Turkey Berry Health Benefits

Not many people like the lonely turkey berry plant (known as Solanum torvuml and in Tamil Sundakkai)  which is grown in our garden because we are not aware of its medicinal value which cures many diseases. You all will be amazed to know the uses of this small plant that we commonly find in our house garden if you come to know about its characteristics.

Turkey Berry belongs to the plant species and its flowers are white in colour and are found in clusters. The Turkey Berry fruit is green in colour and it appears like a very small brinjal. Turkey Berry plant grows in our house garden and also in hilly areas. The Turkey Berry that grows in hilly areas has a more bitter taste than that of the berries that are grown in our house garden.

 

Turkey Berry

COMPOSITION OF TURKEY BERRY:

Turkey berry is composed of the following essential nutrients and minerals which are very helpful in preventing and curing the diseases.

• Vitamin A
• Iron (24.5 mg)
• Calcium (0.28 mg)
• Fat (1.7 mg)
• Fiber (56.9 mg)

USES OF TURKEY BERRY:    

We can use consume the fresh Turkey Berries plucked from the plant and also we can consume it in the dried form. It is better to have the fresh Turkey Berry than the dried one. It has the potential to kill the germs and also acts as a medicine for cold, and also helps in problems related to the chest and stomach. And people who have diarrhea, stomach ache, piles, tuberculosis should use Turkey berry as a part of their food. And taking Turkey Berry regularly will help in strengthening the nerves.

Fried Turkey Berry

ADVANTAGES OF TURKEY BERRY

 TO KILL GERMS:

We used to eat lot of sweets because they taste good and as a result they produce a lot of germs in our body. Once the bacteria and other germs formed in our body, it creates a lot of problems to us. These problems are prevented by eating Turkey Berry in the form of gravy. (In Tamil it is called as Sundakkai Vathal Kuzhambu).

TO CONTROL DIABETES:

If we eat the Turkey Berries for 4 days in a week in any form (dried or gravy), diabetes will come in to control.Frying the dried fruit using oil and then adding them to kuzhambu and eating them will help us avoid digestion problems

TO STRENGTHEN THE BONES:

Consuming the Turkey Berries on the daily basis will strengthen the bones and nerves and also helps in the physical development of our body.

TO PREVENT GAS TROUBLE:

Gas problems are totally controlled if we take the Turkey Berries which is deep fried in the oil.

TO CURE PARALYSIS:

If the people who are affected with paralysis problem consume Turkey Berries, the disease will be cured.

TO PREVENT TEETH RELATED DISEASES:

All the teeth related problems are cured if we take the powdered Turkey Berry added with salt.

Because of all these medicinal values we should not neglect this plant. We should start growing them in our garden and eat them regularly to stay healthy in our life.

Ways To Prevent Prickly Heat

Who gets Sweat Rash / Prickly Heat??

How do we prevent it?

Prickly Heat / Sweat Rash is a major complaint for people living in the regions where heat and humidity are high.

Though prickly heat can affect anybody, those people who sweat more are increasingly prone to it.

People, who are obese, get more prickly heat too.

In some families, it affects all members severely.

Those who wear nylon clothes during summer season, instead of cotton clothes, may also get affected.

The chances of prickly heat are high for people who work in hot and less ventilated environment.

                                         

Where does it appear?

It appears anywhere in the body, except palms and feet, without any constraints.

Sweat rashes may be present on the skin for a period ranging anywhere between 1 week to a month.

These rashes start troubling the affected people and continue to do so till they are cured, the first trouble being itching. Then succeeds, burning sensation and irritation. As a continual effect, it causes skin infection, thereby leading to wounding and allergy. To restrict these effects, we need to prevent prickly heat.

How can prickly heat be prevented?

To prevent prickly heat, we have to first control sweat, thereby restraining prickly heat.

To attain this, we:

Should avoid going out in the sun.

We may work in air-conditioned rooms or well ventilated environment.

Select and eat easily digestible food.

