High Dose Vitamin C 1000 mg Prevent and Treat Common Cold?

Season's erratic lately made a lot of people affected by common cold. My friends are also many who suffer from the flu. The disease which often caused by rhinovirus is indeed very disturbing activities. A lot of friends put up a facebook status associated with the disease symptoms such as fever, runny nose, etc. Some health products also take advantage of this opportunity. These products offer health supplements that contain vitamin C 1000 mg. No half-hearted, they dare to say that consumption of high doses of vitamin C can prevent and treat colds. In fact, some drinks containing 1000 mg of ascorbic acid suggesting that we take vitamin supplements three times daily. Do we really need vitamin C 1000 mg daily? Does high-dose vitamin C good for our health?

Treatment for common cold mainly to relieve symptoms. Nasal decongestan and paracetamol is very useful in relieving nasal congestion and fever. Sometimes, anti-flu drugs also contains anti histamine for allergic reactions which are also frequently accompanies with the common cold. Antibiotics should be avoided in the treatment of cold. Some studies mention that the use of antibiotics are not useful in handling the cold. Irrational use of antibiotics in the treatment of flu in fact increase bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Vitamin C is believed to be useful in the treatment of common cold. Vitamin C had been shown to boost immunity. The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine recommends that we consume the vitamin C of about 75-90 mg / day. Smokers need additional vitamin C 35 mg / day higher. However, some commercial products so excited in the community suggest that taking vitamin C with doses much higher than recommended doses. In fact, they suggested that we should increase the intake of vitamin C to 3 x 1000 mg/day when we get the flu. Whether the increased intake of vitamin C at the time we feel flu-like symptoms would be useful?

Some researchers from the University of Wyoming interested in study this phenomenon. They were to study literature from several studies on vitamin C to determine the role of vitamin C in treating the common cold. Consumption of vitamin C 200 mg / day on a regular basis can reduce the duration of cold symptoms. However, regular consumption of vitamin C supplements did not prevent a cold. Regular consumption of vitamin C also does not reduce severity. What about the increased consumption of vitamin C at the time we get the cold? Apparently, this is also not useful. Increased intake of vitamin C at the time we begin to feel flu-like symptoms did not reduce the duration and severity of disease. Vitamin C is water-soluble vitamins. Thus, vitamin C with very high doses will not be absorbed because it will happen saturation levels of vitamin C in blood. Excessive vitamin C will only be removed through the urine and are thought to cause kidney stones. Some studies also mention that consumption of vitamin C more than 2000 mg/day can cause adverse effects on the gastrointestinal system and tooth erosion because this vitamin is a acid substance.

Then, how many doses of vitamin C, which should we eat regularly? Some studies mention that we should consume approximately vitamin C 200 mg/day. Consumption of vitamin C more than 500 mg / day is not recommended. To understand why we need vitamin C with this dose, we need to know the pharmacokinetics of vitamin C. Check out this blog continues ..

References:

Giunta, J. L., 1993. Dental erosion resulting from chewable vitamin C tablets. Journal of the American Dental Association, 107, 253–256.

Goldenring, J., 2007. Vitamin C and colds. VeriMed Healthcare Network. Retrieved September 7, 2007, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/
002145.htm

Heimer, K.A., Hart, A.M., Martin, L.G., 2009. Examining the evidence for the use of vitamin C in the prophylaxis and treatment of the common cold. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners 21, 295-300

Champion League Final and Regional Leader Election 2010

Yesterday, three districts in Yogyakarta held local elections. In Bantul district, there are three potential candidates for regional heads. Although the regional campaign is not as busy as the national election campaign, the enthusiasm of residents to welcome the regional elections is quite high. This can be seen on the eve of election day atmosphere.

On Saturday night, residents gathered. In addition to preparing the ballot, residents also gather while waiting for the champion league final. Champion League 2010 was quite unexpected. The finalists are not team that has been predicted. For inter milan, this year was the first year in the final after years of failure in the previous round. Bayern Munich also had to work hard to reach the final, even they have lost playmaker mainstay after exposure to a suspension at the time of the semi-finals. Time went by quickly because people were chatting to wait for the game started.

