A different drummer: Neural rhythms drive physical movement

The 19th century mathematician Joseph Fourier showed that two rhythms could be summed to produce a third rhythm. Researchers at Stanford have shown that this principle is behind the brain activity that produces arm movements. Credit: Mark Churchland, Stanford School of Engineering

Unlike their visual cousins, the neurons that control movement are not a predictable bunch. Scientists working to decode how such neurons convey information to muscles have been stymied when trying to establish a one-to-one relationship between a neuron's behavior and external factors such as muscle activity or movement velocity.

In an article published online June 3rd by the journal Nature, a team of electrical engineers and neuroscientists working at Stanford University propose a new theory of the brain activity behind arm movements. Their theory is a significant departure from existing understanding and helps to explain, in relatively simple and elegant terms, some of the more perplexing aspects of the activity of neurons in motor cortex.

In their paper, electrical engineering Associate Professor Krishna Shenoy and post-doctoral researchers Mark Churchland, now a professor at Columbia, and John Cunningham of Cambridge University, now a professor at Washington University in Saint Louis, have shown that the brain activity controlling arm movement does not encode external spatial information—such as direction, distance and speed—but is instead rhythmic in nature.

Understanding the brain

Neuroscientists have long known that the neurons responsible for vision encode specific, external-world information—the parameters of sight. It had been theorized and widely suggested that motor cortex neurons function similarly, conveying specifics of movement such as direction, distance and speed, in the same way the visual cortex records color, intensity and form.

"Visual neurons encode things in the world. They are a map, a representation," said Churchland, who is first author of the paper. "It's not a leap to imagine that neurons in the motor cortex should behave like neurons in the visual cortex, relating in a faithful way to external parameters, but things aren't so concrete for movement."

Scientists have disagreed about which movement parameters are being represented by individual neurons. They could not look at a particular neuron firing in the motor cortex and determine with confidence what information it was encoding.

"Many experiments have sought such lawfulness and yet none have found it. Our findings indicate an alternative principle is at play," said co-first author Cunningham.

"Our main finding is that the motor cortex is a flexible pattern generator, and sends rhythmic signals down the spinal cord," said Churchland.

Engine of movement

To employ an automotive analogy, the motor cortex is not the steering wheel, odometer or speedometer representing real-world information. It is more like an engine, comprised of parts whose activities appear complicated in isolation, but which cooperate in a lawful way as a whole to generate motion.

"If you saw a piston or a spark plug by itself, would you be able to explain how it makes a car move?" asked Cunningham rhetorically. "Motor-cortex neurons are like that, too, understandable only in the context of the whole."

In a series of striking graphs, the Stanford team plotted the signals from individual neurons in the motor-cortex as monkeys completed a series of reaches. The reaching motions are shown by the starburst patterns at the top left of each graph. The neuronal patterns are then plotted atop one another for the entire series of reaches, clearly establishing the rhythmic nature of the brain activity. Credit: Mark Churchland, Stanford School of Engineering

In monitoring electrical brain activity of motor-cortex neurons, researchers found that they typically exhibit a brief oscillatory response. These responses are not independent from neuron to neuron. Instead, the entire neural population oscillates as one in a beautiful and lawfully coordinated way.

The electrical signal that drives a given movement is therefore an amalgam – a summation – of the rhythms of all the motor neurons firing at a given moment.

"Under this new way of looking at things, the inscrutable becomes predictable," said Churchland. "Each neuron behaves like a player in a band. When the rhythms of all the players are summed over the whole band, a cascade of fluid and accurate motion results."

Dr. Daofen Chen, Program Director, Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health, said Shenoy and team are working at the cutting edge of the field. "In trying to find the basic response properties of the motor cortex, Dr. Shenoy and his colleagues are searching for the holy grail of neuroscience," said Dr. Chen. "His team has been consistent in tackling important but tough questions, often in thought-provoking ways and in ambitious proposals. NIH is proud to support this kind of pioneering and transformative research."

Precedents in nature

In the new model, a few relatively simple rhythms explain neural features that had confounded science earlier.

"Many of the most-baffling aspects of motor-cortex neurons seem natural and straightforward in light of this model," said Cunnigham.

The team studied non-rhythmic reaching movements, which made the presence of rhythmic neural activity a surprise even though, the team notes, rhythmic neural activity has a long precedence in nature. Such rhythms are present in the swimming motion of leeches and the gait of a walking monkey, for instance.

"The brain has had an evolutionary goal to drive movements that help us survive. The primary motor cortex is key to these functions. The patterns of activity it displays presumably derive from evolutionarily older rhythmic motions such as swimming and walking. Rhythm is a basic building block of movement," explained Churchland.

Reaching for the grail

To test their hypothesis, the engineers studied the brain activity of monkeys reaching to touch a target. According to the researchers, experiments show this 'underlying rhythm' strategy works very well to explain both brain and muscle activity. In their reaching studies, the pattern of shoulder-muscle behavior could always be described by the sum of two underlying rhythms.