Avoid intake of alcohol / coffee and tea in large quantities.

Further, high-fat food items like meat, egg etc. should be avoided. Similarly, spicy food items prepared with food with strong masala should also be avoided.

The affected people should also shift to light, cotton clothes instead of wearing artificial clothes like nylon, terlin, polyester etc. Also, the clothes worn should not be holding the body very tight, but must be loose-fitting. Coconut oil should be applied less on the skin. It is said that these practices prevent occurrence of prickly heat.

It is also advised that supplementing such people with a 50,000 IU of Vitamin A, twice a day yields good results.

Treatment:

The medicine prepared by mixing the ingredients including Salicylic acid, camphor, menthol, glycerin and spirit helps to cure prickly heat. This formula has to be applied on the affected area twice a day for a week for aid. Bathing twice a day in pure water also gives relief in 7 days.

Effects of Stress

Are you aware of the effects of stress on your body??. It causes worse effects and affects the entire health. In this competitive world we have to run fast to achieve things. But it creates stress in our mind. It is said that poor food habit has also impact on this.

Stress creates unusual feelings. It creates unnecessary negative thought sand hypothetical fear. And if one is having stress he/she is not sure about the things they are doing. They have low confidence and would underestimate their efficiency.

Stress differs from person to person depends upon the factors like age, their living atmosphere etc. So it can be generally of three types.

* Short term stress

* Mid Term Stress

* Long Term Stress

Short Term Stress

This type of stress lasts for short period only. For example when we rush to catch the bus or train, late to office or some other places depends upon the situation. This creates stress which lasts some minutes to one or two hours.

Mid Term Stress

This type of stress lasts up to few months. For example during exam times, expecting exam results, promotion in office etc. Even we are not aware about this type of stress. Because we are accustomed to that frequently.

Long Term Stress

This type of stress lasts even through our lifetime. When we loss some close relatives, if we have some chronic disease may cause this type of stress.

Effects of Stress

Stress causes worse effects on our health. Primarily it affects the blood vessels. Blood vessels are very important to our body since it transports blood throughout the body. These blood vessels are helpful for supplying energy throughout the body and also removal of wastes from the body. So once it gets affected, overall body functioning will be collapsed.

So, if there is stress, it makes the blood vessels to get shrunk. Because of this one cannot able to have sufficient amount of blood flow throughout the whole body. Automatically functioning of heart increases to get more blood flow for the whole body. Thus it leads to high blood pressure. Since there is more functioning of the heart and insufficient blood flow, there may be body tremor also.

It also affects the digestive system. This is due to insufficient blood flow to the stomach and intestines. Glands are not able to produce acids that helps for digestion. Since there is no complete digestion, the body cannot able to observe the energy from the food taken. This makes the body weak and also unnecessarily stimulates appetite. This causes food cravings particularly on sweet and carbohydrate rich foods.

Because of incomplete digestion, the remaining food stayed in the stomach becomes sour and cause gastric problem, bloating of stomach, constipation and also burning sensation in stomach and chest. These all effects are caused when a person is in stress. We should overcome this condition by regulating the blood vessels and makes it to work properly. Blood vessels should be relaxed to make the blood flow uniformly all over the body. This can be done even through proper food practice also.

Another essential thing one should follow to overcome the effects caused by stress is walking. Because when we walk briskly, blood vessels gets relaxed.This helps for proper blood flow all over the body. Brisk walking also helps for easy digestion. Toxins present in the body are removed through sweat, urination and stool.

So, proper food habit along with regular brisk walking results in good improvement for persons with stress

AUM Chanting and its Benefits

Can you pronounce some word without using your tongue? A U M is the three different word can be pronounced without using our tongue.  This AUM is called as Pranava Mantra. Now-a-days in most of the vedic chants AUM is pronounced as OM. But it is not correct pronunciation. A U M is the correct pronunciation. In some places this OM chanting is called as OMKAR chanting. OM or AUM is the most important and significant word of Mantra tradition. It is considered as the root mantra in all vedas. All other words we are speaking are mixture of this basic three words AUM.  AUM is a typical combination of words which affects the surrounding and human beings through the vibrations. AUM should to be chanted for enormous number of times to get the results. We can get many health benefits by chanting this AUM. AUM chanting is prescribed as a corner stone in any yoga therapy program due to its outstanding healing benefits.

