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<b>Smoking and Eye Damage</b><br><p>&nbsp;by: <b>Namita Nayyar</b><p><p> <p><p>The chemicals in cigarette smoke (around 4000 of them) get into the bloodstream of smokers and may induce the damage to the eye. <p><p>The chemicals in tobacco smoke can cause inflammation of the conjunctiva (the thin membrane covering the eye), resulting in bloodshot, irritated eyes. <p><p>In a study of nearly 21,000 U.S. male physicians, spanning an average of 13.6 years, researchers found a direct link between smoking and the development of cataracts. The study, known as Physicians Health Study I, evaluated physicians between the ages of 40 and 84 who had no prior history of cataracts before 1982. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires that included information such as: number of cigarettes smoked daily, age when they started smoking, and their age if they stopped smoking. Each participant received annual eye exams and were required to report the results to the study investigators. The participants’ ophthalmologists and optometrists confirmed the results. <p><p>Smoking has also been linked to eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration. The causes of macular degeneration are not completely understood, but smoking is believed to be the main preventable risk factor. Evidence indicates that more than a quarter of all cases of AMD are linked to current or past exposure to smoking. <p><p>Study results appear mixed about a direct association between smoking and diabetic retinopathy, but most experts agree that smoking should be avoided to help help stop progression of the disease. <p><p>Smoking causes shrinkage or constriction of blood vessels, shown to be directly linked to rising inner eye pressure (intraocular pressure) that can lead to glaucoma and accompanying optic nerve damage. <p><p>Optic neuritis : A landmark study found a strong association between factors such as poor nutrition and smoking linked to a 1992-1993 epidemic of optic nerve damage among Cuban citizens. Although smoking is associated with several eye diseases, including nuclear cataract and thyroid eye disease, the most common cause of smoking related blindness is age related macular degeneration, which results in severe irreversible loss of central vision. <p><p>How does smoking damage the eyes? <p><p>When you inhale cigarette smoke thousands of chemicals get into your bloodstream and can travel throughout your body. These chemicals cause damage to the macula (the most sensitive part of the retina, at the back of your eye). Tiny blood vessels can burst through the macula, leading to irreversible damage, or alternatively, the cells of the macula slowly die. Both ultimately lead to loss of vision. <p><p>Can this damage be reversed? <p><p>No. Laser treatment can sometimes kill the new blood vessels before they hit the macula. However, most people are not able to be helped this way because the blood vessel has already involved the very centre of the macula, and even after treatment, the condition recurs in half the cases and in almost all those who continue to smoke. A new treatment, photodynamic therapy (PDT) may be able to help some to reduce the severity of vision loss, but the majority of people with macular degeneration will still not be able to be treated. <p><p>If I quit smoking will my eyes recover? <p><p>Your risk of macular degeneration will be reduced if you quit smoking, however existing damage to the eyes cannot be repaired, particularly once vision is affected. <p><p><p><p><p><table width=100% cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0 border=0 bgcolor=#dddddd><p><tr><td><p><p><b>About The Author</b><br><p> <p><p>Namita Nayyar <p><p>Kindly click the contribution site: <a href="http://www.womenfitness.net/" target=new>http://www.womenfitness.net/</a> <p> <p> <p> <p><p></td></tr><p></table>

Your ADHD Child May Just Be Tired
by: Rita Jenkins

Children who have symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) actually may be sleep-deprived, according to researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Sleep Laboratory.

Doctors should consider that possibility before prescribing Ritalin and other ADHD drugs, they suggest.

An estimated 8 percent of US children suffer from ADHD, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, and more than half of them are being treated with drugs.

ADHD is characterized by overalertness and nervousness, with affected children being fidgety and overstimulated. Paradoxically, the use of stimulant medications like Ritalin seems to be the most effective method for treating ADHD symptoms in the majority of children.

Fighting to Stay Awake?

Dr. Giora Pillar wondered whether some children diagnosed with ADHD might simply be sleepy. Their excessive motor activity could be a tool to stay alert, he conjectured, which might explain the effectiveness of stimulants that increase activity in the central nervous system.

“Sleepy children, unlike sleepy adults, may demonstrate hyperactivity and attention-deficit behavior rather than excessive daytime sleepiness,” Pillar explained.

“This theory is supported by parental reports that children, when extremely tired, tend to be cranky, overactive, angry and aggressive,” he pointed out.

Sleep Apnea

Pillar and colleagues studied 66 children with an average age of 12. Of these, 34 already had been diagnosed with ADHD, and the rest served as a control group. The ADHD-diagnosed children had significantly higher levels of sleepiness during the day than those in the control group, the researchers found.

Half of the test subjects with ADHD (vs. 22 percent of the control group) suffered from some degree of sleep-disordered breathing, such as sleep apnea, which is characterized by interruptions in breathing that last 10 seconds or more, occurring at least five times per hour during sleep.

Limb Movement Disorder

Fifteen percent (vs. none in the control group) had Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD), which is relatively uncommon among children.

