понедельник, 22 декабря 2014 г.

ONION

Assalamualaikum w.r.t, we’re back with the article about the health benefits of onions. Stay tuned with Imam Volgograd for the informative articles updated every week!
If you've landed here because you've heard of the health benefits of onions and you want to know more, prepare to be amazed.
If you weren't eating onions before, you will, after reading this article!
Onions Nutritional Highlights
Onions are a very good source of vitamin C, B6, biotin, chromium, calcium and dietary fibre. In addition, they contain good amounts of folic acid and vitamin B1 and K.
A 100 gram serving provides 44 calories, mostly as complex carbohydrate, with 1.4 grams of fibre.
Like garlic, onions also have the enzyme alliinase, which is released when an onion is cut or crushed and it causes your eyes to water.
They also contain flavonoids, which are pigments that give vegetables their colour. These compounds act as antioxidants, have a direct antitumor effect and have immune-enhancing properties.
Onions contain a large amount of sulfur and are especially good for the liver. As a sulfur food, they mix best with proteins, as they stimulate the action of the amino acids to the brain and nervous system.
Onions, Rich Source of Quercitin



The onion is the richest dietary source of quercitin, a potent antioxidant flavonoid (also in shallots, yellow and red onions only but not in white onions), which is found on and near the skin and is particularly linked to the health benefits of onions.
Quercitin has been shown to thin the blood, lower cholesterol, raise good-type HDL cholesterol, ward off blood clots, fight asthma, chronic bronchitis, hay fever, diabetes, atherosclerosis and infections and is specifically linked to inhibiting human stomach cancer.
It's also an anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antiviral, thought to have diverse anti-cancer powers. Quercitin is also a sedative. So far, there is no better food source of quercitin than onion skins.
You don't need to eat loads of onions to achieve these effects. In fact, studies show that you can reap the health benefits of onions by eating just one medium onion, raw or cooked, a day.
Detoxify Your Body with Onions
Onions contain a variety of organic sulfur compounds that provide health benefits.
Sulfur-containing amino acids are found in onions as well as garlic and eggs.
These specific amino acids are called methionine and cystine and, among other things, they are very good at detoxifying your body from heavy metals.
In fact, they are able to latch on to mercury, cadmium and lead and escort them out of the body.
Vitamin C, also contained in onions, is excellent at detoxifying the body and is effective in removing lead, arsenic and cadmium. So increasing consumption of onions can help the body to get rid of these harmful metals.
Onions and the Heart
To help keep your blood free of clots, and make the most of the health benefits of onions, eat them both raw and cooked.
Prescribing onions for heart patients is hardly routine among cardiologists. But Harvard's Dr. Victor Gurewich advises all his patients with coronary heart disease to eat onions daily.
Here are some of the things that onions can do for your heart:
* Boost beneficial HDL cholesterol
* Thin the blood
* Retard blood clotting
* Lower total blood cholesterol
* Lower triglycerides
* Lower blood pressure

Cancer Prevention



One way the antioxidants in onions can protect you against cancer is by reducing the DNA damage in cells caused by free radicals, studies reveal.
All onions and onion relatives (garlic, leeks, chives and scallions, or spring onions) are rich in organosulfur compounds shown to help prevent cancer in lab animals.
In fact, an onion extract was found to destroy tumor cells in test tubes and to arrest tumor growth when tumor cells were implanted in rats.
The onion extract was shown to be unusually nontoxic, since a dose as high as forty times that of the dose required to kill the tumor cells had no adverse effect on the host.
In addition, shallots have been shown to exhibit significant activity against leukemia in mice.
Other Health Benefits of Onions
Onions have also been shown to have a significant blood sugar-lowering action, even comparable to some prescription drugs.
The active compound that seems to be responsible for lowering glucose works by competing with insulin for breakdown sites
in the liver, thereby increasing the life span of insulin.
Onions have historically been used to treat asthma, too. Its action in asthma is due to its ability to inhibit the production of compounds that cause the bronchial muscle to spasm and to relax bronchial muscle.
Onions have potent antibacterial activity, destroying many disease-causing pathogens, including E. coli and salmonella.