How to do AUM chanting

Aum is a universal mantra for all people and one not need the initiation of a master or guru to reap it’s endless benefits. Sit comfortably either in Padmasana or Artha Siddhasana or Sukhasana. Place your hands upon your thighs, and palm’s facing upwards. Hold Yoga Mudra in both hands and eyes should be closed. Inhale slowly through your nose, once your lungs is full exhale from your mouth by pronouncing AUM until your full breath come out from the lungs. All three word chanting should be approximately equal in time. While chanting Aaaaaa focus vibration one inch below your navel. It is the Manipura Chakra, one of the seven chakra in human body. When you chant Uuuuuu focus vibration in chest area. It is the Anahata Chakra. After that close you mouth and chant Mmmmmm. When chanting focus vibration in your throat and nose.  Similarly continue deep inhalation by nose and exhalation through mouth with chanting AUM. For better health benefit this chanting to be done 15 minutes in morning and 15 minutes  in evening.

Yoga Mudra

Benefits of AUM Chanting

• AUM chanting is a potent tonic which increases the efficiency of the human organism in a profound manner.
• By chanting this word OM or AUM one can achieve ultimate self-realization.
• The repetiton of Aum leads to excellent mental and physical health.
• This chant helps to improves the production of endorphin so making you fell relaxed and refreshed every time.
• It has positive effect for cardiac vascular health lowering blood pressure and increasing efficiency of all the cells and organs in the body.
• In essence AUM relaxes and rejuvenates the mind increasing concentration and memory therefore the ability to learn.
• It helps in Cleansing the mind.Controlling the emotions.
• It relives the stress levels by supplying more oxygen to the body. So you get relive from stress related headaches

Vegetarianism or Non-vegetarianism: which is better?

In the civilised world, at the heart of many heated debates is this question of which is better: vegetarianism or non-vegetarianism? A statistic says that, more or less, 1000 people switch from a non-vegetarian diet to vegetarianism. There are several reasons for this increase; prime among which are to prevent animals from being killed, to lose weight, and in order to prevent certain associated conditions.

Those who like their may be tempted ask: what’s so great about vegetarianism? Or may even entertain suspicion on that regard. An explanation for them is that our body is built to adapt to a vegetarian diet. The human intestine is six times longer than that of the human body which is similar to that of herbivores. Our teeth, intestine, hands, and genitals are systemised to support a vegetarian diet.

Likewise, fruits and vegetables decay gradually, whereas meats tend to decay in a very short period of time.  Consequentially, within minutes of entering our system, non-vegetarian foods start to generate a lot of waste products. We are unable to efficiently digest non-vegetarian foods, especially during constipation, non-vegetarian foods tend not to get digested easily and stay within our system. Acids which are produced in the intestines of animals help digest non-vegetarian foods easily. In human intestines, however, produce alkaline saliva which does not work well with meats increasing the time it takes to digest them.

Also, the foods we eat determine our characteristics. Vegetarians tend to be quiet and able, but as we keep consuming meet, our characteristics may shift to folly – as we may acquire the characteristics of carnivores. When we consume meat, we eat also the chemicals that the animal may have ingested, the pollutants in its body, and the pesticides that the butcher may have sprayed on it.

Miscarriages, diseases that affect the eyesight of new-borns, diseases associated with jaundice may be spread from the parasites in meats from Asian countries.  The now prevalent Chikungunya disease is spread from chickens. Likewise, Mad Cow disease is spread from cattle.

