Watermelon is nature's Viagra

Watermelon is nature's Viagra



If you thought watermelon is just a fruit that refreshes parched throats, here’s something you should know - the juicy fruit has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body’s blood vessels and may even increase libido.

The finding results from a study led by an Indian researcher in US. “The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body,” said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center. "We’ve always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important health benefits grows longer with each study,” he added.

Beneficial ingredients in watermelon and other fruits and vegetables are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions, Patil said. In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients – citrulline, whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. It has the ability to relax blood vessels, much like cheap viagra does.

Scientists know that when watermelon is consumed, citrulline is converted to arginine through certain enzymes. Arginine is an amino acid that works wonders on the heart and circulation system and maintains a good immune system, Patil said. “The citrulline-arginine relationship helps heart health, the immune system and may prove to be very helpful for those who suffer from obesity and type 2 diabetes,” said Patil. “Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that cialis has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it,” he added.

While there are many psychological and physiological problems that can cause impotence, extra nitric oxide could help those who need increased blood flow, which would also help treat angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.
“Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra, but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects,” Patil said.

The benefits of watermelon don’t end there, he said. Arginine also helps the urea cycle by removing ammonia and other toxic compounds from our bodies. Citrulline, the precursor to arginine, is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh.

- Times of India.

Pubmed indexed 637 research articles on watermelon. Below are latest 20 articles.

1: Tarachiwin L, Masako O, Fukusaki E.
Quality Evaluation and Prediction of Citrullus lanatus by (1)H NMR-Based
Metabolomics and Multivariate Analysis.
J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Jun 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18588311

2: van Breemen RB, Pajkovic N.
Multitargeted therapy of cancer by lycopene.
Cancer Lett. 2008 Jun 26. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18585855

3: Bangalore DV, McGlynn WG, Scott DD.
Effects of fruit maturity on watermelon ultrastructure and intracellular lycopene
distribution.
J Food Sci. 2008 Jun;73(5):S222-8.
PMID: 18577014

4: Gholamalizadeh R, Vahdat A, Keshavarz T, Elahinia A, Bananej K.
Occurrence and distribution of ten viruses infecting cucurbit plants in guilan
province, iran.
Acta Virol. 2008;52(2):113-8.
PMID: 18564898

5: Wechter WP, Levi A, Harris KR, Davis AR, Fei Z, Katzir N, Giovannoni JJ,
Salman-Minkov A, Hernandez A, Thimmapuram J, Tadmor Y, Portnoy V, Trebitsh T.
Gene expression in developing watermelon fruit.
BMC Genomics. 2008 Jun 5;9:275.
PMID: 18534026

6: Wells CD, Harrison ME, Gurudu SR, Crowell MD, Byrne TJ, Depetris G, Sharma VK.
Treatment of gastic antral vascular ectasia (watermelon stomach) with endoscopic
band ligation.
Gastrointest Endosc. 2008 Jun 2. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18533150

7: Farooq Z, Iqbal Z, Mushtaq S, Muhammad G, Iqbal MZ, Arshad M.
Ethnoveterinary practices for the treatment of parasitic diseases in livestock in
Cholistan desert (Pakistan).
J Ethnopharmacol. 2008 Jul 23;118(2):213-9. Epub 2008 Mar 29.
PMID: 18524514

8: Kumar S, Kumar D, Jusha M, Saroha K, Singh N, Vashishta B.
Antioxidant and free radical scavenging potential of Citrullus colocynthis (L.)
Schrad. methanolic fruit extract.
Acta Pharm. 2008 Jun 1;58(2):215-221.
PMID: 18515231

9: Marie I, Ducrotte P, Antonietti M, Herve S, Levesque H.
Watermelon stomach in systemic sclerosis: its incidence and management.
Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2008 May 21. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18498445

10: Asero R, Monsalve R, Barber D.
Profilin sensitization detected in the office by skin prick test: a study of
prevalence and clinical relevance of profilin as a plant food allergen.
Clin Exp Allergy. 2008 Jun;38(6):1033-7. Epub 2008 Apr 13.
PMID: 18489029

