Saturday 12 March 2022

Health & Wellness : How to poop like a pro: Five tips to regulate bowel movement

How to poop like a pro: Five tips to regulate bowel movement

These five daily habits will help you go to the bathroom like clockwork.

By WALLA! Published: MARCH 9, 2022

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/nutrition/article-700756

Bamboo compostable toilet paper. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Would you be happy if we told you that your bowel movements can be timed with just a few simple tips?

Who wouldn’t want to know how to schedule bathroom appointments during the day to ensure that it happens at least once a day?

A normal bowel movement rate ranges from three times a day to three times a week. If you go too often, you may not completely empty your stool, or it might be too soft. If you don’t go often enough, it can lead to constipation, hemorrhoids and physical overexertion, which can weaken pelvic floor muscles and cause swelling, abdominal pain and even result in depression.

Constipation is one of the most common complaints related to the digestive system.

How common is constipation?

It is estimated that 16% of overall adults, and 33% of adults over age 60, suffer from constipation, which is a change in bowel habits: hard stools, few bowel movements, difficulty emptying completely, decreased bowel movement frequency, and sometimes feeling full even after bowel movements.

Fortunately, it is possible to get into a more regular, easier excretion schedule. These five tips will help you create a healthier and more timely relationship with your digestive system.

Eat more dietary fiber

Foods that contain insoluble dietary fiber which are excreted from the body as they are, without breakdown, can help other foods pass through your digestive tract.

Examples include: whole wheat bread, legumes, whole grain rice, pulses, vegetables and fruits.

But, before you change your diet completely, it is worth emphasizing that the transition to a high-fiber diet needs to be done gradually to avoid the side effects of bloating and — ironically — constipation.

Drink more water

Increasing the amount of water you drink throughout the day while eating more dietary fiber can significantly alleviate the feeling of constipation.

A study published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Hepato-Gastroenterology found that water absorption causes the intestines to function more efficiently and bring you a feeling of relief faster.

The experts recommend that women drink 6-8 glasses of water a day and men drink 8-12. Although many people know and recognize the importance of drinking lots of water daily, surveys conducted over the years repeatedly reveal that the vast majority of men don’t even get near the recommended amount.

Go to the bathroom after meals

You may be surprised but no matter what time, whether it’s in the morning before work, or when you’re relaxing at home in the evening, you can train your body to schedule its exits by going to the bathroom after meals.

How long after the meal should you go? About half an hour, according to experts. This is because eating food stimulates the reflex to push food towards the colon, which will trigger the urge.

Exercise regularly

Move things in the colon by moving your body.

A study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology showed that moderate exercise and increased fiber intake significantly reduced constipation in women.

We all spend a lot of time sitting around, especially since the pandemic began. Remember to stand and walk for five minutes every hour; if you can, go outside.

In addition, there are exercises designed to relax the pelvic muscles that can help with bowel movements such as curling into a fetal position and doing squats.

Add probiotics to your diet

One way to be sure you’re moving in the right direction to create a regular schedule is to check the consistency and texture of your poop.

If your bowel movements are still infrequent and the poop is hard, perhaps because you’re stressed or not drinking enough. The best way to solve this is to eat prunes and add probiotics to your diet via specific foods, like yogurt.

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Voles Trim Tall Grasses So They Can Watch The Skies For Incoming Predators

Nature's own lawnmowers! Voles trim tall grasses so they can watch the skies for any incoming predators, study reveals

Brandt's vole deliberately cuts non-edible plants to keep view of the skies clear
The species lives in underground burrows but has to come above ground to feed
The ingenious form of 'ecosystem engineering' helps save it from a brutal death

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:00 EST, 11 March 2022 | UPDATED: 11:30 EST, 11 March 2022

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In an attempt to survive a brutal death, voles trim tall grasses so they can watch the skies for any incoming predators, a new study reveals.

In Inner Mongolia, researchers tested how vole behaviour changes when there's an increased presence of predatory birds called shrikes.