The pesticides that are sprayed on fruits and vegetables are easily washed away when preparing them.  This is why we are always advised to wash them before we eat them. But boric acid, which is used to prepare prawns and fish, stays within the flesh synthesizing antibodies and hormones. This does not happen in fruits and vegetables. There is a chance of contracting Trichinosis Infestation in parts of our stomach when consuming under-cooked pork meats. Likewise, the acids that form in pork and beef can be poisonous to our blood vessels. Vegetables tend not to have fats, even groundnuts, coconuts, etc. which have fats do not have cholesterol. Generally, vegetarian diet does not have too much fat.

Doctors often advice to eat vegetarian diet during pyrexia and stomach upsets.

Vegetarian diets can also be beneficial for the heart. Several studies have shown that switching to a vegetarian diet, reduces the chances of obesity. It can also reduce the chances of diabetes, blood pressure and certain types of cancers. Vegetarians should especially consume foods that contain protein which contain acids. Examples include milk, yogurt  soya milk, lentils, ground nuts, butter, and legumes.

Meats have high iron content; there can be no doubt about that. But they also tend to be high in fat also. But dried beans, dried fruits, spinach also contain iron. Alongside, oranges, tomatoes and broccoli contain vitamin C as well as iron. Young ladies need iron especially during menstruation. This is because they need an increased circulation during this period which is facilitated by the intake of iron.  This is also helped by tonics and medicines prescribed by physicians.

Cow’s milk can provide vitamin D; soya milk can also be consumed for the same. Vitamin D can be synthesized by the exposure to the morning sun – not the afternoon sun! Vegetarian diet contains more calcium than its non-vegetarian counterpart. Milk, yoghurt, soya, leaf vegetables, orange, tofu and legumes contain sizable amounts of calcium.

Legumes and nuts contain about 15-18 mg of zinc, which reduces the prevalence of fats in our body.  Consuming milk products, tofu and nut varieties help reach the levels of zinc that your body requires. One should not consume sweets which contain high levels of fat after converting to a vegetarian diet. Steamed lentils are advisable. Fruits and vegetables should be consumed copiously along with reduced-fat milk products.

Even Americans and Europeans are continuing to switch to vegetarian diets. It is an added bonus for vegetarians to know that Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy are some world renowned vegetarians!

Benefits of Water Therapy

For them that wonder what is needed for a healthy body, those who favor Western Medicine, or those that simply want to try new developments should be aware that Water Therapy is a novel medical practice. When water therapy is practiced, the unwanted waste products in our body get excreted and our body gets cleaned easily. We must strive to clean our body. Those who follow the PanjakarmaChikitchai to expel bodily toxins could try water therapy as an alternative therapy as well as a natural therapy.

Only clean water is required for water therapy. Clean water should be protected well. Potable water should be filtered after being boiled, and should be left to cool. The water should not be neither hot nor cold, but tepid.

Many people have the habit of drinking hot water, but this is not advisable because our optimum body temperature is at 98.4 degree F. This is our stable temperature. But when we drink hot water, it raises our temperature further requiring our body to reduce its temperature to counter the increase. This is unnecessary. Also, hot water can facilitate our body movement, in particular our digestion which increases our gastric juices and acids. This expedites digestion. If the stomach is empty, this can cause flatulence.  Hence, drinking hot water is not advisable.

However, drinking hot coffee or tea does not affect it. Because its level is lower, that is, it is generally consumes only 2-3 times a day. These kinds of drinks contain dissolved foods to be digested, but water tends not to contain such dissolved foods. Likewise, drinking cold water is also not advisable. When drinking very cold water, it causes the same problem as hot water, in that, it reduces the body temperature. This requires the body to increase its temperature, and stabilise it at 98.4 degree F. Sometimes the body may not stabilize at this level and may continue to keep increasing its temperature. Apart from this, the digestive and acid-secreting organs may secrete excessively causing problems with digestion. Sometimes microbes spread through cold water, which is also unnecessary. It is advisable to avoid all these problems. In order to stabilise digestion, drinking tepid water is recommended. If you still want to drink cold or hot water, heating or cooling it by 5 degrees centigrade is recommended.

