Having lived her full live including marriage, modelling, acting, performing burlesque and marching twice with Gandhi, she still continues to live and inspire her students to find their deepest range in asanas. Being declared as World’s oldest yoga teacher by Guinness World Records, she has proved that the age is just a number. With no plans to stop teaching yoga anytime soon, Porchon-Lynch said, “I’m going to teach yoga until I can’t breathe anymore then I’ll just fly away to the next planet … I just, I love yoga, it brightens my day and makes everybody smile.”

About 25 miles outside of New York City in Harstdale, Tao teaches yoga to a group of dedicated students at a dance studio on every Monday. She says that she tell her students to find their deepest range in asanas like she has been doing throughout her life.

“My doctor when he did the hip replacement said you won’t be able to do this, you won’t be able to do that. I said I don’t want to know what I won’t be able to do because I don’t believe it,” said Tao.

She added saying, “So I sent him a photograph in lotus lifting off the ground and he called me the miracle woman. I said it’s no miracle, a miracle means only to see that which is inside of you. If it’s inside, I can do it.”

Tao also said that she developed an interest in yoga at the age of eight after observing some young boys practicing yoga in a group at a beach in her hometown of Pondicherry, India. She decided then and there that she could do anything a boy does, she said.

It is to be noted that she has been professionally practicing as a yoga teacher for the past 61 years, albeit she decided to completely focus on being an instructor at the age of 73.

The advisory panel included 17 members of the Food and Drug Administration. In a unanimous vote, the advisory panel of experts decided that the OraQuick H.I.V. test’s advantages overshadow the potential risk of HIV for consumers. The test returns result in 20 minutes using a mouth swab. However, the test result does not appear to be accurate like professionally administered diagnostics. This year, the Food and Drug Administration will take a stand on whether to approve the product or not.

A version of OraQuick has already been sold to doctors by a Bethlehem based company OraSure in Pennsylvania since 2004. According to a trial conducted by OraSure, the home test detected the HIV in 93 percent people carrying the virus.

Although government has already approved some other home tests for HIV, the tests require blood sample and they need to be compulsorily sent to a laboratory. With its benefits and good response from the trial conducted by the company, it seems that the OraQuick H.I.V. test may also get approved by the end of this year.

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One such type of third party reproduction process is impregnating a woman using donated sperm. This process of reproduction is only opted when the male partner is sterile or has weak sperms that can’t reach the eggs present in the ovary for the reproduction.

The sperm donation has become a known subject to most of the adults now-a-days and it is no longer discussed in closed rooms. Usually, the recipients of the sperms are heterosexual couples facing male infertility issues, lesbian couples and single women who desire to become a mother.

The sperm donation by man is mainly with the intention to impregnate a woman who is not a sexual partner. The sperm donor can donate the sperm for free as a help to the heterosexual couples or other women and can also do it with the motive to earn some money. However, the donor cannot claim of legal fatherhood of the child, albeit he is the biological father of the child produced using his sperm.

There are many sperm banks established over the past few years to collect and store the sperms and then use them for the reproduction for required recipients. Most of the donors donate their sperm through sperm banks or clinics. The recipients can select their donor on the basis of the academic ability, personality, race and various other factors. These sperm banks or clinics are subject to some state regulations like restricting the exact identity of the donor and the number of offspring. Thus, many sperm banks or clinics provide only limited information of the donor to the potential recipient. Curiosity to know everything about the donor prompts many recipients to select a known donor or private donation.

Broadly speaking, there are two methods of impregnating a woman through sperm donation – Artificial insemination (AI) and Natural Insemination. Well, the method of donating sperms at the sperm banks and then using them to impregnate a woman by using methods like Intracervical insemination (ICI), Intrauterine insemination (IUI), Intravaginal insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF) falls under artificial insemination. The ICI, IUI and IVF are the methods conducted in a clinic, while the Intravaginal insemination can be conducted at home by the recipient. Most of the recipients opt for the artificial insemination that even employ assisted reproductive technology (ART) as this process doesn’t require any sexual activity to reproduce.

However, some of them opt for natural insemination wherein the donor does sexual intercourse with the woman solely to impregnate her. This type of method is usually practiced in privacy. Moreover, it is usually opted only after failure in conceiving using the artificial insemination too. This method is not practiced commonly and the artificial insemination is increasingly practiced now-a-days.

Thus, sperm donation is evolving as an increasingly practised process amongst the adults. This help donors earn some pocket money as well as do a noble deed by helping the recipient fulfil their desire to have a baby of their own. It is to be noted that some of the sperm banks really give good amount in compensation of the sperm donated.

In fact, a film named ‘Vicky Donor’ from Bollywood (India) is based on the sperm donation concept and has reportedly inspired some of the young male adults in India to come forward to donate their sperms. An IVF specialist Dr Naina Patel said that in the past two weeks, they have received innumerable e-mails, mails and calls from educated youths wishing to donate sperm. She added that this has happened to some extent due to the movie – ‘Vicky Donor’.

