Natural remedies with antibiotic properties

With the skyrocketing costs of healthcare and prescription drugs, many people are opting to treat minor ailments themselves with natural remedies.

Contributing to the popularity of natural remedies is the fact that they are over the counter preparations and can be obtained without a prescription. They also tend to have fewer side effects

than many popularly prescribed medications. Another consideration is the over use of prescription antibiotics. While antibiotics are considered one of the greatest medical discoveries, they have been overused and often in unwarranted circumstances. Many illnesses are viral in nature, and antibiotics cannot combat viruses. Still, they are frequently prescribed for viral infections.

The overuse of antibiotics has contributed to “super-strains” of some illnesses, which are resistant to prescription drugs. Some natural remedies work especially well on these resistant bugs. The following list offers information about natural remedies that are believed to have antibiotic properties as well as other healthful benefits:

ECHINACEA

Echinacea purpurea -high quality Echinacea- not only has antibiotic properties but also contains antibacterial and antiviral properties. Echinacea is recommended for strengthening and stimulating the immune system, and is said to be effective in combating colds, flu, staph and many other infections as well as viruses. It can also be used in topical solutions for external injuries and infections.

GARLIC

Many studies show that fresh cloves or garlic extracts have very powerful antibiotic properties, and antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal assets as well. Garlic is known to strengthen the immune system, making it a good defense against colds, flu, and throat or upper respiratory infections. Research indicates that garlic is a good choice against resistant bacteria. It has also been noted that in areas where large quantities of fresh garlic are used regularly, there are fewer reported cases of serious health problems. Garlic may help lower cholesterol and is believed to be effective in aiding cardiovascular health.

GOLDEN SEAL

Golden Seal is also believed to help fight infection and virus, but may not actually stimulate the immune system directly. It is frequently used to fight common cold and flu symptoms, other upper respiratory problems, and urinary tract and vaginal infections. Golden Seal and Echinacea are often combined. Those suffering from hypertension must consult with a healthcare professional before using Golden Seal.

HONEY

Honey is a remarkable natural remedy that can be used both topically and internally. Honey also stimulates and strengthens the immune system. It is believed to be more potent than typical antibiotics when it comes to ulcers, burns, and infections, and it may even inhibit gangrene. Honey is also widely recognized as being effective in the treatment of upper respiratory problems including allergies, sinus infections, colds, flu, asthma, and bronchitis. Honey is sometimes mixed with garlic for use in soothing colds and sore throats.

USNEA

Usnea works in much the same way as prescription antibiotics, but without the side effects. It kills “bad” bacteria, including resistant strains, without destroying “good” bacteria. Usnea is known for treatment of upper respiratory problems, vaginal infections, fungi, and external injuries or infections. It can be used topically at the site of infection, or it can be taken internally to aid immune function.

These products, like most natural remedies, have not been evaluated or endorsed by the Food and Drug Administration. Please consult with a doctor or pharmacist before use. Inform these professionals of any prescription drugs you are currently taking, as some remedies can interact negatively with certain drugs. These remedies should not be used by pregnant women or nursing mothers unless under the direct advice and supervision of a healthcare professional

Free "Test-Fit" Shielding and Electrical Contact Kit

Advanced Battery Technology

A RoHS compliant beryllium copper sample gasket kit is available from Omega Shielding Products. The sample assortment contains over 20 popular sizes and shapes including contacts, fold-overs, clip-ons and longitudinal edge gaskets. The wide selection of products allows engineers to "test-fit" multiple styles to determine the best solution.

Omega's gaskets are highly-conductive connectors that are used in applications ranging from RFI shielding to battery contacts and grounding strips. The sample kit also includes a CD with helpful application, shielding effectiveness and performance data. Installation guidelines, mounting options and electronic-grade plating alternatives are also reviewed.

For more information or a free sample kit, contact Omega Shielding Products Inc., 9 Emery Ave., Randolph, NJ 07869, phone: (800) 828) 5784 or (973) 366-0080, fax: (973) 366-8232, or visit www.omegashielding.com.

Copyright Seven Mountains Scientific, Inc. Jul 2006

Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

Sexy and smart: one sector that won't be left behind: Japan's massive sex industry has shifted from bricks-and-mortar deflation to Internet elation -

IKE IT OR LOATHE it, the sex industry in Japan is big business. And despite the rickety economy, it's getting bigger. A recent survey by Takashi Kadokura, an economist with Daiichi Life Research Institute Inc., found that the Japanese market for what is rather quaintly called the entertainment trade fuzoku sangyo, swelled to a tumescent [yen] 2.37 trillion in fiscal 2001, up from [yen] 1.7 trillion a decade earlier.

