WOMEN! SLEEP LEFT-SIDED AND GET ALL THE HEALTH BENEFITS

How many of women sleep on their left sides? I know many of you may say it’s not so convenient while a few others rarely try it and even when they do, it may be just for a few minutes before the zzzzzz of sleep takes over with them turning back to their favourite and many times, unhealthy positions.

The good news is that there are a lot of benefits for sleeping on your left sides especially as women.

I have always known that sleep is a ‘no debate’ issue and a most needed requirement for everyone who desire to live a good and as well a healthy life. It is too important for our overall health that just one night of ‘missed sleep’ can start a lot of havoc for you and your day including messing up some of your goals set for the week.

The lack of sleep according to experts can lead to many sicknesses and diseases a lot of person battle with in life and it is said to be associated with many dreadful diseases such as heart disease.

However, inasmuch as we all require sleep to live a healthy life and enhanced bodily functions, I just read a post on babiesdailynews site that wrong sleeping positions/posture for women, can also be detrimental to your health hence it is admonished that the best position for sleeping especially for women should be on their left sides while cautioning that those who have had heart problems in the past should not engage in it.

The following are some of the health benefits of sleeping left-sided as culled from the post.

One it helps for a better elimination of waste products from the body especially for many people who find it hard to ‘do it’ easily. It is said that the gravitational forces when you sleep on your left side, aids the food in moving easily from the small intestine to the large intestine. So the waste from the large intestine dumps into the colon gradually and slowly thereby enabling the colon to get ready for the elimination of all waste a lot more easily and the next morning.

Another benefit is that it helps women to sleep better during pregnancy as it is understood that the left-sided position can prevent the liver from applying pressure on the uterus thereby promoting blood circulation to it as well as improved blood flow to the fetus while relieving back pain in the pregnant woman.

However, it does not only relieve back pain for pregnant women but also help people with chronic back pain even as such persons are cautioned against sleeping on their backs as sleeping on their left sides can release the pressure on their spines thereby reducing their chronic back pains.

   

Furthermore, it is no doubts that many people know that the pancreas and the stomach make the digestive enzymes in the body, to help the digestion, hence when you sleep on the left side, the stomach and pancreas hang comfortably and thus have adequate space to carry out digestion. The gravity allows the food to move through the stomach in a continuing manner even as the pancreatic enzymes gradually release as required. It is alleged that when you sleep on the right side, these organs are in an uncomfortable position thereby causing the food and enzymes to empty into the stomach all at once triggering discomfort and disrupted digestion.

Still going further, on the benefits of left-sided sleeping position, it is assumed that it can help in reducing heartburn by reducing acid reflux and clear out the existing acid which can go into the esophagus if one sleeps on the wrong side which could lead to heartburn as our stomachs are situated on the left side of the body.

   

Nevertheless, it is advised that whenever you feel heartburn soon after eating, it would do a lot of good and relief to try lying down on your left side for at least 10 minutes.

Finally, an interesting benefit for sleeping on the left is that it could relieve varicose veins for many who suffer from such hence it is recommended as it is supposed that it helps by taking pressure off a large vein which is located on the right side of the body.

So, there you have it all. What are you waiting for? Go try it out, starting tonight and I hope it starts working wonders in a couple of days. *Smiles*.

Stay healthy!

ENDURE CHICKEN 'SMELL' WHILE YOU SLEEP AND BE HAPPY BY MORNING - SCIENTISTS

Do you have a poultry in your house or do you have access to a poultry? Anyhow it turns, whether you have or have access to poultry, this could mean good news for many of you in any of the categories, depends on how you receive the news though. *winks*

Recently, a group of Ethiopian scientists reported that they have discovered from their research that ‘chicken smell’ can repel mosquitos as the smell seemed repulsive to the insects thereby giving way for new way of preventing malaria which is still killing thousands of people every year especially in Africa.

According to Professor Habte Tekie who led the team of insect experts who went into proper investigation after they noticed that mosquitos stayed away from chickens but would rather bite human and other animals, told AFP that “We went into the chemical basis involved in repelling malaria mosquitoes by odours emanating from the chickens… The results show that compounds from chicken have very good potential as repellent. One theory for their behaviour is that mosquitoes see chickens as a predator, so seek to avoid them.

  

The group of scientists were said to have used three villages in western Ethiopia as their population sample by carrying out tests which revealed that the group of families that slept overnight underneath a chicken in a cage were not bitten by mosquitos all night while those whose homes were without indoor poultry were not  spared by the mosquitos.

Now many people will say that looks and sounds weird especially when you have to imagine a chicken cage over your head while you sleep at night. Laughs.

You are not alone because I and many others who have also discussed it also think it is not only weird but gross.  Someone actually said sounds not only weird but would term it a sort of ‘ritual’ on seeing it if he walked into one of those homes sampled in Ethiopia.

Understandably, the scientist s are not ignorant to peoples’ concerns that it would be a ‘long walk in the park’ for many to sleep underneath chicken cages tried another method which as a follow-up experiment by supplying the same sampled villages with vials of chicken extract which revealed similar results thereby proving another step further that mosquitos really get repulsed by the mere smell of chicken.  

