'Good cholesterol' might not be good

Is 'good cholesterol
' really good for you; not so, suggests a new study.

 

University of Chicago (U-C) researchers challenged popular notion that simply having high levels of good cholesterol (HDL) and low levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) is necessary for good heath.

 

Instead, they show that the good cholesterol has varying degrees of quality and that poor quality HDL is actually bad for you.

 

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance used by the body to maintain the proper function of cell membranes and is encapsulated within two types of proteins as it travels in the body - low density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins (HDL).

 

High levels of LDL or total cholesterol are an indicator of increased risk for heart disease. High blood cholesterol elicits no physical symptoms, making medical screenings necessary for detection.

 

"For many years, HDL has been viewed as good cholesterol and has generated a false perception that the more HDL in the blood, the better," said Angelo Scanu, pioneer in blood lipid chemistry from U-C and co-author of the study.

 

"It is now apparent that subjects with high HDL are not necessarily protected from heart problems and should ask their doctor to find out whether their HDL is good or bad," he added.

 

The researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing published research on this subject. They found that the HDL from people with chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, kidney disease, and diabetes is different from the HDL in healthy individuals, even when blood levels of HDL are comparable.

 

They observed that normal, 'good' HDL reduces inflammation, while the dysfunctional, 'bad' HDL does not, according to an U-C release.

 

"This is yet one more line of research that explains why some people can have perfect cholesterol levels, but still develop cardiovascular disease," said Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal, which published the study in its December edition.

 

"Just as the discovery of good and bad cholesterol rewrote the book on cholesterol management, the realisation that some of the 'good cholesterol' is actually bad will do the same," he added.

 

US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said approximately 17% of all American adults have high total cholesterol, putting them at risk for heart disease.

predict depression

Feeling down? Take an online test to find out whether your feelings will descend into full-blown depression in a year's
time.

 

Scientists at the University College London have developed a software
which they claim could reveal one's risk of getting major depression, thereby helping doctors pinpoint patients in need of help.

 

In fact, they used 39 factors such as age, sex and socioeconomic status to create an algorithm that can predict the risk of being diagnosed with a new episode of depression within the next year, the 'New Scientist' reported.

 

The team developed a preliminary algorithm by studying 5000 healthy volunteers, aged between 18 and 75 years, in six countries in Europe over one year.

 

All the subjects were diagnosed as non-depressed at the beginning of the trial, and were re-evaluated for major depression after six and 12 months. Taking into account their responses to questions on key risk factors, the algorithm was refined and re-evaluated when further tested on 1732 people.

 

"Major depression is now a leading cause of illness and disability worldwide, and reducing its prevalence is one of the greatest public-health challenges of the 21st century. People identified by the finished tool, called 'predictD', can be flagged on a doctor's computer.

 

"Recognition of those at risk could help with watchful waiting or active support, such as restarting treatment in patients with a history of depression," said lead scientist Michael King.

 

The study has been published in the 'Archives of General Psychiatry' journal.

 

Website link below:

 

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/predict-depression/

How lizard spit aids diabetes cure

 A year ago, when 58-year-old retiree B S Wig, saw the scales tip at 149 kg, he was dismayed. He was diabetic and also increasingly obese. His 
blood sugar hit a dismal 350 mg/dl after meals. The normal should be under 140 mg/dl. "I had become weak and refused to socialise. My life had gone haywire," says Wig. Till he was put on to a new drug, which not only reduced his weight to a healthy 118 kg, but his sugar levelsto normal. "I can now be dated," he says happily.

 

Wig is lucky. Most diabetics have difficult lives, with an unending cycle of ill health, weakness and obesity as the pancreas produce little or no insulin, the hormone that converts glucose to energy. Plus, diabetic drugs usually make the patient obese, which adds to the risk of high BP, heart problems and strokes. So it's essential to have drugs which control sugar levels and reduce weight.

 

And that's what a new injectable drug, Byetta, does, say experts. It's made from the saliva of the Gila monster, a venomous lizard found in Southwest America. It's the first in a new range of anti-diabetic medicines and is FDA-approved. However, it can be used only on Type 2 diabetics.

 

It came to India exactly a year back and now, experts can quantify its success. By 2009, an upgraded version may be available.