"Say you're throwing a ball. Beneath it all is a pattern. Maybe your shoulder muscle contracts, relaxes slightly, contracts again, and then relaxes completely, all in short order," explained Churchland. "That activity may not be exactly rhythmic, but it can be created by adding together two or three other rhythms. Our data argue that this may be how the brain solves the problem of creating the pattern of movement."

"Finding these brain rhythms surprised us a bit, as the reaches themselves were not rhythmic. In fact, they were decidedly arrhythmic, and yet underlying it all were these unmistakable patterns," said Churchland.

"This research builds on a strong theoretical framework and adds to growing evidence that rhythmic activity is important for many fundamental brain functions," said Yuan Liu of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH. "Further research in this area may help us devise more effective technology for controlling prosthetic limbs." Liu is the co-lead of the NIH-NSF Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience program.

"In this model, the seemingly complex system that is the motor cortex can now be at least partially understood in more straightforward terms. The motor cortex is an engine of movement that obeys lawful dynamics," said Shenoy.

Stanford post-doctoral fellow Matthew Kaufman, bioengineering PhD student and medical science training program student Paul Nuyujukian, electrical engineering graduate student Justin Foster, and electrical engineering consulting assistant professor and Palo Alto Medical Foundation neurosurgeon Stephen Ryu were also authors on this paper.

Provided by Stanford University

"A different drummer: Neural rhythms drive physical movement." June 3rd, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-drummer-neural-rhythms-physical-movement.html

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Brain scans prove Freud right: Guilt plays key role in depression

Scientists have shown that the brains of people with depression respond differently to feelings of guilt – even after their symptoms have subsided.

University of Manchester researchers found that the brain scans of people with a history of depression differed in the regions associated with guilt and knowledge of socially acceptable behaviour from individuals who never get depressed.

The study – published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry – provides the first evidence of brain mechanisms to explain Freud's classical observation that exaggerated guilt and self-blame are key to understanding depression.

Lead researcher Dr Roland Zahn, from the University's School of Psychological Sciences, said: "Our research provides the first brain mechanism that could explain the classical observation by Freud that depression is distinguished from normal sadness by proneness to exaggerated feelings of guilt or self-blame.

"For the first time, we chart the regions of the brain that interact to link detailed knowledge about socially appropriate behaviour – the anterior temporal lobe – with feelings of guilt – the subgenual region of the brain – in people who are prone to depression."

The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of a group of people after remission from major depression for more than a year, and a control group who have never had depression. Both groups were asked to imagine acting badly, for example being 'stingy' or 'bossy' towards their best friends. They then reported their feelings to the research team.

"The scans revealed that the people with a history of depression did not 'couple' the brain regions associated with guilt and knowledge of appropriate behaviour together as strongly as the never depressed control group do," said Dr Zahn, a MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow.

"Interestingly, this 'decoupling' only occurs when people prone to depression feel guilty or blame themselves, but not when they feel angry or blame others. This could reflect a lack of access to details about what exactly was inappropriate about their behaviour when feeling guilty, thereby extending guilt to things they are not responsible for and feeling guilty for everything."

The research, part-funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), is important because it reveals brain mechanisms underlying specific symptoms of depression that may explain why some people react to stress with depression rather than aggression.

The team is now investigating whether the results from the study can be used to predict depression risk after remission of a previous episode. If successful, this could provide the first fMRI marker of risk of future depression.

More information: 'Guilt-Selective Functional Disconnection of Anterior Temporal and Subgenual Cortices in Major Depressive Disorder,' by Sophie Green et al., Archives of General Psychiatry, 2012.

Provided by University of Manchester

"Brain scans prove Freud right: Guilt plays key role in depression." June 4th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-brain-scans-freud-guilt-key.html

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Side effect: Crisis in Greece hits mental health

Greece is not feeling well. One in four men, and one in three women, has endured recent bouts of depression. As the grinding economic crisis continues to batter people's nerves, suicides and psychosomatic illness are both on the increase.

In April, a 77-year-old retiree, explaining in a note that he could no longer scrape by, went to a public square in the middle of Athens and put a bullet into his brain, a shot that echoed throughout the country.

While politicians and economists argue about how to pull Greece out of the quagmire of debt that has kneecapped its economy, there can be no doubt that the crisis -- once again threatening to eject the country from the eurozone towards an unknown fate -- is taking a devastating toil on the mental health of its people.

Compounding the emerging health care emergency is the fact that the state's ability to cope with it has been deeply eroded by the austerity measures and slashed budgets prescribed to cure the patient.

If you're going to have a nervous breakdown, in other words, Greece is not the best place to be.

"My patients are clearly much more on edge and stressed," said Dimitri, an osteopath in Athens with a varied clientele. "Their incomes are dropping. Their day-to-day relationships are fraying at the edges. Those who do have work are afraid of losing it, and show telltales signs of musculoskeletal tension."

