India Blog

Bamboo plants are among the world’s most useful and versatile plants. Unlike trees, bamboo grows at an astonishing rate of up to 2 inches per hour. This makes it the world’s fastest growing plant.

Even though their height can be enormous, they are not part of the tree family species. In fact, they are evergreen grasses. Currently, there are over a thousand species and nearly a hundred different grass subgenera. As different species can be used for different things, this variety helps to ensure the lasting survival of a bamboo plant.

In several eastern countries, such as, India, China and Japan, bamboo is highly valuable. As the bamboo plants are used as food, wood and fuel, the fast growing rate makes this renewable resource a cornerstone of those societies. Bamboo, when properly treated, can be extremely durable and long lasting, it provides an easy solution to many problems.

One of which, is that it is cultivated has a highly desirable wood product. Bamboo can create massive, stable scaffoldings, provide a base wood over slower growing trees, and provide ornamental value to both the interior and exterior of homes. In addition to construction material for homes, bamboo is also used on smaller wood products people use on a daily basis, such as chop sticks, tables, cutting boards, sushi bowls and other kitchen accessories.

When bamboo plants are young, the shoots can be eaten from many different varieties. It is important to note, that not all species of bamboo shoots can be ingested. For example, the giant bamboo plant contain cyanide within its shoots. Cyanide can be lethal to humans.

Many types of animals survive by eating bamboo. Most notably is the panda, which only eats bamboo stalks and leaves.

Even with all of modern uses of bamboo, bamboo plants do not come without faults. The bamboo plant, for reasons yet proven by science, tend to have mass flowering and fruiting seasons. This is most notable in the Bay of Bengal, where the bamboo plants bloom once every 30 to 35 years. This mass blooming and fruiting cases severe consequences to human populations nearby. Rats are attracted to the fruit as it falls to the ground. In many cases these rats are known to carry diseases that are very harmful to humans. This can lead to many human deaths, as there is little that can be done to stop the spread of disease once it has begun. With the increased technology of today’s society, solutions to the infestation and disease problems are being addressed, in a manner that will preserve the bamboo plant during its fruiting season.

Because of its versatility, bamboo is grown and harvested in many different regions throughout the world. Bamboo is most commonly found in East Asia, although they can thrive in sub-Saharan Africa, North and South America. When people think of Bamboo, they most often think of it as the stuff panda bears eat, however, you can now see that it is used extensively as building materials and certain bamboo plants offer a good source of food.

Guggul is a natural herb supplement that may help lower cholesterol, yet few in the Western hemisphere know much about it. Guggul is otherwise known as the Mukul myrrh tree, and is a plant of the Burseracae family with small red or pink flowers.

It is found across central Asia over to North Africa, although is very common in the northern areas of India where the climate is more semi-arid than equatorial.  Guggul does not like a lot of water and can thrive in ground where the soil has few nutrients. Its Latin name is Commiphora wightii, and it grows about 12 feet high.  

It has been predominantly used in the Ayurvedic medicine of ancient India, and like many such ancient remedies and treatments, is now used in modern medicine to treat specific conditions: conditions such as some forms of heart condition, where it has been found to be able to lower your blood cholesterol levels, weight loss and some forms of arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

However, it has been used so successfully over the years, particularly in India, which it is now in danger of extinction and is contained in the Red Data List of the World Conservation Union that lists endangered species.  So what is so special about this plant that makes it so popular?  To get the answer to that we have to go back a bit in its history, although not quite as far as the two or three thousand years that it is known to have been used in traditional Hindu medicine.

The active ingredient is found in the sap of the tree, and is used to fight against obesity and other diseases that can be caused by excess weight or cholesterol, such as arthritis, obesity and atherosclerosis.  Until recently it has had very little support for its claims from conventional medicine. It was in the 1960s that an ancient Sanskrit text was found that recommended guggul as a treatment for high cholesterol levels. Since that discovery, research has focused on the plant’s anti-cholesterol properties, and a great deal of evidence has been gathered supporting the claims of that ancient text.

So much so that the Indian government has approved the use of guggul for the treatment of high cholesterol levels, largely because it has been found very effective in reducing the levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol in the blood while increasing the levels of the beneficial HDL cholesterol. Several trials have supported this, including one study involving 228 patients that showed the extract to be equally as effective as the anti-cholesterol drug clofibrate.

That is not all, and other studies included one in which a decrease in LDL cholesterol of almost 13% was measured in a double blind study involving 61 subjects, of which around half received a placebo. An average 12.7% reduction in LDL cholesterol, 12% in triglycerides and 11.7% in total cholesterol was experienced by the group given the guggul extract.  Every 1% drop in total cholesterol is associated with a 2% decrease in the risk of heart disease.