During water therapy, five glasses of water or 1 ¼ litres should be consumed upon waking up. 1250 ml of water should be consumed before engaging in any work in the morning. If you are unable to drink it all at once, you may drink it at intervals. This level of water should be consumed within 45 – 60 minutes. For those that are unable to drink it all at once, moving limbs according to walking gestures may help.

Those that are just starting out may follow the above water therapy three times a week. Then gradually after one or two weeks, may do it daily. You may feel the urge to urinate about three or four times within the hour of starting out. This will stabilize within one or two weeks.

Those that want to follow this by drinking water every morning should avoid drinking hot beverages like milk, coffee or tea before going to bed. Only then will water therapy be efficient. Drinking water like this cleans our blood, stabilizes our digestion, and will ensure efficient expulsion of waste products through effective maintenance of the pancreas, liver and kidneys. It will reduce appetite and stabilise body temperature. It will allow effective functioning of the body by expelling body wastes.

For those who exercise or walk in the morning, should do so after drinking water and attending calls of nature. This helps to stabilise body temperature. Doing so allows temperature to reduce after urinating, cooling the body. Those who suffer from gastric discomfort should follow this daily to heal everything from mouth ulcers to the cause.

Worldwide studies prove the effectiveness of water therapy. A recent study in Japan has found that water therapy helps the following illnesses - Headaches, High blood pressure, Overweight, Leg ache, Diabetes, Sinusitis, Runny nose, Asthma, Acid reflux, Flatulence, Constipation, Stomach upset, Irregular menstruation, Kidney problems, Male or female potency. For anyone who wants to help improve their health can truly benefit from following water therapy today.

Google Maps Returns to iPhones

You've seen them since September, when iOS 6 was released, parked by the side of the road, scratching their heads in abject silence, lost as a male over 30 at a Justin Bieber concert. Apple iPhone users, dealing with the loss of Google Maps.
Ever since the last major update to Apple iOS, which drives iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads, things just haven't seemed right in the world for us iPhone users. We've simply lost our direction. Despite a number of enhancements that provided new features Apple fans like myself are enjoying often, there was as hole in our geographic hearts.
Android fanboys, this is where you fight that uncontrollable eye-roll. Because you never lost that loving feeling — Google's Maps offering has always been the heart and soul of how you get around. That and your Google Music playlists.
When Apple Maps took over from Google Maps in September, the responses ranged from shrugs to downright mouth foamage. Yes, that's a word. Don't look it up. Entire cities were missing. Even an Apple executive was fired over the morass (debacle? melee? furor?) following Google Maps getting the axe for Apple's own product. I'm sure he hit the ground running, although if he had an iPhone, he didn't know where he landed.
It's understandable - that's the American way, right? A company enjoys the fruits of someone's labor for years, watches their stock double and triple and quintuple (that's a word, too), then pushes 'em down a perp walk for one lousy error. 

Let's face it, Google's mapping system is more accurate, because it's been around longer, and has had years of feedback from trusted users. Kind of like the Twinkie, whose pending absence has caused its own chaos as of late. Google Maps are more accurate, and simpler to use. You could tie into all of your saved places. You could use street view and see that damned couch still sitting in your neighbor's front lawn.
Well, Google Maps is back, at least for iPhones. Yes, I know, it will work on iPads, too, if you expand it to fit the screen. But that's so gauche. Let the festivities begin! Snap the new Google Maps for iPhones app up up while it's still hot - in fact, it's already been snapped up, so many times it's the #1 app in the iTunes Store.
Google has upgraded the clarity of their maps, and thrown in Business Photos to boot, so you can figure out whether a particular restaurant has the ambience you desire to pop the question. Because dude, 2012 is about to end, and she's been waiting foreve

Facebook Makes A Huge Data Grab By Aggressively Promoting Photo Sync

Facebook was already taking in 300 million photos a day, and that rate is about to dramatically increase. It’s now ushering users onto its background uploads feature Photo Sync with a big banner at the top of its mobile apps’ news feed. Just two taps and your last 20 photos plus every one you take in the future are auto-uploaded to a private album from which you can share and Facebook can mine metadata.