Before the crisis really took hold, he added, half of his patients came for fine-tuning sessions, or for a minor realignment. "Now many arrive in a state of acute crisis. Their backs are blocked, or they can't even walk."

For Dimitri, there can be no doubt as to the culprit: the no-end-in-sight debt crisis that has plunged Greece deep into recession, ravaged its employment statistics and gutted social services.

The human body, he says, absorbs all these shocks like a spring.

"Often my patients don't know why they are in pain or unable to move, and tell me that they didn't lift anything heavy," he said. "Then, as we chat during the session, I find out that they're afraid of losing their jobs, or that a son's or daughter's salary has been cut in half, or that they can't pay the rent."

-- No way to keep a shred of dignity --

As officials vet new austerity measures and try to stave off further downgrades by credit agencies, the measureable impact of the crisis is getting inside the heads of Greeks.

Even if new elections later this month, called after a legislative vote on May 6 failed to produce a government, reverse course and reject the EU's austerity package, Greece is surely headed for more misery before things get any easier.

The numbers over the last year are sobering.

In the first half of 2011, more than a year after the economy began its dramatic slide, suicides in Greece shot up by 40 percent compared with the previous year. Almost daily, the media reports on someone who has put an end to it all because of financial burdens.

The old man who shot himself on April 4 in the middle of Syntagma Square -- site of many impassioned demonstrations against austerity measures -- clearly blamed his plight on the crisis.

"I can't see any other way to keep a shred of dignity and end my life without rummaging through garbage bins," the man wrote in a suicide note. Sick with cancer and living alone, he accused the state of depriving him of treatment after pensions were slashed, and compared the government in power to the one installed in 1941 by Nazi occupiers.

The man's fate seemed all the more shocking in a culture in which it is widely assumed that families can and will pick up the slack when the state falls short.

However, some of these numbers need to be put into perspective. Greece, like most other southern European countries, has a significantly lower suicide rate that northern nations. In 2009, before the crisis, the rate was three people for every 100,000 inhabitants, a third lower than the European average.

But there's no denying that Greece is in the doldrums.

According to health ministry statistics, a quarter of men and a third of women are depressed, double the European average for men, and nearly double for women. Calls to mental health hotlines also increased twofold in the first six months of 2011 compared with a year earlier.

"I don't sleep anymore," said 'Petros', who -- clearly embarrassed by his situation -- asked that his name be changed.

An importer/exporter of furniture with several stores in Athens, Petros said that over the last months he had been obliged to fire many staff, a first for his family-run enterprise. "And I'm going to have to cut the salaries of the ones that are left," he said, his voice brimming with emotion.

"I really wonder how people are going to get by after this summer, when most companies will have done the same," he added with creased brow.

-- State of war --

The crisis is not only making Greeks sick, it is making it harder for them to get treatment. Austerity measures have cut the national health budget by a devastating 25 percent since 2009.

"It's a state of war," said Yorgos Kalliabetsos, head of the pathology clinic at Volos Hospital in central Greece.

Doctors' salaries have been slashed by a quarter. Security staff are no longer paid at all. Nurses have become scarce, and shortages of medical supplies frequent. "My service has to take on 45 patients with 35 beds," Kalliabetsos lamented.

Since the uninsured have been left to their own devices, many now resort to desperate strategies.

"We have more and more patients who are inventing emergencies so they can be examined because they don't have any money for a regular consultation," explained Meropi Manteou, a lung specialist at Athens' enormous Sotiria Hospital. "We somehow manage to help the poorest patients that slip through the safety net, but for how much longer?"

An increase in poverty has brought in its wake an increase in diseases of the poor, notably tuberculosis.

The mental health picture is no less catastrophic. Several major psychiatric facilities have simply been shuttered. A third of the programmes to help addicts have also been shut down, which has led to a new wave of HIV infections.

Alexis, a 46-year-old journalist, has been treated since 2006 by Okana, an association that depends on the health ministry for street drug substitutes. He waited four years to get in the programme and feels lucky. "Most people who apply are dead by the time Okana calls them," he said.

The crisis has also encouraged the spread of a new street scourge called "sisa". Made from methamphetamines, the drug is ten times cheaper than heroin, but its effects are worse: blackened skin, sores all over the body, ultra-violent behaviour.

"One user stabbed another of my patients," recalled Emilios Katsoulakos, a psychiatrist. "There's no substitute we can prescribe for sisa."

Oddly, the economic downturn does seem to have had one salubrious impact: a decline in alcoholism. But that's probably only because new taxes on liquor -- another consequence of austerity -- make drowning one's sorrows too expensive.

