World Health Organization said that vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness among children and is considered a public health concern in more than half of all countries. While vitamin A deficiency can occur as a result of underlying medical conditions, it usually develops from inadequate dietary intake of the vitamin.
If you do not have enough vitamin A in your body, the light-sensitive proteins in your eye lack the vitamin A necessary to create visual images. A vitamin A deficiency initially manifests as night blindness, which is defined as difficulty seeing after dusk. Night blindness is due to an inability to regenerate rhodopsin, which prevents the eyes from adjusting from daylight to darkness.
Vitamin A deficiency, if untreated, can lead to a condition called xerophthalmia, which is characterized by severe dryness and damage to the cornea. Severe xerophthalmia can lead to blindness. “Nutrition and You” by Joan Salge Blake notes that up to 10 million children suffer from xerophthalmia annually and 500,000 of them go blind.
Meeting your needs for vitamin A is the only way to prevent a vitamin A deficiency. It is recommended that infants between the ages of 0 and 6 months receive 400 mcg per day, whereas infants from 6 to 12 months need 500 mcg daily. [Read more...]
The term bonsai brings up a mental picture of miniature Japanese trees that are cut and pruned to certain specifications. However, the term bonsai literally translated, means plant in a tray. These trees are much smaller than what one might normally expect they do not really have to be just a few inches tall. They can be grown in pots in the garden.
I planned on completing my task today so I will have free time tomorrow. Hubby and I have some personal business to deal that may take some time. Good thing I’m already half-way the piles of task I had. I think I will be able to update this blog again. I just want to share my finds about 
This morning I heard a story on the radio of a woman who was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable, and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her kids.
According to the Harvard University researchers, eating half a serving of soy food a day lowers sperm concentrations and may play a role in male infertility, particularly in obese men. The reason for this relationship between soy and sperm count isn’t clear. However, researchers speculate that soy increases estrogen activity, which may have a negative effect on sperm production and also interfere with other hormonal signals.
A lot of us wonder why there are more women shopping in any given natural foods store at a certain moment than there are men. Some questions that are asked are whether or not this is due to the shop being a natural foods store or whether it is an indication that women are still doing the majority of the grocery shopping. While both positions can certainly be argued, most women will tell you that not only do they do more of the grocery shopping, but also that they are much more concerned about healthy lifestyles than the men they know are. In the 1980s, having a healthy lifestyle meant doing aerobics; in the 21st century it means doing yoga and eating organic foods.
According to a new study, diary can help reduce intensive care patients’ risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a difficult stay in the hospital. The randomized controlled study included 352 intensive care unit (ICU) patients at 12 hospitals in six European countries. Of those patients, 162 were randomly selected to receive diaries about their time in the ICU. The diaries, completed by nursing staff and relatives, used plain language and included photographs. After the patients were discharged from the ICU, a nurse reviewed the diary entries with them.