Quick Serving Suggestions




The liberal use of onions and other bulbs of the same family, such as garlic, leeks and shallots, seems a particularly good idea considering their healing effects on the major degenerative diseases so common today, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes and cancer.
So try to enjoy the health benefits of onions as much as you can and to include them in your diet in every possible way.
Here are some quick serving ideas:
* Onions can be eaten on their own steamed, boiled or roasted.
* Sautéed chopped onions can be added to almost any vegetable dish
to enhance its nutritional content and taste.
* For an instant vegetarian chilli, heat together 1 medium chopped sautéed onion, with 12-oz/350 g. can of kidney beans, 12 oz/350 g. of chunky tomato sauce, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and season to taste with chili powder.
* Chop 1 red onion, 2 medium tomatoes, 2 avocados and 1 jalapeno and combine together for an all-in-one guacamole salsa dip.
* Place chunks of onion or small pearl onions on a skewer, either alone or with other vegetables, coat lightly with olive oil, and grill for approximately 10 minutes.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the health benefits of onions and I've managed to persuade you to make room for onions in your every day meals.
As you've seen, you don't need to eat a lot, but any amount will be extremely beneficial to your health. Thank you!

понедельник, 8 декабря 2014 г.

TEH HITAM VS TEH HIJAU

TEH HITAM VS TEH HIJAU

Assalamualaikum wrh. wbt.
Alhamdulillah. Artikel pertama dari pihak IMAM Volgograd untuk sesi kali ini. Belum terlambat lagi untuk mengucapkan selamat datang kepada bulan disember, yakni bulan pertama untuk musim salji di Rusia dan juga bulan terakhir untuk tahun 2014. Sudah mula untuk berfikir tentang azam 2015? Atau masih berusaha untuk mencapai azam yang belum direalisasikan? Apa pun azam anda, semoga anda menjadi lebih baik dari sebelumnya.
“Beruntunglah orang yang hari ini lebih baik dari semalam, rugilah orang yang sama keadaannya hari ini dengan semalam dan celaka lah orang yang hari ini lebih teruk dari semalam” –Saidina Ali-
Setelah beberapa lama tinggal di bumi Rusia ini, pasti tidak pernah terlepas dari soalan “чёрный или зелёный”(black or green) ketika hendak memesan air teh (чай ). Berbeza sangatkah khasiat kedua-dua teh ini sehinggakan penuh rak di pasar raya hanya untuk menjual teh-teh yang pelbagai perasa?
Siapa yang tidak kenal dengan teh?  Minuman teh merupakan minuman penyegar  yang paling popular dan paling banyak diminum di dunia setelah air putih. Teh diperoleh dari pucuk daun muda tanaman teh (Camelia sinensis). Orang Cina mengatakan lebih baik hidup tiga hari tanpa makanan daripada hidup satu hari tanpa teh.

Terdapat 5 jenis teh iaitu teh hitam, teh hijau, teh putih,teh herba dan teh oolong. Selain dari perbezaan warna, terdapat banyak perbezaan antara teh termasuk cara pemprosesan. Tetapi di sini kita akan memberikan lebih tekanan untuk perbincangan tentang teh hijau dan teh hitam.






Teh Hijau

Teh hijau dapat diperoleh melalui dua kaedah. Menurut kaedah tradisional Jepun, teh hijau diperoleh dengan mengukus daun teh.Sedangkan orang Cina mempersiapkan teh hijau dengan cara digoreng dalam kuali tanpa minyak.

Untuk menghindari proses oksidasi, teh diproses dalam waktu tidak lebih dari dua hari setelah dipetik. Sebab itu, daun teh tetap berwarna hijaunya sehingga disebut sebagai teh hijau dan proses penapaian dapat dihindari.

Teh Hitam

Tidak seperti teh hijau, teh hitam diperoleh setelah daun teh mengalami oksidasi sebelum dikeringkan.Setelah proses oksidasi selesai, daun teh kemudian dipanaskan dan dibahagi berdasarkan kualitinya. Warna hitam dari daun muncul akibat proses oksidasi.

