Ho Ho Ho!

A very familiar phrase in this festive season. You better watch out, it just because Santa Claus is coming to town!

In more than 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ was the main character in Christmas, but things are gradually replaced by the heavily commercialized Santa Claus.

Hence, whenever Christmas is just around the corner, people would tend to think of Santa instead. Santa, gives us a perception which is a round, super-chubby, dress in red and white colored exclusive Santa robe, flying across the moon and stars with his sledge, presents galore in his bag, and so many more symbolic characteristics.

Dr. Nathan Grills from Monash University said that Santa should change his image instead, by getting off his sleigh and walk, so that he could lose weight, so that he could stop promoting unhealthy living as well as obesity. Santa is also said to promote drink-driving as he drinks gallons of brandy as he rounds on Christmas Eve.

But whatever it is, this is the festive season, and we should all come together and celebrate it, but just remember not to follow Santa lifestyle as far as his health is concerned. Instead of gulping brandy, why not consuming GT&F Milk everyday?

Hereby, GTF wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Diabetes & Glaucoma

A contractor, in his forties, learned that he had diabetes. About 10 years ago, this person went to consult the doctor in order to deal with any vision problems that he suffered. The consulted doctor found that there was a very high intraocular pressure in both eyes of this contractor. Such so-called high intraocular pressure is a very obvious sign of a person having glaucoma. Doctor kept prescribing different types of eyedrops, hoping that the contractor's eyes could be cured, but unfortunately, the treatments did not seem to work, until he underwent a laser procedure followed by continuous eye drop medications which successfully reduced his intraocular pressure.

Cited from wikipedia, glaucoma is a disease that affects the optic nerve as well as involving the loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern. As the example quoted above, ocular pressure is a significant factor in why glaucoma could occur. At a relatively low pressure in the eye, we might develop some nerve damages, while there are also some people who may have high pressure in the eye for years but yet, never develop damage. Nicknamed "Sneak Thief of Sight", untreated glaucoma might steal the sight of the infected individual and eventually causes blindness.

In a recent study, it suggests that people with diabetes face special risks from glaucoma. Both diabetes and glaucoma are said to have a few symptoms which are quite similar. Before the infected individuals are aware of the problems, severe damages could have occurred in their eyes. There are many studies out there which could prove that diabetics are more likely to develop glaucoma, and there are also other studies which suggest that glaucoma patients with diabetes disease are more likely to suffer vision damages. These studies indicated how closely diabetes and glaucoma are related to each other.

While everyone else who suffers glaucoma and at the same time, a diabetes sufferer, trying hard in applying eye medications from doctors, many times they do not realize the root of the problem, and consequently, they do not solve the real problem lying beneath them. Diabetes, apart from being regarded as the root of most of the metabolic syndromes, now vision complications such as glaucoma is very well included under that list.

GT&F Products offer consumers many benefits, especially benefits in curbing the hazardous diabetes. The precious trivalent chromium content in those products could very well enhance insulin signalling in your body. As a result, other metabolic syndromes and body systems, not forgetting possibly glaucoma, can also be improved.

To Watch or Not To Watch?

When we get bored, we prefer to sit back and relax. If there is a complete set of television which is fully equipped with amazing sound system, that could probably sufficient to wrap up the rest of the day. No doubt, television brings us fantastic programs which have the ability to attract us, glue our butts onto the seat.

Perhaps, that is most people culture, be it Asians or Westerners. Eyes on the TV set, is a normal thing to do, and it has becoming a routine for each one of us. In addition, many of us are very well aware that addicting to TV programs for a certain number of hours is not beneficial to us, particularly our health.

A latest study suggests that adults weighing above the healthy range (in other words, individuals who are overweight) could burn more calories by watching less television. This study was the work of University of Vermont researchers, and it appears in the December issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The lead author Dr. Jennifer Otten, suggested that other sedentary activities, such as chatting on the phone, and even reading, actually burns more calories compare to spending time in front of the television. This team of researchers had conducted a trial to look at how reducing the amount of time spent on watching television could affect energy expenditure, body weight, calorie consumption, level of activity and other related attributes, in adults who were deemed overweight.

Researchers recruited 36 adults to participate in this study. Among 20 of htem were chosen at random to cut their TV viewing by 50 per cent for 3 weeks, while the remaining of the adults were treated as the control group.

Surprisingly, for those 20 adults who were chosen to halve their amount of time in viewing the TV, they eventually burn 120 calories more than those in the control group. But how much exactly 120 calories is? Dr. Otten said 120 calories a day of energy which they burned off is equivalent to walking more than a mile.

Babyface

In this sophisticated society, females who are in their younger ages, hope to keep their beauty for an eternity, they hope so badly that their youthful looks will not deteriorate in the future. What about males? Younger males who looked young, often are not satisfied with their own looks, they prefer to look older, or in other words, more matured despite their youthful ages.

