Lipadan technology, Hsu’s patented green tea formulation, can penetrate the skin’s waterproof barrier, unlike water-soluble green tea. This enables the hair-friendly green tea components to combat major causes of dandruff: excessive cell growth, oxidative stress and inflammation.

Coal tar, a common ingredient in conventional dandruff shampoos, works by slowing the production of skin cells, but it is carcinogenic in high doses and banned for cosmetic use in many countries. Anti-dandruff shampoos also typically contain selenium sulfide, sulfur and salt. Side effects can include scalp and skin irritation as well as hair loss, discoloration and dryness.

“The manufacturers put all that in shampoos for people to put on their head,” Hsu said, noting that coal tar also stains and smells bad. “The goal of our research and development has been to replace those potentially hazardous agents with green components that have no risk for humans or the environment.”

Green tea polyphenols promote the skin’s metabolic equilibrium, shield against autoimmune diseases and provide antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-cancer and anti-inflammation properties.

“We cannot put green tea in a bottle and expect it to work. It has to have the Lipadan technology,” Hsu said. “We tried many times using a water-soluble molecule, but that will not work. It will not work, period.”

Hsu began developing the product based on his “remarkable results” with tests on mice. His company, Camellix LLC, markets products based on his green tea technology. In addition to ReviTeaLize anti-dandruff shampoo, a hair-loss shampoo will soon be launched and upcoming products may include shaving cream, body wash, dish soap, facial soap, hair conditioner and gel. Patents are shared with Georgia Health Sciences University.

The business is supported by two grants from the Georgia Research Alliance, which helps entrepreneurs such as Hsu grow Georgia-based technology businesses while promoting innovation and local economic growth. PhysOrg

Be that as it may, however, if all of those products claimed to have used advance ingredients and maximum strength, how can you know which products will really help you lose weight for good and how do you choose the good from the bad and the right from the wrong? Well, herewith you’ll find the practical and healthy weight loss tips for you to consider. Make yourself accountable, walk every day, get support from friends and family, don’t eat mindlessly in front of the TV or keep unhealthy rituals like pizza every Friday night or junk food fests on weekends, fight food cravings by removing foods you crave from your home and office, eat regular meals, watch out for fad diets, and be mindful of what you are drinking.

Meanwhile, people gain weight when the number of calories they eat is more than the number of calories their bodies use. Overweight people have an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and other illnesses. Usually, doctors will recommend that overweight patients combine a reduction of the caloric content of the diet, with an increase in physical activity. Other methods to lose weight fast include use of drugs and supplements that decrease appetite, block fat absorption, or reduce stomach volume. Hence, it is desirable to gather as much information as you can before deciding to join a particular program. And with that in mind, bodytrim will teach you how to achieve weight loss quickly, eliminate cravings in just 3 days, banish weight loss plateaus for good, turn your body into an automatic fat burner, eat more delicious food and weigh less, increase your energy levels and eradicate mood swings, and easily train your mind to stay motivated and on track no matter what comes your way.

The research offers a new perspective on a component of the immune system known as the acute-phase response, a series of systemic changes in blood protein levels, metabolic function, and physiology that sometimes occurs when bacteria, viruses, or other pathogens invade the body.

This response puts healthy cells and tissue under serious stress, and is actually the cause of many of the symptoms we associate with being sick.

“The question is why would these harmful components evolve,” asked Edmund LeGrand (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), who wrote the paper titled with Joe Alcock (University of New Mexico).

The researchers contend that answer becomes clear when we view the acute-phase response in terms of what they call “immune brinksmanship.”

The immune brinksmanship model “is the gamble that systemic stressors will harm the pathogens relatively more than the host,” LeGrand said. The concept, he explained, is akin to what happens in international trade disputes.

When one country places trade sanctions on another, both countries’ economies take a hit, but the sanctioning country is betting that its opponent will be hurt more.

The acute-phase response creates stress in several ways. It raises body temperature and causes loss of appetite and mild anemia.

At the same time, certain vital nutrients like iron, zinc, and manganese are partially sequestered away from the bloodstream.

LeGrand and Alcock said that for an infection to spread, pathogens need to multiply, whereas host cells can defer replication.

Replication makes DNA and newly forming proteins much more susceptible to damage. It also requires energy and nutrients-which helps explain the benefits of restricting food and sequestering nutrients.

