CARE YOUR HEALTH

For most people talking on a mobile phone, cooking dinner in the microwave or driving in a car is simply part of modern living in 21st century Britain.

But completing any such tasks is impossible for Debbie Bird - because she is allergic to modern technology.

Debbie and her husband Tony often sleep in a silver-plated mosquito net

The 39-year-old is so sensitive to the electromagnetic field (emf) or 'smog' created by computers, mobile phones, microwave ovens and even some cars, that she develops a painful skin rash and her eyelids swell to three times their size if she goes near them.

Debbie Bird's eyelids swell to three times their size when she is exposed to microwaves

As a consequence, Mrs Bird, a health spa manager, has transformed her home into an EMF-free zone to try and stay healthy.

The walls are all covered in special carbon paint, the windows have a protective film on them and she and her husband, Tony, 45, even sleep under a silver-plated mosquito net to deflect the radiowaves.

'I can no longer do things that I used to take for granted,' Mrs Bird said last night. 'My day-to-day life has been seriously affected by EMF.

'I don't own a microwave. I don't use mobile phones at all. I can't even use a cordless phone. We have a plasma screen TV because the old style one gave out gamma rays, which brought on my reaction.

'I can't even get in my friend's BMW. If I do I immediately start getting a headache and my head starts tingling.

'Even shopping is a problem. I can't go in places like Starbucks where there is Wi-Fi broadband and always have to be aware of my environment.'

Mrs Bird first realised that she was electro-sensitive when she moved with her husband, a writer and environmental consultant, and their eight-year-old daughter, Antonia, to a new apartment in Bowden, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester.

Unbeknown to her, however, her neighbours were all using wireless internet connections and had cordless phones.

'At first I couldn't sleep,' Mrs Bird added. 'Then I started developing a skin reaction. I had a burning sensation down my face, on my forehead and elbows. I looked like I had been severely burnt on my forehead.

'I felt very tired all the time and my eye-lids would swell up to three times their size.'

Debbie's home is a radio-wave free zone. A clear protective film has been put on the windows and the walls have been redecorated with a special carbon paint

Mrs Bird was referred to a skin specialist, but the problem was so severe the couple decided they had no option but to move to a new home, in nearby Hale, Greater Manchester.

They took electromagnetic readings of the property and set about making it safe. The house was completely re-wired, had clear protective film put on the windows and every wall was painted with black carbon paint, which cost £250 per tin, to deflect the harmful rays.

All the couple's bedroom curtains are also silver-plated and they sleep under a silver-plated mosquito net, which also protects against radiation.

Although the renovation was not cheap, Mrs Bird said it was worth it. Her skin rashes have gone and she no longer has trouble sleeping. Officially in the UK, electro-sensitivity (ES) does not exist as a medical condition.

Doctors say there is little scientific evidence to back up a link between EMF and poor health. They claim the symptoms, often attributed to flu or viruses, are psychosomatic.

But campaigners disagree. They reckon around 500 people are already being treated for ES and as many as five per cent of the population could be affected.

Rod Read, director of Electro-Sensitivity UK, said: 'I have seen hundreds of people who exhibit symptoms they directly attribute to the electrical items around them.

'But it is a politically incorrect illness, the Government or electronic companies don't want people thinking their mobile phones or microwaves are dangerous.

'In the past doctors have dismissed symptoms as something like flu, but the pathology is now established. It has a huge detrimental physical effect and stops people living normal lives.'

Why this brave girl can only eat tic tacs?

By Chris Hunter

THEY are normally the thing people eat at that point in a restaurant when you've ploughed through a pile of garlic bread, spaghetti and cheesecake and are too full-up to face anything else.

But for 17-year-old Natalie Cooper, the mints alone are the meal.

For as long as she can remember Natalie, from Oxford Road, Shepway, Maidstone, has been afflicted with a mystery illness that makes her sick every time she eats anything.

Anything that is, except that smallest of mints: the tic tac.

For reasons that doctors are unable to explain, tic tacs are the only thing she can stomach, meaning she has to get the rest of her sustenance from a specially formulated feed through a tube.

~ Follow up: Diet of tic tacs story sparks world media frenzy >>>

But as she explained, she certainly doesn’t have an aversion to food.

"I like eating everything you’d expect," says Natalie. "I enjoy eating, it just comes back up. It happens pretty much immediately and it's no effort.

"I really like chocolate cake; I just can't leave it alone."

Only through experimentation did the teenager finally discover the unique qualities that set tic tacs apart from other foods.

"I can’t remember exactly when I found out. I used to be able to eat mints after food; when they started to come back up I started reducing the size of the mints.

