Ayurveda- Simple Remedies for All Diseases

Ayurveda means “ayu” that is life and “Veda” that is science. Thus, Ayurveda is “the science of life”, which has always taken human body as a composition of five great elements or “Panchatatva”- earth, water, fire, air and space. As the human body is made of natural elements, Ayurveda always advocates its maintenance through natural ways. It advocates a lifestyle that is in sync with nature. It takes help of right diet to keep a person healthy. If, anyhow, there occur diseases, Ayurveda always depends upon herbs and herbal products for their cure. For example, it uses honey for curing simple diseases like cold and cough as well as more serious health problems like asthma and blood pressure. For maintaining strength and immunity, it administers various tonics made of such natural substance as walnuts, almonds, raisins, dates etc.

Ayurveda is not just for internal purification, it also helps one to look beautiful, the natural way. Not only this, it also helps to reduce weight by natural ways and suggests remedies for hair loss and balding. Whether it is about taking care of eyes or about first aid for common health problems like external bleeding, burns, cold, diarrhea etc. Ayurveda is always there to help out. Apart from all its herbal therapies and nutritional guidelines, Ayurveda represents massage as an easy way to stay healthy.

All these examples are meant to show how Ayurveda cleanses the internal system and beautifies the external look of a human body. If you want to know more about how all this is possible, read the Ayurvedic Tips

Menstrual Problems- Causes and Ayurvedic Treatment

Women often experience menstrual problems due to various reasons. These include, stress, unhealthy lifestyle and incorrect food habits. Menstrual pain is sometimes referred to as Dysmenorrhoea /Amenorrhoea. This is again sub categorized into Primary dysmenorrhea and Secondary dysmenorrhea. Primary dysmenorrhea is the result of uterine contractions stimulated by increased production of the hormone prostaglandin. Other causes include anxiety and stress, and displaced uterus. The causes of secondary dysmenorrhea include pelvic inflammatory disease, uterine fibroids, abnormal pregnancy, infection, tumors, or polyps in the pelvic cavity.

Read more about symptoms and treatment of Dysmenorrhoea /Amenorrhoea

Reduce Weight- Organize Your Day Carefully!

Do you feel that you are gradually gaining weight? Or you are already overweight and are trying hard to reduce weight? Does your motivation goes down often because of your not being able to achieve set targets? If your answer is yes then this article is for you. It will tell you how to reduce weight by natural ways. And you need not to worry about setting any targets- short term or long term. You just need to organize your day- your food habits and your work habits- in the correct way. And that's all! Know what is your ideal body weight. Now plan your day and calculate your body weight after 30 days (don't be tempted by the weighing machine every second day). Read the following tips to get an idea about how to plan your day so that your weight gets reduced gradually and permanently.

• After getting up in the morning, have a glass full of plain water. Increase the number to three glasses gradually ( increase one-fourth or half a glass every day). After having water, don't take anything for half an hour. After half an hour, have some warm water mixed with some lemon juice and honey.
• Cut your intake of caffeine (tea or coffee). Caffeine increases insulin in your body, which slows down the burning process of your stored fat. Take some alternative like green tea, herbal tea or lemon tea. If you can't have them, switch over to some fruit juice instead (no banana shake or mango juice!)
• Do some light exercise in the morning- some simple “yoga asanas” or stretching exercises will do. Walking is the best and the simplest exercise to do. Walk for at least 30 minutes. If you don't find time in the morning, walk in the evening and even in the lunch hour- walk any time but do walk!
• Take spicy foods (not fried food), particularly that which contains black pepper. It increases your metabolism by as much as 40%.
• Eat lesser amount of food for at least five times a day instead of three big meals. Take fiber rich food so that you don't feel hungry soon.
• Increase your fruit intake. Take them between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. This way you will also avoid eating more at meal times. And remember never to skip a meal!
• Don't go for fried and high calorie snacks and packaged food. If going out for lunch and dinner, go for light menus (something baked or steamed instead of fried). Cut back on sweets- sugar and carbohydrates increase weight alarmingly. Keep some roasted snacks in your office drawer to munch on when you experience those hunger pangs ( don't just run to the canteen and grab that samosa, pastry or patties)
• Pursue some active hobby in the evening- swimming, playing badminton, cycling, dance classes- anything that will burn your calories.
• Drink lots of water during the day- at least 8 to 10 glasses.
• Don't deprive yourself of your favorite food items ( chocolates, sweets etc.) for very long. Take them, in small quantities, after gap of some days (say 15 or 20 days) otherwise your body will not remain used to these foods. Eat less, eat right.

Don't get demoralized when after a month you don't reduce much weight. It takes some time to set the things off and reduction of fat gets faster as days go by. Just don't leave organizing your days in proper way- in healthy way.

Pharmaceutical Finished Formulations- An Overview

Pharmacy deals with all the aspects of turning chemicals into medications that can be safely used by patients. Raw chemicals, although having medicinal properties are of no use to a patient. Thus, the chemical substances are combined to produce a final medicinal product. This process of combining different chemical substances along with the active drug is called pharmaceutical formulation. The final medicinal products are known as pharmaceutical finished formulations. Pharmaceutical finished formulations, simply called drugs or medicines, are prepared in many forms.

Oral Formulations

They are the drugs that are consumed by patients and can be in the form of tablets or capsules.

Tablets: Tablets are made by mixing active substances with excipients. An excipient is an inactive substance which is used as a carrier for the active ingredients of a medication. The mixture is normally in powder form which is pressed or compacted to give solid composition to the tablets. The excipients include binders, glidants (flow aids) and lubricants to ensure effective tableting.

Capsules: When medicines are enclosed in a stable shell, they are known as a capsules. They can be hard-shelled capsules, which are generally used for dry, powdered ingredients, or they can be soft-shelled capsules, which are used for oils and other active ingredients that are dissolved or suspended in oil.

Topical Formulations

These medicines are applied externally to a particular part of the body. They can be in the form of cream, gel, ointment or powder.

Creams: Creams are semi-solid liquid preparation, which are mixtures of oil and water. They can be of two types - oil-in-water (O/W) creams and water-in-oil (W/O) creams. Although Oil-in-water creams are more comfortable and acceptable, most of the drugs are Water-in-oil creams as they can be released more readily in such a form.

Ointments: Ointments are viscous semisolid preparation used locally on many body surfaces. They can be applied on skin and mucus membranes of the eye, vagina, anus, and nose.

Gels: Gels are solid, jelly-like material which can have properties that range from soft and weak to hard and tough. They are also locally applied on various parts of body.

Powders: Powders are also one of the pharmaceutical finished formulations that are applied either internally or externally. They consist of one or many crushed substances.

Injections

Injections, sometimes also called “shots” are medicinal liquids that are infused into the patient's body with the help of a hollow needle and a syringe. Injections are administered through parenteral route, which means that they are administered other than through the digestive tract.