(c) 2012 AFP

"Side effect: Crisis in Greece hits mental health." June 4th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-side-effect-crisis-greece-mental.html

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Richest and poorest people in Toronto hospitalized for different reasons

Researchers who examined the income levels of patients at central Toronto hospitals found that people in the highest and lowest income brackets are being hospitalized for different reasons and that different hospitals serve different income groups.

More wealthy patients received same-day surgeries than low-income patients. In contrast, more low-income patients were hospitalized for mental health issues, visited emergency departments for non-urgent issues and remained in acute care hospital beds while waiting to be transferred to more appropriate levels of care in the community such as nursing homes.

This report will enable many Toronto hospitals and health care stakeholders to see the socioeconomic profile of patients for the first time, said Dr. Rick Glazier, one of the lead authors of the study.

Once they have that information, they can see whether patient outcomes are linked to incomes, he said. This also gives them the opportunity to tailor care to the needs of their current patient population and to work with others to plan health services appropriate for the community.

"We want a universal health care system that helps everyone be healthy, regardless of how much money they earn," said Dr. Glazier, a researcher at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital and a senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. "But until we actually look at social differences among patients, it's impossible to say if hospital care is equitable or if hospitals have the proper resources to respond to the patients they serve."

Dr. Glazier said the statistics point to the social causes of disease and strains on the health system.

"Very low-income people are using the parts of the health care system that are in greatest crisis," he said. "It's all the more reason to think broadly about what keeps people healthy in the first place. What health supports do wealthy groups enjoy that those with lower incomes lack? Access to primary health care, the ability to pay for healthy foods and medicines and to live in a healthy place where you can receive home care if you need it? We think that addressing upstream areas like these will likely make an impact on hospital use."

The researchers examined data on all patients admitted between 2008 and 2010 to 20 hospitals in the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network.

They found hospitals fell into three categories: those, including St. Michael's, who treat high-income and low-income patients in the same numbers; those who treat mainly low-income patients; and those who treat mainly high-income patients. In all of the hospitals surveyed, middle-income patients were served the least.

Among their other findings: 

• In almost every hospital, surgical patients had higher incomes than medical patients
• More wealthy patients than poor patients had day surgery.
• More low-income patients than high-income patients were admitted for mental health services at almost every hospital
• Patients designated as waiting for "alternate level of care," meaning they occupy an acute hospital bed but do not require the intensity of resources or services provided in that setting, were more likely to have low incomes than high incomes. In most of the hospitals, ALC patients had lower incomes than the hospital's overall patient population
• Overall, more low-income patients visited emergency departments than high-income patients for non-urgent reasons

Provided by St. Michael's Hospital

"Richest and poorest people in Toronto hospitalized for different reasons." June 4th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-richest-poorest-people-toronto-hospitalized.html

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Genetics, rapid childhood growth and the development of obesity

A 38-year longitudinal study of New Zealanders suggests that individuals with higher genetic risk scores were more likely to be chronically obese in adulthood, according to a report published in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

Obesity is capable of being inherited and genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have started to uncover the molecular roots of heritability by identifying multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with higher adult body mass index (BMI), the authors write in their study background.

"In this study, we asked how SNPs with replicated GWAS evidence for association with adult BMI relate to growth across the first four decades of life and to adult obesity in a birth cohort followed up prospectively from birth through 38 years of age," Daniel W. Belsky, Ph.D., of Duke University, Durham, N.C., and colleagues write in the study background.

Study participants were members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, an investigation of health and behavior in a complete birth cohort. The 1,037 study members (52 percent were male) were born between April 1972 and March 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand. Assessments were performed every few years starting at birth until 38 years.

Children with higher genetic risk scores (GRSs) had higher BMIs at every age assessed from age 3 through 38 years. Children at high genetic risk were 1.61 to 2.41 times more likely to be obese in their second, third and fourth decades of life and were 1.90 times more likely to be chronically obese across more than three assessments compared with children at low genetic risk, according to study results.

Adiposity rebound, when children begin to gain body fat after losing it during early childhood, occurred earlier in development and at higher BMI for children at higher genetic risk, the results indicate.

Higher genetic risk also predicted faster growth and increased obesity risk in children with normal-weight and overweight parents, the study results note. The authors comment that the GRS contributed "independent and additive information" to the prediction of children's growth and their risk for obesity in adulthood beyond the family history information.

"Thus, the results present compelling evidence that SNPs identified in GWASs of adult BMI and other obesity-related phenotypes predispose to more rapid growth in childhood, leading to increased risk for obesity in adulthood, and provide information not forthcoming from a simple analysis of family history," the authors conclude.

In an editorial, Jose R. Fernandez, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, writes: "This study provides clear evidence regarding the role of biological risk attributed to the development of obesity and suggests that genetic risk for obesity affects fat accumulation through accelerated growth in early childhood."

Fernandez continues: "Further insights and implications of the study, however, cause concern as much as they fascinate. Given that the associations identified were independent of parental body mass index, the findings from Belsky et al may imply a degree of genetic determinism that challenges overall public health recommendations worldwide in a simple question: What about the role of the environment across the life span?"