When they sense there are more shrikes around, the tiny rodents cut bunchgrass to get a better view of exactly where the birds might strike from.

Voles don't eat or use the bunchgrass; they just cut it to keep themselves safe – an example of what's known as 'ecosystem engineering'.

The Brandt’s vole (pictured) trims tall grasses so it can watch the skies for flying predators, new research shows. The species lives in groups that mainly consist of close relatives, and each establishes a network of burrows underground

ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERING

Ecosystem engineers are organisms that modify or control the availability of resources to themselves or other species.

They do this by causing physical state changes in living or non-living materials.

Voles show ecosystem engineering by cutting grasses to improve their view of where aerial predators may be.

Meanwhile, wild horses and donkeys dig wells in the arid landscape to reveal subsurface water, which helps animals and plants survive.

Source: Jones et al. 1994

The new study was led by the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Northeast Normal University of China and the universities of Exeter and Florida.

Until now, little had been known about the consequences of engineering activity by prey species who modify the environment to reduce their risk of being eaten.

'When shrikes were present, the voles dramatically decreased the volume of bunchgrass,' said Dr Dirk Sanders at the Environment and Sustainability Institute on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

'This led to fewer visits from shrikes – which apparently recognise cut-grass areas as poor hunting grounds.

'An activity like this is costly for the voles in terms of energy, so there must be high "selection pressure" to do it – cutting the grass must significantly improve their chances of survival.'

For the vole, cutting grass to get a better view of the skies is likely deemed a better option than simply using the grass for hiding.

This is because the shrike uses bunchgrass as a perch when seeking vole prey, as well as a place to hoard their captures.

The study focused on Brandt's vole, (Lasiopodomys brandtii), which is native to shrublands and grasslands in Russia, Mongolia and northern China.

Photo shows the Achnatherum bunchgrass that voles deliberately cut. Shrikes often perch on the branches and stems of this grass as they search for individual prey nearby

PIGEONS FLOCK TOGETHER IN PRESENCE OF PREDATORS

Pigeons flock together in presence of predators, a 2021 study found.

Researchers performed experiments with a robotic bird of prey and flocks of the homing pigeon, a variety of the domestic pigeon.

The species acted selflessly in the air when under threat, defiantly turning away from the direction of the dummy predator, as a collective unit.

It was previously thought pigeons selfishly scramble to the centre of their herd to reduce the possibility of being picked off - known as the 'selfish herd' theory.

The Brandt's vole lives in groups that mainly consist of close relatives, and each group establishes a network of burrows underground; however, they feed above ground.

'L. brandtii voles prefer open habitats and generally avoid dense vegetation cover,' Dr Sanders told MailOnline.

The problem for them is that shrikes often perch on the branches and stems of shrubs and tall grasses and search for individual prey nearby.

For the study, the team used field surveys and experiments in a steppe grassland in Inner Mongolia to assess the links between vole and bunchgrass abundance, as well as predator visits.

In the context of the study, a predator 'visit' was defined as a bird landing on the ground or on any of the plants within a plot.

In the study area, there are mainly three shrike species – the brown shrike (L. cristatus), the long-tailed shrike (L. schach) and the great grey shrike (L. excubitor).

However, it is hard to distinguish them under field conditions so the researchers didn't distinguish each shrike species.

Researchers found the voles actively modified the habitat by cutting down a large, unpalatable bunchgrass species (Achnatherum splendens) in the presence of shrikes.

This behaviour then disappeared when these avian predators were excluded experimentally by the researchers, using nets.

'The potential for predation risk drove the damaging activities of Brandt’s voles on a large dominant grass utilised for perches by its main avian predator (shrikes),' Dr Sanders told MailOnline.

In the study area, there are mainly three shrike species – the brown shrike (L. cristatus), the long-tailed shrike (L. schach) and the great grey shrike (L. excubitor). Here, the long-tailed shrike is pictured in Zhejiang, China

'Voles did not consume the grass but simply cut the basal parts of the stems and leaves and left them on the ground, and dug burrows which led to cutting of the roots of the bunchgrass.

