Science and Inventions

What is eye allergy? What are the symptoms?
Eye allergy is the reaction of the body towards the allergens that irritate the eye. This irritation leads to the eye producing histamine, which causes the itchiness, redness, swelling tearing and burning of eyelids and conjunctiva.

What causes eye allergies?
Allergy happens due to hereditary causes in most cases as the eyes can be sensitive to some sorts of makeups, antibiotics or substances in the air as pet dander, dust, pollen and mold spores.

How can you treat eye allergy?
Use the allergy eye drops or even the artificial tears, take oral antihistamine, wash your eyes with warm water and do not use any cleaning solutions, avoid wearing contact lenses, avoid to wear make up on your eyes, avoid rubbing or scratching your eye and above all avoid the sources of allergy.

What is nasal allergy? What are the symptoms?
Nasal allergy, allergic rhinitis, or hay fever are all names of the same thing, nasal allergy is the reaction of the body against some sorts of allergy causes, this reaction causes the inflation of nasal passages which causes the frequent sneezes, itched nose, problems in smelling, runny nose or blocked nose. There are other symptoms as headache, fatigue, clogged ears, tearing and itchy eyes.

What causes nasal allergies?
Nasal allergy is caused due to exposing to different allergens as dust, pollen, molds or animal dander.

How can you treat nasal allergy?
Avoiding the cause of your allergy is the main reason of not getting sick. But in case you got the allergy, you can try to make the symptoms less by using saline as a nasal wash, drink lots of water, take an antihistamine and sometimes some herbs can be very helpful as Turmeric, Thyme or Mustard oil. But in severe cases the patient has to consult a physician.

Recent studies suggest that taking supplements of Omega-3 or through diet changes can reduce brain damage as we age.

Older women with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood had slightly less brain shrinkage than women with low fatty acid levels in a new study.

The results may suggest that omega-3s protect the brain from the loss of volume that happens with normal aging and is seen more severely in people with dementia, the researchers say.

“The brain gets smaller during the normal aging process – about 0.5 percent per year after age 70, but dementia is associated with an accelerated and localized process of brain shrinkage,” said James Pottala, who led the study.

Pottala is an assistant professor at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine in Sioux Falls and chief statistician for the Health Diagnostic Laboratory in Richmond, Virginia.

He and his colleagues analyzed data from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study to see whether omega-3s were associated with brain shrinkage in general, and in specific brain regions involved in memory and other cognitive processes.

The data covered 1,111 women who were, on average, 70 years old and had no signs of dementia at the beginning of the study. At that time, the amounts of the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in their red blood cells were measured.

DHA accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of the fatty acids found in brain cell membranes, and it’s especially concentrated near the synapses where the cells communicate with one another, Pottala and his colleagues note in their report, published in the journal Neurology.

Red blood cell levels of the omega-3s are good indicators of how much a person has consumed, the researchers add.

The researchers used an omega-3 index to describe the fatty acid levels seen among women in the study and to divide them into four groups: women with the highest levels had an average index reading of around 7.5 percent, while women with the lowest levels had an average of 3.4 percent.

Eight years after the women’s blood was tested, they underwent MRIs to measure the volume of gray matter and white matter in their brains.

The researchers found that women with the highest EPA and DHA blood levels at the study’s outset had brains that were about two cubic centimeters larger overall than women with the lowest levels.

In addition, the hippocampus, a brain region critical to forming and storing memories, was 2.7 percent larger in women who had fatty acid levels twice as high as the average.

Of 13 specific brain regions the researchers looked at, the hippocampus was the only one where they saw a significant difference.

The analysis adjusted for other factors that could influence the women’s brain size, including education, age, other health conditions, smoking and exercise.

The researchers didn’t measure cognitive function, only brain volume, so they cannot say whether the size differences they saw had any link with differences in memory or dementia risk.

The authors acknowledged other limitations in their report, including that they did not look at whether the women’s omega-3 consumption had changed over time.

It’s possible that some of the participants had changed their diets or started taking fish oil or other forms of omega-3 fatty acids, Pottala told Reuters Health in an email.

But in previous study, he and his colleagues showed red blood cell EPA and DHA levels and peoples’ dietary fish intakes generally don’t change over time.

“If some subjects in our MRI study began taking fish oil supplements, then the reported benefits would be underestimated,” Pottala said.

Pottala says higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids can be achieved by dietary changes, such as eating oily fish twice a week or taking fish oil supplements.

Since the study does not prove that blood levels of omega-3s are the cause of the brain-size differences observed, or that those differences have any effect on cognitive function, the researchers caution that more research is needed to know whether raising omega-3 levels would make any difference to brain health.

Originally published by Reuters.

Overweight and underweight are two different problems concerning food but the overweight is much more spotlighted, in order to keep away from obesity you should keep away from the following foods but if you suffer from underweight you can eat those foods without feeling any guilt.

Food that will hell you gain weight as:
Frying potatoes, whether french fries or the chips are one of the main reasons for the obesity over the world. Potato by itself is full of starch which causes fattening.

Red Meat and processed meats as salami, sausage and bacon are foods full of fats, calories and that leads to gaining weight.

Fast food in general are from the fastening factors as they are full of saturated fats high sugar percentage.

Fried food is a main source of fats as butter and oil are factors of weight gaining..

Sweet beverages, soda and energy drinks are fattening foods due to the high calories they produce to he body.

Sweets, simple sugar, biscuits, ice cream, cream, chocolate, cakes and other deserts are all foods that would give fatness.

Food containing white flour are more fattening that the food made from brown flour. The bread made from refined grains increases the blood sugar and the sugar turns to fats.

Habits that will cause fattening:
Sleeping less than 6 hours or more than 8 ours can cause a small gained weight.

Watching TV while eating or eating snacks while watching TV are major factors of weight gain.

alcohol except wine have ben proven as factors for weight gain.