Manfaat Kesihatan

Semua daun teh mengandungi ‘flavonoids’ yang diperoleh secara semula jadi melalui proses kimia yang mengandungi antioksida. Antioksida mencegah radikal bebas yang merosakkan yang mana mungkin menjadi punca penyakit kronik. Selalu minum air teh akan merendahkan tekanan darah dan kolesterol ‘LDL’ (kolesterol jahat) untuk mengurangkan risiko sakit jantung dan strok. Teh juga baik untuk kesihatan gigi dan tulang. Selain itu, teh juga mampu menyokong sistem imun yang sihat dan mencegah penurunan sel otak.

Sehingga kini, kajian menunjukkan teh hijau mengandungi banyak sebatian ‘epigallocatechin gallate’ (EGCg),iaitu antioksida yang 100 kali ganda lebih kuat berbanding vitamin C dan E. Proses penapaian telah menukarkan EGCg kepada sebatian lain yang menyebabkan teh hitam kurang memberi manfaat kepada kesihatan berbanding teh hijau. Bagai manapun, kajian baru-baru ini menunjukkan sebatian di dalam teh hitam – flavin dan rubigen- memberi banyak manfaat selain dari warna dan rasa. Sebatian ini turut memberi manfaat kepada kesihatan seperti teh hijau.

Teh hijau juga mengandungi jumlah kafein yang amat kecil, manakala teh hitam pula mengandungi lebih banyak kafein dari teh hijau, namun lebih rendah dari kopi. Namun, kandungan kafein adalah berbeza mengikut tumbuhan dan kaedah pemprosesan. Teh hitam sangat baik untuk melindungi diri terhadap penyakit jantung dan kanser. Pesakit tekanan darah rendah harus minum teh hitam yang juga baik untuk masalah pencernaan. Wanita yang ingin menurunkan berat badan juga dianjurkan minum teh ini asalkan anda meminumnya tanpa susu dan gula.




Teh hijau juga mengandung florida sehingga membantu mengurangi risiko gigi berlubang. Teh hijau dipercayai mampu mengurangkan peningkatan kolesterol dan risiko kanser. Teh hijau juga mengandung tannin yang bermanfaat meningkatkan ketahanan tubuh. Sebuah kajian yang dilakukan di China tahun 2012 menemukan bahawa teh hijau mampu memperbaiki kerosakan sel otak yang disebabkan pertambahan umur. Kandungan antioksidannya juga boleh menurunkan risiko glaucoma dan pelbagai masalah mata hingga kanser.

Disebabkan oleh proses oksidasi, teh hitam mengandung ‘polysaccharides’ yang dapat memperlambat penyerapan glukosa lebih efektif berbanding teh lain. Walau bagaimanapun, menurut kajian di Berlin University 2006, sebaiknya teh hitam tidak diminum bersama susu kerana ‘casein’ dalam susu akan menghilangkan manfaat untuk jantung.

Baik teh hijau dan teh hitam, kedua-duanya kaya dengan vitamin terutamanya vitamin C dan mineral. Selain itu, dengan meminum 2-3 gelas teh setiap hari, tubuh akan mendapatkan maksimum pengambilan vitamin B1, B2, B6, asam folat, dan sebagainya.

Peminum teh terbanyak di dunia, seperti di Jepun dan di China menikmati manfaat kesihatan dari kebiasaan mereka meminum teh. Oleh sebab itu, sedikit penduduk Jepun dan China diserang penyakit jantung dan kanser.

Kesan Samping

Mereka yang memiliki tekanan darah tinggi seharusnya menghindari teh hitam. Teh hitam mengandungi kafein yang boleh memburukkan tekanan darah tinggi. Kafein juga tidak baik bagi orang yang memiliki masalah penyerapan kalsium. Selain itu, kafein juga dianggap sebagai zat adiktif yang menyebabkan ketagihan. Kafein memiliki banyak kesan yang merugikan pada tubuh, terutama sistem saraf pusat. Namun, tidak ada bukti yang jelas di antara para ahli medik tentang kafein.

Jane Higden, pengkaji dari ‘Linus Pauling Institute’, menyatakan walaupun pelbagai kajian telah dilakukan untuk mengkaji hubungkait antara meminum teh dan risiko penyakit jantung dan kanser, namun tiada  kesimpulan tepat yang pengambilan teh yang banyak mampu melindungi manusia dari kedua-dua penyakit ini.