"I went from Trebor Extra Strong Mints to Polos and ended up with tic tacs. They give me a bit of energy but I eat them mostly to get rid of hunger; it’s a psychological effect."

Natalie’s matter-of-fact approach belies the impact of the illness on her life. At one point her weight dropped to five stone, but she has since battled back to more than seven stone.

Recently Natalie was rewarded for triumph over adversity at the Kent Try Angle Awards, which recognise the achievements of young people, at Margate Winter Gardens.

She added: "There are days I really hate it but most of the time I’m just like, 'whatever'. I can’t last as long as everyone else. I did have a job but at a shop, but the six-hour shift was too much."

She hopes visits to other specialists in the near future might lead to a breakthrough and cure before she leaves home to go to university.

Her mother, Sharon Cooper, said: "She’s going to have a gap year and we’re hoping a second opinion will find something different. It was quite upsetting at first; they thought it was going to be bulimia, but I knew it wasn’t."

Rhett Lamb, 3, is often irritable, but it's not just the routine growing pains of a toddler's life that has affected him. It's the fact that Rhett can't sleep.

"We went to the doctor after he was born, and I kept telling him something was wrong. He didn't sleep. They thought I was being kind of an anxious mom, and we went back and forth," Rhett's mother, Shannon Lamb, said. "Finally, they [were] starting to realize now that he really doesn't sleep at all. But we've had a lot of different diagnoses and nobody really knows."

His sleep deprivation caused made him very irritable.

"That's going to have a great impact on his behavior during the day -- his irritability, his ability to eat -- and I'm sure it also impacted the parents tremendously," said Marie Savard, an ABC News medical consultant.

Rhett is awake nearly 24 hours a day, and his condition has baffled his parents and doctors for years. They took clock shifts watching his every sleep-deprived mood to determine what ailed the young boy.

After a number of conflicting opinions, Shannon and David Lamb finally learned what was wrong with their child: Doctors diagnosed Rhett with an extremely rare condition called chiari malformation.

"The brain literally is squeezed into the spinal column. What happens is you get compression, squeezing, strangulating of the brain stem, which has all the vital functions that control sleep, speech, our cranial nerves, our circulatory system, even our breathing system," Savard said.

In order to relieve the pressure on Rhett's brain stem, doctors performed surgery this week that they hope will allow him to sleep properly for the first time in his life. Surgeons made an incision at the base of Rhett's skull to the top of his neck and removed the bone around the brain stem and spinal cord, which produced more space.

"Doing the decompression, relieving that pressure, should absolutely improve those symptoms," Savard said.

Still, doctors said the Lambs may not see major changes for several months or possibly even a year. But Rhett's parents hope their son will be able to get some rest and be normal.

"There is a 50-50 chance that the sleep will improve," Shannon Lamb said. "Once the sleep improves, we can work on the behavioral stuff. He's very irritable all of the time.

"I would love to see him play and have a good time and be happy," she said.

Please take care while u eat on the road side (particularly tasty vada pav & Paani Puri)...

A 10 year old boy, had eaten pineapple about 15 days back, and fell
sick,from the day he had eaten. Later when he had his Health check done...
doctors diagnosed that he had AIDS.

His parents couldn't believe it...Then the entire family under went a
Checkup... none of them suffered from Aids. So the doctors checked again
with the boy if he had eaten out...The boy said "yes". He had pineapple
that evening.Immediately a group from Mallya hospital went to the pineapple
vendor to check.

They found the pineapple seller had a cut on his finger while cutting the
pineapple , his blood had spread into the fruit.

When they had his blood checked...the guy was suffering from AIDS ..... but
he himself was NOT aware.Unfortunately the boy is suffering from it now.

1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain

1.Hot dogs


Because they are high in nitrates, the Cancer Prevention Coalition advises that children eat no more than 12 hot dogs a month. If you can't live without hot dogs, buy those made without sodium nitrate.

2. Processed meats and bacon


Also high in the same sodium nitrates found in hot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats raise the risk of heart disease. The saturated fat in bacon also contributes to cancer.

3. Doughnuts


Doughnuts are cancer-causing double trouble. First, they are made with white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated oils, then fried at high temperatures. Doughnuts, says Adams , may be the worst food you can possibly eat to raise your risk of cancer.

4. French fries


Like doughnuts, French fries are made with hydrogenated oils and then fried at high temperatures. They also contain cancer- causing acryl amides which occur during the frying process. They should be called cancer fries, not French fries, said Adams.

5. Chips, crackers, and cookies


All are usually made with white flour and sugar. Even the ones whose labels claim to be free of trans-fats generally contain small amounts of trans-fats.