So, is this good news or not?

For me, I think if properly refined and looked into given the proposed collaboration as  published in the medical publication Malaria Journal that the findings will be used in a new collaboration with Swedish scientists to develop an odourless repellent, then it should be received as ‘good news’ even as Professor Tekie has affirmed that  “This repellent will be safe for human use, (with) no residues contaminating soil or water or poisoning people and it can easily be integrated into malaria control operations,”.

We truly hope this turns out right as Malaria which according to the World Health Organization  killed about 438,000 people in 2015,  is still ravaging and threatening thousands not only in Ethiopia but also other African nations and sadly, scientists are yet to come up with an accepted vaccine as research is still ongoing hence we have to keep our hopes alive that the ‘chicken stock’ alternative may very well turn out the ‘way out’ of the fight against malaria even as the scientists have acknowledged that  it will be  “entirely natural,” and the chance of mosquitoes developing resistance “minimal”.

So let’s keep our fingers crossed and our hearts at rest since we are now assured that we wouldn’t have to sleep with chicken cages over our beds.

SAVE YOUR HEALTH, SAVE YOUR MONEY!

With the rains here now, mosquitos are sure having a fields day/swell time with many Nigerians on the losing end as malaria hits after the mosquitoes’ feast. The mosquitos have being chased out of their hideouts where they obviously have been hibernating in their thousands or  millions for a long time but have now launched out to deal with many who cannot afford sleeping nets or good insecticides, repellant or fumigation on a regular basis.

That is the lot of many in my country as we speak. Oh I meant ‘read’.

A few days ago, I decided to get a new can of repellant having not slept a wink the night before due to the ever buzzing and a few bites from ‘mosquidragons’. So, on my way home from work, I stopped at a supermarket and asked for a particular brand of insecticide which has proven time and time again ‘over effective’ on mosquitos than any other tried in the past.

Sadly, I was disappointed after a few minutes of going round the store only to realize the desired brand was in stock but only in a much bigger content can and of course more expensive without even a single regular ‘smaller’ can in stock.

We all know how ‘sweet’ the economy is at the moment *winks* in terms of cash flow. So I made a quick mental calculation and decided even though unenthusiastically to settle for another very popular brand which was cheaper as I needed to buy other needed items for the home.

Interestingly, the popular brand eventually bought, used to be my favourite until I discovered this ‘my sought after’ brand even though people still consider the popular brand a most effective one as not many have realized how effective my ‘sought after’ brand is with its odourless form unlike the smell from the popular brand which gives me headaches even long after it has being sprayed around the house.

‘My sought after’ brand sends mosquitos away and on exile without reserves around the house even though not many people know it for now yet everyone who have been introduced to it can attest to the fact that it is indeed a brand to be reckoned with.

Enough said already on the brand. Name will be revealed once the company credits my bank account. *smiles*.

Back to my story.

And so I settled for the ‘popular’ affordable one but that was my own undoing as ‘yours sincerely’ did not still get to sleep any better than the night before the purchase as the popular brand bought repelled NOTHING!

Feeling really bad and almost depressed by the next morning with the thoughts of how my desired brand should have being bought if only I had added a little to the amount used in purchasing the popular brand, I no doubts would have slept better as all the mosquitos would have gone to ‘roast’ without any apologies from my sought after brand. It was a case of ‘penny wise, pound foolish’, right?

While I was contemplating on buying the sought after brand the next day irrespective of the amount, it then occurred to me that there should be a few mosquito nets in the house which were bought to be used but were never touched because nobody welcomed the idea of nets over their beds at the time I brought them home so I guess they were simply put away without even opening one of the packs.

And so, like a dedicated soldier at work, I went into the closets in search and within a couple of minutes, “voila” I was out with four packs of treated mosquito nets and so without bothering myself about the disappointed looks on the faces of the rest of the family, I tore the packs open and gave an order for them to be aired outside till I returned from work and of course when I returned home later in the evening, they had no choice but to assist, even though reluctantly,  in setting up the nets on the beds.

My testimony in all of these is that, I have being sleeping like a baby EVERY NIGHT without even the slightest buzz or a single mosquito bite since the ‘nets went up’. Now I truly understand why World Health Organisation has being promoting the use of these nets, especially the treated ones in order to kick out malaria. I always felt the babies, children and nursing mothers alone should be forced to use them. Honestly, it makes a lot of sense for EVERYONE.

Don’t get me wrong on the use of pesticides and insecticides. I’m just espousing that we can actually save ourselves some monies and the troubles related to consistent inhaling of the chemicals used in producing these repellant as they remain in the air long after being sprayed notwithstanding the fact many a times some of these mosquitos surmount them. Laughs.

What am I reiterating?

Like the old time religion, use mosquito nets. Avoid too much exposure to insecticide as considerably as you can. Save your health and of course save your money.   

