Tag: immunity

10 interesting facts about Melatonin 😴

by drjurisharma, posted in brain, cognitive health, emotional health, eyes, health, Life, mental health, nature, Uncategorized, wellness

Hello everyone🖖

Melatonin, commonly known as the sleep hormone is responsible for our cicardian rythm. But, it has some fascinating facts to be known.

1. The pineal gland, located at the base of the brain, is known to produce 5% of the total quantity of melatonin. Surprisingly, in all of the cells throughout the entire body, the mitochondria generate the remaining 95% of melatonin.

2. Our body cells’ mitochondria typically serve as the energy-generating organelles. They absorb glucose and oxygen to create water and ATP, which serve as the body’s power source. Free radicals are created during this procedure. However, the free radicals can be neutralised by our body’s defence systems. Melatonin acts as the potent anti-oxidant which causes free radical damage.

3. The melatonin which is produced in the body cells due to the sunlight, especially the infra red rays trigger the release of glutathione and other potent anti-oxidants. Melatonin also has anti -inflammatory properties and anti cancer properties too.

4. Since, melatonin is an effective anti-oxidant, it helps to prevent eye and ear damage. Research shows that it is effective in prevention of age related macular degeneration and retinopathy.

5. Melatonin protects the brain. Melatonin serves to promote the growth of new brain cells and improves memory, according to studies. Melatonin levels were discovered to be low in those with Alzeihmers disease. Thus, it is possible to prevent Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease from becoming severely disabling by increasing melatonin levels.

6. Research shows that melatonin stimulate growth hormone production. Evidences showed that oral administration of melatonin increased the level of growth hormone, two fold times.

7.Melatonin production declines noticeably as we get older. Therefore, in order to maintain melatonin levels in our everyday lives, we must get enough sun exposure during the day and turn off lights at night so that darkness can help to stimulate melatonin production.

8. Sub-cellular melatonin which is produced in the body naturally is more effective than taking melatonin pills. Melatonin pills do work on short term basis and should be taken only if clinically recommended.

9. Aside from the infrared radiation that comes from sunlight, which is typically present in the early morning, other sources of infrared radiation that contribute to a sufficient amount of melatonin production include candlelight and being in front of a fire.

10. Incadescent light bulbs, spending time in greenery parks, outdoors all help to boost melatonin production.

Thanks for reading.

Peace and love 🙏

Self renewal: 10 hard facts 🙌

by drjurisharma, posted in brain, emotional health, eyes, health, Life, mental health, nature, wellness

Hello everyone 🖖

1. The human body in which each of us lives is made up of around 37 trillion cells, to be precise. And every day, about 1-2 percent of the cells are renewing. So, exactly after 90–100 days, a new “me” appears. We remain so busy with our routine lives that we hardly acknowledge this fact, and many of us are not even aware of it. So, ‘change’ is the constant tune, not just within the universe but also within us.

2. Now that we understand that our bodies undergo transformation on a daily basis, So, the question is: how does this self-renewal occur? Let’s go back to our past a little bit. The human body develops from the human embryo, which is fertilized by an oocyte and a sperm cell. This embryo is made up of stem cells. The stem cells are the basic cells (undifferenciated cells) of the human body, which, through the process of mutation and transformation grow into different cells like nerve cells, bone cells, muscle cells, blood cells and so on. Throughout our lifespan, these stem cells undergo cell division and keep replicating; that’s how self-renewal happens.

3. Under normal physiological self-renewal processes, different cells in the body have differing rates of cell division. So, the replication process of various tissues, organs, and blood cells in the body has a different time frame, like the skin epidermal cells, which can take around 10–30 days, whereas a bone cell takes 3 months, or a hair grows about 1 cm in one month, and so on.

4. Though our body is constantly changing due to the continuous self-renewal process through different cell cycles like shedding the old skin cells, renewal of intestinal cell lining, and growing hair or nails on a routine basis, this isn’t a simpler process. The human body is still very complicated and has exceptions. Some cells, such as those in the brain (cerebral cortex), eyes (such as lenses), and heart, do not change from birth to death.

5. But then, why is self-renewal important and must be maintained? Under normal physiological conditions, stem cells have two functions: proliferation and differentiation. Though stem cells have a natural proliferative capacity throughout our lives, disease conditions can affect their physiological self-renewal ability and behavior due to factors such as damage or an unhealthy lifestyle (obesity, lack of physical activity, smoking, or a poor diet).

6. A lack of an appropriate environment within the body or poor maintenance of the human body might eventually lead to the exhaustion of the capacity of stem cell proliferation, which causes premature aging or tissue atrophy. With aging, stem cell activity, tissue regenerative and haemeostasis is significantly declined.