Untuk menentukan yang manakah yang lebih bermanfaat, sekiranya anda ingin minum minuman kafein yang panas pada waktu pagi, maka teh hitam adalah pilihan yang terbaik. Sekiranya anda ingin minum minuman panas pada waktu malam tanpa memberi kesan pada waktu tidur, maka teh hijau (teh putih juga) adalah pilihan yang terbaik.

Secara umumnya, teh memberi manfaat kepada kesihatan. Anda boleh sahaja memilih di antara teh hijau atau teh hitam yang sesuai dengan selera. Yang berbeza cuma warna dan rasa!

Informasi tambahan




Adakah anda tahu bahawa jenis kantung teh adalah berbeza untuk waktu pembuatan. Setiap jenis teh berbeza suhu ideal dan waktu pencelupan kantung teh untuk mendapatkan secangkir teh yang sempurna. Panjang benang pada kantung teh menunjukkan jenis teh mana yang mempunyai waktu terlama atau tercepat untuk pencelupan kantung teh.

понедельник, 6 января 2014 г.

Exam Preparation : 10 Study Tips

Exam preparation: 10 study tips

1        1.  Give yourself enough time to study

“Too much homework, no time studying”,

“Lectures are just wasting my time”,

“If this stupid class is abolished I’d have more time to read”,

“This education system is a failure”

“That lecturer taught nothing. I’m wondering how they hired her in the first place”

These are the excuses that you give when you flunked your biology or any subjects in the exam. “Rogov, no wonder I got this”. Blame nobody but yourself! Of course sometimes it wouldn’t be applicable to all situation(as you know we live by the bias education system here)  but reflection to yourself comes first. Ask yourself “Have I prepared enough? Have I answered well?”, if you have a thought like ‘hmmm..’, ‘I think so’, ‘I’m not sure’ then it’s NO! You didn’t study enough as you love to PROCRASTINATE. Bang! Everybody does this, don’t try to deny.

So, don't leave it until the last minute. While some students do seem to thrive on last-minute 'cramming', it's widely accepted that for most of us, this is not the best way to approach an exam. But we might say ‘Excuse me, all this while I survived by doing so, what’s the problem?. Sometimes last-minute studying is good and pertinent for several students but sure enough it is not the last-minute that you have not even started the first chapter of anatomy. You might have only like several topics or have gone through all the questions but just have to revise once again, then it’d be fine. But if you have the exam final tomorrow and only today you start opening the anatomy book, you’d better change.
  Set out a timetable for your study. Write down how many exams you have and the days on which you have to sit them. Then organize your study accordingly. You may want to give some exams more study time than others (pharmacology is harder than topan, more time for pharmaco). So find a balance that you feel comfortable with.

2. Organize your study space

Make sure you have enough space to spread your textbooks and notes out. Your study table is not the place for you to put on everything, there you have unwashed dishes, snacks, joysticks, dirty laundry, cats or whatever things. Seriously? Your life is a complete mess. Put in order all the books, use the book stand, if you don’t have it arrange them in a neat pile. Have you got enough light? Is your chair comfortable? Is your DOTA out of sight? Definitely it should be.

Try and get rid of all distractions, and make sure you feel as comfortable and able to focus as possible. For some people, this may mean almost complete silence; for others, background music helps. Some of us need everything completely tidy and organized in order to concentrate, while others thrive in a more cluttered environment(only weird people do this).  Think about what works for you, and take the time to get it right.

3. Use flow charts and diagrams

Visual aids can be really helpful when revising. At the start of a topic, challenge yourself to write down everything you already know about a topic - and then highlight where the gaps lie. Closer to the exam, condense your revision notes into one-page diagrams.( don’t get wrong, it’s not for you to bring it in the exam). Getting your ideas down in this brief format can then help you to quickly recall everything you need to know during the exam. But some people are just not good enough to make brief notes in the form of diagrams or mind maps or bubbly cloudy short notes out of the thousands pages of physiology book. So it depends on which ways you’d like to use to summarise what you have read.

