Honey is a sweet substance that bestows countless benefits to the human mind and body. It is still a wonder how a colony of honey bees collect this elixir from the nectar of various flowering plants. Read this article to know the benefits of honey consumption every day. We will also focus on the risk of honey if consumed in excess amount.

Benefits of Honey Consumption Regularly

Lowers Blood Cholesterol

In the process of building healthy cells, your body requires a kind of waxy substance called cholesterol, excess of which can lead to diverse health issues, like chest pain, heart failure, and stroke.

Honey does not include any cholesterol rather its components can lower down the existent level of cholesterol in your body. Studies revealed that eating honey can lower LDL (bad) cholesterol by 6–11%. Honey can also decrease triglyceride levels up to 11%. What is more? Honey can boost the HDL (good) cholesterol by up to 3%.

Regular consumption of honey can provide a beneficial effect on the antioxidant compounds of your body that can control excess cholesterol. Furthermore, honey consumption can efficiently prevent the rise in blood glucose.

Improves Heart Health

As a key component of your body, a healthy heart keeps you alive by pumping blood. Depending on the place of occurrence, narrowing of arteries can cause heart failure, memory loss, headaches, and many more illnesses.

Research has found that the natural sugar contained in honey can reduce artery plaque by 30%.  The honey sugar, called trehalose, includes a protein that activates your immune cells to remove the stored fatty plaque from your arteries.

The natural honey contained antioxidant components called flavonoids that also contribute to preventing your arteries from narrowing. Honey can unclog your blocked arteries gradually. Therefore, regular consumption of honey can both strengthen your heart and prevent cardiac failure.

Improves Brain and Memory

Research shows that the properties of honey can serve as a natural preventive therapy for both cognitive deterioration and dementia. Regular consumption of honey can not only reduce stress but also restore your cellular antioxidant defense system.

According to Dr. Francine Grodstein of Harvard Medical School, LDL (bad) cholesterol is bad for the brain. In 2013, research has found that cholesterol can develop plaque in the brain that can lead to Alzheimer's.

Lowering down the LDL (bad) cholesterol level in the blood, honey properties can reduce the risk of stroke which is responsible for damage in brain functioning.  Furthermore, the calcium property of honey can facilitate to improve the functioning of your brain. All of these actions can help to improve your memory.

Improves Gut Health and Treat Acid Reflux

An unhealthy gut can spoil both your physical and mental health. Honey is a strong natural antiseptic. Consumption of honey on an empty stomach can destroy germs in your belly and heals the small wounds of your mucous membrane. The antibacterial properties of honey can help your digestive tract get rid of harmful bacteria like E. coli and salmonella.

Read Easy Homemade Drinks to Boost Up Digestion Power Naturally.

Honey is naturally rich in hydrogen peroxide that prevents Helicobacter pylori which is responsible for dyspepsia, gastric ulcers, and similar kind of stomach diseases in the human body.  It is also found that the application of honey – instead of sugar – in processed food can improve stomach health in two ways: improving the microflora and restraining the detrimental (genotoxic) effects of mycotoxins.

By virtue of its anti-inflammatory properties, honey has great natural wound-healing power that can potentially control the chest pain and stomach pain caused by acid agitating esophagus – the muscular tube which joins your throat (pharynx) with your stomach. According to the Indian Journal of Medical Research, the sticky property of honey facilitates this process. If you are suffering from acid reflux quite often consume Honey regularly.

Regular consumption of Honey boosts up your metabolism power that may help weight loss. What is more? Removing toxin from your body, honey can clear up skin.

Read DIY Honey Face Mask Recipe to Get a Glowing Skin in Quarantine

Prevents Cough and Sore Throat

Due to the diverse viral infections including COVID19 disease numerous people are suffering from coughs and sore throat. You can consume honey every day to recover from a cough or sore throat. Around the world, Honey is treated as a popular home remedy for cough and sore throat.  

