It’s that time of the year when anxiety is at its peak among students and parents. During exam time, the students’ brain is overworked and stressed. When we think too much or stress ourselves, there are certain hormones and chemicals released in the body that reduce the supply of glucose to our brain.

This makes us sleepy and also reduces our appetite or increases our cravings for junk food like chocolates or anything that gives pleasure to our tongue. This triggers a vicious cycle of improper nutrition during exams, general weakness and is also responsible for depression and lack of self-confidence.

If the students eat right, not only during the exams but throughout the year, we are rest assured that their fitness levels are optimum to deal with all the anxieties. Tips to achieve your desired performance in your exams

- Have egg yolks, peanuts, wheat germ, liver, meat, fish, milk, cheese and vegetables (especially broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) for good memory.

- Milk products, fish, beans, nuts and soy products help in learning and concentration.

- Three-four ounces of protein a day will help you feel energised, more alert and assertive.

- Have starchy vegetables, potatoes, cereals, breads, chapattis and rice, as they are anti-depressant.

- A lunch rich in protein keeps your brain alert throughout the day.

- Carbohydrates like fruits and fruit juices in the evening keep moods high and concentration good and also help in good sleep.

- Sixty per cent of the brain is fat. Good fats like omega 3 and 6 fatty acids help keep the brain energised. Flaxseed and cod and shark liver oils, olive oil, walnuts and almonds are rich in omega fatty acids.

- Blue berries are a good source of antioxidants, which are best for brain function.

- Eggs for breakfast are brain tonic to keep the concentration and brain power high.

- Small, frequent meals of dry fruits, fruits, juices, milk, nuts, sandwiches, poha, upma, idli, etc, at an interval of every three hours, keep the blood glucose high and make the brain more efficient under excessive activity.

- Besides this, an hour’s walk and some breathing exercises like pranayam keep you relaxed. Some simple stretches at home will also prevent you from getting cramps, aches and pains.

This title isn’t intended to sound like a pompous declaration of having all the answers and nor is it meant to suggest that size zero is the best size to be.

It is derived from the fact that our son’s name is Zen and I happened to be among the lucky few who was back to my original size just a few weeks post delivery. Loads of people keep asking me, ‘What’s your secret? How did you shed the weight?’ Since I’m a firm believer that every individual, pregnancy and baby is different, there are no generic rules, and I held off answering questions… but now almost five months into being a Mum, I realise that I may actually be able to help people who may be victims of the fear that some people create around pregnancy. You can only ‘go back to being size zero’ if you were size zero to start with, so this is more a rough guide to going back to your original pre-pregnancy weight. Remember this applies only to a normal, healthy pregnancy. If you have any complications or are advised bed rest, this definitely doesn’t apply.

Our gynaecologist Dr Feroze Soonawala told us in our first meeting that ‘pregnancy isn’t an illness’. I was told to be normal, do everything I’d usually do, just with a few adjustments. Walk, don’t run while exercising. Do yoga, but make sure your instructor knows you’re pregnant and can guide you with what asanas are permitted and those that aren’t. Do not start something new, just continue with what your body is used to. If you never did yoga before don’t suddenly start. Do not eat for two — a foetus starts smaller than a little seed, it’s hardly a dinner companion for a three course meal! This ‘eating for two’ is a myth and often the culprit for those crazy 30 kg weight gains some unfortunate women get stuck with.

I was in the gym the morning I delivered! But if all’s going healthy and well, you’d rather be exercising half an hour daily then simply lying on your back. I’m not saying not to eat well, by all means do, just in moderation — one chocolate, not three. Similarly don’t over exercise. I did half an hour to an hour of brisk walking daily and yoga two or three times a week. Sometimes I swam. Before I was pregnant, I used to run at least half an hour daily and do yoga thrice a week. So it was almost the same routine with the adjustment of walking and not running and no ab exercises and other asanas that squeeze the tummy.

Keeping fit and active during my pregnancy helped me have a normal delivery. I’d be lying if I said it was painless or just slightly painful, oh no, it hurts! I kept resisting an epidural but eventually when the pain got unbearable, I took one. Clichéd as it sounds, it’s true that when you see, hear and touch your little baby, you forget all the pain. Having a normal delivery also enables you to be up and active soon after, so by visiting hours, I was walking all over the place. Next morning when my doctor visited me, he found me doing a few surya namaskars. Although surprised, he said if I was feeling up to it, there was no harm in getting back to what my body was used to.

