Food facts

A balanced diet provides the right quantities of food from the five main food groups:

* Carbohydrates (e.g. bread, rice, pasta, cereal)
* Dairy products (e.g. milk, cheese, yoghurt)
* Fruit and vegetables
* Protein (e.g. meat, fish, eggs, beans and nuts)
* Fats (e.g. animal products like meat and oily fish, and foods such as nuts and avocados)

You need more of some food groups than others and you should eat less salt, sugars and fats, although some fats are actually good for you! Your body also needs vitamins and minerals to function properly and a balanced diet should give you enough of these.

Shuffle board

Shuffleboard more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as shuffle-board, shovelboard, shovel-board and shove-board archaic]is a sport in which players use broom-shaped paddles to push weighted pucks, sending them gliding down a narrow and elongated court, with the purpose of having them come to rest within a marked scoring area. As a more generic term, it refers to the family of shuffleboard-variant games as a whole.

The full history of shuffleboard is not known. Though we have some knowledge of its development, its actual origins, the place and date where it was first played, remain a mystery. Inevitably, this uncertainty gives rise to some debate, even disagreement, about which country can claim to have invented it. However there is no dispute concerning its age as a form of popular amusement, and in Europe has a history that goes back over 500 years.

The earliest known name given to it is the Middle English shovillaborde; it was played and gambled at by King Henry VIII, who prohibited commoners from playing, and who evidently did not always win because the record of royal expenses for 1632 show a payment from the Privy Purse of GB£9, 'Paied to my lord Wylliam for that he wanne of the kinges grace at shovillaborde' (Modern English: 'Paid to Lord William, for he won, by the king's grace, at shovelboard').

In its goals, form and equipment, shuffleboard shares various features with (and perhaps influences by or upon) many other games, including air hockey, bowls, bocce, curling, croquet, carrom and billiards. Historically, shovelboard appears to have diverged into modern shuffleboard and sjoelbak, and with the former leading to the development of both table shuffleboard and shove ha'penny.

Today, due to its popularity on cruise ships and in retirement homes because of its low physical fitness requirements, the deck game is often associated with the elderly, though its miniaturized tabletop variant is increasingly popular in bars and pubs among younger generations.

Food Contamination and Poisoning

Each year, 76 million people in the U.S. get sick from contaminated food. Common culprits include bacteria, parasites and viruses. Symptoms range from mild to serious. They include

* Upset stomach
* Abdominal cramps
* Nausea and vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Fever
* Dehydration

Harmful bacteria are the most common cause of foodborne illness. Foods may have some bacteria on them when you buy them. Raw meat may become contaminated during slaughter. Fruits and vegetables may become contaminated when they are growing or when they are processed. But it can also happen in your kitchen if you leave food out for more than 2 hours at room temperature.

The treatment in most cases is increasing your fluid intake. For more serious illness, you may need treatment at a hospital.

Breathing Problems

When you're short of breath, it's hard or uncomfortable for you to take in the oxygen your body needs. You may feel as if you're not getting enough air. Sometimes mild breathing problems are from a stuffy nose or hard exercise. But shortness of breath can also be a sign of a serious disease.

Many conditions can make you feel short of breath. Lung conditions such as asthma, emphysema or pneumonia cause breathing difficulties. Heart disease can make you feel breathless if your heart cannot pump enough blood to supply oxygen to your body. Stress caused by anxiety can also make it hard for you to breathe. If you often have trouble breathing, it is important to find out the cause.

Kallmann syndrome

Kallmann syndrome is an example of hypogonadism (decreased functioning of the sex hormone-producing glands) caused by a deficiency of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which is created by the hypothalamus. Kallmann syndrome is also known as hypothalamic hypogonadism, familial hypogonadism with anosmia, or hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, reflecting its disease mechanism.

Kallmann syndrome is a form of secondary hypogonadism reflecting the fact the primary cause of the defect in sex hormone production lies within the pituitary and hypothalamus rather than a physical defect of the testes or ovaries themselves.

Malaria

Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, there are approximately 515 million cases of malaria, killing between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ninety percent of malaria-related deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is commonly associated with poverty, but is also a cause of poverty and a major hindrance to economic development.

Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases and an enormous public health problem. The disease is caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Only four types of the plasmodium parasite can infect humans; the most serious forms of the disease are caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae causes milder disease in humans that is not generally fatal. This group of human-pathogenic Plasmodium species is usually referred to as malaria parasites.

Leukodystrophy

Leukodystrophy refers to a group of disorders characterized by progressive degeneration of the white matter of the brain. The leukodystrophies are caused by imperfect growth or development of the myelin sheath, the fatty covering that acts as an insulator around nerve fibers. Myelin, which the white matter of the brain takes its colour from, is a complex substance made up of at least ten different chemicals. Each of the leukodystrophies is the result of a defect in the gene that controls the production or metabolism of one of the component molecules of myelin.

The word leukodystrophy comes from the Greek roots leuko, white, dys, lack of, and troph, growth. Thus leukodystrophy describes a set of diseases that affect the growth or maintenance of the white matter.