Guggul reduces the levels of harmful cholesterol in your blood by converting it into bile.  The plant extract contains substances given the name guggulsterones that block the activity of a protein that regulates the metabolism of cholesterol in your body known as FXR (the Farsenoid X Receptor).  This protein can increase the risk of you contracting heart disease by preventing the liver from converting cholesterol into bile acids, so that the concentration of cholesterol in your blood continues to build up.

The problem with bile acids is that once they reach a certain concentration in your body, the FXR comes into play and stops more being produced. Guggulsterones prevent the FXR from doing this, and so helps the liver to destroy more cholesterol. There is a reason for the body not allowing too much bile acid to be generated, but for those with excess cholesterol, it is more beneficial for this regulation to be prevented, and more cholesterol to be destroyed by the liver.

It is the resin of the plant that is prized, being extracted from the bark in much the same way as rubber is tapped. It is also used in fragrances and perfumes in addition to its medicinal uses, and the dosage generally recommended is 1500 mg (1.5 grams) twice daily.  However, it is not recommended for those suffering liver disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease or any form of diarrhea, and should not be taken by those on beta blockers.

It is not only for its cholesterol-lowering properties that guggul is prized, however. Another property it possesses is its ability to render blood platelets less sticky, and so reduce the risk of coronary disease, and prevent the formation of blood clots and thrombosis.

Another use it has found is in the field of weight loss, where it has been found effective in reducing the weight of obese adults.  It does so by the activation of lipolytic enzymes and increased levels of triiodothyronine (T3), believed to be due to the formation of T3 from T4 (thyroxine) in the liver.  

T3 increases the metabolic rate, and the rate of the breakdown of glycogen and gluconeogenesis: the biosynthesis of glucose. It also causes cholesterol to be broken down and increases the rate of lipolysis - the breakdown of fats stored in fat cells in the body. Studies have shown that those taking guggul lost up to 6 times the weight of a control group within 15 days, and the practice is going along with the theory.

Not only that, but when you are on a diet, your body is likely to respond by decreasing levels of triiodothyronine, and so reducing the rate at which fat burns.  Hence, your diet does not help you top reduce weight as quickly as it could.  Guggul, however, stimulates the production of T3, and so you are not only taking less fat into your body, but are also burning it up at an accelerated rate.

Other uses to which the resin has been put are based upon its anti-inflammatory properties. It has been found to be an effective treatment for some forms of arthritis and also in the treatment of acne. The active inflammatory ingredient is believed to be myrrhanol A, a polypodane-type triterpene, which would also explain the antioxidant effect of guggulipid on lipid peroxidation.

Guggul is a versatile plant, and a good supplement to take for anybody suffering increased lipid or cholesterol levels, and who wants to increase the weigh-loss effect of their diet. However, make sure that you purchase a supplement standardized on its guggulipid content.  Guggul can be found at your local or internet health food store.

By itself no tool, instrument or invention is good or bad. It is the way we use it that makes it good or bad.

So is the case with television. Television is the most wonderful invention capable of bringing the whole world of entertainment and education to our door. It is the most powerful means of mass communication, capable of revolutionizing man’s life. Since TV programmes appeal to our eyes as well as our ears, they have an irresistible charm.

If, as is the case in India at present, the TV is used mostly as a means of entertainment, information and advertisement, TV programmes are likely to be more harmful than useful. Uneducated people and children remain glued to their seats for hours on end to watch the TV. They become V-addicts. They thus spoil their eyes and their health. They prefer passive entertainment and lose the capacity to enjoy simple, innocent pleasures of life. They cannot enjoy or appreciate natural beauty. Excessive violence shown in the TV films blunts people’s sensitivity to suffering and violence around them. The TV thus becomes a curse for mankind.

But the TV can be used for good purposes like education along with healthy entertainment. Just as a doctor gives sugar-coated pills to his patients, people can be educated through well-prepared and well-presented entertainment programmes. The TV can be used to teach people how to read and write, to teach farmers better methods of cultivation, to teach professional people to improve their professional efficiency, to teach people useful arts and crafts, to provide them useful information about what is happening in other parts of the world and to familiarize them with the latest discoveries, inventions and innovations in different branches of knowledge. TV programmes can also be used to cultivate good tastes and develop healthy interests, to teach people how to appreciate good things of life, to make them aware of their social responsibilities and to arouse people’s interests and enthusiasm in the tasks of national development. TV programmes can reach millions of people in their homes. They can be watched by people at their convenient time if they are prepared in the form of video films. In this respect learning through TV is better than learning in schools and colleges.

In short, if TV programmes are planned to make people better citizens and better human beings, TV then will be a great blessing for mankind.