7. Sometime, due to the unhealthy environment within the body, mutations lead to aggressive stem cell division without going through the natural cell differentiation process. This can lead to abnormal tissue growth or cancer in the body. Therefore, the physiological process of stem cell division and the natural stem cell behavior can be affected by four disease conditions, like degenerative, metabolic, cardiovascular, and inflammatory conditions.

8. Regenerative medicine and therapies have arisen as a result of the discovery that defective self-renewal mechanisms in the body are the root cause of malignancies and abnormal cell proliferation. Many disorders are being treated with regenerative medicines based on stem cells. Recent years have seen a significant increase in the use of stem cell treatment to treat a variety of diseases like cancer and disorders including type 1 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, Parkinson’s, burns, osteoarthritis, by regenerating cells, repairing tissues, and transplanting organs.

9. The fact about regenerative medicine is that, though it has helped many patients around the world, the cost of treatment is quite high as the procedure is complicated and the failure rate is high. Human stem cell treatment requires culturing human stem cells in a laboratory setting for a longer period of time, which is quite difficult.

10. The market is flooded with products that promote cell regeneration, anti-aging, and longevity. The lofty claims made by these items are still quite dubious. But it is true that some supplements do work to improve health, lower inflammation, and increase immunity. But in the end, having a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, a calm mind, and exercising regularly is all that’s necessary for good health.

Thanks for reading.

Peace and love 🙏

10 top benefits of music on health 🎧 🎼

by drjurisharma, posted in emotional health, health, Life, mental health, wellness

Hello everyone ! Have a wonderful and safe day. 🙋🏻

Whether on purpose or without purpose, music has become a part of our lives. The day starts with a busy schedule, yet we happen to listen to music, maybe while driving to work, a shop, cafe, gas station or wherever we happen to pass by. After a day’s long work, we may intentionally listen to music to calm and rejuvenate our mind. Music is of different genre and variety, loud, hard, soft, calming or with and without lyrics. It is all about individual choices and preferences.

Both in the past and in the present time, studies show the tremendous effect of music on all mental, emotional and overall health.

Ten effects of music influence on health:

1.Mood booster: Listening to music can stimulate the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine which gives a feeling of satisfaction and reward. It makes us repeat the behaviour, that is to continue listening to music. Therefore, it can elevate the mood to pleasure, motivation and enthusiasm. It can strengthen you emotionally by fine-tuning your emotional health.
2.Improves sleep efficiency: Listening to soothing music, stimulates the parasympathetic system, lowers the blood pressure and slows down the physiological functions. It relaxes the mind and body, making it ready to fall asleep. Music has been instrumental in treating sleep disorders.


3.Exercise performance : Studies show that music increases the level of performance, strength, endurance level while exercising. It delays fatigue by boosting the stamina level.
4.Focus: Listening to fine instrumental music helps to capture attention and to focus. So, some people prefer listening to music while on work which allows them to concentrate and increase productivity.
5.Divergent creativity: We all have the same cognitive capacity to think original thoughts and ideas; it’s the area on the right side of the brain, the creative brain. Research shows that listening to lively, happy music helps to stimulate this area of divergent creative thinking.


6.Reduce stress: Listening to calming music of about 60 beats/min can stimulate alpha brain waves which can make you feel calm and conscious. It reduces the cortisol level and releases endorphins which helps you relieve stress. It has been used successfully by many as a stress-reducing technique.


7.Memory: The frontal cortex and hippocampus of the brain are associated with memory. So, revoking memories are challenging in person with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Sometimes, music with a particular tune or lyrics can help significantly to relieve some of the memories in such individual.


8.Immunity: Music stimulate the parasympathetic response in the body which elevates the physiological coherence and promote the immune response. It boosts the release of antibodies and natural killer cells which helps to combat infections and chronic conditions like cancers and autoimmune issues.

9.Improves vascular health: Music helps to ease the anxiety and stress level by bringing the blood pressure and heart rate to the average baseline level. It relaxes the arterial wall and enhances the blood flow, thereby improving vascular health.
10.Weight loss: Music has a visceral effect too. Listening to music helps you to eat slowly, with relaxation. This effect improves our chewing ability and promotes metabolism. As you are eating slowly, you end up eating in a lesser quantity. Moreover, music also helps your exercise performance. So, in the process, you end up losing weight too.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

Immunity : 8 signs to indicate that your immunity is intact 🙌

by drjurisharma, posted in food, health, Life, mental health, nature, wellness

Hello everone ! Have a wonderful and great day 🙋🏻

1.You have a bodyweight within the range of average weight, according to the height and not being overweight.
2.You have a routine, regular bowel habit.
3.You have clean and clear skin.
4.You get up fresh and remain energetic. There is an absence of laziness.
5.Experiencing a sense of hunger once or twice a day.
6.You don’t have general body ache except with injury or heavy exercise.
7. You experience a sense of wellbeing and generate positive thoughts.
8. You experience deep sleep at night.