This figure does not include "virtual sex"--Japan's huge sales of adult magazines, rentals and sales of porn videos and DVDs and the burgeoning market for Internet porn. And let's not forget receipts from the country's 40,000-odd love hotels.

Put together, the buying and selling of sex and related services in the world's second largest economy is worth more than the GDP of many smaller countries.

As the sex business expands along with the service sector it becomes increasingly integrated into the mainstream economy, earning billions for blue-chip firms like NTT and increasingly becoming a source of direct and indirect tax revenue for the government.

Why does this industry seem immune to the problems that have kept Japan on the economic disaster pages of the world's newspapers for over a decade? The truth is: It isn't.

As a stroll around the licentious pink heart of Tokyo's sex industry, Kabukicho, or the "soaplands" district of Yoshiwara confirms, many operators of sex clubs and massage parlors have resorted to the same deflationary price-cutting approaches practiced by other businesses.

More noticeable than the stagnation and decline of some areas of the sex trade, however, are the vitality and innovation that characterize the industry as a whole. Despite its murky image and legal problems, thousands of new businesses have sprung up in the last five years, offering all the eye popping lechery that money can buy.

Nokia’s Bureaucracy Stifled Innovation, Ex-Managers Say

A few years before Apple introduced the iPhone, research engineers at Nokia prepared a prototype of an Internet-ready, touch-screen handset with a large display, which they thought could give the company a powerful advantage in the fast-growing smartphone market.

The prototype was demonstrated to business customers at Nokia’s headquarters in Finland as an example of what was in the company’s pipeline, according to a former employee who made the 2004 presentation in Espoo.

But management worried that the product could be a costly flop, said the former employee, Ari Hakkarainen, a manager responsible for marketing on the development team for the Nokia Series 60, then the company’s premium line of smartphones. Nokia did not pursue development, he said.

“It was very early days, and no one really knew anything about the touch screen’s potential,” Mr. Hakkarainen explained. “And it was an expensive device to produce, so there was more risk involved for Nokia. So management did the usual. They killed it.”

As Nokia’s new chief executive, Stephen Elop, takes over this month, he faces a formidable task: to regain the company’s lost ground in the smartphone segment of the global phone market, especially in the United States, while maintaining its worldwide dominance as the largest maker of mobile phones.

His biggest obstacle, according to Mr. Hakkarainen, as well as two other former employees and industry analysts, may well be Nokia’s stifling bureaucratic culture. In interviews, Mr. Hakkarainen and the other former employees depicted an organization so swollen by its early success that it grew complacent, slow and removed from consumer desires. As a result, they said, Nokia lost the lead in several crucial areas by failing to fast-track its designs for touch screens, software applications and 3-D interfaces.

In 2004, one said, the company rejected an early design for a Nokia online applications store — an innovation that Apple, Nokia and other handset makers adopted three years later. Nokia also did not improve its Symbian operating system, needed to support a more sophisticated smartphone. And though it introduced the industry’s first touch-screen devices in 2003 — the 6108 and 3108 phones, which worked with a stylus — it did not perfect the technology to fingertip precision before Apple did.

Nokia still lacks a convincing response to the iPhone. Last week it announced that software errors would delay shipments of its long-awaited N8 touch-screen phone.

A Nokia spokeswoman, Arja Suominen, declined to address any specific criticisms by the three former employees, playing down their roles. They were, she said, “managers with individual roles or leaders of small teams.”

She also said that Mr. Elop, 46, a Canadian who had run Microsoft’s business software division, and the first non-Finnish chief executive, would not give interviews yet. He began work on Sept. 21, and is spending his first weeks meeting with Nokia employees, suppliers, phone operators and software developers.

“I am sure there are things we could have done better and innovations we missed,” Ms. Suominen added. “But that happens to all companies. We have been very successful with some other innovations.”

She cited Nokia’s large patent portfolio and its 770 Internet Tablet, a compact, flat-screen device without a phone, released in 2005. It worked with a pen stylus and was made for Internet browsing but is no longer sold.