The game began. I really hope Bayern Munich will be the winner on champion league 2010. German's club controls the match. However, the strategy made by Mourinho really effective in dampening the Munich attack. Although controlling the game, they were unable to penetrate the defense of Inter Milan. Catastrophe for Bayern Munich came in the 40th minute. Milito scored the first goal and Inter Milan lead 1-0. The score stood until the first half. In the second half, Van Gaal trained troops increasingly aggressive in attacking. They control 60% of the game. However, Mourinho's tactics are very bright. Again Inter Milan has counter-attacked very fast. Milito scored one goal again. Inter Milan were winning 2-0. Viewing 2-0 Inter already, I was pessimistic that Munich can catch up. Munich is famous as a team that often changed circumstances. They are often fail on first half and then turned superior. However, seeing the inter milan game, I thought Munich would be very difficult to produce a goal. Until the 93rd minute, a score of 2-0 did not change. I also went to sleep.

In the midst of sleep, I thought I heard the sound megaphone. The voice warned residents to immediately come to a vote. However, I feel very lazy to get up. I fell asleep again. When I awoke, my sister told me that candidates for the head area "Sukadarma" win in my area. Apparently, "my hero" lost again. I think "my hero" both in local elections and in the Champions League final in 2010 was not lucky.

Is she a victim of key logger?

This morning, a friend of mine says that her facebook account has hacked. Is she a victim of the key logger? A few days ago, she's birthday. Yet, somehow she can get this very special gift. She said that during the few days she could not open her facebook account. I do not know if she actually became victims of hack or even just a connection problem because some speedy users are also often complained about the difficulty of access to facebook because of the DNS problems. Sharply increasing popularity of facebook, facebook account become a great interest to hackers, including keylogger.

A few days ago I read an article about Facebook Hacking in a forum. How to steal a facebook account can be done in various ways. The most popular facebook hacking is social engineering. The majority of facebook users share information about themselves on Facebook profiles. Email account could also be easily viewed by others. This is a gap that can be used by hackers to steal our facebook account. Hackers can get our email passwords using the password reminder facility. With this facility, we can get our passwords simply by answering some security questions. Hackers may know the answers to security questions just by reading the information in facebook profile. Besides social engineering, password thieves often use the fake login page to get the person account. Hackers will lead the victim to open a fake login page. If the victim is not careful, he will not realize that he has submitted his username and password to the hacker via the fake login page. Both will require creative ways to deceive the victim. There are more sophisticated ways to get someone's account, using the key logger. We just need to insert this tool to get the victim's facebook account. Key logger is not only able to steal facebook account. This tool can also be used to monitor the online activities of someone who performed on that computer. We must be vigilant when using public computers because these computers could have been installed key logger. In addition, to safeguard the personal computer, we must install internet security software. However, this method is also not 100% safe because there are some spyware that can penetrate this security system.

Is my friend's facebook is the victim of account theft? In my opinion, there may be people who are interested in stealing my friend's facebook accounts because she was very beautiful. Maybe the hackers want to collect photographs of my friends owned it. Another possibility is that her boyfriend was the one who put key logger to monitor online activities undertaken by his girlfriend. As a person close to the victim, the boyfriend was able to freely enter a key logger to her girlfriend. He was able to track onlince chat activities conducted by his girlfriend.

Coffee increased risk of Cardiovascular Disease, still a controversy

Coffee is widely consumed beverages in the world, especially in Indonesia. Coronary heart disease is now also one cause of death in the world. Two of these are often linked. Many people said coffee causes heart disease. This has become very interesting questions to be investigated. Some research on the relationship of coffee and heart disease was mostly done since several decades ago. However, until now, the effect of coffee on heart health is still a controversy.

Number of substances contained in coffee drinks has caused both beneficial effects and adverse effects on human health. Some adverse effects caused by the presence of diterpene and caffeine contained in coffee. Coffee contains two kinds of diterpene, they are cafestol and kahweol. In vitro studies showed that these two substances increased serum cholesterol. Normally, when cells need cholesterol, LDL receptor would be activated to bind to the LDL then brought cholesterol from outside the cell to enter the cell. However, diterpene inhibit the activity of LDL receptors so that the LDL accumulate in the circulation and cause an increase in serum cholesterol. Increased serum cholesterol can cause atherosclerosis, risk factor for coronary heart disease. Besides diterpenes, substances that cause adverse effects is caffeine. Although several studies have shown that caffeine has beneficial effects for health, Animal studies indicate that caffeine may damage and disrupt kidney function. Several epidemiology studies also show that caffeine could increase blood pressure. Caffeine increased levels of several stress hormones such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. The increase of stress hormones causes increased blood pressure.

