All About Chikungunya Fever

Chikungunya (pronounced as chiki-en-gun-yah) is a viral disease spread by Aedes aegypti / albopictus mosquito bites. This is the same mosquito that transmits Dengue and Yellow Fever. The illness occurs usually between 4 to 10 days after the mosquito bite and infection lasts for next 7 to 10 days. Chikungunya disease is not life threatening but in older people, the disease may cause death. Patient gets life long immunity from infection so re-infection is very rare.

Chikungunya Symptoms

Usual symptoms in chikungunya are - shivering, high fever, vomiting, nausea, head ache, muscle pain, rashes (on face, arms, legs & back), swelling in joints and joint pain. The fever usually subsides in 2-3 days, but other symptoms may last for a longer time. The main symptom, severe joint pain is the most problematic symptom of Chikungunya. Hands, wrists and ankles are most frequently affected areas. In some cases, joint pain may be prolonged to weeks/months/years.

Chikungunya has some common symptoms with dengue, and can be misdiagnosed in areas where dengue is common.

Chikungunya Treatment

There is no specific antiviral drug, vaccine or medicine available for Chikungunya. Treatment is focused on relieving the symptoms. Patients are advised to take complete rest, take more liquid food and medicines to relieve pain (paracetamol).

The treatment is focused on relieving joint pains using anti-pyre-tics, analgesics and fluids. The symptoms are common in chikungunya and dengue so, it's difficult to differentiate symptoms from Dengue. Therefore, it is advised not to take any non steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine like aspirin, diclofenac and ibuprofen until Dengue is ruled out. Else these medicines can cause platelets to fall.

Ayurveda and homeopathy have specific treatments for Chikungunya. Most of the treatments are helpful in reducing the symptoms specially the joint pain.

Prevention and control

We all know that Prevention is the better than cure. The Aedes albopictus mosquitoes use indoor sites like flower vases and water storage vessels for breeding. The mosquitoes also breed in outdoor areas like stagnant water, coconut husks, water in pots and coolers. It is important to keep these areas clean and dry. For protection during outbreaks, insecticides may be sprayed to kill flying mosquitoes and to treat water in containers to kill the immature larvae.

Chikungunya causing mosquitoes are active during daytime, mostly in the early mornings and late afternoon. So it is important to wear long-sleeved clothes to minimize skin exposure. Use repellents, mosquito coils to prevent mosquito bites. For people specially babies and children who nap during the day, using mosquito nets can also prevent from mosquito bites.

Why Soaked Almonds Are Better Than Raw Almonds?

Everyone knows that almonds are beneficial for health. We should have it daily because almonds are a good source of antioxidants, essential vitamins and minerals like vitamin E, zinc, calcium, magnesium and omega-3 fatty acid. Daily dose of almonds helps in losing weight, reducing bad cholesterol (LDL), increasing good cholesterol (HDL), delaying ageing, improving memory, reducing birth defects and fighting cancer.

Many of us must have got advice that we should eat soaked almonds instead of raw almonds. Choosing soaked almonds over raw or normal almonds is a healthier option? Yes, having soaked almonds is definitely a better choice.

Why soaked almonds are better?

The peel of almond contains tannin, an enzyme inhibitor that is meant to protect the seed until it has perfect conditions for germination. Our body can't breakdown tannin, not only making the digesting almonds difficult, but also restricting your body from absorbing almonds nutrients. In order to absorb almonds nutrients, it should be soaked in water overnight.

Besides the above, soaking almonds also softens the seed, making it crunchy, easy to chew and digest.

How to soak almonds?

For an adult, having a handful of almonds (50-60 grams) per day is sufficient. At night, put almonds in any cup or small utensil and fill it with water. Cover them and soak it for overnight (8 hours). In the morning, drain the water and now, your daily dose of almonds are ready for munching. You can have it directly or slice them in small pieces and have it with curd, oats or even porridge.

Almonds contain monounsaturated fats that reduce your appetite and make you feel full for longer time. So, make a habit, soak a handful of almonds every night and have your daily dose of nutrition in your morning breakfast. Happy munching!

Delhi to Leh by Road or by Flight?

Leh, a paradise on earth! Everyone wants to visit this beautiful destination at least once in lifetime. There are two transport options available between Delhi and Leh – either by flight or by road. Flight takes around 1.5 hrs and your beautiful journey ends in just a short span of time. But if you want to really enjoy the beauty of the region, opt for road journey. I tell you, it's worth!