'These activities lead to negative growth for individual bunchgrasses, making them less suitable as perches and larders for the predatory bird, but more suitable for voles to detect the avian predators due to improved vision.'

According to Dr Sanders, scientists sometimes underestimate the ability of wild animals to react to changes in their environment.

'Our findings are a reminder that species show remarkable adaptations,' he said.

'It also underlines that the loss of even a single species in a food web can result in unexpected changes to an entire habitat.'

The research paper has been published today in the journal Current Biology.

WILD HORSES AND DONKEYS ARE ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS TOO

Wild horses and donkeys are able to survive in the desert by using an innate instinct they have to find water buried up to 6ft below the ground, a 2021 study found.

This same instinctive radar for underground water drives them to dig wells that in turn help other animals and plants that live within the same arid ecosystem.

That is according to a team from the University of Technology Sydney who surveyed a number of dryland ecosystems in the Sonoran Desert of North America.

Lead author Erick Lundgren said horses and donkeys are an 'often overlooked form of ecosystem engineering' that can buffer water shortages.

Thursday 10 March 2022

Farm attack, farmer (80) and employee tied up, 2 attackers arrested, Camperdown

South Africa: Farm attack, farmer (80) and employee tied up, 2 attackers arrested, Camperdown

South African Police Service

March 10, 2022

Farm attack, farmer (80) and employee tied up, 2 attackers arrested, Camperdown

On 9 March 2022 at 13:00, an 80-year-old farmer and his employee were at his farm on Umlaas Road in Camperdown when they accosted by two armed attackers. At gunpoint the attackers instructed the victims to lie down and secured both their hands with tape.

They demanded the keys for the main house which the owner complied with.

The men proceeded to the main house and stole a laptop, binoculars, rechargeable light, headphones, golf bag and home theatre system.

The victims managed to untie themselves and called a neighbour who immediately responded and also alerted the Camperdown police together with other law enforcement agencies.

The suspects aged between 27 and 32 were traced and arrested close to the crime scene. They were found in possession of the stolen items and the firearm used in the commission of this crime.

The investigation revealed that the pistol was taken during a robbery in Mpumalanga in 2013.

https://southafricatoday.net/south-africa-news/kwazulu-natal/farm-attack-farmer-80-and-employee-tied-up-2-attackers-arrested-camperdown/

Throwback Thursday: Macaroni Cheese

Throwback Thursday: Macaroni Cheese (plus history)

Cheese Mac, Mac Cheese, call it what you will. Either way, its origins may surprise you.ords

In the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris are two codices (ancient texts) containing the Liber de Coquina (The Book of Cookery/Cooking, dating to the 14th century), one of the oldest of Medieval texts. It contains a dish of Parmesan and pasta, considered the earliest known form of what we think of today as Macaroni Cheese.

Wikipedia tells us of another book of the same century, a collection of Middle English medieval recipes called the Forme of Cury, the work of the chief master cooks of King Richard II (1377-99). That manuscript contained a reference to a cheese and pasta casserole called makerouns, made, says Wikipedia, “with fresh, hand-cut pasta … sandwiched between a mixture of melted butter and cheese”.

The online encyclopedia even offers an exact quote from it, in Middle English: “Take and make a thynne foyle of dowh and kerve it on pieces, and cast them on boiling water & seeþ it well. take cheese and grate it and butter cast bynethen and above as losyns. and serue forth.” Losyns was a dish a bit like lasagne. Seethe/seeþ means boil. Serue is serve. You’re on your own with bynethen.

But wait, there’s more: Wikipedia is a mine of information about the origins of the dish, citing Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 book, The Experienced English Housekeeper as the source of “the first modern macaroni cheese”.

“Raffald’s recipe is for a Béchamel sauce with cheddar cheese (a Mornay sauce in French cooking) which is mixed with macaroni, sprinkled with Parmesan, and baked until bubbly and golden.”