 

Unlike Type 1 diabetes where there's no insulin secretion, in Type 2, insulin production from the beta cells of the pancreas isn't sufficient. And for Byetta to work, viable beta cells are needed, says Dr Ambrish Mithal, senior endocrinologist, Apollo Hospital, Delhi.
aa
It works in three ways: It signals the pancreas to make the right amount of insulin after a meal; stops the liver from making too much glucose when the body does not need it, reduces appetite and the amount of food eaten and slows the rate at which glucose leaves the stomach.

 

Type 2 diabetics form 90% of the estimated 40 million diabetic cases in India. Almost 80% of them are obese, says Mithal. Adds Dr Pradeep Talwalkar, professor, diabetology, Raheja Hospital, Mumbai. "It suppresses rise in sugar levels by suppressing glucogon, a hormone which has the opposite effect of insulin."

 

"Byetta" says Mithal, "can produce nausea and vomiting in some patients. It is a niche drug, not for all diabetics, but is a good choice for those who need to lose weight with high post-meal blood sugar rises that remain uncontrolled even on oral medicines."

 

"Byetta also carries a lower risk than insulin of causing hypoglycemia, a dangerous condition where the patient can lose consciousness and slip into coma as insulin drops to very low levels," says Talwalkar.

 

Wig's case is an ideal example. "I was not judicious about my medicines and kept oscillating between oral medicines and insulin. Meanwhile, my weight and sugar levels went for a toss till I started taking Byetta," he says.

 

It's important for obese diabetics to lose weight, says Chennai-based Dr A Ramachandran, president, India Diabetics Research Foundation, as obesity makes them resistant to diabetic treatment. "It is, in fact, an analog for hormones which produce insulin called incretin." A weight reduction of 5-6 kg a year is good, says Mithal. Byetta is normally given with oral medicines.

 

But it's expensive — around Rs 7,500 monthly. Rimi Dasgupta, a 41-year-old diabetic, who lost 12 kg and with sugar levels which came down to 140 mg/dl from 390 mg/dl, says, "It's easy to inject, but I don't know how long I can take it as it's expensive. I hope to continue it for a year."

 

Byetta comes in a prefilled injection pen which uses a small needle. This pen contains pre-measured doses, so the patient doesn't have to adjust the dose. It's injected twice daily before morning and evening meals.

 

Generally, the patient is started off on a dose of 5 micrograms (mcg) twice a day for at least 30 days, but this could be increased to 10 mcg based on individual results. In clinical trials, it was found that on an average, patients lost five pounds in 30 weeks. However, Byetta cannot be used simply for weight reduction.

 

Though there are other new medicines which stimulate the pancreas to make insulin without producing hypoglycemia such as Januvia and Glavus, says Ramachandran, these don't make a patient lose weight.

 

Byetta could just be that shot that makes a difference.

Mobiles can damage memory

Swedish researchers have found memory impairment in ratsexposed to cellphone radiation for two hours every week for more than a year. 

The rats subjected to a memory test were released into a box with four objects. These objects were changed on two occasions and their position was also altered both the times. The actual test trial was the third occasion. This time the rats encountered two of the objects from the first occasion and two of the objects from the second.

 

The rats, used as control, spent more time exploring the objects from the first occasion, which they considered more interesting since they had not seen them for some time. The experiment rats, on the other hand, evinced a lesser pronounced difference in interest.

 

Henrietta Nittby and her supervisor Leif Salford, of the neurosurgery division of Lund University, Sweden, believe that the findings may be related to the team's earlier findings, that microwave radiation from cellphones can affect the so-called blood-brain barrier. This is a barrier that protects the brain by preventing substances circulating in the blood from penetrating into the brain tissue and damaging nerve cells.

A formula tells us why we put off tasks

Can't get round to finishing a job in one go? Well, don't worry, for researchers have devised a formula for procrastinators to help them know how much chance they have of overcoming their flaws.

According to a new book, which contains the mathematical equation, procrastination is becoming a problem, courtesy computer games and personal organisers which provide endless opportunities for distraction and rescheduling.