In 2010, a study shows that honey was proved to be more effective in treating cough comparing with several powerful cough medicines. In the year of 2018, an article published by New York Magazine reveals that professional singers recommended honey consumption to deal with a sore throat.

Soothes Anxiety and Improves Sleep

Honey consumption can calm your nerves, soothe anxiety, and relieve fatigue. The glucose property of honey gets absorbed into your blood fast which aids in the functions of neurons of your brain and mitigates psychological disorders.

The natural sugar contained in honey can increase the level of insulin in your blood leading to release serotonin, which is further transformed into melatonin hormone that assists better sleep. If you drink honey every day, it can potentially reduce your mental stress, and improve the quality of your sleep.

Read Easy Homemade Summer Drinks to Beat the Heat and Increase Immunity.

Strengthens Immune System

Antioxidants compounds in your blood can kill the disease-causing free radicals and prevent oxidative cell damage. Honey is a rich source of antioxidants, like phenolic acids and flavonoids. According to some studies, antioxidant compounds can prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other illnesses.

According to an article by Tracie Abram —an educator at Michigan State University — Honey is an immune system builder that is rich in antioxidants, anti-bacterial and anti-tumor properties. Regular consumption of honey can increase the antioxidant properties of your blood.

Factors like inadequate sleep increased stress, unhealthy stomach, etc can weaken your immune system. Honey can help your body to alleviate these health issues. Consumption of honey every day can make your immune system strong enough to prevent COVID19 and other illnesses naturally.

Read Coronavirus Tips: Immunity Booster Herbal Teas to Prevent Infection.

How Much Honey is Safe to Consume?

You should not consume honey more than 6 teaspoons (2 tablespoons) per day. However, this amount would be reduced, when you are consuming added sugar from other food sources. Excess consumption of honey may lead to weight gain, inflammation, heart disease, liver disease, dementia, and many other illnesses related to high sugar intake.

Remember that honey consumption is prohibited to infants under 1 year old. Because, Honey may contain bacteria, like Clostridium botulinum, which can harmful to babies.

Read Post Meal Bad Habits: Things You Must Avoid Right After Eating Meal.

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International Watercolor Society Bangladesh has organised its 1st National Online Watercolor Exhibition 2020 ‘Touches of Color’.

The two-day long exhibition began on Monday on the Facebook Page of IWS Bangladesh Exhibition and its YouTube channel, said a press release.

The IWS organised the exhibition to promote and popularize watercolour/water media in every part of the world, said IWS founding president Mr Atanur Dogan.

IWS Bangladesh branch head Md Kauser Hossain said IWS has been organizing events to promote watercolour.

Around 125 Bangladeshis including 20 renowned guest artists have participated in watercolour exhibition, he informed.

IWS has been arranging 10 demonstrations, five in each day, on the YouTube channel of IWS Bangladesh.

The top five artworks of this event will be selected by a prestigious jury board while each participant will get a participation certificate.

The international platform is a non-profit organization which was established in January 2012 with the objective of promoting the world’s oldest and most deeply rooted painting technique; the art of watercolor.

The headquarters of IWS is situated in the ancient city of Teos, Turkey on the eastern shores of the Aegean Sea.

Do you often feel the urge of shopping without necessity? It is estimated that currently, around 5% of people worldwide are suffering from Buying Shopping Disorder (BSD) or compulsive buying disorder. People who are addicted to excessive shopping are called shopaholic. Due to the surge of social networking websites and e-commerce platforms, lucrative promotional advertisements are inciting people to buy things they need or do not need. The ongoing pandemic can be a great opportunity to deal with this BSD. In this article, we are going to discuss some basic concepts about shopping compulsion and ways how to stop online shopping addiction.

Why is Online Shopping So Popular?

Three key factors play a great role in creating an online shopping addiction. Those are:

- People who want to avoid social interaction and prefer buying anonymously.

- People who like a wide variety of collection.

- People who enjoy instant satisfaction.