4. Practice on old exams

One of the most effective ways to prepare for exams is to practice taking past versions. This helps you get used to the format of the questions. HAHAHAHA! What a joke! As for all of you, you have been given the questions and the answer scheme in the early beginning of your course. It’s leaked years back then and the questions are just recycled year to year. Therefore, supposedly you have no reasons not to score with flying colours in your final semester. Yeah right! Easier said than done! :p

5. Explain your answers to others

Parents and little brothers and sisters don't have to be annoying around exam time, but in your case as you are studying abroad your friends or roommates are. Use them to your advantage. Explain an answer to a question to them even though they do not ask you to but who cares? Somehow it’s for their own benefit too, they get to prepare at least (but if they say stop, just stop, you don’t want to be annoying  then). That will help you to get it clear in your head, and also to highlight any areas where you need more work.  As this old genius man once said;
“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”- Albert Einstein-

6. DO NOT Organize study groups with friends

Some, not some but most of the motivators, teachers or whoever so called educator might suggest organise study groups for better learning process. Crap! Usually the biggest problem of having a study group is, it is not discussing about study anymore, in just 10 minutes or earlier than that it turns out to be chit chat gossip girl group. All topics from how-do-you-get-this-dress until my-cat-is-so-cute topic which come from nowhere being discussed. The point is, usually (among Malays frequently, not trying to be racist here)  it doesn’t work out the way it supposed to be. But, of course there’s BUT, it doesn’t always to be that way. Some people need to learn by listening to others as there are certain people with better understanding on certain subjects. Thus, study group would help in this case. If you want to organise a study group make sure it doesn’t exceed more than 5 people or else it’d become what has been mentioned above, the best would be 3.  Get together with friends for a study session. You may have questions that they have the answers to and vice versa. As long as you make sure you stay focused on the topic for an agreed amount of time, this can be one of the most effective ways to challenge yourself.

7. Take regular breaks

While you may think it's best to study for as many hours as possible, this can actually be counterproductive. If you were training for a marathon, you wouldn't try and run 24 hours a day! Likewise studies have shown that for long-term retention of knowledge, taking regular breaks really helps.
Everyone's different, so develop a study routine that works for you. If you study better in the morning, start early before taking a break at lunchtime. Or if you're more productive at nighttime, take a larger break earlier on so you're ready to settle down come evening.
Try not to feel guilty about being out enjoying the sunshine instead of hunched over your textbooks. Remember Vitamin D is important for a healthy brain!
Bear in mind! Having a little break in the middle of your studying can be a larger break if you misuse it. You plan to take 5 minutes but it drags you to 5 hours. This happens if you use the break time by watching videos, playing computer games or anything that you’ve known already it doesn’t require you couples of minutes but it costs you hours.

8. Snack on 'brain food'

Keep away from junk food! You may feel like you deserve a treat, or that you don't have time to cook, but what you eat can really have an impact on energy levels and focus. The same applies on exam day - eat a good meal before the test, based on foods that will provide a slow release of energy throughout. Sugar may seem appealing, but it won't help when your energy levels crash an hour or so later. When you are studying, avoid heavy meals. You don’t want to have double chicken burger with cheesy wedges and a large cup of fizzy drinks during your time studying. It causes you to be sleepy. Keep your body and brain well-fuelled by choosing nutritious foods that have been proven to aid concentration and memory, such as fish, nuts, seeds, yogurt and blueberries.

9. Plan your exam day

Make sure you get everything ready well in advance of the exam - don't leave it to the day before to suddenly realize you don't know the way, or what you're supposed to bring
Manage your time. Even though there are lots of mashruds, tramvai and trolleybuses, work out your time well. You could be late of having trouble fighting with babushka to get in the mashrud. You really don't want to arrive having had to run halfway or feeling frazzled from losing your way. You could also make plans to travel to the exam with friends or classmates, as long as you know they're likely to be punctual!

10. DO NOT really follow the study tips.

As a final tip, study tips are just the tips. It can be relevant to certain people but isn’t to the other. People are different. It takes all sorts to make a world. Different people have different ways of studying. Thus, choose the best way of studying that suits and go with your way. Remember that after all your struggles and how sweated blood you were to prepare for the exam, no matter what your religion is, you have to have faith in God that He will help and give you the best in life. 

Never stop praying to Him as He makes mention in Quran, Chapter 40, verse 60;

“And your Lord says: Call upon Me, I will answer you…”

GOOD  LUCK!