Breakthroughs Today

THE FOOD AND Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST) reported that exclusive feeding have gone up from 36 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2011. Exclusive feeding is the practice of feeding infants with only breast milk for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. This means giving no other food or drink--not even water--other than breast milk. The initiation breastfeeding done within one hour of delivery has increased from 32 percent to 52 percent in the same four-year period. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) lauded the accomplishment, and attributed it to Executive Order 51, or the Milk Code of the Philippines , that late president Corazon Aquino signed into law in 1986. This law requires giving women clear information on the benefits of breastfeeding without undue influence from infant formula companies. Sources WHO: "Up to what age can a baby stay well nourished b

ZOSIMO T. LITERATUS, RMT Harvard obstetrician-gynecologist Nawal Nour reported to the Reviews in Obstetrics & Gynecology (2008 issue): “The origins of FGC are a mystery.” The World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) jointly issued in 1997 a statement defining female genital cutting (FGC) or female circumcision as “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.” [1] Amnesty International estimated in October 1997 that more than 130 million women worldwide had FGC, with over 2 million procedures being performed each year. According to a UNICEF report [2] in 2005, 80% or more women in Africa had FGC including such countries as at the top: Guinea (99%), Egypt (97%), Mali (92%), Sudan north (90%), Eritrea (89%), and Ethiopia (80%). Ranked below Ethiopia in FGC prevalence are B

ZOSIMO T. LITERATUS, RMT International health authorities do not agree on the limits of clinical features observed to qualify for a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. However, I believe that you get the smallest measurements as your warning levels to be conservative. Early prevention is always better than doing it late. In health, disease reversal can be daunting and many times next to impossible at its final stage of deterioration. The World Health Organization (1999) requires that presence of diabetes mellitus (impaired glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glucose or insulin resistance) be diagnosed first and two of the following clinical levels before a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome is warranted: blood pressure, 140/90 mmHg; dyslipidemia [1] ; central obesity [2] , and presence of albumin in the urine [3] . The European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance (1999) demands that insulin resistance be at the top 25% of the fasting insulin values for non-diabetic individuals and tw