The act of invading a body also requires bacteria to alter their metabolism, which can make them more vulnerable to all kinds of stress, including heat.

Another reason pathogens are more vulnerable to stress is that the immune system is already pummelling them with white blood cells and related stressors at the site of the infection.

That means that pathogens are already under local stress when systemic stressors are piled on.

As the term “brinksmanship” implies, there’s an inherent risk in a strategy that involves harming oneself to hurt the enemy within. This self-harm leaves the body more vulnerable to other dangers, including other infections. Additionally, it is possible for the immune stressors to do more damage than required to control the pathogens.

“But in general, systemic stressors when properly regulated do preferential harm to invaders,” LeGrand added.

The study has been published in The Quarterly Review of Biology. Newstrack India

Nonetheless, by asking issues, like these, we begin to get a picture of our ultimate goal. The far more particular inquiries, the clearer the picture gets. Notice, this procedure should not be glossed more than or rushed, and it should certainly not be persuaded by a wish to please other people. The pursuit of anything other than the true objective, the end result is regret. Though one could infinitely be happy having with them the nature and family, a sound personal health, and all the man-made things, yet, there are still millions of people out there who are unhappy. Our mind has extra-ordinary powers and as far as happiness is concerned it has the ultimate power.

We should, therefore, have a positive attitude towards life. That instead of concentrating on bad things in life and people, we should therefore concentrate on redeeming features in them. Although there are people who are engaged in difficult tasks, and even incarcerated in prisons, yet, they are still very happy. Towards this, unless, otherwise, we are bound to recognize that happiness is within us, then and only then, we will begin to realize that we should not keep on thinking about past failures and bad experiences but be encouraged by our past success and good experiences. Better yet, don’t allow procrastination to hinder our journey.

Perhaps the most inspiring exercise science published in 2011 involved the effects that working out can have on the brain. By studying both lab rodents and people, scientists this year showed that exercise increases cognitive sharpness, even if the amount of exercise is small. In a representative experiment involving mice, which I wrote about in September, scientists at the University of South Carolina found that the equivalent of about 30 minutes of jogging a day changed the animals’ brain cells at a molecular level. After a few months of running, their neurons contained more mitochondria, a cell component that produces energy, than did the neurons of sedentary mice. In effect, their brain cells had become more robust and physically fit, thanks to the jogging.

Similarly, other studies published this year found that even in volunteers who were not distance runners or mice, activity significantly improved cognitive function. One fascinating study of elderly Canadians that I wrote about this summer showed that those who regularly walked around the block, gardened, cleaned the house, cooked or otherwise remained active without formally exercising, scored much better on tests of memory and other mental skills than older people who were almost completely inactive.

This study and the many others now linking activity and improved mental functioning represent “a wake-up call,” Dr. Eric Larson, the vice president of research at Group Health Research Institute in Seattle and author of an editorial that accompanied the study, told me.

“None of us wants to lose our minds,” he said — a sentiment with which I fervently agree — so we “have to find ways to get everybody moving.”

One means might be to direct people to the most popular column I wrote this year, in terms of both the number of page views and the number of comments, about the effect of exercise on aging. In the study highlighted in that column, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, took rats bred to age at an accelerated rate and had them start running.

After a few months, by which time the non-running control rats were frail, bald and dying, the runners still had virtually all of their youthful muscle mass, balance, mental acuity and fur and, unlike the sedentary animals, had not developed shrinkage in their hearts, brains or gonads. I have rarely skipped an exercise session since reading that study, and am happy to report that I still have a full head of fur.

Not all of the exercise science this year was quite so encouraging, however. Another column that inspired considerable interest and comments involved several new studies intimating that too much running might – and I would stress the word “might” – produce scarring or other damage in the heart. In one study, M.R.I. scans of a small group of lifelong elite male endurance athletes found signs of scarring in some of the men’s heart muscles.

A separate study of rats that had undergone the equivalent of years of marathon training showed similar signs of scarring within their hearts.

But these results, although certainly provocative, are preliminary and may turn out to be meaningless, as the scientists who conducted the studies acknowledge. There is no evidence that heart muscle scarring, if it occurs, leads to heart problems. And as Dr. Paul Thompson, the chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and an expert on sports cardiology, told me, “Too much exercise has not been a big problem in America. Most people just run to stay in shape, and for them, the evidence is quite strong that endurance exercise is good” for the heart.