Piers Steel, the author of the book and a business professor at Calgary University in Canada, has pulled together hundreds of studies on the art of delay. He believes that the two contradictory views commonly held about procrastinators - that they are either extra-careful or bone idle - are both wrong. Instead, they have a vice all their own.

According to Steel, chronic procrastinators are more impulsive and erratic than other people and less conscientious about attention to detail and obligations to others.

According to Steel, procrastinators believe they can complete a task and also care about it. Lazy people, by contrast, are not bothered whether they can finish the job - they just do not want to do it. Both can come up with excuses such as a dog eating the homework.

Steel subsequently formed an equation for why people procrastinate. The equation is U=EV/ID. The 'U' stands for utility, or the desire to complete a given task. It is equal to the product of E, the expectation of success, and V the value of completion, divided by the product of I, the immediacy of the task, and D, the personal sensitivity to delay.

The researcher says procrastination is becoming a bigger issue because many more jobs are "self-structured", with people setting their own schedules.

Some fats can really perk up health

Eating saturated fats from butter, cream and meat or trans fats (unsaturated fat with trans-isomer fatty acids) found in hydrogenated 
oils can boost risk of heart disease, while consuming mono-unsaturated fat suits the heart.

 

Yet what's the effect of all these fats on our weight? Are some better than others?

 

"Research on animals and some clinical trials show that not all fats have the same effect on weight," said Nadiah Moussavi, a master's student from the Université de Montréal department of nutrition, who investigated the issue.

 

"Few epidemiological studies exist on the subject and the results of those are contradictory," she said.

 

The goal of her work is to see whether a connection could be made between the prevalence of obesity and the various forms of fat found worldwide.

 

Using statistics from the World Health Organisation, Moussavi studied the prevalence of obesity in women aged 15 and older, and calculated the total amount of calories from fat for each person for each year between 1998 and 2002.

 

What she found was that in the countries where mono-unsaturated fats, found in olive oil, formed an integral part of the diet, no or few people were found to be overweight, a release from the university said.

 

Countries where the obesity rate was high and the consumption of mono-unsaturated fat low included Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Peru, while countries such as France, Denmark and Italy showed an ideal portrait - low rates of obesity with a high consumption of mono-unsaturated fats.

 

The situation in Canada and US appears more complex. In Canada, 22.2 percent of women aged 15 and over were obese. They consumed 147 grams of fat a day, of which 59.2 grams were mono-unsaturated.

 

Worse, 37.8 percent of American women were obese, and ate 152.2 grams of fat daily, of which 45.9 grams were mono-unsaturated.

 

"Our study shows that the consumption of mono-unsaturated fats and maybe other fats also play a role," she said.

 

In her thesis, under the direction of professors Olivier Receveur and Victor Gavino, Moussavi showed that not only did trans fats lead to heart disease, they also could be associated with a higher risk of obesity.

Windows XP: Optimize your computer's performance

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/personalize/performance.mspx

5 cool Windows XP tips

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/homeusers/articles/5tips.mspx

4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Performance

 

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx

Create A Shortcut To The Calculator (Windows XP)

To create a desktop shortcut to the Calculator program:

1. Right click a blank area on your desktop, point to New and click Shortcut.
2. From the Create Shortcut window, type in “calc” and click Next.
3. Type in a name for the shortcut.
4. Click Finish.

Optimize The Temporary Internet Files Folder

You can change the amount of space that is allocated to the Temporary Internet Files folder. However, you may experience a decrease in performance if the value is set too high or too low. For example, if the amount of disk space available for the folder is set too high, it may fill a large portion of your hard drive with outdated information (remember many Web sites are updated on a regular basis). On the other hand, configuring a value that is too low can increase the amount of time to display Web pages.

