MaoBah - Interesting Health Topics, Celebrity News and Informational News

Some animals use strength, claws, or teeth to defend themselves. But thousands of animals use highly venomous or toxic poisons instead. Some shoot poisons towards their victims, and others store toxins in their glands or skin. Here are the top eight most poisonous animals in the world:

Box Jellyfish

Box jellyfish are found in the ocean waters throughout Asia and Australia. The stingers and tentacles on this animal can cause excruciating pain for weeks, and are capable of stopping your heart or paralyzing your lungs. To top it off, the venom will slowly eat away at your skin.

Marbled Cone Snail

This snail thrives in reefs throughout the world. The snail shoots out a proboscis with a tooth-like appendage that attaches onto the victim. Humans that have experienced a bite experience weakness, numbness, nausea and eventually death due to lung paralysis.

Blue Ringed Octopus

Within a few minutes after a painless bite from a Blue Ringed Octopus, a deadly neurotoxin in the animal’s saliva causes muscular weakness and numbness, followed by a cessation of breathing and ultimately death.

Death Stalker Scorpion

Found throughout North Africa and the Middle East, it has the most toxic sting of any scorpion anywhere in the world. It causes an intense and unbearable pain, then fever, followed by coma, convulsions, paralysis and death.

Stonefish

Inhabiting the waters of the Pacific throughout the Australian coast, this fish resembles a sea rock or coral. But a powerful toxin stored within its 13 spines can stop nearly every animal that it connects with. If contact comes with humans, the venom will cause intense pain, swelling of tissue and shock, followed by death.

Sydney Funnel Web Spider

A native of the Australian outback, the Sydney Funnel Web Spider is large and very aggressive. From its fangs, the spider can deliver a powerful neurotoxin that causes extreme pain and is capable of killing a person within 15 minutes.

Inland Taipan

This Australian snake is the most poisonous snake on earth. One bite from this serpent contains enough potent toxin to kill about 100 people. Fortunately, the Taipan is a very gentle and shy reptile.

Poison Dart Frog

The beautiful Poison Dart Frog is found in the rain forests of Central and South America. The frog’s skin contains a toxic chemical that sickens or kills any animal that touches or eats it. Two micrograms of this deadly toxin, just enough to fit on the head of a pin, will easily kill a human being or other large mammal.

Source: Science Blog February 6, 2008

Congratulations to Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez! 

The day has finally come for Jennifer Lopez to give birth to her twin babies; a girl and a boy. Her representative told People magazine that her babies were born shortly after midnight on Friday, February 22, 2008. Jennifer Lopez confirmed her pregnancy at a Miami concert in November.

A recent survey by the British government has revealed that organic laying hen farms have a significantly lower level of Salmonella, a bacterium that is the most common cause of food poisoning worldwide.

More than 23 percent of farms with caged hens tested positive for salmonella, compared to just 4.4 percent in organic flocks and 6.5 percent in free-range flocks.

The highest prevalence of salmonella occurred in the largest holding size category (30,000 birds or more). They contained over four times the average level of salmonella found in flocks closer to the maximum size allowed under British Soil Association organic standards.

The average woman is built to come and come again. Oh, how yummy! Meaning that once you’ve mastered that first peak, the climb to the next one is absolutely obtainable. Women don’t require a refractory period like men do, so we’re able to stay aroused for longer and orgasm a second and third time with little effort.

Try maxing out foreplay. Yes, prolong it. Point your man south, to be specific. For most women, clitoral stimulation from oral sex is the easiest way for them to climax. And having your guy help you get there before intercourse means that your body will be geared up to come again and respond to the added vaginal stimulation during sex, rather than still struggling to orgasm for the first time.

And even if you don’t come during foreplay, don’t fast-track the fun stuff: Your guy pampering you down there still paves the way for multiples. If you’re aroused slowly, then you’ll stay aroused for longer, and unlike manual stimulation, his tongue is flexible, soft and strong — the perfect tool for making that happen.

Ask him to caress you down there with his tongue for a minute or so before pulling away for a few seconds. Then, have him dive right back in. Oral teasing techniques prime the body to expect that after each peak of sensation, another one is coming. And it remembers that lesson when you orgasm — after one, it’ll stay in that prepped state for more stimulation, putting you on the track to come again.

Employers are starting to scrutinize the lifestyle  habits of those working for them, even during business hours. Those who are guilty of smoking and having bad cholesterol levels - Beware!

Actually, not only those who smoke are in trouble. Some factors can also put your job on the line, (aside from those mentioned above) namely, blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and body mass.

Currently only a small portion of U.S. employers have taken action against what they deem unhealthy behaviors, but the list is growing. For instance, in September 2007 The Cleveland Clinic began screening potential employees for nicotine. If any is found in their systems, they’re denied employment.

You may probably think, "So what, that’s just in the US." Well, think again. Most employees in the Philippines and a growing number of other countries are relying on the call center industry to get a good pay check. And who owns most call center companies? Aren’t most of them American based? Not to mention that the citizens of other countries look up to Americans a lot.

Here’s something else I heard. Employers may start charging fines for eating fast food or visiting a tavern. Most experts believe, however, that as health care costs continue to rise, employers will continue to enact penalties for unhealthy behaviors.

Uh-oh. Better take care of your health or lose your job!

Here’s an article that is specifically for those women trying or eager to get pregnant. Hope this helps. I was too tired to talk about the whole thing, so I decided to get the article. I was never a big fan of acupuncture, but something tells me I should go and try it. Not to get pregnant of course! No way! Still not ready for that. But I heard it could do wonders for your health and body, so why not give it a try. It is said to be cheaper than IVF.

It sounds far-fetched — sticking needles in women to help them become pregnant — but a scientific review suggests that acupuncture might improve the odds of conceiving if done right before or after embryos are placed in the womb.

The surprising finding is far from proven, and there are only theories for how and why acupuncture might work. However, some fertility specialists say they are hopeful that this relatively inexpensive and simple treatment might ultimately prove to be a useful add-on to traditional methods.

Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress. In fertility treatment, it is thought to increase blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit "fight or flight" stress hormones that can make it tougher for an embryo to implant, Manheimer said.

The analysis pools results from seven studies on 1,366 women in the United States, Germany, Australia and Denmark who are having in vitro fertilization, or IVF. It involves mixing sperm and eggs in a lab dish to create embryos that are placed in the womb.

Women were randomly assigned to receive IVF alone, IVF with acupuncture within a day of embryo transfer, or IVF plus sham acupuncture, in which needles were placed too shallowly or in spots not thought to matter.

Individually, only three of the studies found acupuncture beneficial, three found a trend toward benefit and one found no benefit. When results of these smaller studies were pooled, researchers found that the odds of conceiving went up about 65 percent for women given acupuncture.

Experts warn against focusing on that number, because this type of analysis with pooled results is not proof that acupuncture helps at all, let alone by how much. IVF results in pregnancy about 35 percent of the time. Adding acupuncture might boost that to around 45 percent, the researchers said.

Dr. Ann Trevino, a 37-year-old family physician who recently moved to Houston, is pregnant, and a believer. She had three unsuccessful pregnancy attempts with intrauterine insemination before trying acupuncture with IVF at a fertility clinic in San Antonio where she used to live.

Acupuncturist Kirsten Karchmer said she places about a dozen needles in the ears, hands, feet, lower legs, abdomen and sometimes the lower back. It costs $500 a month for treatments twice a week, and patients typically go for three months, she said.

IVF costs around $12,000 per attempt, so a treatment that improves its effectiveness might save money in the long run, Manheimer said.