Siwak: Preventive Medicine For Your Teeth

One of the best ways to protect one’s teeth is the siwak, which was mentioned in several sayings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Siwak are the wicks that are used to rub inside the mouth, and they get their name from the Arabic word “yudlik,” which can be roughly translated to mean “massage” (i.e., massage the inside of the mouth). It means more than “tooth brush.”

The best type of siwak is that which comes from the araak tree. The siwak of the Prophet (pbuh) was from that tree. The siwak is a natural twig fortified with natural minerals that help clean the teeth, other inhibitors that prevent gums from bleeding, cleaning agents that kill microbes and germs and a scent that gives breath a naturally fresh smell. The siwak is an ideal, natural brush that has been endowed with more than any artificial toothpaste could ever have.

Like a toothbrush, the wicks on the siwak clean between the teeth and do not break under any amount of pressure; rather, they are flexible and strong. The small wicks bend to the appropriate shape to get plaque and leftover food out from in between teeth while avoiding any damage to the gums.

The Prophet (pbuh) taught us more than 1,400 years ago to use the siwak to clean our teeth and mouth and give it a nice scent. Anas quoted the Prophet (pbuh) as saying: “Whenever the Angel Gabriel would visit me, he would advise me to use the siwak.”

The leftovers of food found between teeth provide an excellent environment for the festering of millions of bacteria, which can lead to painful and bloody gum disease and cysts. In the worst cases, there can be inflammation of the jawbones.

Bacteria also produce damaging enzymes that eat away at the calcium of the teeth, which causes cavities. In severe cases, the bacteria produce gases that emit nasty stenches from the mouth. Recent studies have found that siwak has natural minerals that kill microbes and germs and remove plaque.

The Prophet (pbuh) used to rub the siwak over his tongue, teeth and gums. Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari said, “I visited the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the siwak was at the edge of his tongue.”

Chemical Breakdown Of A Siwak
Siwak has 19 beneficial ingredients in it. Most important among them are:

1.Antibacterial acidic inhibitors that fight decay and diarrhea. They are natural disinfectants and can be used to stop bleeding. They disinfect the gums and teeth and close any microscopic cuts that may have existed in the gums. On first usage, the siwak will taste harsh, and maybe even burn, because of a mustard-like substance found in it, but this is the ingredient that fights decay in the mouth and kills germs.

2.Minerals such as sodium chloride, potassium, sodium bicarbonate and calcium oxides. These clean the teeth. For instance, the American Dental Association considers sodium bicarbonate to be a preferred ingredient in toothpastes.

3.Natural scented oils that taste and smell nice, give the mouth a nice smell. They make up about 1% of the siwak.

4.Enzymes that prevent the buildup of plaque that causes gum disease. Plaque is also the no. 1 cause of premature loss of teeth.

5.Anti-decay and anti-germ ingredients that act as a penicillin of sorts, decreasing the amount of bacteria in the mouth, which means cleaner teeth and cleaner air when breathing through the mouth.

Read more...

Omega-3 Fatty-Acid Intake Improves Neurodevelopment in Preterm Girls

January 15, 2009 — Investigators observed an 80% reduction in the proportion of baby girls with significant mental delays when they had a diet rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These are the findings of a randomized controlled trial published in the January 14, 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Although the researchers did not see statistically significant benefits in boys or babies born weighing less than 1250 g, they say that there appeared to be a reduction in the proportion of babies with significant mental delay in these groups with high-DHA treatment.

"We recommend increased DHA for all preterm infants born at less than 33 weeks' gestation," lead author Maria Makrides, PhD, from the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia told Medscape Neurology & Neurosurgery.

We think that the level of DHA used in the treatment arm of our study should become the new gold standard for preterm infants.

"We think that the level of DHA used in the treatment arm of our study should become the new gold standard for preterm infants, whether it is supplied through breast milk or infant formula," Dr. Makrides said.

"It is important to note that we did not find negative effects of increasing the dietary DHA content. The high-DHA babies grew as well as those fed standard DHA, and we have confidence that the level of DHA used in the study — around 1% of the total dietary fat — was safe," she added.

Read more...

...LETS BE A GREAT MUSLIM DOCTOR...
To be a great moslem doctor in not easy because we must to face and solve the hard problem.as like sunnatullah to become a successful person we must follow any person who are successful man in the past.so to be a great doctor we must follow the great doctor such as IBNU SINA et al* and the most important thing is ethics from practician.the role to be a great moslem doctor are:

1. The Public Responsibility: A Muslim doctor is supposed to belong to a Muslim community where there is some common cause, common feelings and mutual solidarity. "Believers are brethren" (IXL, 10) God also says:

"And hold fast all of you together to the Rope of
Allah, and be not divided among yourselves: and
remember Allah's favor on you, for you were
enemies and He joined your hearts together, so
that by His Grace you became brethern..."

(111, 103)