There are two routes you can take. One is Delhi-Ambala-Jalandhar-Jammu-Srinagar-Kargil-Leh (approx. 1250 kms - minimum 4–5 days travel time) and another route is Delhi-Ambala-Mandi-Manali-Sarchu-Leh (approx. 1030 kms – minimum 4 days travel time).

Srinagar route is longer and more dangerous in terms of landslides, rough weather and terrorism where as Manali route is shorter and safer. Both the routes remain open for traffic only for a few months in a year – mostly from May to October. It depends on weather condition and snow fall. You can self drive or hire a taxi or share taxi or take roadways buses on both the routes.

If you take flight, you may face a health problem that is called Acute Mountains Sickness (AMS) because getting too much height in a short span of time. After landing in Leh, you need at least one day in getting acclimatized . But if you go by road, your body gets acclimatized gradually when you travel towards Leh.

How to Save or Convert PowerPoint Presentation into a Video

At times after creating our PowerPoint presentation, we want to share it with our client as video but we do not know how to do that. But you can do it yourself. Yes, it's possible and that too without using other applications. It creates .wmv file format video. If you want other video formats (.avi, .mov, .mp4, etc), use third party applications available FREE on internet.

First, create a nice presentation in PowerPoint - complete in all means. You can use slide transition, animations on slides and even use embedded video. For video conversion, follow the below steps:

1. Go to File menu, click Save As (If you want quick video without any change in default setting).
2. If you want to change video settings like dimension, quality and other things - Go to File menu, click Save & Send, click Create a video.
3. For video quality and size options under Create a video, click the Computer & HD Displays down arrow.
4. Select one of the following:
   • To create a very high quality video (remember large file size), click Computer & HD Displays.
   • To create a moderate file size and medium quality video, click Internet & DVD.
   • To create a small file size and low quality video, click Portable Devices.
5. Under Don't Use Recorded Timings and Narrations down arrow, select one of the following:
   • If you haven't recorded time and voice narration while creating the presentation or you have recorded but you do not want to use in the video, click Don't Use Recorded Timings and Narration. The default time for each slide is set to 5 seconds. You can change if you want by clicking the up arrow to increase the seconds, or the down arrow to decrease the seconds.
   • If you recorded timed and voice narration and want to use in the video, click Use Recorded Timings and Narrations.
6. Now click Create Video.
7. In the File name box, enter a suitable file name for the video, browse and set the destination folder for saving, then click Save. You can see the progress of the video creation at the status bar at the bottom of your PowerPoint screen. The video creation process may take up to hours depending on the length of the video and the complexity of your presentation. Be patient. :)
8. Once video creation is complete, go to the designated folder, and double-click the file to see the video. You are done!

Trans Fats: How Safe to Eat or Just Avoid Completely

Now a days everyone is concerned about fats so let’s discuss about one fat that is not considered healthy at all and should be avoided. Yes, this is Trans Fat.

 

Trans fats or trans fatty acids are uncommon in nature and can be artificially created in an industrial process. It’s a kind of unsaturated fat that is created by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oil to make it more solid. However, trans fats are edible and widely used in food production across the world. All those food whether it’s continental, fast or even locally made mouth-watering food contain trans fat.

 

Tran fats is generally used in food products to enhance its taste, texture and shelf-life. Pizza dough, burgers, french fries, chicken nuggets, canned foods, baked products, cookies, cakes, muffins, pie crusts, margarine, buttery popcorn, some fast-food meal… all contain artificially made trans fats. That is more dangerous than natural trans fats. Look at the packaged food’s label for the amount of trans fat you are going to consume and if possible just avoid it.

 

Trans fat increases risk of having Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and stroke by elevating your LDL and lowering your HDL. LDL is called “bad cholesterol” and HDL is called “Good cholesterol”. Primary health risk of trans fats is heart disease and beyond this some other diseases are also be considered a result of trans fats consumption. These are: Alzheimer’s disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Obesity, Liver disorder, Infertility in woman and some others.

 

On 7^th November 2013, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed to ban trans fats in food production. If this is fully implemented then it can save thousands of people dying from obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes like diseases every year.

 

But if trans fats fully banned… will you find the same taste in chicken nuggets, french fires, pizzas? Certainly NOT… but your health will be in good shape, after all you have to enjoy the food throughout your life and lead a healthy life.