When the size of the folder reaches the maximum amount of available disk space, the older files are removed as necessary to make room as needed. So when you are configuring the amount of disk space the folder can use, keep in mind that if you set the folder size too high, you may be retaining Web site information that is outdated. Conversely setting the maximum size too low may degrade performance since the Web sites stored in this folder load significantly faster than having to re-download the site from the Internet. You can adjust this setting from the General tab of the Internet Options dialog box. Click the Settings button and type the new maximum size of the Temporary Internet files folder.

source-:lockergnome

Strong passwords: How to create and use them

 

Your passwords are the keys you use to access personal information that you've stored on your computer and in your online accounts. If criminals or other malicious users steal this information, they can use your name to open new credit card accounts, apply for a mortgage, or pose as you in online transactions. In many cases you would not notice these attacks until it was too late. Fortunately, it is not hard to create strong passwords and keep them well protected. What makes a strong password To an attacker, a strong password should appear to be a random string of characters. The following criteria can help your passwords do so: Make it lengthy. Each character that you add to your password increases the protection that it provides many times over. Your passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal. Many systems also support use of the space bar in passwords, so you can create a phrase made of many words (a "pass phrase"). A pass phrase is often easier to remember than a simple password, as well as longer and harder to guess. Combine letters, numbers, and symbols. The greater variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess. Other important specifics include: • The fewer types of characters in your password, the longer it must be. A 15-character password composed only of random letters and numbers is about 33,000 times stronger than an 8-character password composed of characters from the entire keyboard. If you cannot create a password that contains symbols, you need to make it considerably longer to get the same degree of protection. An ideal password combines both length and different types of symbols. • Use the entire keyboard, not just the most common characters. Symbols typed by holding down the "Shift" key and typing a number are very common in passwords. Your password will be much stronger if you choose from all the symbols on the keyboard, including punctuation marks not on the upper row of the keyboard, and any symbols unique to your language. Use words and phrases that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess. The easiest way to remember your passwords and pass phrases is to write them down. Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with writing passwords down, but they need to be adequately protected in order to remain secure and effective. In general, passwords written on a piece of paper are more difficult to compromise across the Internet than a password manager, Web site, or other software-based storage tool, such as password managers. Create a strong, memorable password in 6 steps Use these steps to develop a strong password: 1. Think of a sentence that you can remember. This will be the basis of your strong password or pass phrase. Use a memorable sentence, such as "My son Aiden is three years old." 2. Check if the computer or online system supports the pass phrase directly. If you can use a pass phrase (with spaces between characters) on your computer or online system, do so. 3. If the computer or online system does not support pass phrases, convert it to a password. Take the first letter of each word of the sentence that you've created to create a new, nonsensical word. Using the example above, you'd get: "msaityo". 4. Add complexity by mixing uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. It is valuable to use some letter swapping or misspellings as well. For instance, in the pass phrase above, consider misspelling Aiden's name, or substituting the word "three" for the number 3. There are many possible substitutions, and the longer the sentence, the more complex your password can be. Your pass phrase might become "My SoN Ayd3N is 3 yeeRs old." If the computer or online system will not support a pass phrase, use the same technique on the shorter password. This might yield a password like "MsAy3yo". 5. Finally, substitute some special characters. You can use symbols that look like letters, combine words (remove spaces) and other ways to make the password more complex. Using these tricks, we create a pass phrase of "MySoN 8N i$ 3 yeeR$ old" or a password (using the first letter of each word) "M$8ni3y0". 6. Test your new password with Password Checker. Password Checker is a non-recording feature on this Web site that helps determine your password's strength as you type. Password strategies to avoid Some common methods used to create passwords are easy to guess by criminals. To avoid weak, easy-to-guess passwords: • Avoid sequences or repeated characters. "12345678," "222222," "abcdefg," or adjacent letters on your keyboard do not help make secure passwords. • Avoid using only look-alike substitutions of numbers or symbols. Criminals and other malicious users who know enough to try and crack your password will not be fooled by common look-alike replacements, such as to replace an 'i' with a '1' or an 'a' with '@' as in "M1cr0$0ft" or "P@ssw0rd". But these substitutions can be effective when combined with other measures, such as length, misspellings, or variations in case, to improve the strength of your password. • Avoid your login name. Any part of your name, birthday, social security number, or similar information for your loved ones constitutes a bad password choice. This is one of the first things criminals will try. • Avoid dictionary words in any language. Criminals use sophisticated tools that can rapidly guess passwords that are based on words in multiple dictionaries, including words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and substitutions. This includes all sorts