Henry Tirri, who leads Nokia’s long-term research unit, mentioned the development of Chinese character recognition, a social networking service for India and software that makes panoramic photos from a series of images. None have been matched by rivals, he said. But none have been game changers, as the iPhone was.

Mr. Tirri, whose unit has about 600 employees at 12 sites worldwide, said the company was trying to change its culture. “We have made a real effort to transform and open the research channels” since 2004, he said. ( CONTINUE )

Nokia’s Bureaucracy Stifled Innovation, Ex-Managers Say

A few years before Apple introduced the iPhone, research engineers at Nokia prepared a prototype of an Internet-ready, touch-screen handset with a large display, which they thought could give the company a powerful advantage in the fast-growing smartphone market.

The prototype was demonstrated to business customers at Nokia’s headquarters in Finland as an example of what was in the company’s pipeline, according to a former employee who made the 2004 presentation in Espoo.

But management worried that the product could be a costly flop, said the former employee, Ari Hakkarainen, a manager responsible for marketing on the development team for the Nokia Series 60, then the company’s premium line of smartphones. Nokia did not pursue development, he said.

“It was very early days, and no one really knew anything about the touch screen’s potential,” Mr. Hakkarainen explained. “And it was an expensive device to produce, so there was more risk involved for Nokia. So management did the usual. They killed it.”

As Nokia’s new chief executive, Stephen Elop, takes over this month, he faces a formidable task: to regain the company’s lost ground in the smartphone segment of the global phone market, especially in the United States, while maintaining its worldwide dominance as the largest maker of mobile phones.

His biggest obstacle, according to Mr. Hakkarainen, as well as two other former employees and industry analysts, may well be Nokia’s stifling bureaucratic culture. In interviews, Mr. Hakkarainen and the other former employees depicted an organization so swollen by its early success that it grew complacent, slow and removed from consumer desires. As a result, they said, Nokia lost the lead in several crucial areas by failing to fast-track its designs for touch screens, software applications and 3-D interfaces.

In 2004, one said, the company rejected an early design for a Nokia online applications store — an innovation that Apple, Nokia and other handset makers adopted three years later. Nokia also did not improve its Symbian operating system, needed to support a more sophisticated smartphone. And though it introduced the industry’s first touch-screen devices in 2003 — the 6108 and 3108 phones, which worked with a stylus — it did not perfect the technology to fingertip precision before Apple did.

Nokia still lacks a convincing response to the iPhone. Last week it announced that software errors would delay shipments of its long-awaited N8 touch-screen phone.

A Nokia spokeswoman, Arja Suominen, declined to address any specific criticisms by the three former employees, playing down their roles. They were, she said, “managers with individual roles or leaders of small teams.”

She also said that Mr. Elop, 46, a Canadian who had run Microsoft’s business software division, and the first non-Finnish chief executive, would not give interviews yet. He began work on Sept. 21, and is spending his first weeks meeting with Nokia employees, suppliers, phone operators and software developers.

“I am sure there are things we could have done better and innovations we missed,” Ms. Suominen added. “But that happens to all companies. We have been very successful with some other innovations.”

She cited Nokia’s large patent portfolio and its 770 Internet Tablet, a compact, flat-screen device without a phone, released in 2005. It worked with a pen stylus and was made for Internet browsing but is no longer sold.

Henry Tirri, who leads Nokia’s long-term research unit, mentioned the development of Chinese character recognition, a social networking service for India and software that makes panoramic photos from a series of images. None have been matched by rivals, he said. But none have been game changers, as the iPhone was.

Mr. Tirri, whose unit has about 600 employees at 12 sites worldwide, said the company was trying to change its culture. “We have made a real effort to transform and open the research channels” since 2004, he said. ( CONTINUE )

Baby Blues

Baby Blues

A mild form of depression that many women experience after childbirth. It may be caused by a combination of factors, including hormonal changes, the realization that one’s life is changed with the addition of another person to care for, and the tiredness that naturally occurs after childbirth. A supportive family can be helpful at this time. Usually the “blues” disappear within a few weeks; if a woman continues to experience depression for an ongoing period—and particularly if her ability to care for her baby is hindered by her moods—professional help should be sought.

The Red Planet

The Red Planet

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is named after the ancient Roman god of war. Since the planet is red in color, it also called the “red planet.”