"Attempting to translate the findings from Belsky and colleagues to clinical practice would be naïve at this point when more research is clearly needed to fully understand the genetic basis of many complex traits. ... Until we know more, and perhaps after we know more, preventive behaviors should be each individual's priority so that we all achieve the best health possible regardless of genetic profiles. Without taking this approach, we might risk the mistake of allowing genetic predisposition to become genetic determinism," Fernandez concludes.

More information: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166[6]:515-521. 
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166[6]:576-577. 

Provided by JAMA and Archives Journals

"Genetics, rapid childhood growth and the development of obesity." June 4th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-genetics-rapid-childhood-growth-obesity.html

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Japan 'diet glasses' fool wearers into eating less

Goggles that trick the wearer into thinking the plain snack in their hand is a chocolate cookie, or make biscuits appear larger have been unveiled in Japan, offering hope to weak-willed dieters everywhere.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed devices that use computer wizardry and augmented reality to fool the senses and make users feel more satisfied with smaller -- or less appealing -- treats.

On one device goggle-mounted cameras send images to a computer, which magnifies the apparent size of the cookie in the image it displays to the wearer while keeping his hand the same size, making the snack appear larger than it actually is.

In experiments, volunteers consumed nearly 10 percent less when the biscuits they were eating appeared 50 percent bigger.

They ate 15 percent more when cookies were manipulated to look two-thirds of their real size.

Professor Michitaka Hirose at the university's graduate school of information science and technology said he was interested in how computers can be used to trick the human mind.

"How to fool various senses or how to build on them using computers is very important in the study of virtual reality," he told AFP.

Hirose said standard virtual reality equipment that attempts to cater to complex senses like touch often results in bulky equipment.

But he said using one or more senses to fool the others was a way around this problem.

"Reality is in your mind," he said.

In another project, Hirose's team developed a "meta cookie", where the headgear uses scent bottles and visual trickery to fool the wearer into thinking the snack they are eating is anything but a plain biscuit.

Users can set the device to their favourite taste so they think they are eating a chocolate or strawberry-flavoured cookie.

Hirose says experiments so far have shown 80 percent of subjects are fooled.

The team has no plans as yet to commercialise their invention, but would like to investigate whether people wanting to lose weight can use the device.

(c) 2012 AFP

"Japan 'diet glasses' fool wearers into eating less." June 4th, 2012.http://phys.org/news/2012-06-japan-diet-glasses-wearers.html

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shirdi sai baba miracles.mp4

மூளையின் செயல்திறன் மற்றும் நினைவாற்றலை அதிகரிக்க எளிய வழி!

மூளையின் செல்களில் குளுகோஸ் சக்தியாக மாற ஆக்சிஜன் மிக மிக அவசியம். காரணம் மூளை தனது எரிபொருளாக குளுகோஸையே பயன்படுத்திக் கொள்கிறது. இவை நவீன விஞ்ஞானம் கூறும் உண்மைகள். பல நூறு ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்னரே மூளைக்கும் பிராண சக்திக்கும் இடையிலான தொடர்பு குறித்து நமது தந்திர யோகிகள் அறிந்திருந்தனர். மூளையின் இயக்கத்திற்கு பிராண வாயு (ஆக்சிஜன் ) மட்டுமின்றி, பிராண சக்தி எனப்படும் பிராணனும் தேவை என தந்திர யோக நூல்கள் கூறுகின்றன.

இந்த பிராண சக்தியை உடலில் அதிகரிக்கச் செய்து, மூளையின் செயல்திறனைப் பலமடங்கு அதிகரிக்கச் செய்யும் எளிய தந்திர யோக முறையே பிராண முத்திரையாகும்.

செய்முறை: சிறுவிரல், மோதிர விரல் ஆகியவற்றின் நுனிப் பகுதியால் பெருவிரலின் நுனிப்பாகத்தைத் தொடவும், அதிக அழுத்தம் வேண்டாம் சற்றே தொட்டுக் கொண்டிருந்தால் போதும், பிற இரு விரல்களும் (சுட்டுவிரல், நடுவிரல்) வளைவின்றி நேராக இருக்கட்டும்.

அமரும் முறை: ஆசனங்களில் பரிச்சயம் உள்ளவர்கள் பத்மாசனம் அல்லது அர்த்த பத்மாசனத்தில் அமர்ந்து செய்யலாம், மற்றவர்கள் கால்களை மடக்கி அமர்ந்து செய்யவும், மாணவர்கள் படிக்கத் துவங்கும்முன் நாற்காலியில் அமர்ந்தபடியே இந்த முத்திரையைச் செய்யலாம், தலை, கழுத்து, முதுகு ஆகியவை வளைவின்றி நேராக இருக்க வேண்டும். இரு கைகளிலும், ஒரே நேரத்தில் செய்யவும், சுவாசம் இயல்பான நடையில் இருக்கட்டும். சீராகவும் ஆழமாகவும் இருப்பது அவசியம், மூச்சை அடக்குதல் கூடாது.