Studies have shown that treatment of these sleep disorders in children often leads to substantial improvements in behavior and cognitive achievements, Pillar said, as well as a significant reduction in irritability, bad moods, anger and fear.

For example, school performance, which is low in children with sleep apnea, has been found to improve markedly following the removal of adenoids and tonsils to correct the disorder.

Enforce Good Sleeping Habits

The researchers urge parents of hyperactive and attention-deficit children diagnosed with sleep disorders to have breathing irregularities and limb movements treated, to enforce good sleeping habits, and to avoid giving them caffeinated drinks at night.

Only if these steps do not work, they say, should parents consider medication for ADHD.

The researchers’ findings originally were published in the February 2004 issue of the journal Sleep.

Copyright 2005 Daily News Central

by: T’ai Chi in the Information Age � Ancient Cure for Modern Problems
by: Bill Douglas

According to a twenty-year study by Kaiser Permanente, between seventy and eighty-five percent of illness is caused by stress, meaning that in the U.S. alone stress is costing us about one-trillion dollars per year in healthcare costs. Since most absenteeism is due to stress, US business is losing upwards of $300 billion per year.

On a more personal level, it is disturbing to realize that aging is accelerated by stress, and stress is a growing issue with all of us. Studies show that change is stressful, even “good” change. So as we computer jockeys settle into the saddle of a new age of rapidly changing information, we need an edge that can help us stay healthy, sane, �younger� and more vibrant, even as we are often at the very center of the hurricane of modern change, such as keeping up with new hardware and software.

Ironically an ancient mind/body tool provides the perfect balm for our generation’s modern problems — it is called “Tai Chi” (pronounced tie-chee). T’ai Chi is a gentle series of relaxing motions that cleanse the body’s tissue of accumulated stress and, by doing so, boosts all aspects of our health systems. According to emerging research boosting the immune system�s strength dramatically, while reducing the incidence of depression, anxiety, and even reducing chronic pain conditions, are just a few of T�ai Chi�s myriad benefits.

What makes ancient T�ai Chi the perfect modern balm is that it doesn’t require special facilities or clothing, and doesn’t even make you break a sweat, meaning you can do it in office attire in an empty boardroom just by kicking off your heels. Yet, it provides the same euphoria of a long run, the cardiovascular benefit of moderate impact aerobics, and burns nearly as many calories as downhill skiing.

Our time is filled with paradox. A problem in this modern age stems from the great promise of the information age — a tidal wave of data being created by and offered to our “left brain”; that part of our minds that is analytical, calculating, and categorizing the world. Of course, this is a powerful and important part of who we are. This is the part of the mind that gets things done, pays the rent, builds the houses, and makes the cars. Our “right brain,” however, is getting left behind in our rapidly changing techno-world, and this imbalance of thought processes is at the heart of modern stress.

Our right brain is the feeling, smelling, sensing . . . enjoying part of the mind. This is the part of the mind that smells the flowers, not to analyze the smell, but to be filled with its beauty — and this is the part that has been left behind in the digital world. When we go to the cyber mall, for example, our right brain doesn’t get to play. The cyber mall is a wonderful thing that saves us time, money, and gas for our cars (and thereby saves the environment), but there are no Auntie Anne’s Pretzels to smell in cyberspace, or warm sunlight streaming in through the big skylights.

So what do we do? We get the best of both worlds. T’ai Chi is a series of exercises to balance the mind. T’ai Chi teaches us to experience life for sheer pleasure, thereby creating balance in our busy “get things done yesterday” world. If you learn T’ai Chi and practice in the morning before you sit down at your computer, your right brain (the sensing and enjoying brain) will be turned on more. You will feel the texture of your computer keys. You will remember to take the time to get a nice cup of green tea or herbal cinnamon spice tea, and you’ll interrupt your staccato keyboard occasionally to smell the tea’s rich aroma, feel the warmth in your hands, and breathe the breath of life deeply into your lungs.

Although you are at the cutting edge of the information age revolution, you are also in the garden of life. This will give you an edge in the long run. Why? Because chronic stress diminishes our cognitive skills and therefore, our creativity.

Einstein said, “Creativity is more important than knowledge.” Even if we have the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, if we are too stressed out to use the knowledge “creatively,� we are much less effective. Plus, we’re not as much fun!

The bottom line is T’ai Chi is a set of exercises to practice enjoying life. It’s not enough just to say, “I’m going to enjoy life more.” We actually have to practice mind/body tools that can positively affect our brain wave activity, in an integrative way, as T’ai Chi is proven to do.

T’ai Chi is an extremely sophisticated mind/body science that evolved over millennia, and is now being made available to all of us after centuries of being closely guarded secrets in China. Even though the practices are ancient, they are in many ways just as cutting edge as the multi-gigabyte computer.

Don’t just be “cutting edge” with your left-brain. Go all the way and stretch the envelope with your right brain, too, by weaving T’ai Chi into your life. You will be forever glad you did, as you discover balance and calm in the eye of the modern world�s ever accelerating storm of changes rushing at us.

Copyright 2005 Bill Douglas