NO LIGHT, NO FUEL, NO BREEZE, NO SLEEP, NO WORK, NO MONEY! OH LORD HAVE MERCY!!

When Toni Braxton did the song “the heat” never did it occur to me that many years after, I would be thinking this way about it as every second of the day lately, nearly every statement I make has the word ‘heat’ in it. 

I would be having a conversation with someone whether on the phone or otherwise, the next thing that would slip out of my mouth after a few seconds would be such as “mehnn! This heat will finish someone” and the replies are nearly always the same as the person would concur “you can say that again” or “that’s no longer news”.

I had the longest night (in my life so far) yesterday as I spent more than half of the night trying to sleep but did a very bad job at it because I kept waking up after a few seconds of drifting off no thanks to NEPA, PHCN or is it IKDEC or whatever the new names are. Gosh! The heat was unbearable and after the generator set was turned off at midnight; it was ‘welcome to hell’ as the heat became a lot more intense.

While I was doing the job of tossing and turning all through the night, I cussed and swore at the several Discos in charge of light distribution in the country and the failing government who obviously have no inkling what next to do about the light/electricity issue which is no longer epileptic but now looks completely dead and just waiting to be buried.

Pardon me if you find any errors in this particular write-up as I’m practically half asleep and half-awake in the course of this piece. I’m in the office and trying to do some work, but you know, like the popular saying “you cannot cheat nature” the lost hours of sleep is trying to force me into fulfilling the required amount of sleep for a balanced active day-life and this is affecting manpower at work.

Away from me, I’m sure many others are on the same turf with me on this today, dozing off and on as well as cranky having had the same night experiences as I have had; and this on the long run would no doubts impact negatively on the micro/macro economy of our dear country Nigeria.

With fuel grossly unavailable and being sold at outrageous prices, it’s getting more difficult for even the rich who now also cry to run their gen sets for too long, not to talk of the average Nigerian let alone the masses who can at this point in time barely afford to have their daily meals.

Interestingly, even when you have the inverters, one still requires certain amount of steady supply of light to get it fully charged for the night and even at that “how long would the inverter last” especially in a family where every room has at least a fan.

Looking at it from another angle, it bothers me to think that even the environment is now so upset that the windows one normally enjoys a huge amount of fresh/cool breeze all through the night is now on a steady stand-still.

So, on behalf of teeming Nigerians, especially those who are not giving their best at work given the ‘lost hours of sleep’, I hereby make this clarion call to all those in charge of electricity and the government at large that the electricity system be brought back to life as not many people can afford the alternatives of inverters, solar et al.

It’s now a case of no light, no fuel, no breeze, no sleep, no work and no money! Oh Lord!! Have mercy and save our soul!!!

WHEN SLEEP CALLS! NOTHING ELSE COUNTS!!

Yesterday I was driving past Oshodi Express at about 6pm when I looked across the road to the opposite lane and my eyes caught a man whom I suspect was, from his looks, one of those boys also known as 'Agberos' who collect money from every commercial bus that ply the route.

This time, he wasn't running after any of the buses, rather, he laid on the culvert looking well balanced with his hands on the chest and was sleeping peacefully away inspite of all the heavy noise around the very busy Oshodi without a care in the world whether any vehicle could lose its brakes/control and ram into him while he slept.

The picture of the 'sleeping man' once again reminded me of the saying that 'one cannot cheat nature', some things such as sleep are so necessary that once they SERIOUSLY come calling, there's nothing anyone can do to stop them. When you are sleepy and tired, no one will need to compel you before you go Zzzzzzzing away.

I recall an incident from a couple of years back. To say I was tired on this day would be putting it mildly as I was VERY tired and so fagged out as an outcome of a very tedious week at work. I had this young man, who was also a colleague with me in the car and after driving for nearly an hour, we got stuck in traffic and while we waited for traffic to ease out, I put my head on the steering for a quick rest but slept off and the next thing, I was already dreaming when I woke up to blaring horns and my colleague nudging saying "madam, madam, what are you doing?".  Apparently before the nudge, he had  tried to wake me up for a bit by calling out to me as soon as the cars ahead of us moved. It was the blaring of horns from the cars

behind us that made him to start nudging when I didn't respond to his call. I woke up with a start and immediately moved the car but not without noticing the look on his face as though he was scared that I may have passed out when I didn't respond early enough. What if I was alone in the car? From that day, I swore never to drive when tired but to just stay somewhere and take at least a five/ten minutes nap before hitting the road. Every other thing can wait because if anything happens, the world will still go on without you.

Speaking about things waiting until it is the right time to do them, the other day it was reported that Kiss Daniel sent out a tweet reminding everyone not to use the phone while driving as he recently escaped getting hurt in an accident which occurred while he was sending messages and driving at the same time.When I heard the report, I laughed because at this stage we are in, no one needs to be told that it is very WRONG to drive and chat. Even a toddler knows it is wrong.

Stay safe, sleep when tired, while driving use your hands-free, park before taking that call or else ignore those calls as they can all wait!