Raffald put it thus: “To dress Macaroni with Permasent [Parmesan] Cheese. Boil four Ounces of Macaroni ’till it be quite tender, and lay it on a Sieve to drain, then put it in a Tolling Pan, with about a Gill of good Cream, a Lump of Butter rolled in Flour, boil it five Minutes, pour it on a Plate, lay all over it Permasent Cheese toasted; send it to the Table on a Water Plate, for it soon goes cold.”

A 1784 recipe advised boiling small tubes of macaroni, draining and moving to a frying pan. “Heavy cream is then added to the macaroni along with a knob of butter rolled in flour [a roux, essentially], and it must be cooked for five minutes before being transferred to a dish and topped with toasted Parmesan and pepper.

“The famous British Victorian cookbook Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management included two instances of ‘Macaroni, as usually served with the Cheese Course’. One of them states that the macaroni (which should be ‘tender but perfectly firm, no part being allowed to melt, and the form entirely preserved’, lest one be tempted to cook it for so long it actually disintegrated) is then topped with more cheese, pepper, and breadcrumbs, before receiving a final dose of melted butter for good measure and being placed before a ‘bright fire’ to brown the crumbs, or grilled with a salamander broiler.”

There are reasons that recipes stick around for centuries and do not fade away over time. They have pleased the human palate. They are memorable. And we want more please.

The Forme of Cury, says Wikipedia, is “among the oldest extant English cookery books and the earliest known to mention olive oil, gourds, and spices such as mace and cloves”. Both of which, if you like, you can add to macaroni cheese, which, other than the obvious inclusion of both cheese and macaroni (or elbow pasta, which is the same thing, curved), can be adapted in many ways so that every time you make it you can give it a new twist.

I often add bacon, sometimes onion or garlic or both. Herbs and spices too. Chilli is great in macaroni cheese, and though today the cheese used is most commonly Cheddar or Gruyère, even the choice of cheese or cheeses can switch the dish up in one direction or another. Blue cheese and bacon combine very happily, but many other cheeses can be used too, either singly or in combination, including Gouda, fontina, and mozzarella.

Here’s my way, though I do change it often. I used both Cheddar and smoked mozzarella, and finished it with a topping of fine breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan.

Ingredients

650 ml full cream milk

250 ml cream

500 g elbow macaroni cooked and drained

2 Tbsp cornflour mixed with 4 Tbsp milk

4 Tbsp butter

200 g streaky bacon, diced

1 tsp crushed garlic (the dried Robertsons variety)

Olive oil for the cooked pasta

300 g Cheddar, grated

200 g smoked mozzarella, grated

Grated Parmesan for the topping

Fine breadcrumbs

Salt and white pepper

Method

Fry the bacon bits in a little olive oil until browned and keep them aside.

Mix the milk and cream together in a jug. Pour into a heavy saucepan and bring almost to the boil. Melt the butter in another pot, remove it from the heat and stir in the cornflour to make a roux. Put it on a low heat and add a little of the heated butter/cream at a time while stirring, until you have a lovely thick béchamel sauce. Stir the crushed garlic and white pepper into this and season with salt, lightly. Now grate the cheeses and stir them in so that the béchamel becomes a Mornay sauce. Stir in the cooked bacon bits.

Preheat the oven to 200℃.

Bring plenty of water to the boil in a large deep pot, salt it lightly, add the macaroni, stir with a wooden spoon so that it does not clump, and cook until al dente. Drain.

Pour the cooked pasta into a sizable greased oven dish, pour in the sauce and use two wooden spoons to combine everything nicely.

Grate Parmesan on top and sprinkle fine breadcrumbs over.

Bake until golden and delicious, about 40 minutes. Let it cool on a rack for 20 minutes or so for it to settle and become easier to serve. DM/TGIFood

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-03-10-throwback-thursday-macaroni-cheese/

Wednesday 9 March 2022

Louis Farrakhan on Ukraine Conflict: U.S., Russia Will Fall, ‘All White Power Has to End’

In a four-hour speech peppered with antisemitic rhetoric, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan attacked the United States, accusing it of harming and killing millions of people domestically and “around the world” while claiming the country has yet to pay for its crimes and would fall along with Russia and “all white power,” with the recent conflict in Ukraine paving the way.

