Wednesday 31 December 2008

Reading THIS, you'll NEVER look at a banana in the same way again!!

Bananas which contain three natural sugars (sucrose, fructose and glucose) and fiber give an instant, sustained, and substantial boost of energy.

Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous, 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit.It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Reducing Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills -- eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: Two-hundred students at a Twickenham (Middlesex, UK) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood-sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito Bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at Work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood-sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every 2 hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature Control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan.

Smoking Cessation: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6 and B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress Relief: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. They can be re-balanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Stroke Risk: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Wart Removal: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

Splinter Removal: For those hard-to-remove wood splinters, rather than poking and prodding with tweezer and needle, take a small piece of banana skin, large enough to cover the splinter wholly, yellow side out, and carefully tape it over the splinter with a band-aid or tape. Overnight the banana and its enzymes will work the splinter out, dissolving it and sealing the wound. So in the morning, when you remove the band-aid, the pad will be yucky brown mush and no more splinter!

CONCLUSION: So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around!

So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say: "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

Sunday 14 December 2008

Interesting Real Facts (Strange but True)

1

Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

2

40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

3

315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

4

On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

5

Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

6

Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.

7

Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

8

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

9

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

10

Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

11

Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

12

The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!

13

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.

14

Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

15

Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

16

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

17

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

18

Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

19

Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.

20

The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

21

To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

22

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

23

The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.

24

The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

25

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

26

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

27

Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt".

28

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

29

In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off".

30

A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.

31

We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.

32

Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.

33

Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.

34

Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.

35

Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.

36

When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in Sri Lanka.

37

There are more chickens than people in the world.

38

The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.

39

There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.

40

The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.

41

The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three Times each morning.

42

The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the Combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.

43

The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.

44

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

45

The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

46

Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears Never stop growing.

47

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

48

A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a Few weeks.

49

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

50

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.

51

When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.

52

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned His wife or mother because they were both deaf.

53

A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a Carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After Weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe Leaving her mentally retarded

54

"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language

55

Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking Countries because Colgate translates into the command "go hang Yourself."

56

Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

57

"Bookkeeper" is the only word in English language with three consecutive Double letters.

58

Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed People do.

59

The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every Letter in the English language.

60

If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line Would never end because of the rate of reproduction

61

China has more English speakers than the United States.

62

Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

63

Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

64

An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.

65

Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our Bodies.

66

Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average Man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his Lifetime.

67

According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.

68

The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu - a New Zealand hill.

69

If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at Approximately 4:30pm the previous day.

70

Scientists in Australia's Parkes Observatory thought they had positive Proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a Microwave in the building.

71

Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

72

More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.

73

Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.

74

Coca-Cola was originally green.

75

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

76

The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.

77

There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

78

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

79

Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!

80

You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

81

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

82

People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

83

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

84

The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

85

If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

86

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

87

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

88

If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

89

If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

90

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

91

Question - This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this? Ans. - Honey

92

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

93

A snail can sleep for three years.

94

All polar bears are left handed.

95

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

96

Butterflies taste with their feet.

97

Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

98

In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

99

On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

100

Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

101

Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

102

The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

103

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

104

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

105

Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

106

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

107

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

108

And finally 99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

'All that is gold does not glitter'

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Friday 12 December 2008

You Know You Are A Doctor When………………

You know your going to have a bad day when the answer to your question “What brought you here today” begins with “well it all started 3 years ago doc…”

You can have a complete conversation using mainly letters instead of full words.
eg, On arrival in A+E the SHO ordered ECG, FBC, U+E's and an ABG. The patient had ARF and despite an IVI was CTD. She was made NFR and for TLC only.

You meet new people and see their hands for the first time you instantly think “ooh, bet I could get a green venflon in that vein!”

You only watch Casualty, Holby City and Doctors for their comedy value!

You only watch Scrubs and House for their true to life portrayals of hospital medicine!

You STILL get angry when TV doctors try to shock a flatlined patient. Grr!

You have missed a close family member’s / friend’s / your own wedding / birthday/ golden anniversary due to being on call. You are still not sure if you’ve been forgiven despite having no influence over the rota.

You have pretended to be on call in order not to attend a close family member’s / friend’s wedding / birthday /golden anniversary.

When doing your houseman jobs you repeatedly got frustrated that no one trusted your assessments.

When doing your senior jobs you repeatedly got frustrated that you couldn’t trust your houseman’s assessments.

You act like nurses are the bane of your life, yet secretly you know that on at least one occasion a nurse has saved your ass!

You’ve googled a patient’s condition prior to seeing them in order to pretend that you know more about it.

The word “MTAS” STILL makes you angry.

You feel angry and snubbed if a family member sees their own GP without asking you for advice first.

If a family member asks you for advice about a symptom you tell them that the best thing for them to do is to see their own GP.

You score on the CAGE assessment (maybe not for alcohol, but definitely for something, coffee, chocolate or starmix maybe)

You realise there are never enough tourniquets in the world.

You can spend ages clerking and presenting a patient, only for them to completely contradict everything you’ve said when the consultant sees them. “My junior tells me this all started with a dull ache in your foot…” “No doc, it was a crushing pain in my chest and down my arm…???”

You are expected to psychically predict a patient’s meds when their drug chart goes missing and need rewriting. Or when the patient can’t remember them. “I take 2 pink ones and a little red on” Hmm, very helpful.

There is a name of at least one previous patient that if you ever saw written on the expected board again you would run a mile!

You have a car boot full of useless crap from drug reps, yet every time you see them you still feel compelled to bleed them dry.

The only days you remember to bring a lunch with you are the days the drug reps have provided a free one.

You only use open questions in communication assessments.

The neatness of your handwriting is inversely proportional to how confident you are of your spelling of that long drug name.