Apart from this, the sperm donation is gaining popularity around the globe and has also resulted in the advent of machines like sperm collecting machine. The video of the sperm collecting machine from china can be viewed on the video networks like Youtube.

All in all, this practise of sperm donation is serving as a boon to the society as a whole and is soon gaining ground as noble cause in the modern society by receiving the support of many young males coming forward to donate their sperm.

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This day was first celebrated by Anna Jarvis in US in 1908 by organising a memorial for her mother. She later went on to campaign for making “Mother’s Day” a recognised holiday. In 1914, she succeeded in making this day a nationally recognised day in US. Later, Mother’s Day gained success and other countries around the world also started celebrating this day. She was disappointed by the commercialization of the Mother’s Day and once said,

“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself – a pretty sentiment.”

All her five babies (three boys and two girls) are alive, according to the doctors attending on her. However, one of her girl child has been referred for specialised treatment at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of medical sciences. According to doctors, the weight of her babies is average and above with the lightest baby weighing 1.25 kg.

“Afroza was my patient for last nine months and today [on Thursday] I operated upon her and she delivered five babies”, said Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Matoo of Lal Ded Memorial Maternity hospital in Budgam, Kashmir.

Dr. Matoo said that the weight of Afroza had increased from 70 kg to 90 kg during her pregnancy and she was experiencing unbearable pain during her pregnancy. “In her second month of pregnancy, we detected that she was carrying multiple babies,” said Dr Matoo.

Afroza had given birth to a baby boy seven years ago and was not able to conceive for the last seven years, but she did not lose hope. Afroza was on the ovulation induction drug recommended by the doctors and could successfully conceive after a long wait. However, she had certain complications due to multiple babies.

Dr Matoo further added saying, “It is a miracle that she gave birth to five babies. In such scenario blood circulation is a problem. Though she gave birth to five babies, it is very hard to breastfeed all.” Despite this fact, it was a moment of joy for the middle class family belonging to a remote village. On being asked by one of the doctors attending on Afroza – whether they would now prefer family planning? The family said no. “Their joy knew no bounds,” the doctor added.

The Food and Drug Administration staff concluded that Truvada is safe and effective as preventive medicine in their report on Tuesday. On Thursday, an advisory panel set for debate on who would be eligible to get the pill and whether patients can be educated on the importance of following the prescription properly.

According to doctors, the basic idea behind approval of pill is to get healthy people falling under certain high-risk groups to take a $14,000 per-year pill every day in order to reduce the new estimated 48,000 cases of HIV each year in United States. On the other hand, some of the experts say that such preventive medicine may encourage unprotected sex and increase infections. They believe that the virus can be avoided with the use of condom and there is no need to take such pills.

“That’s an issue many of us have talked about for years,” said Mitchell Warren (Executive Director of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention). “If you have this new option, would you be riskier? There is no evidence to show that might be the case, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a concern.”

According to the study by FDA, the Truvada is capable of reducing the risk of HIV as much as 94% for people who regularly take the pill. In contrast to this, hardly 10% of participants took the medicine as prescribed by their physician in other trials. On top of this, one of the studies was halted as no benefit was gained out of it.

“Among our own patients who are HIV-positive, we have difficulty getting them to adhere, let alone people who don’t have the disease,” said the president of the Los Angeles’ AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Michael Weinstein. “Counting on adherence is not going to work.” The Los Angeles’ AIDS Healthcare Foundation provides medical care for 130,000 people globally.

Another major concern is that the people taking preventive pill may reduce condom use, which again is can be dangerous for people at risk. In addition to this, the resistance to the drug is also a serious problem if the pill is used as preventive medicine. Lastly, the method of distribution of the drug is also an issue as it is not clear – how the drug would be distributed.

• Some facts:

Nearly 415,000 Americans are at high risk for getting infected by HIV that leads to AIDS from sexual activity, as per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of these HIV infected people are those whose partners or spouses have the disease and the gays having more than one partner. Also, the gay men who didn’t wear condoms during sex are at high risk for contracting HIV.

In 2009, the number of people infected with HIV virus rose to 34 million globally.

It is to be noted that the previous study has depicted direct association between the poor sleep and obesity. However, a complex relationship between the sleep and genetic factors linked with body weight has been revealed by the new findings. The scientists discovered this relationship after carefully studying 1,088 pairs of identical as well as non-identical twins.

Studying twins enable the researchers to untie the influences of genetic and environment. Only identical twins are subject to same genetic effects as they share the same genes and thus, the differences in them are mainly because of environmental factors.

Heritability of body mass index (BMI) was found during the study. It was found that heritability of BMI was two times higher for short sleepers compared to long sleepers. In twins sleeping for less than seven hours at night, 70% of differences in BMI are influenced by genetic factors. And for twins averaging for more than nine hours sleep a night, genetic factors accounted for only 32% of variations in weight.