11: Yakoubi S, Lecoq H, Desbiez C.
Algerian watermelon mosaic virus (AWMV): a new potyvirus species in the PRSV
cluster.
Virus Genes. 2008 Aug;37(1):103-9. Epub 2008 May 17.
PMID: 18484176

12: Hoelmer KA, Simmons AM.
Yellow sticky trap catches of parasitoids of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera:
Aleyrodidae) in vegetable crops and their relationship to in-field populations.
Environ Entomol. 2008 Apr;37(2):391-9.
PMID: 18419911

13: Vonderheide AP, Bernard CE, Hieber TE, Kauffman PE, Morgan JN, Melnyk LJ.
Surface-to-food pesticide transfer as a function of moisture and fat content.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2008 Apr 16. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18414514

14: Mullai K, Jebanesan A, Pushpanathan T.
Mosquitocidal and repellent activity of the leaf extract of Citrullus vulgaris
(cucurbitaceae) against the malarial vector, Anopheles stephensi liston (diptera
culicidae).
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2008 Jan-Feb;12(1):1-7.
PMID: 18401966 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

15: Mort A, Zheng Y, Qiu F, Nimtz M, Bell-Eunice G.
Structure of xylogalacturonan fragments from watermelon cell-wall pectin.
Endopolygalacturonase can accommodate a xylosyl residue on the galacturonic acid
just following the hydrolysis site.
Carbohydr Res. 2008 May 19;343(7):1212-21. Epub 2008 Mar 20.
PMID: 18394594

16: Pieroni A, Gray C.
Herbal and food folk medicines of the Russlanddeutschen living in
Künzelsau/Taläcker, South-Western Germany.
Phytother Res. 2008 Jul;22(7):889-901.
PMID: 18384192

17: Vaughn Katherine LS, Clausen Edgar C, King Jerry W, Howard Luke R, Julie CD.
Extraction conditions affecting supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of lycopene
from watermelon.
Bioresour Technol. 2008 Nov;99(16):7835-41. Epub 2008 Apr 2.
PMID: 18378137

18: Bailey SL, Chang SC, Griffiths B, Graham AN, Saffery R, Earle E, Choo KH,
Kalitsis P.
ZNF397, a new class of interphase to early prophase-specific, SCAN-zinc-finger,
mammalian centromere protein.
Chromosoma. 2008 Mar 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18369653

19: Sreenath K, Venkatesh YP.
Analysis of erythritol in foods by polyclonal antibody-based indirect competitive
ELISA.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2008 Mar 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18369603

20: Salman-Minkov A, Levi A, Wolf S, Trebitsh T.
ACC synthase genes are polymorphic in watermelon (Citrullus spp.) and
differentially expressed in flowers and in response to auxin and gibberellin.
Plant Cell Physiol. 2008 May;49(5):740-50. Epub 2008 Mar 26.
PMID: 18367517

Weigh In Day is Here!

See also: cialis | 


So this week was a bit different... and yesterday, I figured was a wash, a disaster of a day... maybe not?



I wanted to get my workout in first thing in the morning yesterday due to a packed day of things to get done and hubby is off on a biz trip again this week.

So I headed down to the basement to get my workout in... heard the door and the dogs so I came up... it was the Mailman dropping off the parts for our BBQ, which had fallen over during the Spring in a windstorm.  The main handle supports had broken off.  Yaaay! we can BBQ again... that is when SPRING GETS HERE! lol!! Had snow twice this week.

After opening the package, I was going to head back down to add to my workout, then my son tells me that his worker is coming 15 min later... which would be any time soon, so I figured, might as well wait to go back to working out.

So I grabbed a Protein Shake, then after the meeting, headed back down to finish what I started... not to be.

I am 20 min into my workout, my son, who is normally NOT home when I am working out, walks into the gym with the phone... I'm like, who's on the phone, he says no body but, it keeps ringing.  I am a bit ticked at this point.

I explained to him... the only time you come down here is to tell me the house is on fire, the police are at the door, or there is some sort of emergency that needs my attention immediately.  If the JW come to the door, tell them to come back another time, if there is a friend at the door, tell them to come in, offer them a drink, tell them I will be with them shortly.  BUT NEVER come downstairs with a phone in your hand cause it rings!!  If its important, they will leave a message and I can see who called and will call them back!