These are general signs that indicate that your body is functioning optimally and your immunity is intact. Our body’s immunity and vitality is not acquired by having a glass of smoothy, or daily going to the gym and having a load of supplements. It is the result of what you eat, how you think and how you live.

Three simple ways to build up a strong immunity is:

1.Fasting: Fasting is the simplest and easiest way of building your immunity. Ideally,15 to 16 hours of fasting every day are good enough. It is also the easiest way of losing weight. Having everyday dinner at around 6-7 PM, and not having any meal or snacks in between except water. Then, followed by having breakfast, the next morning around 10 to 11 AM gives you fasting of at least 16 hours quickly.

2. Food: Having food which is as much as close to Mother Nature. Fruits and vegetables, in their natural form or cooking minimum to restore their nutritional value. Preferable having a one-grain meal a day like brown rice or whole wheat and having meals (1-2 times /per day) with enriched portions of fibres, healthy saturated fat, protein and carbohydrate. It is necessary for avoiding processed, refined food altogether. Limiting the intake of beverages, alcohol and having more water, instead is ideal.

3. Mind and body care: Exercising every day is a must. Instead of heavy workouts in the gym, simple exercises like walking in nature, running, jogging are ideal. Physical activity throughout the day is good enough to give you a good night sleep. It is essential to maintain a positive attitude and a calm mind, to keep stress at bay. So, meditation, yoga, mindfulness practices, spiritual practices helps to build a positive and healthy mind.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

 

 

 

Walking: 20 health benefits.

by drjurisharma, posted in health, Life, mental health, wellness
Hello everyone! Have a wonderful and safe day 🙋🏻

Why did I feel writing something about walking? Firstly, I believe in this form of fitness, and secondly, off course, for its incredible health benefits. Without stepping inside the gym, the concept of exercise and physical fitness in today’s time doesn’t seem to work. Either you are running the treadmill or using high-end gym apparatus to strengthen and shape your muscles. Unless you do such exercises, you feel you are not doing the right kind of exercise regime for your fitness. Such psychology commonly revolves around us.

Therefore, walking has been most underrated as an exercise form for fitness. Enough studies have been done in the past, which goes to show that walking can be an effective form of a workout as exercise. A simple walk around nature gives you enough mental and physical boost and can be helpful to reduce the anxiety and stress in our everyday life. A good 20- 30 mins of a walk at a moderate pace every day is enough to give you the immense health benefits, your desired fitness level and reach your weight loss targets. Though running utilizes a more exaggerated level of energy, more pressure on the muscles but walking at a medium pace for a longer duration can give you the same desired results. Health markers have effectively shown the fitness and endurance level that can be attained by an everyday walk.

20 such amazing health benefits:

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Pic courtesy: Haven Pharmacy.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐


Thymus: Forgotten yet most crucial 🙌

by drjurisharma, posted in health, Life, mental health, wellness

Hello everyone ! Have a wonderful and safe day 🙋🏻

solei-himmelvid-1618523-unsplash

This Coronavirus Pandemic has created havoc within us in these couple of weeks. Thousands of people are affected and already killed by the virus. In today’s world, it has created an atmosphere of panic, fearfulness which has greatly affected our mental health. We were never prepared for such Pandemic. It’s also true, that we can never avoid such naturally acquired disaster. But, we can at least armed our bodies better by start building up a strong, powerful immune system.

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Therefore, to take proper care for our body, we need to be more aware and more informative about how our body’s natural defence system function. Concerning our immunity and the immune system, Thymus is an important gland that plays a vital role. This lymphoid gland seems to be an underrated gland that is hardly discussed. People know or give very little importance about this gland. But this gland plays the most significant role in building immunity in our body by supporting the immune system. This is a small gland which lies behind the sternum (the chest bone). It usually atrophies as ageing progresses. But its function remains intact lifelong. Its main function is that it supplies the defence cells of the White blood cells army of Immune system which are responsible to fight against viruses and cancers cells.

img_0746Certain type of precursor cells originate from the stem cells in the bone marrow of bones and go through the bloodstream to the thymus gland where they mature and are trained to perform their specific functions of defence. Thymus secretes hormones like Thymosine which helps in the development and maturation of these cells. Not all cells produced mature and make through a very specific selection and training process. Many of them die within the thymus. Only 1-2 % of the cells become ready to perform their function of defending against harmful pathogens and cancer cells. Therefore, these matured and trained cells are released in the lymphatic system to perform their specific functions. The different cells released from the thymus are categorised as T (thymus) cells and B (bone marrow) cells. The T-cells mainly fight against antigens and cancer cells.