On the other hand, coffee also contains many polyphenols which are antioxidants. Polyphenols which is widely available in coffee is chlorogenic acid (CGA). Several studies have shown that CGA has antioxidants activities that can prevent LDL oxidation, protects endothelial, reducing free radicals, and lower glucose levels. Possibly, the antioxidant activity offset adverse effects of some substances contained in coffee. This can be seen from several studies showing an increase in blood pressure due to cola consumption but no association between coffee consumption and blood pressure. Coffee and cola, both contain caffeine. However, cola does not contain polyphenols, while coffee contains many polyphenols.

Some research suggests that the effect of coffee on the heart varies greatly among individuals. It is caused by genetic factors. This resulted in differences in metabolism of the substances contained in coffee. Different effects could also be caused due to differences in ways of processing coffee. Different coffee processing causes differences in yields of substances contained in coffee.

Some meta-analysis showed that there was no relationship between coffee consumption and increased risk of coronary heart disease. Several cohort studies even show that coffee consumption can reduce the risk of heart disease in women. No studies that answer why the effect of coffee on the heart is also influenced by gender. Possibly, these different effects caused by different habits between men and women. Generally, a person who is very fond of drinking coffee also has a habit of smoking. Smoking habits are more often committed by men than by women. In fact, smoking is usually associated with several unhealthy lifestyles such as lack of exercise and physical activity. So, we must maintain a healthy lifestyle to prevent heart disease.

References:

Bonita JS, Mandarano M, Shuta D, Vinson J. Coffee and cardiovascularnext term disease: In vitro, cellular, animal, and human studies. Nutritional Pharmacology 2007; 55(3): 187-198

Wu J, Ho SC, Zhou C, Ling W, Chen W, Wang C, Chen Y. Coffee consumption and risk of coronary heart diseases: A meta-analysis of 21 prospective cohort studies. International Journal of Cardiology 2009; 137: 216-225.

Coffee prevent diabetes

Coffee is beverages that often accompany us at night. When we are sleepy, we often drink coffee to make us stay awake and keep warm. While we're relaxing with friends, we are not rarely drink coffee to warm the atmosphere. Now, drink beverages containing caffeine is very often associated with several diseases such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, neurological disease, kidney stones, diabetic, and several other diseases. Is that myth true? Some studies even prove the health benefits of coffee consumption. Coffee can reduce risk of diabetes.

Diabetes is a disease that is strongly influenced by lifestyle. Many factors affect that disease. Research in Netherlands showed that coffee consumption is inversely proportional to the risk of diabetes. The study was strengthened by studies conducted in Finland. Research involving more than 16,000 Finnish people are proving that people who drink coffee have a lower risk of diabetes than people who do not drink coffee. How coffee can prevent diabetes?

Coffee contains about 11 mg of magnesium per 100 g of dried coffee. These substances may increase insulin sensitivity so that the work of insulin in regulating blood glucose levels become more effective.

Apart from the content of Magnesium, coffee can also lower blood glucose because it contains chlorogenic acid. These substances can inhibit the activity of glucose-6-phosphatase. The enzyme is an enzyme that plays a role in breakdown glycogen into glucose. Inhibitions on this enzyme can inhibit the increase of blood glucose levels. Chlorogenic acid is an antioxidant polyphenol. Beside inhibition of glycogenolysis enzymes, antioxidants can also maintain blood glucose levels by inhibiting the absorption of glucose in intestines. But, unfortunately, roasting in processing coffee beans reduce the content of chlorogenic acid.

The content of caffeine is in coffee also play a role in preventing diabetes. Caffeine stimulates the insulin-producing cells in pancreas. This stimulation is very useful for people who are at risk of type 2 diabetes. Just like magnesium, caffeine may also increase insulin sensitivity.

To prevent diabetes, coffee consumption was also not helpful if not accompanied by a healthy lifestyle. As we know, diabetes is influenced by many factors especially the lifestyle. Sedentary life style is one of the risk of diabetes. Therefore, regular exercise will be very useful to prevent this disease. In addition, we also need to adjust our diet. If we consume too many carbohydrates and sugars, it can also be a risk for developing diabetes.

If diabetes can be prevented with coffee consumption, what about other diseases like heart disease and hypertension? Is that true that coffee increases the risk of heart disease and hypertension?

References
Tuomilehto J, Hu G, Bidel S, Lindström J, Jousilahti P. Coffee Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among Middle-aged Finnish Men and Women. JAMA. 2004;291:1213-1219.
Van Dam RM, Feskens EJ. Coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Lancet. 2002;360:1477-1478