குறைந்த பட்சம் 8 நிமிடங்கள், அதிக பட்சமாக 48 நிமிடங்கள் வரையில் செய்யலாம். சராசரியாக பள்ளி மாணவர்கள் காலையில் 16 நிமிடங்கள், மாலையில் 16 நிமிடங்கள் செய்யப் பழகிக்கொள்வது நல்லது.

பலன்கள்: மூளையின் செயல்களுக்கு பிராண சக்தியும், பிராண வாயுவும் அதிக அளவில் கிடைப்பதால், மூளை சுறுசுறுப்பாகிறது. மூளையின் செல்களிலுள்ள சோர்வு மறைந்து, புத்துணர்ச்சியுடன் மூளை செயல்படத் துவங்கும். உடலிலுள்ள அனைத்து செயல்களுக்குமே பிராண சக்தி அதிக அளவில் பாய்வதால் உடலில் உள்ள அசதி, சோர்வு, சோம்பேறித்தனம் ஆகியவை மறைந்து, உடலிலும் ஒரு புத்துணர்வு உருவாகும். உடல் , மூளை இரண்டின் செயல்திறணும் பல மடங்கு அதிகரிக்கும். உடலில் பிராண சக்தி அதிக அளவில் பாயும்போது, நாடிகளில் உள்ள சக்தித் தடைகள் அதிகரிக்கும். இவை தவிர பிராண வாயுவுக்கு வேறு ஒரு மிக முக்கியமான பணியும் உண்டு.

ஆக்சிஜன் அதிகம் கிடைப்பதால் மூளையின் செயல்கள் சுறுசுறுப்படைந்தாலும் இடது மூளையின் செயல்பாடுகளே அதிகரிக்கும். பிராண சக்தி அதிக அளவில் செல்லும்போதுதான் வலது மூளையின் பணிகளான, பேச்சுத்திறன், எழுத்துத்திறன், கற்பனைத்திறன் ஆகியவையும் அதிகரிக்கும்.நினைவாற்றலை அதிகரிக்கும் சக்தியும் பிராண முத்திரைக்கு உண்டு. பிராண முத்திரையைத் தொடர்ந்து செய்து நினைவாற்றலைப் பல மடங்கு அதிகரிக்கச் செய்யலாம்.

Mermaid

A mermaid is a mythical sea creature with the head and torso of a human woman and the tail of a fish. The male version is known as a merman, and the generic term is merfolk. The mermaid appears in folklore from all over the world, including Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, and Japan. As would be expected of any mythical figure with such a wide geographical range, the mermaid has many variations in appearance. The EuropeanMelusine, for example, often has a serpent's tail or two tails, sometimes in addition to wings.

Mermaids also vary in their reported behavior. Some are dangerous, such as the Greek Sirenwho sings enchanting songs from the shore in order to bewitch sailors or lure them to their death. Others are benevolent and may grant the wishes of those who see them. In Japan, eating the flesh of a mermaid is said to confer immortality. In the earliest known mermaid lore, heralding from first century BCE Assyria, the mermaid is a goddess who jumped into the sea in grief over the lover whom she accidentally killed.

The mermaid features extensively in the literature and art of many cultures and eras. She is the subject of one of Hans Christian Andersen's most well known fairy tales, The Little Mermaid, and the 1989 Disney movie based on it. Numerous films, cartoons, and television shows have also had the mermaid as their theme.

Proof Without Words: The Circle

Engineer Details Plans to Build a Real, Burj-Dubai-Sized Starship Enterprise in 20 Years

By Rebecca Boyle

Real Starship Enterprise BuildTheEnterprise.org

The year 2245 is just too distant — we should build and commission a real USS Enterprise right now, cracking the champagne across her hull within 20 years, according to an enterprising engineer. The gigantic ship would use ion propulsion, powered by a 1.5-GW nuclear reactor, and could reach Mars in three months and the moon in three days. Its 0.3-mile-diameter, magnetically suspended gravity wheel spinning at 2 RPM would provide 1G of gravity, and the thing looks just like the "Star Trek" ship of lore.

This project is the brainchild of an engineer who calls himself BTE Dan. As in “Build The Enterprise,” which is also the name of his brand-new website.

“We have the technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship known as the USS Enterprise – so let’s do it,” BTE Dan writes. He even sifts through the federal budget and proposes tax hikes and spending cuts to cover the $1 trillion cost.

Though the "Star Trek" connection lends the project an air of sci-fi fun, BTE Dan is hardly the only engineer dreaming up a next-generation spaceship to the stars. DARPA's 100-Year Starshipproject is designed partly to foster ideas just like this one, from a project planning roadmap to a real ship.