The implication is the Muslim doctor is a member in a Muslim community where the same body of the individual is crucial for its survival and development. T'he doctor has a big say and great weight in influencing his patients and in righteously guiding their orientation. Besides, he should be actively involved in propagating true Islam among Muslims and non- Muslims. Almost all Christian missionaries depend on medical doctors when approaching alien masses, taking advantage of the humanistic service doctors render to poor diseased people. In a country like this where we live, the best missionary service to be render-ed by a medical doctor is to behave aU the time in accordance with his Islamic teachings, to declare his conviction, and to feel proud of it. Then he serves a good model that would convince others and gain their hearts. 2. Faith and healing: By accepting the fact that Allah is the healer - and that the doctor is only an agent, both patients - irrespective of their creeds - and their doctors, fight their battle of treatment with less agony and tension. I think it is an established fact that such spiritual conviction would improve the psychological state of the patient and boost his morale, and thus help him overcome his physical weakness and sickness. There are many examples where faith played a miraculous part in the process of healing. In my opinion, a Muslim doctor must make of faith the backbone of his entire healing procedure. 3. Reprehensible, Prohibited and Permissible Acts: More than any other professional, the Muslim medical doctor is confronted more frequently with questions regarding the Islamic legitimacy of his activities. There are almost daily controversial problematic issues on which he is supposed to decide: e.g. birth control, abortions, opposite sex hormonal injections, trans-sexual operations, brain operations affecting human personality, plastic surgery changing physionomy, extra-uterine conception, etc. The Muslim doctor should not be guided in such issues merely by the law of the country. He must also find the Islamic answer and rather adopt it as much as he can. To find the answer is not an easy matter, especially if the doctor himself has no reasonably solid background in the field of Islamic teachings. Yet, to gain such knowledge is very simple and would not consume much time as generally presumed.

Read more...

Poor Sleep Before Rhinovirus Exposure Linked to Lower Resistance to Illness

January 13, 2009 — Poorer sleep efficiency and shorter sleep duration in the weeks before exposure to a rhinovirus are linked to greater susceptibility to the common cold, according to the results of a study reported in the January 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Sleep quality is thought to be an important predictor of immunity and, in turn, susceptibility to the common cold," write Sheldon Cohen, PhD, from the Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and colleagues. "This article examines whether sleep duration and efficiency in the weeks preceding viral exposure are associated with cold susceptibility."

The study sample consisted of 153 healthy men and women volunteers aged 21 to 55 years. For 14 consecutive days, participants reported their sleep duration and sleep efficiency, defined as percentage of time in bed actually asleep for the previous night and whether they felt rested. The investigators calculated average scores for each sleep variable during the 14-day baseline. Participants were then quarantined, inoculated with nasal drops containing a rhinovirus, and monitored for the development of a clinical cold on the day before and for 5 days after rhinovirus exposure. Clinical cold was defined as infection in the presence of objective signs of illness.

Participants who reported less than 7 hours of sleep were 2.94 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18 - 7.30) more likely to get a cold than those with 8 hours or more of sleep, suggesting a graded association with average sleep duration. Similarly, participants with less than 92% sleep efficiency were 5.50 times (95% CI, 2.08 - 14.48) more likely to get a cold than those with 98% or more efficiency, also suggesting a graded association with sleep efficiency.

Differences in prechallenge virus–specific antibody titers, demographics, season of the year, body mass, socioeconomic status, psychological variables, or health practices did not explain the observed associations. The percentage of days feeling rested was not associated with clinical colds.

Limitations of the study include inability to draw causal inference and reliance on self-report.

"Poorer sleep efficiency and shorter sleep duration in the weeks preceding exposure to a rhinovirus were associated with lower resistance to illness," the study authors write. "Because of the prospective design and the controls for multiple confounding factors, these results strongly suggest the possibility of sleep playing a causal role in cold susceptibility. Moreover, the use of a maximally reliable multiple day assessment of sleep habits increases our confidence in the findings of this study."

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health supported this study. The study authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Arch Intern Med. 2009;169:62-67.

Read more...

OLIVE OIL

Olive oil is the only oil that is healthy for the body. According to scientists, olive oil can help prevent cancer (even breast cancer), heart disease, rhumatoid arthritis, blood clotting (after eating a fatty meal) and help lower high blood pressure. Naturally grown or organically grown, cold pressed, extra-virgin olive oil is the best. In the Holy Qur’aan, Allah (who is the Creator and Sustainer of all the Boundless Universes) refers to the Olive as a blessed tree:

Qur’aan 24: 35

"Allah is the light of the galactic heavens and the planet earth. The allegory of His light is that of a concave mirror behind a lamp that is placed inside a glass container. The glass container is like a bright, pearl-like star. The fuel thereof is supplied from a blessed olive tree, that is so vast it encompasses both east and west. Its oil is almost self-radiating; needs no fire to ignite it. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whomever He wills. Allah thus cites the parables for the people. Allah is fully aware of all things."

Read more...

WHAT IS HABBATUS SAUDA' / NIGELLA SATIVA / BLACK SEED?

The seeds of nigella sativa / black seed, commonly known as black seed or black cumin, are used in folk (herbal) medicine all over the world for the treatment and prevention of a number of diseases and conditions that include asthma, diarrhoea and dyslipidaemia. This article reviews the main reports of the pharmacological and toxicological properties of Nigella sativa and its constituents.




The nigella sativa / black seeds contain both fixed and essential oils, proteins, alkaloids and saponin. Much of the biological activity of the seeds has been shown to be due to thymoquinone, the major component of the essential oil, but which is also present in the fi ed oil. The pharmacological actions of the crude extracts of the seeds and some of its active constituents, e.g. volatile oil and thymoquinone) that have been reported include protection against nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity induced by either disease or chemicals. The seeds/oil have antiinflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, antimicrobial and antineoplastic activity. The nigella sativa oil decreases blood pressure and increases respiration.




Treatment of rats with the seed extract for up to 12 weeks has been reported to induce changes in the haemogram that include an increase in both the packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb), and a decrease in plasma concentrations of cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose. The seeds are characterized by a very low degree of toxicity. Two cases of contact dermatitis in two individuals have been reported following topical use.
Administration of either the seed extract or its oil has been shown not to induce significant adverse effects on liver or kidney functions. It would appear that the beneficial effects of the use of the seeds and thymoquinone might be related to their cytoprotective and antioxidant actions, and to their effect on some mediators of inflammation.



Reference:
Ali BH, Blunden G.: Department of Veterinary Medicine, King Saud University, Buraydah, Al Gaseem 81999, Saudi Arabia

Read more...