Three days after Zen was born, I was back to my daily brisk walks between diaper changing and feeds. Although I was doing light stretches and a bit of yoga at home, I waited a month before getting back to class. Looking after a newborn, even with good help, keeps you on your toes. Especially if like me, being an enthusiastic first time mum you want to do everything yourself! Did you know that breast feeding can make you burn up to 600 calories a day? My secret to being back to size zero after pregnancy is a combination of exercising, eating right, breastfeeding, keeping on my toes with diaper changing, playing with Zen and the fact that years of exercise has helped me have a fast metabolism. It was also all those rule book ingredients (many of which are wonderfully elaborated on in every pregnant woman’s bible, ‘What to Expect When You are Expecting’) that helped me get back into my jeans so quick! Then, and of course, the main ingredient was Zen (pun intended) being as calm and chilled-out as possible through it all and our little son Zen, who is the very reason I discovered this art!

The secret to staying fit is doing less exercise. Shocked? Well, a new study says short but intensive bursts of exercise lasting ten minutes are as effective as good as hours of training in fighting flab.

Boffins who have been studying interval training have found that it not only takes less time than what is typically recommended, but the regimen does not have to be ‘all out’ to be effective in helping reduce the risk of such diseases at Type 2 diabetes.

The study appears in the March issue of The Journal of Physiology . “What we’ve been able to show is that interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective and time-efficient,” says Martin Gibala, professor and chair of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University.

“While still a very demanding form of training, the exercise might be more achievable by the general public-not just elite athletes-and it certainly doesn’t require the use of specialized laboratory equipment.”

Since Gibala’s first study on interval training was published five years ago, a growing body of research has zeroed in on this particular style of exercise in which you train hard but for less time.

Previous research by the McMaster group involved 30 seconds of maximal pedaling on a special bike followed by four minutes of recovery, and repeated 4-6 times.

The new study involves eight to 12 one-minute bouts of exercise on a standard stationary bicycle at a relatively lower intensity with rest intervals of 75 seconds, for a total of 20-25 minutes per session. The workload was still above most people’s comfort zone -about 95 per cent of maximal heart rate – but only about half of what can be achieved when people sprint at an all-out pace.

“That is the trade-off for the relatively lower intensity,” says Gibala. “There is no free lunch; duration must increase as intensity decreases.”

While the total amount of exercise performed was higher than in Gibala’s previous interval training studies, the overall time commitment was still lower than what is typically recommended by public health agencies.

A research team from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has made a novel discovery that could help block malaria transmission.

While studying the Anopheles gambiae mosquito – the main vector of malaria – the researchers found that when the mosquito takes a blood meal, that act triggers two enzymes to form a network of crisscrossing proteins around the ingested blood.

The authors found that the formation of this protein barrier is part of the normal digestive process that allows so-called ‘healthy’ or commensal gut bacteria to grow without activating mosquito immune responses.

However, there is a downside: The barrier also prevents the mosquito’s immune defense system from clearing any disease-causing agents that may have slipped into the blood meal, such as the Plasmodium malaria parasite, which in turn can be passed on to humans.

But disrupting the protein barrier can trigger mosquito immune defenses to intervene and protect the insect from infection, the researchers said.

The enzymes involved in the protein barrier are called immunomodulatory peroxidase (IMPer) and dual oxidase (Duox).

The researchers believe it might be possible to prevent the formation of the protein barrier by immunizing people with IMPer or the proteins that crisscross.

This vaccine would generate antibodies that, after a mosquito feeds on a human, could disrupt the barrier, reduce parasite survival in the mosquito and prevent malaria transmission.

According to Carolina Barillas-Mury, the senior study author, the role of IMPer-Duox in forming a protective barrier was unexpected – and previously unrecognised.

When her research group silenced, or turned off, the gene for either IMPer or Duox, the mosquito’s midgut immune system took over and greatly reduced Plasmodium infection, indicating that IMPer and Duox are both required for parasite survival.

A new research has suggested that more high risk cases of human papilloma virus (HPV) could be detected by offering home testing kits to women who do not come forward for cervical screening.

Although cervical screening programmes have cut deaths, not all women take up the invite from the GP.

Now, a research team in the Netherlands, led by Professor Chris Meijer from the VU University Medical Centre, has investigated whether home-testing kits would improve HPV detection rates.