How to Know If You Have an Online Shopping Addiction?

Key signs of compulsive online shopping disorder include:

- You are failing to control online shopping tendency even if when you really want to.

- Your shopping behavior is declining your savings and causing harm to relationships, and work.

- Your family members, partner, or friends are worried about your irrational money habits.

- You enjoy thinking or planning about shopping all the time.

- You get anxious, disappointed, or annoyed when you cannot shop online.

- Shopping online is the only thing that can make you feel better.

- The tendency of hiding purchased items from the fear of getting criticized for overspending.

- Feeling post-shopping guiltiness or regret.

- Spending little time to enjoy other things that make you happy.

- Purchasing things beyond budget even if you do not actually need or planned to buy.

How to Curb Your Online Shopping Habit

• Panic Buying

Due to the pandemic situation, many people are stuck at home for several months. Physical meetings with friends and relatives are being discouraged for the sake of limiting the spread of the virus. Getting distracted from the normal pace of life, many people are facing diverse psychological and emotional problems, like panic buying.

Besides flocking to the supermarkets, people are shopping from e-commerce websites to hoard a bulk amount of grocery items and other products during the lockdown period. Some food items may get decomposed before consumption, which is a wastage of money and food during the COVID19 pandemic. To prevent such mishaps, you can prepare a grocery list considering your family size and necessity.

Read: Pandemic Grocery List: Is Your Home Ready for Coronavirus Home Quarantine?

• Identify Your Shopping Points

When you are trying to control your shopping affinity, it is quite essential to identify what provokes you for shopping. For instance, if you do excess shopping from any specific Facebook pages/groups or e-commerce website, then you need to block those pages or sites.

Besides this, you can unsubscribe promotional emails, and delete shopping apps from your Smartphone. Now you will no more get notifications from those online shopping points. Your shopping behavior can change if you can resist the temptation of returning to those pages or sites.

• Find Your Shopping Triggers

What on earth is pushing you towards excessive shopping tendency? Some people tend to shop as a result of chronic depression; because buying goods can give them temporary happiness. While some other people do online shopping to kill boredom. However, the reason may vary from person to person. If you can identify your shopping trigger, it would be easier to deal with.

• Find Your Own Entertainment

You can start a healthy habit like reading novels, gardening, watching movies, or any other creative hobby in order to divert your attention from online shopping. If you invest less time in browsing e-commerce websites or Facebook shopping pages, you will be less attracted to new items. It will not save your money but also improve your emotional health.

• Pay in Cash

Most of the people, who use credit cards for online shopping, tend to buy excess things which they do not actually need. To harness your shopping spree, you can opt for cash on delivery (COD) instead of paying through credit card.

• Track Your Spending

When you track where the money has been spent you can justify your own expenditure behavior. You can maintain an expenditure log for every month to compare the increase or decrease in your shopping trend. It will also remind you about the burden of expenditure or debt whenever you wish to buy anything you rarely need.

• Tidy Up Your Wardrobe

If you love to buy new clothes every month and hardly wear those, then try this technique. When you take an attempt to organize the clutter of your wardrobe, it will make you remember that you already have nice, stylish clothes. It will certainly make you feel contained about your possession and diminish your tendency to buy more. You can repeat this process several times a month to get a better result.

• Make Yourself Wait

The virtual world is always presenting money-spinning advertisements that bait people to buy things that they actually do not need. It is found that when people feel the urge of buying any product, the wish usually disappears within 24 to 72 hours. You can apply this trick! Before buying things make yourself wait for a while!

• Save for Real Life Necessity

The famous American business tycoon Warren Buffett says “Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.” You can choose a saving plan and deposit a considerable share of your earning to the bank every month. It will provide you long-term benefits like overcoming rainy days in job or business, sudden medical emergencies, securing the education of your kids, etc. You can spend the left amount to buy necessary things for you and your family. Then, you will hardly afford any extra money to shop for unnecessary things.