The first Red Cross Day was celebrated on May 8, 1948 globally and since then, the volunteers of Red Cross have been celebrating this day. The name of this day witnessed changes for several years until 1984, when the day was officially declared as “World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day”.

According to Red Cross, this day remembers and recognises: “Worldwide effort to advocate for the relief of human suffering, whether from disease, famine, disaster, or war.” Thus, the humanitarian support and relief from disaster is provided by the Red Cross globally, wherever required. The theme of the Red Cross this year is again – “Together for Humanity”.

With its presence in over 170 countries, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have the largest humanitarian relief network today. Its existence can be marked from the time when the Czech Republic and Slovakia were one state – Czechoslovakia in 1922. With millions of Red Cross volunteers across the world, the non-profit organisation initiated as humanitarian movement has managed to bring world together for humanity.

The successful running of the organisation can be credited to Red Cross’ clear vision:

The vision of the Red Cross is to:

1. Initiate efforts for the reduction of deaths because of illnesses.
2. Alleviate the impact of any kind of injury and death due to any sort of disaster.
3. Cause a decline in public health emergencies’ rate.
4. Empower the Red Cross and civil society along with local communities in order to ensure quick response to emergencies and vulnerable situations.
5. Reinstitute human dignity at all the time.

All those who want to be a part of World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day celebration can do the following:

1. Support the Red Cross and its programs or efforts
2. Send donation to Red Cross Society near you
3. Donate Blood on 8^th May.
4. Become a volunteer of Red Cross
5. Appreciate and recognise the efforts of the Red Cross volunteers.

With the objective of Laughing for World Peace, the first World Laughter Day was held in Mumbai, India by Dr Kataria on January 11, 1998. This practice of celebrating the laughter day became a huge success. Later, the date was changed to first Sunday of May. And since then, the first Sunday of May has been observed as the World Laughter Day every year. The Laughter Clubs spread across the world in over 60 countries sends massive laughter waves around the world by laughing at 12 o’clock local time on May’s first Sunday every year.

The life of the people has been burdened by many responsibilities, pressures, demands and many other socio-economic problems in today’s world. This burden gradually results in stressful life, busy schedule and various other health issues. Laughter relaxes your mind and gives a soothing feel to your body. It works as a medicine for your body and mind that gradually enhance your health and makes you more capable of dealing with overburdened life.

Thus, the laughter day is celebrated widely across the world. On this day, the people take part in laughter sessions wherein they do simple, inclusive and very funny laughter exercises. Then the group goes for a picnic, play games, listen to music and do all that relaxes them. The people of all ages, experiences, fitness, etc. are allowed to become part of the laughter session.

So, laugh freely on this Sunday to promote World Peace and feel relaxed, happy and filled with positivity.

1. Staying Hydrated:

The heat and sweating leads to body dehydration and makes your skin dry. Therefore, it is advisable to drink water and other fluids at short intervals to keep the body hydrated. Intake of water, fruit juices, green tea, coconut water, etc. will certainly be the best thing to do. Remember, aerated drinks are to b avoided as they damage the skin.

2. Keep Your Body Cool:

The heat boils and other such skin disorders commonly arise during summer. These are mostly the outcome of your body heat. Therefore, sticking to natural cool fluids like buttermilk, coconut water, barley water and other such kind would help you decrease the heat level of your body. As a result of this, the heat boils will start disappearing.

3. Protection from Sun:

It is always better to stay indoors during the peak sunshine time between 11 am and 3 pm. Remember to apply your sunscreen whenever you step out. As per many well renowned dermatologists, use of the sunscreen creams with higher SPF is ideal. Dermatologist Juvitha Rasquinha recommends use of sunscreen with SPF 30 during summer. In addition to this, wearing sun glasses, covering the head and other such precautions also help in keeping the skin healthy.

4. Exfoliation:

This is a technique that helps removing of dead skin cells from face and body. So, exfoliate more in summers as during this period there is an increase in accumulation of dead skin cell on the face and other body parts. These dead skin cells make your skin look dull and dry. Therefore, exfoliate in order to get rid of these dead skin cells. Selecting a light scrub for the face and the body will help you remove some of the dead cells. You can also use some oatmeal and milk or gram flour and yoghurt to make a scrub for exfoliation.

5. Remove Tan:

Make a paste of one almond, add 5 drops of lemon juice in it and then add a teaspoon of milk to it. Apply this natural cream on the face and leave it on overnight and then wash your face next morning with warm water. This cream will give you glowing skin even in summer and will also improve your complexion. You can also try coconut milk for the same purpose. You will also have to leave the coconut milk on overnight. You can also rub tomato juice on your face and leave it for around ten minutes before washing your face.

Following these basic skincare tips will help you get healthy skin even in summer. So, try these to look beautiful this summer.