How to Improve Your credit Score

Credit Score is like your credit reputation that helps financial institutions and banks to analyze your credibility and decide whether they should lend you money or not, if lending then how much money they should lend you. Even a single bad step will decrease your credit score significantly and you will face problem in future in getting any loan, credit cards or any financial help from banks and financial institutions.

Here are some tips to improve your credit score:

Make payment on time

Always pay your bills on-time, never be late, don’t miss… Pay by or before the due date. This is the most efficient way to keep your credit score on top. Every late payment will reduce your credit score. So, don’t delay payments. Set-up payment reminders so that you won’t miss your due dates.

No emotional purchasing

If going for loans, take what you can pay easily and on-time. Likewise, if you are out for shopping, do not do emotional purchasing of expensive goods. Else it will be difficult in paying back to the bank.

Cancel your unused cards

Now a days, people flaunts their cards of different banks just to show their status. If you are not using some of your cards, just get it cancelled. If those cards are stolen and used fraudulently, you will be in trouble. So, just to protect yourself and keep your credit score on higher level, keep only couple of cards or cards that your regularly use and cancel others.

Maintain account in your name

If you are a non-working spouse and the account is in your spouse’s name OR you are a student and using your parent’s account then start thinking of setting up your own account in your name. This will help you in building a good credit history.

Being patient

Even if your credit history got dent, you can improve it. Start paying debts on time, follow the above mentioned tips and gradually your credit score will go up. But it may take months to years so be patient – It’s like recreating your reputation all from the beginning.

What is the ideal Height and Weight ratio for Man and Woman

Here is an ideal chart of height and weight ratio of man and woman. This is a generic range and may vary according to ethnicity of a person. You can plan your weight loss program accordingly.

Ideal Height (In Feets)	Ideal Weight (Man)	Ideal Weight (Woman)
5'-0"	51 - 54 Kgs	46 - 51 Kgs
5'-1"	52 - 55 Kgs	47 - 53 Kgs
5'-2"	54 - 58 Kgs	49 - 55 Kgs
5'-3"	57 - 62 Kgs	50 - 56 Kgs
5'-4"	59 - 64 Kgs	51 - 57 Kgs
5'-5"	61 - 65 Kgs	53 - 59 Kgs
5'-6"	62 - 67 Kgs	55 - 61 Kgs
5'-7"	64 - 69 Kgs	56 - 63 Kgs
5'-8"	66 - 71 Kgs	58 - 65 Kgs
5'-9"	68 - 73 Kgs	60 - 67 Kgs
5'-10"	69 - 74 Kgs	62 - 69 Kgs
5'-11"	71 - 76 Kgs	64 - 70 Kgs
6'-0"	73 - 79 Kgs	66 - 72 Kgs
6'-1"	73 - 81 Kgs	68 - 76 Kgs
6'-2"	78 - 84 Kgs	71 - 79 Kgs
6'-3"	80 - 86 Kgs	75 - 84 Kgs

How to Lose Weight Naturally

Now a days most of the people are getting lifestyle related diseases. Their diet, lifestyle, work environment everything adds-up to the worst and get lifestyle related disease very easily.

Being over weight is one of the condition one should avoid. Because once you are obese, you are more prone to get heart attack, stroke, diabetes, blood pressure and many more. So, before getting sick, make a plan to reduce your weight and stay fit. Here are some tips to reduce your weight naturally.

What to do for weight loss:

• Regular exercise: Body movement is must for obese or over weight people. So, plan for at least half an hour exercise daily. If daily is not possible, try to complete at least 2-3 hrs of exercise in a week. You can go to gym, do some aerobics, or just do normal walking, brisk walking, jogging or yoga. Ultimate aim is to give some movement of your organs by exercising.Consistency is must so you must do exercise regularly even if you reduced your weight.
• Set your eating habit: Try to eat something after a certain interval and avoid eating too much at a time. Better to eat 4-5 times daily rather eating heavy meal twice. Also, don't go for dieting plan. It is noticed that people who are on diet, eat more food.
• Include these food in your diet: Eat fresh fruits, leafy vegetable, lettuce, spinach, whole grain cereals, oatmeal, almonds, walnuts, berries, apple, honey, fish, etc. These foods give necessary vitamins and minerals to your body and rich in fiber.
• Drink plenty of water: Water flushes out toxins from your body and keeps you stay healthy. Eat 3-4 glasses of water in the morning when you get up. Drink water half an hour before your meals and at least one hour after your meals. Don't drink water with your meal. Drinking at least 4-5 liters of water daily is recommended.
• No junk and fried food: Say NO to junk food like pizza, burger, pasta, maggi and deep fried foods. Junk foods are made of refined floor, butter, cheese, margarine, MSG and other avoidable stuffs. You can choose baked food over fried food. Baked food keeps the nutritional values of the food intact but when it is fired, it loses its nutritional values and you end up eating more oily food that adds weight in long run.
• No processed food: Processed foods are generally high in sugar, salt and unhealthy preservatives. People are busy and have no time for cooking so they  choose to get ready of eat processed food. Such foods are harmful in long run.
• No TV while eating: Don't eat while watching your favorite programs on your TV. People eat more while watching TV and that leads to weight gain.
• Manage stress: Stressed people are prone to eat more. So, to reduce your weight, you must do stress management.
• Keep checking: Keep checking your weight after a regular intervals and adjust your weight loss program accordingly. When you get perfect weight and shape, just continue doing this and adapt this lifestyle for your entire life.