• Remind Yourself Big Dreams

Each of us may have a long-cherished desire – like visiting abroad or grabbing a car – which is yet to fulfill due to lack of money. Besides this, you can plan big goals for your life achieving a degree, or study abroad. Now you can start planning for these desires and goals, which really matters to your life! If you remind yourself about these plans, your spendthrift behavior will naturally reduce.

Read Grab Your Dream Car Today: Car Loan in Bangladesh.

• Ask for Help

Shopping addiction can lead to financial insecurity, family disagreement, debt, depression, anxiety, etc. So far we have discussed several ways to curb BSD or compulsive shopping addiction. However, if you still cannot control your shopping spree you can consult with a psychiatrist for counseling.

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Researchers in Canada say they are considering Cannabis as a potentially valuable tool to fight against COVID-19.

Researchers Olga and Igor Kovalchuck have reportedly been developing and testing a novel cannabis strain for years, except with the goal of creating a strain that helps to combat cancer and inflammation,

When the pandemic hit, the duo started to focus their efforts on how the strain might be used to help fight COVID-19.

The duo’s work was published in an April issue of the online medical journal Preprints, according to a Forbes report.

The study says similar to other respiratory pathogens, SARS-CoV2 is transmitted through respiratory droplets, with potential for aerosol and contact spread. It uses receptor-mediated entry into the human host via angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) that is expressed in lung tissue, as well as oral and nasal mucosa, kidney, testes, and the gastrointestinal tract.

“Modulation of ACE2 levels in these gateway tissues may prove a plausible strategy for decreasing disease susceptibility,” reads the study.

After looking at the research on cannabis and COVID by other scientists, they were able to determine that cannabis, a special strain in particular, could potentially block COVID-19 from entering a person’s body to begin with.

It is also possible that the strain could be used to prevent the virus from being able to propagate once it’s already entered someone’s system.

“Cannabis sativa, especially one high in the anti-inflammatory cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), has been proposed to modulate gene expression and inflammation and harbour anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties,” the study said.

“Working under the Health Canada research license, we have developed over 800 new Cannabis sativa lines and extracts and hypothesized that high-CBD C. sativa extracts may be used to modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19 target tissues.” 

Right now it’s still a theory rather than a confirmed fact; however, it offers some hope for the future. If they’re able to prove the idea, the next step would be to manufacture the successful strain into medical formations that could be used for prevention and treatment by the medical field, they said.

Also read: Thailand launches full-time clinics dispensing cannabis oil

 The couple also pointed out that not every strain of cannabis is going to impact you in the same way. While it’s possible that they will be able to find a strain that can help prevent or treat COVID-19, there are also strains that could potentially make it worse.

“While our most effective extracts require further large-scale validation, our study is crucial for the future analysis of the effects of medical cannabis on COVID-19. The extracts of our most successful and novel high CBD C. sativa lines, pending further investigation, may become a useful and safe addition to the treatment of COVID-19 as an adjunct therapy,” the study says.

“They can be used to develop easy-to-use preventative treatments in the form of mouthwash and throat gargle products for both clinical and at-home use. Such products ought to be tested for their potential to decrease viral entry via the oral mucosa. Given the current dire and rapidly evolving epidemiological situation, every possible therapeutic opportunity and avenue must be considered.”

Also read: Declare COVID-19 vaccines a global common good: Global leaders

Consumption of a balanced diet is the key to health. Besides this, drinking adequate water, taking shower, getting proper sleep, doing regular work outs are essential to keep your body sound, functional, and healthy. However, sometimes these actions can defer your body to get the best out of your food and make your sick. Yes! We are talking about some usual post-meal habits that can harm your body instead of doing well. Read this article, to know which things you should never do right after eating a full meal.

Post Meal Harmful Habits You Need to Avoid

Drinking Water

Drinking water one glass of water 30 minutes after a meal aids in digesting the food properly. But drinking excess water right after eating food can hamper your digestion process. Because presence of too much water in your stomach tends to dilute the essential gastric juices and creates an upsurge in your insulin levels.  