If we look at this issue in the males' point of view, will this do any good? Looking matured enough at certain age perhaps could make them more marketable, but how about in the perspective of health? Think again!

A recent study which is published in the Christmas issue of bmj.com claims that people who look young for their actual age enjoy a longer life than their years.

Professor Kaare Christensen, from the University of Southern Denmark, had led a team of researchers to examine whether perceived age is linked with survival. This research team had investigates a total of 1,826 Danish twins whom were aged 70 years and over , and had them underwent physical and cognitive tests, back then in the year of 2001.

Photographs of the faces of these twins were taken, and these photographs weer assessed by appointed individuals, including: 20 female geriatric nurses aged 25 to 46, 10 male student teachers aged 22 to 37, 11 older women aged 70 to 87. These individuals rated their perceived ages by assessing the facial photographs.

After 7 years, death records were used to track the twins survival. What really shocking to the result of the study was, the perceived age seemed to be closely related to the survival of those individuals. The bigger the difference in perceived age within a twin pair, the more likely was that the older looking twin died first. This findings can be concluded that facial photographs proved to be a strong biomarker of ageing.

So young men, do you still think being older is a cool stuff to do?

Irregular Arm Swing

Central nervous system plays a very important part in our body, for it functions to coordinate the activity of all parts of our bodies. But when there is any occurrence of degenerative disorder upon the central nervous system, that certain individual would suffer impairment such as the retardation of motor skills, speech, and other essential functions; and such disorder, is very well-known as Parkinson's Disease.

Recently, neurologists in the United States suggested that normal people, like you and me, can actually estimate ourselves whether or not a person has Parkinson's Disease, merely through plain observation.

What they have suggested, is that when individuals walking with irregular arm swings, that could very well be an early sign of Parkinson's Disease. So, what kind of arm swing patterns should we take note on?

According to experts, they claimed that decreased arm swing while walking is the most frequently reported motor dysfunction in people with such disease (Parkinson's Disease). They also postulated that individuals who have Parkinson's Disease, their upper bodies are not as well documented as for the lower bodies in the early stages of the disease.

Lead & Anxiety

Global warming, the melting of icebergs in the extreme ends of the world, all thse undesirable consequences are all results of human doings. And thus, nowadays, many developed as well as developed countries such as Malaysia, are calling up all other countries to join forces to tackle such problems, hoping that aftermaths which we have foreseen in the famous movie, 2012, would not happen, or won't occur as quickly as expected.

That is why, many countries and industries are introducing many green technologies and green techniques in order to curb many poisonous as well as harmful gases to our mother earth, as well as to human. One of those gases, is lead (Pb).

One of the JAMA/Archives journals in December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, suggested that lead, a well-known neurotoxicant that is ubiquitous in the environment, when exposed to individuals who categorized within the adult populations, the neurotoxic effect could be greater than that experienced by the general population.

Maryse F. Bouchard, Ph.D., M.Sc., of hte University de Montreal, Canada suggested that low-level of lead exposure could disrupt brain processes, where these processes are the ones which involve neurotransmitters that are associated with depression and panic disorder. As for those who have experienced depression or any related disorders, exposure to lead could further trigger its development, causing them more severe.

Since GTF Products contain adequate amount of trivalent chromium, and it's been further proven that trivalent chromium which existed in it could very well suppress depression, plus other good benefits as far as suppressing metabolic syndromes is concerned, there is no reason why you do not need this product.

Protein Balancing Instead

By following the historical datas found out by many scientists and researchers, cutting down in calories intake appear to be the main factor in waving your hands, welcoming many health benefits into your body, and many others too, they believe that by restricting calorie intake, you can also increase your longevity, ie: your lifespan.

But such restriction, must be presented in such a way that the diet contains enough vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, for they are vital in keeping many organisms, including mice, rats , Rhesus monkeys and fruit flies to live in longer times and acquiring a better health.

Researchers from UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing were putting efforts in an investigation about whether it is by restricting calorie intake that led to increased health benefits, or just by reducing specific nutrients we take in?

For the study which is published in the journal of Nature, the researchers discovered that by varying the amounts and proportions of amino acids (that is, the building blocks of life, where they are the simplest unit which make up various kinds of proteins and complex compounds that take part in majority of the processes which are essential to keep to organisms to be alive) in the diet, lifespan and fertility of female fruit flies could be affected greatly. Fruit flies, although do not look like human, and we have four times the number of genes that they have, but many genetic discoveries suggested that how their genes behave, can often be matched with human counterparts.

The researchers found that the methionine, one of the essential amino acids, was crucial in determining the lifespan and fertility of an organism. When they added it to a low calorie diet, fertility is boosted without reduction in lifespan. And strangely, when they reduced its amount in a high calorie diet, lifespan is extended instead.

In other words, key to healthy long life could lie in balancing protein intake rather than calorie restriction. But further investigation and researches are needed to be done before clearer pictures can be presented to the public.