Just as the evidence is increasingly strong that it is good for your brain, muscles, mitochondria and gonads.

Which is why I plan to continue running — and biking, hiking, walking, gardening and weight training — in 2012, although I may leave the housecleaning to my husband. In reviewing the year in fitness, in fact, what struck me most strongly was that, although this column covers science, it is also sneakily about me. I’m a middle-aged lifelong exerciser with an increasingly leaky memory and sometimes-wavering resolve. I’ve found inspiration and encouragement in the fitness science this year, although I do wish that it could have discovered that typing constitutes a workout. At least fidgeting counts. By Gretchen Retnolds, The New York Times

The more often older people have sex, the more likely they are to be happy with life and enjoy a good marriage, a small study suggests.

The figures show that elderly people who had sex more than once a month were 50% more likely to say they were very happy with their life than those who reported no sexual activity during the previous year.

The findings were based on a US opinion poll of 238 people aged 65 or over and analysed by researchers at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Participants were asked to rate their feelings about life and their marriage according to whether they were happy, pretty happy or not too happy.

Sexual frequency

The researchers found that 40% of older people who said they had no sexual activity within the past 12 months reported feeling very happy with life in general. This rose to 60% in those who said they indulged in sexual activity at least once a month.

Similarly, while about 59% of individuals who reported no sexual activity in the last 12 months said they were very happy with their marriage, almost 80% who had sex more than once a month said they were very happy with their relationship.

The research has been presented in Boston at a meeting of The Gerontological Society of America, an organisation devoted to studies on ageing.

Adrienne Jackson, an assistant professor at the university, said in a statement: “This study will help open the lines of communication and spark interest in developing ‘outside the box’ approaches to dealing with resolvable issues that limit or prevent older adults from participating in sexual activity.

“Highlighting the relationship between sex and happiness will help us in developing and organising specific sexual health interventions for this growing segment of our population.”

Stereotypes

The Sexual Advice Association says the issues surrounding mature sexuality are still not openly discussed, leaving a prevailing stereotype of older people as “asexual, devoid of feelings or emotion”.

For older people, the quality of their sex life can be dependent on their general health, the Association says. However, on the positive side, retirement and children leaving home can leave older couples with more time on their hands for each other, and studies have found that over half of women aged over 50 are satisfied with their sex lives.

An online poll carried out for Saga Magazine found that 85% of older people reported that sex was less frequent for them now than when they were in their 20s and 30s. However, 82% said they felt less pressure to have sex and 61% said it was more fulfilling. By Peter Russell, WebMD

Recently, though they were still undergoing a physical therapy but they’re now able to regain their physical strength, increase movement, endurance, improve range of motion, mobility, and restore function. Of course, had it not been for the biofeedback machines they had utilized, all of the efforts may just possibly be put into waste. Well, it was through biofeedback machines that patients learn to use their own bodies’ responses to control pain. These machines are employed in a variety of ways, and are intended to serve as an assistive element to physical therapy treatment. Biofeedbacks machines let the patient see or hear their own body’s activity and help the patient become more aware of his/her rehabilitation progress. So if you are looking for rehabilitation supplies and equipment, then look no further than electro medical equipment.

In a survey that studied the eating habits of 582 college students, researchers found that many of the students weren’t even getting one serving of fruits or vegetables a day. The recommended daily intake is five servings.

The study, announced August 17 and published online in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, also found that both males and females surveyed were consuming more than 30 percent of their calories from fat. The American Dietetic Association recommends no more than 30 percent of calories come from fat over the course of a week.

One possible explanation for the lack of fruit and vegetable intake could be that students reported skipping meals frequently, researchers said.

The study also concluded that males fared marginally better than their female classmates in their consumption of fruits and vegetables, as they got about five servings a week compared to female students, who said they ate about four.

And while females had a lower fiber intake, researchers say their eating habits were generally better than their male counterparts, as they ate in dining halls more often than fast-food eateries and read nutrition labels.

The moral of the story? Good eating habits need to be taught early, says lead researcher Brad Cardinal, professor of exercise and sport science.

“We are not teaching youth how to be self-sustaining,” Cardinal said in a statement. “Home economics and nutrition classes have all but disappeared from our schools in the K-12 system. There is a fundamental lack of understanding on how to eat well in a very broad sense.”

