health department have declared that as many as 46 localities in urban area and 64 villages from eight blocks of the city are highly sensitive for the spread of infectious diseases.

The declaration of the sensitive localities for epidemics is a regular feature of the health department but this year it has declared maximum number of such localities. In fact, densely populated localities like Kabir Chaura, Pandeypur, Chetganj, Jaipura, Badi Piyari, Dev Nathpur, Lallapura, Ausanganj and Daranagar have also been listed under it. Eleven villages under Cholapur block, nine under Arazilines block, nine under Badagaon block, 11 villages under Chiraigaon block, seven villages under Kashi Vidyapeeth block, three villages of Pindra block, nine of Harahua block and four of Sewapuri block have been declared highly sensitive for the spread of epidemics.

Deputy CMO and nodal officer (epidemic cell) Jang Bahadur said the list has been prepared keeping in view the five year record of the locality, regarding number cases, poor hygiene and contaminated water supply. Generally, infectious diseases start spreading from April to September but the poor civic amenities have added to the troubles.

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Everyone wants pearly whites and a healthy mouth but very few people know the right way to brush or floss. Here are 8 tips to improve your oral health:

Brush at least twice a day

While brushing thrice a day would be ideal, sometimes that’s just not feasible. Try and maintain the habit at least twice a day – once in the morning and once in the night. Don’t overdo it though – brushing too often can erode your tooth enamel. Also, brushing soon after eating or drinking acidic foods can increase the risk of tooth abrasion. Hence postpone it to at least 30 minutes after meals.

Change your toothbrush

It’s important to change your toothbrush from time to time. Change your brush every three months or when its bristles start to fray. If your bristles flare sooner than three months, that indicates that you’re brushing too hard.

Brush for the right amount of time

You should brush your teeth for two to three minutes. Divide the mouth into quadrants and spend at least 30 seconds in each region to clean all surfaces. Don’t brush for too long as that may erode your tooth enamel. People with oral complications like crowned or misaligned teeth or braces may take more time to brush.

Brush at the right angle

Like everything else in life, brushing too is an art form that needs to be done correctly. Never brush horizontally along the gum line as this may cause abrasions on the teeth. What you need to do instead is place your bristles at a 45-degree angle at the gum line and brush up and down with short, circular strokes. Angulate the brush vertically to clean the inside surfaces of your front teeth.

Don’t forget the plaque

It is very important to remove plaque from all surfaces – outer, inner and chewing – of the teeth. Remember to brush the inner surfaces of teeth where the tongue presses against the teeth.

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On Hand Hygiene Day, May 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) is encouraging patients and their family members to join healthcare workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. Every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections. These lead to significant physical and psychological suffering and sometimes death of patients, and financial losses for health systems. More than half of these infections could be prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care.

Healthcare-associated infections usually occur when germs are transferred by healthcare providers’ hands touching the patient. The most common infections are urinary tract and surgical site infections, pneumonia and infections of the bloodstream. Of every 100 hospitalized patients, at least 7 in developed and 10 in developing countries will acquire a healthcare-associated infection. Among critically ill and vulnerable patients in intensive care units, that figure rises to around 30 per 100.

Practicing good hand hygiene during healthcare by using alcohol-based hand rubs or washing hands with soap and water if visibly dirty reduces the risk of these infections.

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A rigorous hand hygiene audit of the country’s 20 district health boards (DHBs) has seen Whanganui DHB score the second highest result for the four months ending 31 March.

It’s a noticeable improvement on the previous four months when the WDHB placed fifth. WDHB infection prevention and control nurse coordinator Ruth Foulkes says she’s delighted with the result which reflects the hard work that staff have put into raising the level of hand hygiene throughout Wanganui Hospital.
“It’s timely that we achieved second place given the story in this week’s Chronicle about   surgeons, doctors and hospital chefs being some of the worst at washing their hands,” Mrs Foulkes says. ”Hand Hygiene New Zealand expects a 70 percent compliance rate but the latest results show the WDHB to have reached 73 percent which we intend to keep improving on. ”This efforts involves staff right across the spectrum – doctors, nurses, surgeons, Allied Health, health care assistants, and clerical, domestic and laboratory staff.”

Mrs Foulkes says five auditors regularly observe Wanganui Hospital staff who know there are five key moments when they need to reduce transmission of infection while working in clinical areas. Developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to reduce health care associated infection, the “My 5 moments for hand hygiene” strategy is now embedded in all New Zealand hospitals.

Wanganui Hospital visitors and patients are exposed to a range of messages encouraging good hand hygiene practice from them as well as staff. A large free-standing hand hygiene station with gel greets everyone entering the Main Entrance. And hand gel stations are positioned at the entrance to all clinical areas.

Mrs Foulkes applauds visitors for their willingness to “come on board” with the hospital’s efforts to maintain low infection rates. She says it’s very pleasing to see people of all ages reach for the gel on entering and exiting the hospital and wards.
WDHB scores high hand hygiene score

Nail fungus is one of the most frustrating infections that a human being can develop. One reason why is that fungal infections are all unique – which makes them difficult to understand and even more challenging to entirely eliminate. A nail fungus treatment that works for one case may be completely ineffective for another and if any infection is allowed to go untreated for a long period of time, it get extremely tough to fully eliminate the condition.

One of the best ways to protect yourself from nail fungus infections is to keep your skin and feet clean and well-cared for at all times. Since many people neglect their feet, they become a prime target for skin fungus which can then turn into toenail fungus. The fungi on the skin simply wait for a crack, abrasion or injury to a toenail and then spread from the skin to the nail bed. Fungal skin infections are dry patches of flaky skin that are often itchy and slightly irritating.

The feet are where these infections often originate since feet are often both neglected and usually kept in shoes. Shoes create a warm damp environment that is an absolutely ideal location for fungal agents to thrive. Ringworm, jock itch and athlete’s foot are all forms of fungal skin infections that can eventually become nail fungus when the opportunity presents itself.

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The Gujarat high court, on Tuesday, made it clear that deputy municipal commissioners and assistant municipal commissioners are responsible for maintaining hygiene in the city and may be held guilty of contempt of court if they fail to do so.

A bench of chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala fixed the responsibility of maintaining hygiene on officials of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. They will be responsible for ensuring that nobody dies of dengue, malaria and falciparum. The court has decided to monitor government action till the onset of monsoon.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ila Pathak after the death of two nursing students on the Civil Hospital campus due to dengue. It had constituted a high-level committee and issued the order after taking note of suggestions of the committee.

The court said, “If the government is unable to repose confidence in resident doctors and the nursing staff who treat the patients, it will spell disaster for poor patients.”
According to the court order, municipal officers and civil hospital officials would be personally held guilty if they were found being negligent towards their duty.

The court observed that the steps taken by the local authority and government to maintain hygiene in the city in 2011 and 2012 were not enough.

“We hope and trust that the situation that had prevailed in 2011 and 2012 is not witnessed this year. We once again remind the state government that it owes an obligation to ensure the creation and maintaining of conditions congenial to good health by the constitutional directives,” the bench said.  The bench made it cleared that “inaction will not be tolerated as it will amount to mockery of article 21 of the constitution (right to live life).”