Coffee Addict

It seems like I become a coffee addict nowadays. If I don't drink a mug of coffee in one day, I always feel that my soul is not completed. Especially from the eyes part and up. Ugh. 

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Deficiency of Vitamin D

Vitamin D? What is that? I know most of people know about vitamin D. Its mostly formed by UVB of sunlight to our skin, especially arm, hand and face. Some foods contain vitamin D too. Like eggs...Yes, eggs contain vitamin D inside and some fish also have vitamin D.

Vitamin D is very important for our bones. If we have vitamin D deficiency, our bones would be brittle and thin. And simple accident could break them.

I live in Kuwait with a lot of sunlight and sunny all year, especially in summer no doubt. But there is one thing that makes me wonder...many people here take vitamin D injection (yes vitamin D available as injection too. It's very painful, you can imagine someone inject oil to your muscle).

Why? Because most of them apply sunblock, thus preventing UVB to be absorbed and forming vitamin D. They are afraid to get skin cancer too.

And now I realize that most of people in the world apply sunblock before they go out under sunlight. The higher sunblock sun protection factor (SPF), the longer UVB prevented to reach our skin.

So what should we do? To apply sunblock will prevent cancer, to not apply sunblock will prevent vitamin D formation.

I think we should let our skin free of sunblock every other day.

What do you think?

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How about cola carbonated beverages?

Two days ago a dentist gave her patient, a young girl lidocaine adrenaline injections and after about 10 minutes, patient didn't feel numbness. Then she asked her whether she likes to drink cola or not. I was surprised when she said she drinks cola 6 cans daily. The dentist was surprised to "What? 6 cans? That's too much for one day." Then I asked her why cola can affect sedation, she said it is because of high level of caffeine in it. I was really curious so I tried to find information about carbonated beverages, especially cola........



As I know every carbonated beverages contains of high sugar level, so it will affect sugar level if consumed in long periods.In 2004, an eight-year study of 50,000 nurses showed a correlation that suggests drinking one or more sugar-sweetened beverages (such as soft drinks and fruit punches) per day increases one's risk of developing diabetes by 80%. Most soft drinks contain high concentration of simple carbohydrates, glucosefructose, sucrose and other simple sugars. Oral bacteria ferment carbohydrates and produce acid, which dissolves tooth enamel during the dental decay process; thus, sweetened beverages are likely to increase risk of dental caries.

How about cola carbonated beverages? Being carbonated, colas are acidic carbonic acid is formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water, and so can react violently with basic chemicals, such as baking soda. Many colas also contain phosphoric acid and/or citric acid, which further increases the acidity. So it's the same, carbonated beverages in any form is not good for our body. I know it quenches thirst very fast, but it's not good to take too much.

Cola carbonated beverages contains on high level of caffeine. What is caffeine? Caffeine is an alkaloid compound that acts as a psychoactive stimulant and diuretic in humans. The word comes from the French term for coffee, café. Caffeine is also called guaranine when found in guarana, mateine when found in mate, and theine when found in tea; all these names are considered chemical synonyms for the same chemical compound.

Don't you think cola is refreshing because contains of caffeine? In human, caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, having the effect of temporarily warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness. Hmmm, now I understand why those injections didn't have effect to patient. Because low concentration of adrenaline on one ampoule of lignocaine adrenaline 0.8% cannot defeat high concentration of caffeine level in her body. Remember that caffeine is central nervous system stimulant. That's why patient still feel painful after 10 minutes injections given.

So what is the normal caffeine level that should be present in our body? Caffeine is usually thought to be safe in moderate amounts. Experts consider 200–300 mg of caffeine a day to be a moderate amount for adults. But consuming as little as 100 mg of caffeine a day can lead a person to become "dependent" on caffeine. How much that patient drinks daily? She said she drinks Pepsi Cola 6 cans daily. Pepsi Cola contains of 38 mg per 12 ounces (1 can) equivalent to 228 mg daily. Actually it's ok for body, but remember that patient is young girl. So it's too much for her.

Finally I just want to say, combination of carbonated beverages and caffeine is bad for our body. So try to drink cola carbonated beverages rarely. Only if you don't have other alternative drinks.

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Coffee Is Antioxidant Source?

Last night my friend told me that coffee is an antioxidant source. Coffee is antioxidant? For me coffee is sleeping medicine :D, everytime I drink coffee, I always feel my eyes become lazy to open. Anyway lets check this information....


Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. Some health effects are due to the caffeine content of coffee, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components. For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.
Coffee's negative health effects are mostly due to its caffeine content. Research suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee can cause a temporary increase in the stiffening of arterial walls.

A study by the University of Scranton has found out that coffee is a high source of antioxidants. As a primary source of antioxidants it even beats fruits and vegetables. It is number one source of antioxidant in American diet. Both caffeinated and decaf versions appear to provide similar antioxidant levels.
Antioxidants in general; are said to give number of potential health benefits like protection against heart disease and cancers.

Vinson's team analyzed the amount of antioxidants in a variety of foods and compared those figures to how much of each food type, on average, people in the U.S. consume.They found that the average person guzzles down more than a thousand milligrams of antioxidants a day from coffee. This rate far surpasses the next runner-up, black tea, which accounts for a few hundred milligrams a day on average.

Although fruits and vegetables are generally promoted as good sources of antioxidants, the new finding is surprising because it represents the first time that coffee has been shown to be the primary source from which most Americans get their antioxidants.

Coffee came out on top, on the combined basis of both antioxidants per serving size and frequency of consumption, Vinson says. Java easily outranked such popular antioxidant sources as tea, milk, chocolate and cranberries, he says. Of all the foods and beverages studied, dates actually have the most antioxidants of all based solely on serving size, according to Vinson. But since dates are not consumed at anywhere near the level of coffee, the blue ribbon goes to our favorite morning pick-me-up as the number one source of antioxidants.

How antioxidant in coffee works? The roasting of coffee beans dramatically increases their total antioxidant activity. A roasting time of 10 minutes (medium-dark roast) was found to produce coffee with optimal oxygen scavenging and chain breaking activities in vitro. A study of robusta and arabica coffees from six different countries showed that robusta samples contained significantly more reducing substances than arabica samples and that protective activity measured ex vivo was significantly greater in roasted samples than in green coffee. Using the ABTS•+ method (the gold standard), it was confirmed that light roast or medium roast coffee has a significantly higher antioxidant activity in vitro than green coffee. This difference was observed despite a 19% and 45% decrease in the chlorogenic acid content of light and medium roast coffee respectively implying that other compounds make significant contributions to the total antioxidant activity of roasted coffee. Melanoidins are brown polymers formed by the Maillard reaction during the roasting of coffee beans and account for up to 25% of the dry matter. It has recently been shown by the ABTS•+ method that coffee melanoidins have significant antioxidant activity in vitro.

So if you want to drink coffee it's ok. But because of caffeine level in it that has some bad effects to body, better you choose decaffeinated coffee that safer for you.

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Glasgow Coma Scale

Reminding myself about level of consciousness, and I hope it's useful for everybody. The Glasgow Coma Scale is a neurological scale which aims to give a reliable, objective way of recording the conscious state of a person, for initial as well as continuing assessment. A patient is assessed against the criteria of the scale, and the resulting points give the Glasgow Coma Score (or GCS). It has value in predicting ultimate outcome....

Elements of the scale are eye response, verbal response and motor response. There are four grades of eye response from the highest to the lowest :
4. Opening spontaneously
3. Response to voice
2. Response to pain stimuli
1. No response

Verbal Response contains of five grades from the highest to the lowest :
5. Oriented
4. Confused
3. Inappropriate words
2. Incomprehensible sounds
1. No response

Motor Response contains of six grades from the highest to the lowest :
6. Obeys commands
5. Localizes pain stimuli
4. Withdrawal from pain stimuli
3. Flexion/decorticate posturing
2. Extension/decerebrate posturing
1. No response

Generally comas are classified as :
Minor GCS : 13 or above
Moderate GCS : 9-12
Severe GCS : 8 or below

The GCS has limited applicability to children, especially below the age of 36 months because the verbal performance of even a healthy child would be expected to be poor.

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Picasa Gives 1 GB Storage

Do you like to memorize special moments into photographs? Some people like to memorize their special moments into photographs, and they like to... save them on photo albums. For those who like to save their photos on photo albums, Google has good news : 1 GB storage to save all of your photos and pictures on Picasa. Picasa is free storage from Google for people who like to save their pictures so their pictures will not be lost because problems on computer. As we know sometimes computer problems (usually caused by virus) could destroy our data that we saved on it. And what a disaster if our sweet memorizes disappeared because of the viruses. By saving on Picasa we don't have to worry our pictures from sweet moments will be lost.

If you want to know more about Picasa, you can visit Picasa

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