Taking a gentle stroll for just 30 minutes daily is the key to longer life. Everybody can walk, and walking is actually a fun thing to do especially that you get to explore your surroundings, meet people, and of course reduce the risks of certain diseases. It helps in losing weight, lowers blood pressure, reduces depression, stress, and back pain. Even Researchers have carried out the study and found that a daily walk to the shops can cut the risk of early death by 20 per cent.

From yahoo.com:

London, July 18 (IANS) There is no need to spend hours on a treadmill to become fit, as the key to a longer life could be as simple as taking a gentle stroll for just half an hour a day.

According to experts, a daily walk to the shops can cut the risk of early death by 20 percent, reports express.co.uk.

‘Our research confirms that it is not just exercising hard that is good for you. Even moderate, everyday activities like walking and cycling can have major health benefits,’ James Woodcock of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said.

‘Just walking to the shops or walking the children to school can lengthen your life – as well as bringing other benefits for well-being and the environment,’ he added.

‘It is a very important message to get across, that small amounts of light to moderate activity on a regular basis will have quite large benefits.’

The study, carried out by researchers at Cambridge University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, said the maximum health benefits were found in people who hardly did any physical activity.

‘Large benefits were found in people going from being a couch potato to doing some activity,’ said Woodcock.

Diet and movement specialist Joanna Hall agreed with Woodcock and said: ‘This research is so encouraging because many people are under the impression that in order to incur health, fitness and weight loss benefits they need to exercise vigorously and this is simply not the case.’

‘The main barriers for people being more physically active are lack of time and the perception that the amount of effort required will be large. This research shows these needn’t be a concern,’ she added.

Fitness expert Kathryn Freeland said: ‘Anything is better than nothing – going for a walk or playing football with the kids. There is no need to join a gym.’

Just imagine all the benefits that this simple exercise can do to your health. The key, however, lies on how determined you are to spare a few minutes of your time to do it. Once you start doing it, you would definitely see the results.

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During the 63rd World Health Assembly, ministers are locked in a debate on how to combat healthcounterfeit medicines.

The watchdog group, the Pharmaceutical Security Institute recorded as many as 2,000 incidents of counterfeit medicines in the year 2009, which is an increase of more than 9 percent from the year 2008.

From www1.voanews.com:

“Most counterfeiters will, because if you think of the required skill that goes into the production of a medicine in order to fool the health authorities, to fool the public, to fool law enforcement, they have to be of a good quality …  So, therefore what they do not want are law enforcement after them too soon, and so they will often put the active ingredient into the actual production,” How said. “So, therefore, the active ingredient has to move around the world.”

The World Health Organization is finding it difficult to keep the debate at the assembly focused on the health impacts of counterfeit medicines.

Countries such as India and Brazil, which are major manufacturers of generic drugs, accuse the pharmaceutical industry of using the issue of counterfeit drugs to protect their patents against generic competitors.

They say the World Health Organization is helping this effort.  The Director of WHO’s Essential Medicines Program, Hendrick Hogerzeil, refutes these charges.

The World Health Organization cautioned consumers to be extremely wary when buying medicines over the Internet as most of them can be illegitimate and may even result in death.

Vitamins and minerals are must for maintaining good health. In this blog, we would be reading about Vitamin A, which is required by the body for vision and other functions.

In this busy world of today featured by hectic lifestyles, we forget to concentrate on healthy diet. Moreover, most of us tend to survive themselves on fast foods such as Pizza that are easy and fast to cook and eat besides saving time and efforts. But during all this, we forget about needs of our body and its vitamins’ requirements. It is worth noting here that deficiency of vitamins can be a major cause of lots of health problems like deficiency of vitamin A can make us more susceptible to infectious diseases and vision problems. Let us read more about vitamin A and how its deficiency can put a slowdown on dreams of good health.

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that helps form and maintains healthy teeth, skin, and skeletal tissues. It also promotes good vision. Let us now read about some sources of this vitamin to develop a clear understanding.

Vitamin A can be found in green vegetables, eggs, meat, milk, cheese, cream, liver, kidney, cod, carrots, and halibut fish oil.

It is important to note here that both deficiency and overdose of vitamin A can lead to severe health complications. While deficiency of Vitamin A can lead to infectious diseases and vision problems, overdose of this vitamin can lead to birth defects in the new born child besides being more sensitive and sick than normal children on adequate vitamin A supply.

Tips and Precautions

The use of vitamin A pills or supplements must always be initiated after a qualified medical practitioner has recommended such use. This will help in avoiding possible side effects due to abuse of this vitamin.