It has long been established that some strains of HPV are found in most cases of cervical cancer so early discovery is important.

As part of the Dutch cervical screening programme, PROHTECT, the authors identified 28,073 women who had not responded to two invitations for screening.

The researchers invited 27,792 of these women to use the Delphi Screener device to collect a cervical fluid sample at home and return it to the researchers.

The remaining 281 women were recalled for a conventional cervical screening test.

The results show that over a quarter of the self-sampling group fulfilled the request, compared with only 1 in 7 of the recall group.

Participants in both groups whose samples were HPV positive were referred for further tests.

The researchers concluded that using home testing kits for detecting HPV is an effective way to target women who do not attend for cervical screening and that it would lead to twice as many cases of cervical cancer being diagnosed compared with the regular screening programme.

Home fertility tests aren’t just for women anymore – a new device that checks a man’s sperm count has now been developed.

The new home test kit, developed by University of Virginia Health System cell biologist John C Herr, based on a protein in sperm can assist couples in determining if a man’s sperm count is normal, low, or very low.

SpermCheck Fertility recently underwent clinical and consumer studies to evaluate its accuracy and ease of use. The device is an advance on the SpermCheck Vasectomy technology, also developed by Herr, which is already cleared by the FDA. By measuring sperm levels at 20 million sperm per milliliter and 5 million sperm per milliliter, Herr says that men can determine if they have normal levels of sperm, low levels (between 5 million and 20 million per milliliter) and very low sperm levels (below 5 million).

The device works similarly to home pregnancy tests, with lines that become colored based on the number of sperm found per milliliter. Based on antibodies that bind to SP-10, a protein discovered in Herr’s laboratory, SpermCheck Fertility was recently cleared for sale in the European Union and is currently undergoing review by the US Food and Drug Administration.

SP-10 is present at constant levels in each sperm head, says Herr, director of UVA’’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health.

“The SpermCheck Fertility test is designed as a first line assay for use by couples who suspect infertility. The test is also useful for men of any age who simply want to know if their sperm count is in the normal range. After reading the results couples can determine whether to seek comprehensive clinical evaluation of the male partner’s fertility status,” Herr said.

“This self-test could save money and time for couples struggling with infertility by identifying which partner may need further evaluation,” Herr added.

A third product, SpermCheck Contraception, is now undergoing testing in a multi-center, NIH-funded study that is evaluating the effectiveness of a new contraceptive drug for men. Once a man starts using one of the current experimental male contraceptives, which are based on steroid compounds, sperm counts decline over a period of several months.

The SpermCheck Contraception device could serve as a companion product to help men determine when sperm counts have reached safe levels should a male contraceptive drug or device become available in the marketplace.

An extract from tomato seeds has been found to be a potential alternative to aspirin in preventing heart attacks and strokes.

A tomato derivative called Fruitflow, derived from the gelatine that surrounds tomato seeds, is apparently effective in reducing the risk of blood clotting.

Scientists at Aberdeen’s Rowett Institute said the results of the latest trials were ’statistically significant’. Provexis, a spin-off company of the research institute, which manufactures Fruitflow, has released its findings after comparing the effects of Fruitflow and aspirin over a seven-month period using 43 people.

“We are delighted with the results of this latest human trial, which highlights the substantial effect that Fruitflow can have, without the associated side effects known to occur with aspirin,” the Scotsman quoted chief executive Stephen Moon as saying.

He added: “We have already announced intent to enter into an agreement with DSM Nutritional Products, the world’s leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and other fine chemicals to feed, food, pharmaceutical and personal care industries.”

No ill effects were observed even when Fruitflow and aspirin were taken together. The drawbacks of aspirin are: it increases risk of ulcers and stomach bleeding.

Researchers at Washington University in St Louis are developing what they call a magic ‘golden’ bullet for cancer, which could kill the tumours by using gold nanoparticles.

The researchers- including Dr Younan Xia, James M McKelvey, Michael J Welch- described the successful photothermal treatment of tumours in mice by using gold bullets, which are gold nanocages that, when injected, selectively accumulate in tumours.

When the tumours are later bathed in laser light, the surrounding tissue is barely warmed, but the nanocages convert light to heat, killing the malignant cells.

“We saw significant changes in tumour metabolism and histology, which is remarkable given that the work was exploratory, the laser ‘dose’ had not been maximized, and the tumors were ‘passively’ rather than ‘actively’ targeted,” said Welch.