How to Increase Hemoglobin Naturally

There is an iron-containing protein in our blood cells that carries oxygen is called Hemoglobin (Hb).

Normal level of hemoglobin varies in men and women. Normal Hb level men is 14–18 mg/dl and 12–16 mg/dl in women.

Main reason for low hemoglobin levels (Anemia) is nutritional deficiencies in the body. Deficiency may be of iron, vitamin C, B12 and folic acid. But there are several diseases also cause hemoglobin deficiency. A doctor would prescribe iron supplement and vitamins for increasing the Hb level but we should not be dependent on medicine for long. We should focus on proper healthy diet and changing lifestyle so that we can increase the hemoglobin level naturally.

Here are the ways to increase Hb level naturally

Iron rich food: Beatroot, gram (chana) and moong sprouts, leafy vegetable like spinach (Palak), fenugreek (Methi), whole grains like dalia, barley (Jaw), brown rice are good source of iron. In fruits... banana, apple and pomegranate have good amount of iron. Dry fruits like almonds (Badaam), date (Khajoor), peach (Anjeer) and raisin (Kismis and Munakka) are iron rich.

Avoid Calcium rich food: Until your Hb level gets normal, try to avoid taking calcium rich food like dairy products... milk, cheese, butter, etc. Calcium restricts absorption of iron in the body.

Vitamin C food: Vitamin C helps our body to absorb iron from food efficiently. Try to eat fruits like orange, grapes, kiwi, guava. There are some vitamin C rich vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, tomato, lemon, capsicum and leafy vegetable.

Folic acid and vitamin B-complex: Folic acid and vitamin B-complex help body to produce red blood cells. If your Hb level is low then you may have deficiency of Folic acid and Vitamin B-complex. Include these vitamins in your daily diet.

How to Avoid Wrinkles Naturally

Wrinkles is a sign that shows that you are getting old. Everyone wants to be young forever. But it is not possible. But we can delay aging. Some people get old quickly and some try to delay the aging process. Facial wrinkles first get noticed. Here are some tips to delay the aging process and you can avoid wrinkles.

Drink plenty of water: Water maintains moisture level of your skin and keeps you hydrated. Apart from drinking water, you can have fruits and vegetables which have water content.

Balance diet: Maintain balanced diet in your daily meal. Include foods containing Iron, Zinc, Vitamin A, B-complex, Vitamin C and specially Vitamin E. Also munch on dry fruits like almond, walnut, apricot for additional nutritional support. Dry fruits are rich in Vitamin E and other minerals. You can get all these Vitamins and minerals from leafy vegetable, salads, whole grain cereals, fruits and dry fruits.

Check eye sight: Facial  wrinkles are more visible on faces with poor eye sight. So, get your eye checked, follow doctor's advice and eat Vitamin A rich diet.

Protect from Sun: Long exposure to sun is harmful to your skin. UV rays from sun is absorbed by skin and create free radicals. These radicals causes wrinkles. Though, we get Vitamin D from sun. But it is recommendable to get morning sunlight until 9am to get Vitamin D. When sun is hot, just avoid going out in for longer time. If necessary, use sunglasses and try to cover you body to reduce sun exposure.

Sleeping habits: Getting 7-8 hours of sleep is must for your overall health so for your skin. Your sleeping posture plays more important role in wrinkle formation. Sleeping postures make some pressure on your facial skin and after a long time facial skin gets wrinkle according to the facial lines. Try to sleep on your back.

Quit smoking: If you are smoking then stop it to delay aging. Heavy smokers are more likely to get wrinkles than non-smokers.