In his “Swan Song” address delivered last week at the Mosque Maryam, which serves as the Nation of Islam headquarters in Chicago, Farrakhan spoke during the annual celebration of Saviours’ Day, which marks the birth of the faith’s founder, W. Fard Muhammad.

Outlining the fall of the United States, Farrakhan predicted that “the war that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin started in Ukraine is going to spread, and America is going to be drawn into a war in Europe.”

Claiming that America “don’t have a future,” he argued the country still had yet to pay for its actions:

Did you think that you could kill off millions of Native Americans? Did you think you can take a nation out of Africa and do what America has done and is continuing to do? Do you think that the Mexicans who once owned Arizona, California, New Mexico, Colorado, some parts of Utah — that’s Native American and Mexican land — do you think what America has done to the native people she don’t have to pay for that? Do you think what she’s done to us she doesn’t have to pay for that?

“God would not be just to allow America to escape for what America has done — not only to us and to the Mexicans and to the Indians — but to people around the world,” he added.

The provocative Muslim minister called to “look at what’s happening” in Ukraine.

“Putin, Putin, Putin — now you out there baby, excuse me, ‘Mr. President,’ you’re out there…,” he said.

“You’re going to pay a price, and you feel strong but look at how God take[s] the Ukrainian people and shame[s] you big bad Russia, you should never have come at them like that,” he added. “So now you’re feeling some heat inside your own house, but you’re not gonna stop.”

He then attempted to tie the current events into messages he claims to have previously delivered to former President Donald Trump, warning him to repent for the country’s deeds.

“I told President Trump, I said: ‘You’re not gonna repent, so God is gonna have to slap you down,’” he said.

He also claims to have told the former president to fall on his knees in repentance.

“‘Look, Mr. Trump, you got a place in the White House, go in it and fall down on your knees and repent’ — this is what I said,” he stated.

“Because if you don’t repent, you can’t get extra time. If you continue to do what you do, your time is up,” he added. “You see three black women district attorneys, attorney generals, [are] bringing Trump before the law. These are black women — he don’t like that. Eat it and sing.”

Warning America that “the final call has been issued,” Farrakhan claimed that “for forty years the paper is out and now Judgment is coming down in full.”

“So the messenger [Elijah Muhammad] said, ‘Europe will be one of the worst war areas of all the world.’ Europe. Watch Berlin,” he said. “And when you start going away, the messenger said you[‘ll] go away by the tens of thousands to fight, (he said) but you[‘ll] come back by the fives and tens. You can’t win another war.”

“Russia this will be your undoing too,” he concluded. “You see, all white power has to end.”

Farrakhan also portrayed COVID vaccines, which were initially developed under the Trump administration, as part of a plot to wipe out the black population.

“Do you know how long they have been working on black people in a genocidal birth control plot and plan?” he asked.

Describing the Nation of Islam, the nation’s largest and best-known black nationalist group, as “on the opposite side of the government of the United States of America,” Farrakhan charged that, unlike “white folks and Jewish people,” black citizens were being provided a vaccine that is “killing us by zip code.”

He also insisted he was neither frightened by the U.S. government nor “the Jews and their power,” claiming he was defeating the “minions” of Satan.

Farrakhan, who once described ascending into a flying saucer and hearing the voice of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad predicting historical events that came to pass, has long railed against white people, Jews, and the United States.

In the past, the Nation of Islam leader charged that black men and women “have always been looked upon as the property of white America; and particularly, members of the Jewish community,” and that white people “are potential humans” who “haven’t evolved yet.”

In April, Capitol Hill police officer William Evans was killed by a knife-wielding man in a violent ramming attack at the Capitol. The suspect was identified as a follower of Farrakhan’s.

In 2020, Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam channel was removed from YouTube for advancing antisemitic claims.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/08/louis-farrakhan-on-ukraine-conflict-u-s-russia-will-fall-all-white-power-has-to-end/