The nanocages themselves are harmless. “Gold salts and gold colloids have been used to treat arthritis for more than 100 years. People know what gold does in the body and it’s inert, so we hope this is going to be a nontoxic approach,” said Welch.

“The key to photothermal therapy is the cages’ ability to efficiently absorb light and convert it to heat,” said Xia.
Suspensions of the gold nanocages, which are roughly the same size as a virus particle, are not always yellow, as one would expect, but instead can be any colour in the rainbow.

They are coloured by something called a surface plasmon resonance. Some of the electrons in the gold are not anchored to individual atoms but instead form a free-floating electron gas, explained Xia. Light falling on these electrons can drive them to oscillate as one.

This collective oscillation, the surface plasmon, picks a particular wavelength, or colour, out of the incident light, and this determines the colour we see.

The conversion of light to heat arises from the same physical effect as the colour. The resonance has two parts. At the resonant frequency, light is typically both scattered off the cages and absorbed by them.

By controlling the cages’ size, the researchers tailor them to achieve maximum absorption. The cells that line a tumour’s blood vessel, normally packed so tightly they form a waterproof barrier, are disorganized and irregularly shaped, and there are gaps between them.

The nanocages infiltrate through those gaps efficiently enough that they turn the surface of the normally pinkish tumor black.

The researchers found that in the nanocage-injected mice, the skin surface temperature increased rapidly from 32 degrees Celsius to 54 degrees.

In the buffer-injected mice, however, the surface temperature remained below 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Then the researchers observed that the tumours of nanocage-injected mice were significantly fainter on the PET scans than those of buffer-injected mice, indicating that many tumor cells were no longer functioning.

Doctors at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital have claimed that ethosuximide, one of the oldest available anti-seizure medications, is the most effective treatment for childhood absence epilepsy.

The experts reported the finding in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine . To come up with the conclusion, the study group compared three medications typically used to treat the most common childhood epilepsy syndrome, childhood absence epilepsy, which is characterized by frequent non-convulsive seizures that cause the child to stop what he or she is doing and stare for up to 30 seconds at time.

Prior to this study, there was no definitive evidence on which drug worked best.

“Much of our scientific understanding of childhood epilepsy care today comes from historical experience or studies involving adult patients with related, but not identical, conditions,” explained Colin Roberts, MD, OHSU Doernbecher’s principal investigator for the study, assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology, and director of OHSU Doernbecher’s Pediatric Epilepsy Program,

“This study is an important milestone in our understanding of childhood absence epilepsy. Never before have we been able to document in such a comprehensive, scientific fashion the best options to treat children with this condition.”

The study group enrolled 453 children newly diagnosed with childhood absence epilepsy from July 2004 to October 2007. Study participants were randomly assigned to ethosuximide, valproic acid or lamotrigine. Drug doses were incrementally increased until the child was seizure-free. After 16 weeks of therapy, the researchers found.

Ethosuximide and valproic acid were significantly more effective than lamotrigine in controlling seizures, with no intolerable side effects. They also determined ethosuximide was associated with significantly fewer negative effects on attention.

Japanese scientists have found that it is possible to eradicate Helicobacter pylori infections by using antibiotics.

H. pylori can cause stomach ulcers and, in extreme cases, gastric cancer. Seiji Shiota and Yoshio Yamaoka from Oita University , Japan and Baylor College of Medicine , Texas, respectively, gave H. pylori antibiotics to patients with early gastric cancer after surgical resection and were followed up for three years.

It was found that patients who received antibiotic treatment had a significantly lower risk of developing gastric cancer, confirming the importance of careful management of H. pylori.
However, certain populations (e.g. India and Thailand) have a high prevalence of H. pylori infection but a low incidence of gastric cancer.

It is believed that certain strains of H. pylori (especially east-Asian cytotoxin-associated gene [cagA]-positive strains) might carry an increased risk of developing gastric cancer, but currently identified cagA genotypes in the Asia-Pacific are not associated with cancer.

“Bacterial virulence factors, host genetic factors, and environmental factors contribute to the risk for developing gastric cancer, and further studies are necessary,” wrote the researchers.
However, they warned that practitioners should exercise caution with regard to widespread antibiotic treatment.

“If all infected persons are to be treated, we should consider the increase in frequency of antibiotic resistance and unexpected consequences such as esophageal adenocarcinoma, asthma, and autoimmune disease,” they said.