T-cell types :
#Natural killer T-cells fight against viral infections. They release certain chemicals like Cytokines which can kill the viruses or other pathogens along with the affected cells.
#Helper T-cells not necessarily kill the viruses but tagged them as ‘harmful’ so that the natural killer cells can eliminate these antigens. So, the helper T- cells help in coordinating the immune system.
#Regulatory T- cells mainly control and regulate the immune system. it naturally keeps the balance. If this is not done, then T-cells will attack the body’s own tissues leading to autoimmune conditions. The body may suffer from different autoimmune conditions like various inflammations and allergies. So, the function of this regulatory cell is very important to balance the immune defence system.

B-cells mainly produced antibodies. There are a variety of antibodies. The antibodies do not kill the pathogens but instead, they tag and segregate them as harmful viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites. So, the natural killer cells can destroy them. Our body can produce as many as millions of antibodies which can identify different specific pathogens and tagged them accordingly.

Fortunately, it is amazing to know that our body has been naturally equipped with such a powerful strong immune system with Thymus playing an important role. We are gifted with a very sophisticated defence immune system. But, as we age, the thymus gland slowly atrophied, become smaller and smaller in size. So the release of matured and trained T-cells and B-cells from the Thymus is slowly reduced too. Therefore, our immune system gets weaker and weaker and we become susceptible to diseases and infections.

So, how do we maintain and keep our immune system function intact and powerful? To support the thymus gland and the immune system from functioning at their optimal potential, we need to adopt a healthy lifestyle: Healthy eating, low-stress level and meditation, exercise.

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1 Vitamin D: This particular vitamin is anti-inflammatory and is very useful in the development and maturation of Helper and Regulatory T cells which are integral in the immunity defence army of cells. Dietary sources are best and supplements only given under clinical recommendation. Not to forget, sunlight is an important source of vitamin D. So, being in the sun for at least 15 mins a day can be very beneficial.

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2. Iodine is important because it helps in the process and maturation of Natural Killer cells.

3. Zinc: Another important mineral which greatly supports the immune system and defends us from the invasion of pathogens. Food chart is given in my previous post on Zinc: https://wordpress.com/post/healthhappinesshealing.org/3137

Stress Management mind map
Stress Management mind map, business concept background

4. Stress: Enough has been talked and written about stress which may harm our body and the immune system. Therefore, we need to control our stress level every day by adopting different stress-relieving tips and keep ourselves calm.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

Post: Green tea: 7 wonderful benefits

by drjurisharma, posted in health, wellness

Green tea is one of the healthiest beverage known in the world today. So waking up every morning with a cup of green tea is awesome to kick start the day.

I am both tea land coffee lover but and green tea tops my list. It is always advisable to choose a high-quality brand of green tea as low-quality brands may contain fluoride.

7 most important proven benefits are :

  1. Green tea is very rich in polyphenol antioxidants and catechin called EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate). They have proven health benefits of reducing inflammation and help in fighting cancer.
  2. Like coffee, green tea contains caffeine. Not just caffeine, it also contains amino acid L-theanine which increases the activity of neurotransmitter GABA. They not only keep you awake but improves the brain function and has anti-anxiety effects. Catechins in green tea have a protective effect on the neurons so lower the risk of Alzheimers and Parkinson’s disease.

3. Green tea is the recommended supplement for weight loss. it boosts the metabolism and increases the fat burning.

4.Many studies have proved that green tea drinkers do have a protective effect against some type of cancers like breast, prostate and colorectal cancers. It is due to loads of antioxidants found in green tea.

5.The catechins in green tea can boost your immunity and lower the risk of both bacterial and viral infections like influenza. It can improve your dental hygiene by killing oral bacteria.

6.Green tea increases the antioxidant capacity of blood and thereby reduces the LDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) from oxidation. it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. It slightly reduces blood sugar too. So good for type 2 diabetics.

7. Since green tea drinkers have a protective effect against cardiovascular diseases, protected against some cancers, boosted immunity, they likely to live longer and healthy.