Saturday, January 16, 2010

Causes of Liver Damage

1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3. Over eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver.
Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

Bring down High Blood Pressure Naturally

Are you the one sick and tired of taking Blood Pressure tablets and looking for a natural remedy? Try the few of the following steps sincerely and post your comment if it helped.

Meditation: Calming your mind from high stress definitely helps lowering blood pressure. Sure way to way to achieve this is by practising meditation every day.

Garlic: Garlic is very effective in lowering blood pressure. Take 2-3 raw garlic cloves a day. It slows down the pulse rate and relieves the symptoms of dizziness, numbness and shortness of breath and formation of gas within the digestive system.

Indian Gooseberry: Indian gooseberry is also very effective in controlling high blood pressure.

Lemon: Lemon is also very effective food in controlling high blood pressure. It helps in maintaining capillary fragility.

Grapefruit: Grapefruit is useful in preventing high blood pressure.

Watermelon: Watermelon also safeguards against high blood pressure. The seeds of watermelon also can be dried and roasted and taken in liberal amounts.

Rice: Rice is low-fat, low-cholesterol and low-salt content is very good for people suffering from high B.P. who have been advised salt-restricted diet. Particularly brown rice having calcium soothes and relaxes the nervous system and helps relieve High B.P symptoms.

Potato: Boiled potatoes are very valuable in lowering high B.P. Boiled potatoes absorb very little salt and thus are very useful. Potatoes are rich in Potassium and not sodium salts and magnesium present in potato is also beneficial.

Parsley: Parsley is very useful in high blood pressure. It helps maintain the blood vessels .Parsley can be taken as a beverage by simmering 20gms of fresh parsley leaves gently in 250 ml of water for a few minutes. Drink this several times a day.

Vegetable Juice: Raw vegetable juices, especially carrot and spinach juices, taken separately or in combination, are also beneficial in the treatment of high B.P If taken in combination, 300 ml of carrot juice and 200 ml of spinach juice should be mixed to make 500 ml and taken daily. If taken separately, one glass should be taken twice daily, morning and evening.

Cut down on these: Cut down on salt, cholesterol, fat, tea, coffee and alcohol intake to keep a tab on high blood pressure.

Expres your feelings: Don't repress your feelings, talk about them to friends and exercise regularly.

Exercise: Excercising 30 minutes a day can help you lose weight, which can lower blood pressure.

Heart Quotes

Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.
If your head tells you one thing and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you should first decide whether you have better head or a better heart. Heart is always better than head.

There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. That is the light that shines within your Heart.

A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that the world is transformed.

Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also to those who need it so much.

Love is missing someone whenever you're apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you're close in heart.

Once a woman has given you her heart, you can never get rid of the rest of her.

The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Traditional Fishing using Pathal Kattai

I was trying to write about this traditional fishing technique using Pathal Kattai for quite a long time. During my recent trip to my home town I got an opportunity to click some snaps to get you picture based explanation of this unique fishing technique that is followed in South Tamil Nadu. Without dragging further I shall write to you more detailed picture about this technique.

If you see the diagram mentioned below,
1) The canal that is coming from river and reaching to the lake.
2) Pathway for diverted water to flow through the Pathal Kattai
3) Mud pot will be buried with just mouth opened that serves as temporary storage of fish
4) Kazhungu – An outlet that provides air circulation for pathal kattai
5) Canal is blocked with sticks and sand bags for restricting fish traveling towards opposite direction to approach pathal kattai. This is also helping to adjust the level of water flowing through the pathal kattai.
6) Smooth surface filled with muddy grasses further upwards near pathal kattai
7) This portion is filled with very nice mud (technically called Nenju kali) that feels smooth as marble that is a sure trap for fish to jump upwards above pathal kattai.

During my childhood days, we used to go as a gang from my village for fishing during winter season. All we had to do was to perform some initial work in laying a proper structure for water to pass by the pathal kattai and we are almost done for fishing nearly a month.

Firstly we will go to the paddy field and get huge amount of clay that is key player in the whole process. We will also get some muddy grass & clay to form the smooth surface (6-7) for fish to come towards the pathal kattai.

After collecting the clay & grass, we will dig the pathway for flow of water in the area (2), (7) & (6). Then pathal kattai will be placed and will fill the surrounding area with clay. Area (7) is filled completed with smooth mud clay stacked layer after layer that is very crucial for fishes to come onto the pathal kattai and jump over it.

Then In Area (5) barrier is created by filling with Sand Bags, cut tree branches to regulate the flow of water through pathal kattai path way. Once this is done water will make it’s way through pathway (2) and comes out from the pathal kattai.

Now everything is set, all we need to do is just wait for the fish to come onto the pathal kattai and jump over to the pot. Only during night time there will be variety of fishes will start to fall. It is important that we need to maintain silence and sit still without much of movement around area (6) & (7)

At the time of Sun raise and set, Ayirai fish will be the first catch. Followed by that we get variety of fishes like Kezuthi, Kendai, Uluvai and all sort of other Lake fishes during the whole night. We will just have to keep emptying the temporary storage fish pot all night. The next day morning we will share the fish that was caught with full of sacks that we have. What to do with such a large quantity? We cook very little from them and make the rest of it into Karuvadu (Salted Dry Fish).

When the lake water level goes down after farming, the whole village will come down for fishing using Kacha (net) and lot more other techniques handled that is countless.

For now, Let me leave you with a short clip and snaps that I have taken about unique method of catching fish by using Pathal Kattai…