Sunday 31 October 2010

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Blood Group Diet

The blood group diet is said to have originated from two American Naturopaths, Dr James D'Adamo, and his son Dr Peter D'Adamo, who believe that your blood group type is the key to how you burn your calories, which foods you should eat and how you would benefit from certain types of exercise.

They recommend that eating to suit your blood group may, help you to lose weight, help you fight disease, boost your immune system and slow down the ageing process.

It is believed that a chemical reaction occurs between your blood and foods as they are digested. Lectins, a diverse and abundant protein found in food, may be incompatible with your blood group and adverse side effects may occur. The avoidance of these Lectins which can agglutinate (adhere or stick to one another) can be important if your particular cells-determined by your blood type,may react with them.

There are 4 blood types: A, AB, B, and O

Blood Type O

The O blood type was the first blood type to evolve from the hunter-gatherer era around 50,000 BC. Here the diet was high in red meat and virtually void of grains and dairy. The type-O thrives on a meat-eating diet. As the diet is high in animal protein, the type-O requires intense physical exercise to help burn off the meat.

Type-Os are prone to digestive disorders resulting from over-secretion of stomach acid. They can also be more susceptible to arthritis and thyroid disease due to overactive or hyper -immune system.

Wheat and dairy also promote inflammation in this blood type which can trigger an imbalance in the immune system.

Blood type O individuals can gain a significant amount of weight following a high carbohydrate diet, as their bodies cannot properly metabolize these foods.

Blood Type A

Type-A blood group formed when man began to develop an agricultural lifestyle between 25,000 and 15,000 B.C. People with blood type-A do best on a vegetarian diet for weight loss especially the macrobiotic diet.

The type-A individual hardly produces much hydrochloric acid and therefore does poorly on meat and dairy diets such as the Atkins Diet.

Type-As are generally more prone to cancer, diabetes and heart disease, if they do not take charge of their health. The gene for alcoholism is also found in type-As.

Blood Type B

Type B also evolved from the intermingling of blood type O with the blood type A. This occurred between 15,000 and 10,000 B.C due to man traveling further.

As a result, the type-B individual does best on a dairy diet with some meat (no chicken) and few grains.

The type-Bs suffer from the highest incidence of bladder and urinary tract infections. They are also prone to viral diseases when their immune system is compromised.

Since B blood types can metabolize dairy products and most foods, they will usually lose weight effortlessly as long as peanuts, corn, wheat, and lentils are eliminated from the diet.

Blood Type AB

The rarest and newest blood type to evolve (1500 years old) was the AB blood type. This blood type is the most well adapted to a moderate diet. The type-AB individual benefits from both the A and B type diets.

Meat is not as well digested as seafood, dairy, wheat-free grains and soy foods.

The type-ABs are prone to either diseases encountered by the Type-As or the type-Bs. By undergoing further metabolic typing, it can be determined which diseases they are most likely to be vulnerable.

For weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight, AB's do best on seafood, dairy, nuts and grains.

Not s ingle prescrption

There is not a single prescription drug that offers a "cure" to any ailment.

Friday 15 October 2010

52 Facts About Blood Donation

1. More than 4.5 million people need blood transfusions each year in the U.S. and Canada.
2. 43,000 pints: amount of donated blood used each day in the U.S. and Canada.
3. Someone needs blood every two seconds.
4. 37% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood – less than 10% do annually**.
5. About 1 in 7 people entering a hospital need blood.
6. One pint of blood can save up to three lives.
7. Healthy people who are at least 17 years old (16 with parental consent), and at least 110 pounds may donate whole blood every 56 days. Females receive 53% of blood transfusions; males receive 47%.
8. 94% of blood donors are registered voters.
9. In 1901, Dr. Karl Landsteiner first identified the major human blood groups: A, B, AB and O.
10. People with O- blood are universal donors of red blood cells.
11. People with AB+ blood are universal recipients of red blood cells, and universal donors of plasma.
12. One unit of whole blood can be separated into several components, including red blood cells, plasma, and platelets.
13. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body's organs and tissues, and live for about 120 days in the circulatory system.
14. Platelets promote blood clotting and give those with leukemia and other cancers a chance to live.
15. Plasma is a pale yellow mixture of water, proteins and salts.
16. Plasma, which is 90% water, makes up 55% of blood volume.
17. Healthy bone marrow makes a constant supply of red cells, plasma and platelets.
18. Blood or plasma that comes from people who have been paid for it cannot be used for human transfusion.
19. Granulocytes, a type of white blood cell, roll along blood vessel walls in search of bacteria to engulf and destroy.
20. White cells are the body's primary defense against infection.
21. Apheresis is a special kind of blood donation that allows a donor to give specific blood components, such as platelets or red blood cells.
22. 42 days: how long most donated red blood cells can be stored.
23. Five days: how long most donated platelets can be stored.
24. One year: how long frozen plasma can be stored.
25. Much of today's medical care depends on a steady supply of blood from healthy donors.
26. 2.7 pints: the average whole blood and red blood cell transfusion.*
27. Children being treated for cancer, premature infants and children having heart surgery may receive blood and platelets during their treatments.
28. Anemic patients may need blood transfusions to increase their red blood cell levels.
29. Cancer, transplant and trauma patients, and patients undergoing open-heart surgery may require platelet transfusions to survive.
30. Sickle cell disease is an inherited disease that affects more than 80,000 people in the U.S., 98% of whom are of African descent.
31. Many patients with severe sickle cell disease receive blood transfusions every month.
32. Over 10 tests are performed on each unit of donated blood.
33. 17% of non-donors cite "never thought about it" as the main reason for not giving blood, while 15% say they're too busy.
34. The #1 reason blood donors say they give is because they "want to help others."
35. Blood centers often run short of types O and B red blood cells.
36. There is no substitute for human blood.
37. If all blood donors gave three times a year, blood shortages would be a rare event (The current average is about two).
38. 46.5 gallons: amount of blood you could donate if you begin at age 17 and donate every 56 days until you are 79 years old.
39. There are four easy steps to donate blood: medical history, a quick physical, donation and snacks.
40. The actual blood donation takes less than 15 minutes. The entire process – from the time you sign in until the time you leave – usually takes under an hour.
41. After donating blood, you replace the fluid in hours and the red blood cells within four weeks. It takes eight weeks to restore the iron lost after donating.
42. You cannot get AIDS or any other infectious disease by donating blood.
43. 10 pints: the amount of blood in the body of an average adult.
44. One unit of whole blood is roughly the equivalent of one pint.
45. Blood makes up about 7% of your body's weight.
46. Newborn babies have about one cup of blood in their bodies.
47. Giving blood will not decrease your strength.
48. Any company, community organization, place of worship or individual may contact their local community blood center to host a blood drive.
49. Roughly half of all blood donations across the U.S. are collected at blood drives.
50. People who donate blood are volunteers and are not paid for their donation.
51. 500,000 Americans donated blood in the days following the events of September 11
52. Blood donation. It's about an hour of your time. It's About Life!

Thursday 14 October 2010

A good formula

Sensitivity (positivity in disease)= TP / TP + FN
Specificity (negativity in health) = TN / TN + FP
Positive predictive value PV+ = TP / TP + FP
Negative predictive value PV- = TN / TN + FN

T True
F False
P Pos
N Neg