Mars is half the size of Earth. Its thin air is made up mainly of carbon dioxide and other gases, so we wouldn’t be able to breathe it. And the Martian surface is much colder than Earth’s is. Two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, orbit Mars.

The first spacecraft to fly close to Mars was Mariner 4, in 1965. In the 1970s two Viking spacecraft landed there, and in July 1997 Mars Pathfinder set down. These efforts sent back from Mars soil sample reports, pictures, and other data—but no proof of life.

Because of similarities between Mars and Earth, however, scientists think there could be some form of life on Mars. Like Earth, Mars has ice caps at both poles. But its ice caps are composed mostly of solid carbon dioxide, or dry ice. Liquid water has not been seen on the surface of Mars. However, billions of years ago there may have been large lakes or even oceans on Mars.

Also like Earth, Mars has different seasons. Mars takes 687 Earth days to go around the Sun once. This means its year is almost twice as long as ours. But since it spins on its axis once every 24 hours and 37 minutes, its day is just about the same.

Despite being small, Mars has the largest volcano in our solar system, Olympus Mons. It stands about three times higher than Earth’s highest point, Mount Everest, and covers an area just a bit smaller than the entire country of Poland.

Cocaine

Cocaine

An addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system and induces feelings of euphoria. Cocaine is most often found in the form of white powder and is typically ingested by inhaling or “snorting,” usually through a straw or other tube, into the nose. It can also be injected into the veins. After conversion back to its base form, cocaine can be smoked, which is known as “free-basing.”

Cocaine use can lead to severe psychological and physical dependence. It can increase the pulse, blood pressure, body temperature and respiratory rate. Paranoid psychosis, hallucinations and other mental health problems can result from cocaine use. Cocaine use also causes bleeding and other damage to nasal passages. Cocaine-related heart and respiratory failure can lead to death.

In pregnancy, cocaine use endangers the unborn child, who may be born prematurely, with low birth weight, a variety of serious birth defects and later learning and behavioral problems. Crack is a form of cocaine base that is smoked and is most highly addictive. Cocaine is sometimes used with other drugs. The cocaine-heroin combination is called a “speedball,” and the cocaine-PCP mixture is known as “space base.” Different users react to the drug in different ways. However, many experience an instant feeling of enormous pleasure known as a “rush.” Initially it may also make the user feel energetic and selfconfident. However, the pleasurable feelings produced by cocaine are followed by depression and fatigue, known as a “crash.” To avoid the “crash,” users take more cocaine, establishing a cycle of use and dependency that is extremely difficult to end and often requires lengthy treatment.

Estimates of Cocaine Usage and Costs

During 2000 there were an estimated 1,707,000 chronic cocaine users and 3,035,000 occasional cocaine users in the United States. According to What America’s Users Spend on Illegal Drugs, users spent $35.3 billion on cocaine in 2000, a decrease from the $69.9 billion spent in 1990. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Results From the 2002 National Survey of Drug Use and Health: National Findings found that more than 33 million people ages 12 and older (14.4 percent) in 2002 reported that they had used cocaine at least once in their lifetime. More than 8 million Americans (3.6 percent) ages 12 and older had used crack cocaine at least once in their lifetime.

Treatment for cocaine use

Researchers are working to identify and test medications for treating cocaine addiction. One medication is Selegiline, which seems to be the most promising experimental medication, according to the Monitoring the Future Study. Another medication, disulfiram, which has been used to treat alcoholism, has been effective in treating cocaine abuse in clinical trials. Often antidepressants are prescribed to help people cope with the mood changes that come with withdrawal from cocaine use.

Treatments such as cognitive-behavioral coping skills focusing on the learning process have been effective in cocaine addiction but are a short-term approach. Behavioral treatment is useful to help people recognize, avoid and cope with situations when they are most likely to use cocaine.

Legislation and medical use

Cocaine falls under Schedule II of the Controlled Substance Act. A Schedule II Controlled Substance has a high potential for abuse but is currently accepted for medical use in treatment in the United States, which means it is occasionally administered by a doctor for legitimate medical uses, such as for a local anesthetic for some eye, ear and throat surgeries.

Cocaine is produced from the coca leaf in two stages to yield coca paste and then cocaine base. The coca leaf is grown primarily in Peru, Bolivia and, to a lesser extent, Colombia. The conversion to the white crystalline powder form, cocaine HCl, is done primarily in Colombia but occurs elsewhere in the Andean region.