The rollout of Photo Sync that started yesterday is perhaps the biggest thing to happen to Facebook photos beyond friend tagging and manual mobile uploads. Friend tagging jumpstarted Facebook’s growth with a jolt of narcissism over a half decade ago. If someone tagged you in a photo, you likely checked it out the second you got the notification, along with all the other photos in the album. Later it began offering photo sharing from mobile, but its biggest problem remained the arduous upload process.

 
Photo Sync sands that friction down to a smooth marble surface and it’s about to get a ton of users. Each of Facebook’s iPhone and Android apps have well over 115 million monthly users who will end up seeing this banner that casually requests you “Get Started” when it’s actually a serious decision.

Once enabled, every photo you take gets uploaded with no work on your part. That means all six tries to get that perfect portrait, the 30 photos you took of that gorgeous sunset, the pic of those cute pants you want to buy, and everything in between. All you do is select which to share, and a moment later they’re visible to your friends on Facebook.
When you might have shared one photo you could share four. Instead of squinting to type in descriptions on your phone, you might share more of those landscapes and other abstract shots because you’ll be able to add descriptions when you share them from the desktop. This will generate more photos of friends to draw them back to the site, and content for them to consume in the news feed.

You’ll see the full force of Photo Sync if Facebook combines it with its facial recognition feature. Rather than tagging friends manually, Facebook will analyze your Photo Synced album for the mugs of friends, apply tags automatically, and all you’ll have to do is approve them.

In the meantime, Facebook is probably going to suck in some terms of service violations and other very private photos. Even if people know that no one else can see them, some might panic when they see photos of them drunk, sloppy, nude, or in otherwise compromising positions within the Facebook Chrome. Right now Facebook doesn’t do a great job of explaining how the feature works so it could cause some to be caught by surprise, freak out, and turn it off.

But that’s probably worth it to Facebook because of the immense amount of photo metadata Photo Sync will give it. As I wrote yesterday, the feature is essentially Facebook’s entrance into cloud storage. While you might not share all the photos you upload, Facebook can still pull out geolocation to help it figure out where you are now and what local business ads to show you.. Eventually, brand recognition like the ability to identify Nike shoes in your photos could aid ad targeting too.

There no big launch event yesterday because Facebook didn’t need one. In fact, it probably didn’t want one, considering it didn’t even notify bloggers like me as it usually does. The banner atop the the news feed of its iOS and Android apps could easily get tens of millions of users to enable photo sync. If its competitors in social networking and now cloud storage don’t realize what’s happened, they won’t be able to react. But Facebook just found a way to to get its next 219 billion photos a lot faster than the first.

Google, Twitter activate voice tweets for Syrians

Google and Twitter announced they have reactivated a voice-tweet programme to allow Syrians affected by the shutdown of the internet to get messages out.

The service allows people with a telephone connection to compose and send a tweet by speaking on their phones.

Google and Twitter said they were reactivating the system which was used in 2011 when the internet was shut down in Egypt by authorities for several days.

Google's David Torres acknowledged that many Syrians may not be able to use the service because telecom networks in the war-ravaged country are also functioning poorly.

"But those who might be lucky enough to have a voice connection can still use Speak2Tweet by simply leaving a voicemail," he said.

Those able to dial out can leave messages on several phone numbers: +90 212 339 1447 or +30 21 1 198 2716 or +39 06 62207294 or +1 650 419 4196, "and the service will tweet the message," Torres said.

"No Internet connection is required, and people can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet."

AFP correspondents noted that Internet and telephone communications, including mobile phones, were cut in the capital.

On Thursday, activists accused the regime of preparing a "massacre" when the telephone lines and internet first went down, while the authorities explained the cut was due to "maintenance" work.

Washington branded it as a desperate move on part of the regime.