An orange a day boosts immune system

An orange a day boots immune system. Seasonal fruits and vegetables carry the hidden treasure of essential vitamins and minerals that can be utilized for prevention and cure of deadly diseases as well as improvement of overall health.

In the Holy Quran, Allah says,” I have not inflicted any disease on the mankind that has no cure.”
One such fruit is orange, which is irresistible. It merits a mention here that Pakistan is reportedly the sixth largest producer of oranges in the world and hence, oranges are accessible to the common man, becoming the fruit of community and not of nobility.

A medical practitioner Dr Shazia Durrani said that it was better to take vitamins and minerals in a natural way, ideally through fruits and vegetables instead of taking supplements.

When asked about the nutritional benefits of oranges she said that oranges have essential vitamins and minerals and one of them is Vitamin C. Vitamin C, she said was not only good for our immune system but also the circulatory system, maintenance of a healthy energy system, skin and eye diseases, as well as, for brain function.

Elaborating further, she said that Vitamin C keeps a guard against fatal diseases like osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and many common cancers. Additionally, taking a tablet of 1000 mg of Vitamin C daily can help boost your immune system.

“If you drink more than one glass of orange juice a day, you will still be nowhere near the amount of vitamin C that will cause problems with your body; but, as with any other nutrient, it is always a good idea to talk to your doctor before taking massive amounts of any sort of nutrient or supplement,” she advised.

Researchers have shown that just one orange has about 100 mg of Vitamin C which is 130 percent of the daily recommended intake. It can be recalled that not very long-ago people used to eat oranges while sitting in the sun, being ignorant of its benefits.

About the practice of eating oranges, medical science says that as sunshine is the best source of Vitamin D and this vitamin along with Vitamin C assists in absorbing calcium from the intestines for the onward transmission to our body. Thus, preventing us from ailments.

Dr Shazia concluded by advising: “We should go out in the sun for about 15 minutes a day, at least three times a week in winters.”

Do you have Chesty, dry or tickly cough?

Cough season is upon us and weather it's a chesty, dry or tickly cough you are suffering with, you should visit your GP if any of the following occur.

Rest, drinking plenty of fluids and drinking hot lemon with honey are the best remedies recommended by doctors.

Pharmacists can also advise on the best way to ease symptoms, for example syrups and lozenges. But what symptoms should you look out for if your cough has become more serious, and when should you see a GP?

The NHS says you should visit a GP if the following happens:_
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• You've had a cough for more than three weeks.
• Your cough is very bad or quickly gets worse, for example you have a hacking cough or can't stop coughing.
• You have chest pain.
• You are losing weight for no reason.
• The said of your neck feels swollen and painful. (swollen glands).
• You find it hard or breathe.
• You have a weakened immuned system, for example because of chemotherapy or diabetes.
• See a GP urgently if you are coughing up blood.

Do you have a chesty, dry or tickly cough? It should clear up on its own within three weeks.

 

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A cough is very rarely a sign of something serious like lung, cancer but other than cold or flu other causes include:
Smoking
Heartburn
Allergies (for ample, hay fever)
Infections like bronchitis
Mucus dripping down the throat from the back of the nose.

Prolonged sitting and frailty a deadly combination

The Physical activity guidelines for Americans state that adults aged 18 to 64 and those aged 65 and older should aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity or seventy five minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity every week.

For adults who are unable to meet these guidelines it is recommended that "they should be as physically active as their abilities and conditions allows"
Ac cording to statics from 2016 National Health Interview Survey just 44.9 percent of older adults aged 65 to 74 met the physical activity guidelines last year.
What is more previous research has shown that older adults spend more than 9 hours of their day sitting down. The harms of sedentary behavior have been well documented.
For the last study, Dr. Olga Theou, of the department of medicine at Dalgousie University in Canada and colleagues set out to determine whether or not frailty plays a role in the increased death risk associated with sedentary behavior.

Higher death risk for frail adults:

The study included the data of 3,141 adults aged 50 and older who participated in the 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

As per the survey, subjects were required to wear activity trackers during waking hours, and the researchers used these data to calculate how much time each adults spent sedentary.

The team also used a forty six items index to assess the frailty of each subject. Frailty is generally defined as an aging related process characterized by weakness unintended weight loss, slowness and fatigue.

Participants were followed up until 2011 or until their date of death.

Among adults whop scored highly on the frailty index and did not meet the physical activity guidelines, the researchers found that prolonged sitting was associated with an increased risk of death. This was not case for adults with low frailty who met exercise guidelines. "Thus among people who are inactive and vulnerable or frail sitting time increased mortality risk but those who are non frail or active sitting time does not affect the risk of mortality" say the researchers.

There were some limitations to their study for example the team had limited activity data on adults with higher frailty levels.

The Researcher explain " Our sample size was substantially reduced especially among the group with the highest level of frailty which made it necessary to merge frailty groups for some analysis and prevented us from isolating with severe frailty into one category"