of profanity and any word you would not say in front of your children. • Use more than one password everywhere. If any one of the computers or online systems using this password is compromised, all of your other information protected by that password should be considered compromised as well. It is critical to use different passwords for different systems. • Avoid using online storage. If malicious users find these passwords stored online or on a networked computer, they have access to all your information. The "blank password" option A blank password (no password at all) on your account is more secure than a weak password such as "1234". Criminals can easily guess a simplistic password, but on computers using Windows XP, an account without a password cannot be accessed remotely by means such as a network or the Internet. (This option is not available for Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Me, or earlier versions) You can elect to use a blank password on your computer account if these criteria are met: • You only have one computer or you have several computers but you do not need to access information on one computer from another one • The computer is physically secure (you trust everyone who has physical access to the computer) The use of a blank password is not always a good idea. For example, a laptop computer that you take with you is probably not physically secure, so on those you should have a strong password. How to access and change your passwords Online accounts Web sites have a variety of policies that govern how you can access your account and change your password. Look for a link (such as "my account") somewhere on the site's home page that goes to a special area of the site that allows password and account management. Computer passwords The Help files for your computer operating system will usually provide information about how to create, modify, and access password-protected user accounts, as well as how to require password protection upon startup of your computer. You can also try to find this information online at the software manufacturer's Web site. For example, if you use Microsoft Windows XP, online help can show you how to manage passwords, change passwords, and more. Keep your passwords secret Treat your passwords and pass phrases with as much care as the information that they protect. • Don't reveal them to others. Keep your passwords hidden from friends or family members (especially children) who could pass them on to other less trustworthy individuals. Passwords that you need to share with others, such as the password to your online banking account that you might share with your spouse, are the only exceptions. • Protect any recorded passwords. Be careful where you store the passwords that you record or write down. Do not leave these records of your passwords anywhere that you would not leave the information that they protect. • Never provide your password over e-mail or based on an e-mail request. Any e-mail that requests your password or requests that you to go to a Web site to verify your password is almost certainly a fraud. This includes requests from a trusted company or individual. E-mail can be intercepted in transit, and e-mail that requests information might not be from the sender it claims. Internet "phishing" scams use fraudulent e-mail messages to entice you into revealing your user names and passwords, steal your identity, and more. Learn more about phishing scams and how to deal with online fraud. • Change your passwords regularly. This can help keep criminals and other malicious users unaware. The strength of your password will help keep it good for a longer time. A password that is shorter than 8 characters should be considered only good for a week or so, while a password that is 14 characters or longer (and follows the other rules outlined above) can be good for several years. • Do not type passwords on computers that you do not control. Computers such as those in Internet cafés, computer labs, shared systems, kiosk systems, conferences, and airport lounges should be considered unsafe for any personal use other than anonymous Internet browsing. Do not use these computers to check online e-mail, chat rooms, bank balances, business mail, or any other account that requires a user name and password. Criminals can purchase keystroke logging devices for very little money and they take only a few moments to install. These devices let malicious users harvest all the information typed on a computer from across the Internet—your passwords and pass phrases are worth as much as the information that they protect. What to do if your password is stolen Be sure to monitor all the information you protect with your passwords, such as your monthly financial statements, credit reports, online shopping accounts, and so on. Strong, memorable passwords can help protect you against fraud and identity theft, but there are no guarantees. No matter how strong your password is, if someone breaks into the system that stores it, they will have your password. If you notice any suspicious activity that could indicate that someone has accessed your information, notify authorities as quickly as you can. Get more information on what to do if you think your identity has been stolen or you've been similarly defrauded.

 

 

 

 

source -: microsoft.com

link -: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/privacy/password.mspx

 

 

Hide A Worksheet In Excel

A workbook can contain multiple worksheets. You may want others to be able to view data on one worksheet in the workbook but not another. One thing you can do to achieve this is hide the worksheet. By doing so, the data in the worksheet in no longer visible, but not deleted.

To hide a worksheet in Excel 2002:

Click the worksheet that you want to hide.

From the Format menu, point to Sheet, and then click Hide.

To unhide a worksheet, click the Format menu, point to Sheet, and click Unhide. A dialog box will appear listing any hidden worksheets. Click the worksheet you want to unhide and click OK.

quotes site

 

a good quotes site

 

http://www.brainyquote.com/

proverb and a proverb site

 

you can't prevent a bird from flying over your head, but you can prevent him from making a nest in your head.

 

 

http://contemplate.us/