WORKOUT ATTEMPT #2 SHOT!

At this point, I have to head out shortly so... might as well call it a wash at this point until later tonight.

Made a Seaweed Salad with Shrimp and called it lunch!

Dinner was Pasta, Red Sauce and Chicken TVP Meatballs and a salad, serving sizes of course!  And an hour later... 

I gave instructions to both kids... Fire, Police, Ambulance, Emergency ONLY, otherwise DO NOT DISTURB!!! lol!!

So in total, yesterday was a 75 min workout.

So what did I find that works best?  Well this is for me! Cause if you have medical conditions, this might not be good for you, check with your purchase cialis.

I found that working out on an empty stomach, which is what they do on the biggest loser, WORKS very well for me.  I don't wake up, ravaging hungry in the mornings... I have my Latte, and certain supplements that HAVE to be taken on an empty stomach, then within 2 hours, I workout for 1 hour.  I also found that wearing those "sweat shorts" work as well.  Man do you sweat! lol!!

A WARNING: This type of training is hard on the body.  LITERALLY!! Once you have used up all the glycogen (muscle food) that is stored in the muscle, your body WILL use the fat reserves because you haven't put any food into your body.  This IS PAINFUL on the muscles, in particular, the long muscles, such as Quads (front upper leg) and Hamstrings (back upper legs).  And I STRONGLY advise you speak to your medical practitioner before attempting this kind of training. 

I have also increased my calories, ever so slightly, equal to about one snack a day... and it seems to be working... 

Working to the tune of 3 more pounds gone and a grand total of 16lbs in just over 1 month!

When I get a few more pounds down, I will started adding the before and during pictures.

One thing I constantly remind myself of...

I didn't gain all this weight in one day, it was over a period of years and menopause hitting me lol!! Pros and Cons on that one!! lol!! So... I have to keep my expectations in check that it will take the same amount of time, maybe a little less, to take it all off.

Stay focused and keep moving!!! :o)

Headache Medicine

Saturday, September 5, 2009

By Rose Williams

When people get a headache they usually start searching for some medication that can stop their headache from becoming much worse. As there are so many different kinds of headache medication to choose from, people have to think about what they want the treatment to accomplish.

The headache medicines that are found at the supermarkets and pharmacies come in various forms. You will find that there are cheap cialis you can take, cheap cialis that dissolve under your tongue, nasal sprays, suppositories, and injections that you administer yourself. All of these headache medication are known to work well at preventing your headache from developing into something much worse.

When you go for headache medicine on a supermarket shelf, you need to decide how fast-acting you want the treatment to be. We are normally used to taking pills and capsules to cure whatever ailments that we have. We take these types of medications because they are easy to take and easy to take with us.

While these types of headache medicine do work for most people, it takes a little time for the treatment to take effect. For this reason any person who has a severe type of headache like a migraine, will not benefit from these tablets or capsules. Also the various fast-developing headaches will not do well either with these medicines.

People who have a tension type headache, a slow-acting migraine attack or a migraine attack without nausea and vomiting, can use these tablets. There are tablets that you can use that are absorbed more quickly into your bloodstream. These so-called 'sub-lingual' tablets or lozenges are put under the tongue, where they are absorbed by the membrane that lines the mouth. These kinds of headache medication work a little more quickly than the normal tablets as they are absorbed directly and so more quickly into the bloodstream.

The other way that you can stop your headache is with a nasal spray. These sprays provide you with fast-acting relief. They are good for headache sufferers who need fast relief and they are also good for people who have the symptoms of nausea and vomiting. You may have to test various brands before you get satisfactory results, but these headache medicines are still quite good.

The best possible pain relief can be got quickly from self injected drugs. However, if you take this type headache medicine you will have to take extra care at first, to ensure that you don't inject yourself with too much of the headache drug.

Another consideration is whether you can put up with the discomfort that you may first feel when you try to inject yourself. The possible embarrassment about injecting yourself in public with your headache treatment is also something that you will have to think about.

There is a vast amount of headache medicine for the person who is looking for ways to cure their headache misery. The best way to find your right medication is to test different products in order to see what works best for you.

About the Author:

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