To avoid weight gain and unhealthy eating, The Everything Healthy College Cookbook — written by a registered dietician — offers 300 quick, easy and calorie-conscious recipes like Asian chicken salad, mango citrus salad and fresh tomato with angel hair pasta.

Cooking Light magazine also offers students tips on how to avoid packing on the pounds and meeting their nutritional requirements in their online piece, “Avoiding the Freshman 15.” Yahoo Daily News

The two-year-old Australian shepherd dog is among four sniffer dogs in Germany trained to detect lung cancer in breath samples of patients, their predictions of the disease matching standard medical diagnosis seven out of 10 times.

A team of doctors and dog trainers has trained sniffer dogs to distinguish between breath samples of healthy persons and lung cancer patients. Their experiments are described in today’s issue of the European Respiratory Journal.

The doctors are not proposing the use of dogs for clinical diagnosis but believe that their experiments could lead to new strategies for the early diagnosis of this common cancer. The tests with the sniffer dogs confirm the presence of a detectable marker — a volatile organic compound — in the breath of patients that is strongly associated with lung cancer and that could be an early signature of the illness.

“Breath analysis may be used in future as a screening test in high-risk people,” said Enole Boedeker, a research team member at the Schillerhoehe Hospital in Stuttgart, Germany. “A screening method for lung cancer does not exist yet,” Boedeker told The Telegraph.

Since the early 1970s, scientists have identified about 3,480 different volatile organic compounds in human breath. Some research groups have tried to analyse breath samples using chemical or electronic devices or sniffer dogs in search for compounds associated with lung cancer or tumours. But these efforts have yielded varying results — and no reliable diagnostic technique has emerged yet.

Boedeker and her colleagues worked with two German shepherd dogs, Bonnie and Kessie, Hector, a Labrador, and Benny, the two-year-old Australian shepherd dog, trained by Uwe Friedrich at a dog training centre.

Their study is the first to test if sniffer dogs can reliably distinguish between the breath samples of patients with lung cancer and those of healthy volunteers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The researchers took breath samples from 220 volunteers who included patients with lung cancer, COPD, and healthy volunteers.

They found that if someone had lung cancer, the dogs correctly predicted it in 72 per cent. If someone did not have lung cancer, the dogs did not predict it in 90 per cent. “So the false negative outcome is 28 per cent, and a false positive outcome is 10 per cent,” Boedeker said.

“Dogs may help us find a volatile organic compound linked to lung cancer,” she said. The researchers said future studies should aim at identifying the compounds that the dogs are able to smell out in the exhaled breath of patients.

The German researchers said they were inspired by a 22-year-old research paper in a medical journal that recounted a tale of a woman who approached doctors to get a lesion on her skin examined after her dog began to pay special interest to the lesion. By G.S. Mudur, The Telegraph India

Too much television could shorten your life, putting TV-watching ‘in the same ballpark as smoking and obesity’, say researchers. Photograph: Fancy/Veer/Corbis

Watching too much television could shorten your life, a study suggests. Research carried out in Australia, and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that every hour of TV watched after the age of 25 may shorten lifespan by 22 minutes.

According to one of the report’s authors, Dr Lennert Veerman, from the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland, it puts long hours spent in front of the box “in the same ballpark as smoking and obesity”. “While smoking rates are declining, watching TV is not, which has implications at a population level,” he said.

Last year, another Australian study found an hour of TV a day led to an 8% increase in the risk of premature death.

“We’ve taken that study and translated it into what it means for life expectancy in Australia given how much TV we watch,” said Veerman.

Australians watch about two hours of TV a day. As a result their life expectancy at birth is reduced by 1.8 years for men and 1.5 years for women, according to the study. Britons watch more than three hours of TV a day, according to the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board.

Too much sitting, as distinct from too little exercise, is associated with higher mortality risk, particularly from cardiovascular disease. “Logically we know that physical activity is good for health and so it’s not so strange that the reverse is not so good,” said Veerman.

The report was based on an observational survey conducted in 1999-2000 with more than 11,000 participants aged 25 and over. Participants reported the amount of time they spent watching TV or videos in the previous week, when it was their main activity (ie, not doing the cooking or the ironing at the same time).

The report also showed that a person who watches an average of six hours of TV a day would live on average 4.8 years less than someone who watches none. The Guardian