The Starship Enterprise Is Big: The ship would be the largest thing built by humanity. BuildTheEnterprise.org

The so-called Gen1 Enterprise would be built in space and would serve a triple function, as a space station, spaceport and traveling spaceship “all in one!” BTE Dan says. It won’t cruise the galaxy at light speed, unfortunately, but it could explore new worlds right in our own neighborhood, providing a constant acceleration to reach distant targets much more quickly. Its first missions would be to the moon, Venus, Mars and maybe Europa. Universe Today notes the ship’s onboard laser would be used to sear through the moon’s ice crust to allow a ship to drop into its oceans. Three additional nuclear reactors would provide electricity for this laser and other ship needs.

BTE Dan also crunched some numbers to prove he’s really serious. He proposes a matrix of tax increases and budget cuts in defense, health and human services, housing and urban development, education, energy and more. But he promises they will be small cuts and small tax increases, Universe Today notes. “These changes to spending and taxes will not sink the republic,” BuildTheEnterprise.org reads.

BTE Dan identifies himself as a “systems engineer and electrical engineer who has worked at a Fortune 500 company for the past 30 years,” Universe Today says. He is on Twitter as @BTEDan and he says he’s setting up a Facebook page where you can all go and like his project. His website keeps crashing, but we’ll let you know if we hear back from him.

[via Universe Today]

Drink water immediately after waking up every morning.

It is popular in Japan today to
drink water immediately after
waking up every morning.
Furthermore, scientific tests
have proven its value. We
publish below a description of
use of water for our readers. For
old and serious diseases as well
as modern illnesses the water
treatment had been found
successful by a Japanese medical
society as a 100% cure for the
following diseases:
Headache, body ache, heart
system, arthritis, fast heart beat,
epilepsy, excess fatness,
bronchitis asthma, TB,
meningitis, kidney and urine
diseases, vomiting,gastritis,
diarrhea, piles, diabetes,
constipation, all eye diseases,
womb, cancer and menstrual
disorders, ear nose and throat
diseases.
METHOD OF TREATMENT
1. As you wake up in the
morning before brushing teeth,
drink 4 x 160ml glasses of water
2. Brush and clean the mouth
but do not eat or drink anything
for 45 minute
3.. After 45 minutes you may eat
and drink as normal.
4. After 15 minutes of breakfast,
lunch and dinner do not eat or
drink anything for 2 hours
5. Those who are old or sick and
are unable to drink 4 glasses of
water at the beginning may
commence by taking little water
and gradually increase it to 4
glasses per day.
6. The above method of
treatment will cure diseases of
the sick and others can enjoy a
healthy life.
The following list gives the
number of days of treatment
required to cure/control/ reduce
main diseases:
1. High Blood Pressure (30 days)
2. Gastric (10 days)
3. Diabetes (30 days)
4. Constipation (10 days)
5. Cancer (180 days)
6. TB (90 days)
7. Arthritis patients should
follow the above treatment
only for 3 days in the 1st week,
and from 2nd week onwards –
daily..
This treatment method has no
side effects, however at the
commencement of treatment
you may have to urinate a few
times.
It is better if we continue this
and make this procedure as a
routine work in our life. Drink
Water and Stay healthy and
Active.
This makes sense .. The Chinese
and Japanese drink hot tea with
their meals not cold water.
Maybe it is time we adopt their
drinking habit while eating!!!
Nothing to lose, everything to
gain...
For those who like to drink cold
water, this article is applicable
to you.
It is nice to have a cup of cold
drink after a meal. However, the
cold water will solidify the oily
stuff that you have just
consumed. It will slow down
the digestion.
Once this 'sludge' reacts with
the acid, it will break down and
be absorbed by the intestine
faster than the solid food. It will
line the intestine.
Very soon, this will turn into
fats and lead to cancer. It is best
to drink hot soup or warm
water after a meal.
A serious note about heart
attacks:
· Women should know that not
every heart attack symptom is
going to be the left arm hurting,
· Be aware of intense pain in the
jaw line.
· You may never have the first
chest pain during the course of a
heart attack.
· Nausea and intense sweating
are also common symptoms.
· 60% of people who have a
heart attack while they are
asleep do not wake up.
· Pain in the jaw can wake you
from a sound sleep. Let's be
careful and be aware. The more
we know, the better chance we
could survive...
A cardiologist says if everyone
who gets this mail sends it to
everyone they know, you can be
sure that we'll save at least one
life.
Please be a true friend and send
this article to all your friends
you care about.
DON'T IGNORE SHARE IT. THIS
MIGHT SAVE SOMEONE'S
LIFE.