Be happy: And at the end, be happy. Happiness is necessary to delay the aging process and wrinkles.

How to Insert Outlook Email in PowerPoint

While working in professional environment, we occasionally need to insert relevant email communication into our PowerPoint presentation for reference. To insert or embed Outlook email:

1. Open an email 
2. Go to File > Save As
3. Choose Save file type as "Outlook Message Format" or "Outlook Message Format - Unicode"
4. Save the email 
5. Now go to the location where you saved the email file
6. Copy the saved email file by pressing Ctrl + C
7. Go to the PPT slide and paste the file by pressing Ctrl + V
8. An envelop icons will be pasted on the PPT slide with email file name

Remember, it doesn't work in Presentation mode of the PPT. To read the email double-click the email icon pasted on the slide in Normal mode.

How to Lock Background Image in PowerPoint

At times we work on a slide that has lots of content, graphics, objects/shapes on top of a background. We face challenge while working on complex slides presentation. When we move slide objects, slide background also moves. Therefore, better to fix or lock the image background and then work. There are two ways of doing it. Try either way according to your requirements.
  

Option 1:

Right click on the slide > Select “Format Background” > Select radio button “Picture or texture fill”. Insert your image by clicking “File” and then select your image for background. (See below image for reference)



Remember, you can’t scale image after inserting. So, better crop the image manually according to the slide requirement and then insert in PPT. You can also give transparency on the image.

Option 2:

You can use second way by keeping the image background on slide’s master layout. Shortcut for going directly into that particular slide master is – Press Shift and click Normal view icon at bottom right corner of your PPT window. (See below image for reference).



Just cut the image from the slide and go into its master slide and paste there. But it will reflect on all the slides where same master layout is being used. If you do not want the show on other slides, just duplicate that master layout and use that layout exclusively for that particular slide where you want to keep the background locked.

Papaya Leaf Juice – Extremely Useful in Dengue Fever

Papaya, a common fruit you can find everywhere in India and several parts of the world as well. Locally this fruit doesn’t have good repo among other so-called healthy fruits. But when summer season is around, and Dengue (kind of fever caused by mosquito bite) is around, Papaya takes the stage and becomes great in demand. In dengue, platelets count drop sharply and papaya juice proved to be very effective in increasing platelets count and normalizing it.

Dengue is a kind fever that is spread through the bite of an infected Aedes Aegypti mosquito. Symptoms of dengue emerge in 5 to 7 days after an infected mosquito bites a person. It is possible to get infected by dengue several times in life of a person and each time the infection gets dangerous. Dengue symptoms are like: high fever, muscular pain, joint pain, headache, eye pain, rashes, liver dysfunction, nausea, vomiting and sudden drop in platelet count.

Platelets are very important part of your blood. Whenever our body gets any injury or cuts, these platelets rush to that part of the body to stop the bleeding. When platelet count is under 150,000, it is considered as low. A healthy person should have platelet count between 150,000 and 450,000 per micro liter. Apart from dengue fever, there are several other health problems like Vitamin B12 & Folic acid deficiency, cancer and some viral infections when platelet count is generally fall.

Papaya leaves have emerged as a big relief to the dengue patients. There is not any particular medicine available in the market for dengue. Doctors prescribe general fever medicines and if situation worsens then platelets are transmitted. In such condition, papaya leaves do miracle. It is packed with great medicinal properties. Papaya leaf extracts not only normalizes platelets but also repairs liver that is damaged by dengue.

Leaf juice can be extracted easily. Leaf should not be either too old or too young. Take only young papaya leaves for juice. Crush it or grind it and extract juice from it by using clean cloth. One or two spoon juice twice a day is sufficient. Continue this dose until platelet level gets its normal level. Any person can have papaya leaf juice, just to be healthy and make immune system strong. There is no side effect of papaya leaf juice yet reported. But yes, too much of anything can be harmful… even love!

Now a days, some pharmaceutical companies introduced pills made of papaya leaf extract. So, if papaya leaf is not available in your vicinity, you can take pills of papaya leaf extract.

Papaya leaf juice is believed to be helpful in other diseases also. Due to its great medicinal properties, people around the world have reported benefits in maintaining blood sugar level in diabetes, dengue, chikungunya, cancer, Parkinson’s, constipation, skin care, and boosting immune system.

Therefore, a kind request to the readers of this blog—Please plant some papaya trees where you live. This way, we can increase greenery and lead a healthy life as well.