Besides this, if you drink chilled water immediately after having a full meal, it can result in food-clumping inside your stomach and hamper your digestion process.

Doing Exercise

Your body requires some times for digesting food before you can start a work out. If you start working out right after having a full meal, it can disrupt your digestive process. Furthermore, a post-meal quick workout session can cause vomiting, stomach inflammation, loose motions, etc.

Going for High intensity workout immediately after eating food might be more harmful. To participate in any high intensity training, you must wait for at least 45 minutes after heavy meal to avoid stomach cramps and feeling sick.

Walking, Jumping or Running

Though health experts always recommend walking as a healthy habit, post-meal walking habit can cause acid reflux leading to indigestion. It would be better, if you can wait for at least 30-minute post meals before you go for a brisk walk.

Though jumping is not high-intensity workout, it runs the risk of increasing your heart rate and jostling your body including stomach. It can also interrupt the process of digestion.

Running right away after a meal is not recommended either. If you start running with a full tummy, you can experience lethargy, stomach cramping followed by digestive disorders.

Swimming

Swimming gives relief in hot humid days. But never think of swimming right after having a full meal. If you jump into the water on a full stomach, you could feel cramps. It can also create the risk of drowning.

Going to Sleep

After having a full meal, it is quite tempting to take a short nap. But this simple habit can harm your health. Falling into sleep soon after eating can lead towards heartburns, snoring, sleep apnea, etc. Therefore, you have to fight against the habit of post-meal nap to maintain health.

Eating Fruits

Fruits are rich sources of vitamins, nutrients and minerals. But your body can hardly extract these benefits from fruits, if consumed right after eating a full meal. When you eat fruits after a heavy meal, it tends to clump with the food. Instead of being processed, the ingested fruit particles may start to decompose in your stomach and produce gas. The best time of eating fruit is one hour before having meal or two hours after.

Taking Tea or Coffee

Tea carries phenolic compounds which can inhibit the process of iron absorption in the body. Therefore, habit of drinking tea immediately after meal can lead towards iron deficiency in your body causing low hemoglobin level in blood.

Having coffee immediately after eating is also not a good idea, as Coffee can slow down your the absorb process of minerals and iron in your body.

However, you can opt for green tea, ginger tea or other herbal teas after your meals to improve your digestion process.

Read: Easy Homemade Drinks to Boost Up Digestion Power Naturally.

Loosening Belt

Many of people do this secretly! In fact, it is a sign of overeating. The habit of loosening the belt creates room for the intestines to bend which can hamper the digestion process. Moreover, this habit can loosen your abdominal muscles which may result into a fat bulky belly. Therefore, you should eat moderately so that you don’t feel the urge of loosening belt.

Taking Shower

When you take a shower immediately after having your meal, the blood flow tends to rush to your skin in order to regulate the temperature of your body. It can hamper the process of digestion. However, if you are feeling the urge of taking shower, wait for least 30 minutes after eating a full meal.

Smoking

Many people are fond of smoking cigarette after having a full meal. Smoking is detrimental to your health, regardless of the time. The damage could be more intense, if done immediately after eating. Post-meal smoking habit can worsen the irritable bowel syndrome, cause ulcerative colitis and many more illnesses.

Brushing Teeth

It is a good habit to brush your teeth before going to bed. But teeth can get damaged, if you start brushing right after consuming highly acidic foods. The act of teeth-brushing after meal can pose threat to the enamel layer of your teeth. It would be a good idea, to wait for minimum 30 minutes for post meal teeth-brushing.

Driving

When you eat food, it naturally increases the blood supply to your digestive tract. Consequently, the supply of blood to your brain gets affected, which may influence your ability to concentrate. Thereby, it is not a good idea to hit the wheel immediately after eating a full meal. You should wait for at least 30 minutes for better focus and concentration which can ensure safe driving.

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