Beetroot Thuvaiyal Recipe:

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 1 no
Urdu Dall - 2 tsp
Channa Dall - 2 tsp
coconut fresh grated - 4 tsp
red chilles - 6 nos (according to your taste)
salt - according to the taste
Pepper - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - 1 big marble size
Oil - 1 tsp
Asafoedita - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Take thick and deep pan and add the oil bring to boil to fry the items one buy one, by adding mustard first.
After the mustard add the asafoedita, then urdu dall and channe dall, then pepper, later red chillies and then finally beeetroot.
Close the pan and allow the beet root to cook without adding water and then keep stiring now and then.
After frying, bring them to room temperature and then grind them in the mixie jar with soaked tamarind and fresh grated coconut.
If desired can add onion while frying.
But tastes great without onion and your Beetroot thuvaiyal is ready now.
You can simply mix this in hot rice adding ghee and eat with salads.
Or keep it as a side dist for Dosa, Idly, roti or chappati.

கேள்வரகு – ராகி களி

தேவையானப் பொருட்கள் :

இரண்டு பேருக்கு

4 டம்ளர்* தண்ணீர்
2 டம்ளர்* கேள்வரகு – ராகி மாவு

* 225ml அளவு டம்ளர்(காபி டம்ளர்).

செய்முறை:

அடுப்பில் பாத்திரத்தை வைத்து அதில் 4 டம்ளர் தண்ணீரை விட்டு கொதிக்க விடவும்.தண்ணீர் நன்கு கொதித்தவுடன் கேள்வரகு மாவை கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாய் கொதிக்கும் நீரில் போட்டுக் கொண்டே கிளறவும்.கட்டி கட்டாமல் கிளறுதல் முக்கியம்.(ரவா கிண்டுதல் போல.)

பின்னர் மிதமான தீயில் வைத்து வேக விடவும்.மாவு அடியில் ஒட்டாது கிளறிக் கொண்டே இருக்கவும்.மாவு கட்டி கட்டியிருந்தால் உடைத்துவிட்டு கிளறவும்.மாவு கலவை இறுகி களி போல வந்ததும் இறக்கி பரிமாறலாம்.களி சூடாக உண்டால் ருசி அதிகம்.

சாப்பிடும் முறை:

களியை சிறு உருண்டையாக உருட்டி தொட்டுக் கொள்ள இருப்பதை தொட்டு அப்படியே விழுங்க வேண்டும் – மென்று சாப்பிட்டால் ருசி இருக்காது.களியில் ஒட்டியிருக்கும் காய் / கறியை வாயில் தனியே பிரித்து மென்று சாப்பிடுதல் தனி சாமர்த்தியம்.

ஆறிய களியில் தயிர் ஊற்றி சாப்பிட்டால் நன்றாக இருக்கும்.சிறு உருண்டையாக பியத்து போட்டு தயிர் ஊற்றி தேவையான அளவு உப்பு போட்டு கூழ் போல பிசைந்து சாப்பிடுங்கள்.

சாப்பிட்டாச்சா?! என்னது களி கிண்டிய பாத்திரத்தை கழுவ போறீங்களா?! இருங்க பாத்திரத்தில இன்னும் களி ஒட்டி இருக்கு பாருங்க , அதுக்கு என்னவா?! அகா என்ன இப்படி கேட்டுடீங்க.அதுல தண்ணீர் ஊற்றி வைங்க காலைல தயிர் ஊற்றி கூழ் செயது சின்ன வெங்காயம் கடிச்சு குடிச்சு பாருங்க.அதன் ருசியே தனி.

தொட்டுக் கொள்ள :

கீரை கடைசல் , பாசி பயிறு கடைசல் , கோழி / ஆட்டுக் கறி / மீன் குழம்பு என எல்லாமே – எதுவுமே களிக்கு நல்ல கூட்டணிதான்.

குறிப்பு :

1.) பாத்திரம் – குண்டா(வாய் சிறிதான பாத்திரம்) வகையாக இருந்தால் கிளறுதல் எளிது

2.) களி கிண்ட தட்டையான நீளமான மர கரண்டி கடையில் கிடைக்கும் இல்லாவிட்டால் தோசை திருப்பியை உபயோகிக்கலாம்.

3.) உருண்டை / மொத்தை பிடக்க தனி உபகரணம் உண்டு ஆனால் சென்னையில் கிடைக்கவில்லை.கரண்டியில் எடுத்து பறிமாறலாம்.

4.) கேள்வரகு – ராகிக்கு பதில் கம்பு / சோள / கோதுமை மாவு சேர்த்தும் களி கிண்டலாம்.

5.) மாவு கட்டி கட்டாமல் கிளற தெரியாதென்றால் , மாவு போட்டு கிளறும் முன் கொஞ்சம் பழைய சாதம் அல்லது சம்பா ரவையை சேர்த்துக் கொள்ளலாம் – மாவு கட்டி கட்டாமல் கிளற இது உதவும்.(மாவு அளவை ஏற்றாட்போல் குறைத்துக் கொள்ளவும்.)

6.) சர்க்கரை உள்ளவர்களுக்கு நல்ல உணவு.