Billions of worlds in Milky Way

• Billions of habitable worlds in Milky Way
• Astronomers hunting for rocky planets with the right temperature to support life estimate there may be tens of billions of them in our galaxy alone. A European team said that about 40 percent of red dwarf stars - the most common type in the Milky Way - have a so-called "super-Earth" planet orbiting in a habitable zone that would allow water to flow on the surface. Since there are around 160 billion red dwarfs in the Milky Way, the number of worlds that are potentially warm enough and wet enough to support life is enormous. Here's a look at artistic samplings of some far-away worlds:
• This artist's impression shows a sunset seen from the super-Earth Gliese 667 Cc. The brightest star in the sky is the red dwarf Gliese 667 C, which is part of a triple star system. The other two more distant stars, Gliese 667 A and B appear in the sky also to the right. Astronomers have estimated that there are tens of billions of such rocky worlds orbiting faint red dwarf stars in the Milky Way alone.

• An artist rendering illustrates the newly discovered world (HAT-P-1) that has baffled astronomers, since the planet is much larger than theory predicts, scientists said September 14, 2006. HAT-P-1 has a radius about 1.38 times Jupiter's but contains only half Jupiter's mass.
• An artist's illustration of Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star, is seen in this undated handout picture released by NASA, December 5, 2011. Kepler-22b, the most Earth-like planet ever discovered is circling a star 600 light years away, a key finding in an ongoing quest to learn if life exists beyond Earth, scientists said.
• An artist's impression shows a unique type of exoplanet discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope. The planet is so close it to its star that it completes an orbit in 10.5 hours. The planet is only 750,000 miles from the star, or 1/130th the distance between Earth and the Sun. The Jupiter-sized planet orbits an unnamed red dwarf star that lies in the direction of the Galactic Centre; the exact stellar distance is unknown.

An artist's rendering image released to Reuters on October 19, 2009 shows an exoplanet 6 times the Earth-size circulating around its low-mass host star at a distance equal to 1/20th of the Earth-Sun distance. The host star is a companion to two other low-mass stars, which are seen here in the distance (L). European astronomers announced they had found 32 new planets orbiting stars outside our solar system and said on Monday they believe their find means that 40 percent or more of Sun-like stars have such planets.

In this artist's conception released by NASA February 2, 2011, Kepler-11 is a sun-like star around which six planets orbit. At times, two or more planets pass in front of the star at once, as shown in a simultaneous transit of three planets observed by NASA's Kepler spacecraft on August 26, 2010. 

Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a fledgling solar system like the one depicted in this artist's concept, finding deep within it enough water vapor to fill all the oceans on Earth five times. The scientists peered at an embryonic star called IRAS 4B located in our Milky Way galaxy about 1,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus.

An artist's impression shows a Jupiter-sized planet passing in front of its parent star. Such events are called transits. When the planet transits the star, the star's apparent brightness drops by a few percent for a short period. Through this technique, astronomers can use the Hubble Space Telescope to search for planets across the galaxy by measuring periodic changes in a star's luminosity. The first class of exoplanets found by this technique are the so-called "hot Jupiters," which are so close to their stars they complete an orbit within days, or even hours.

NASA handout image shows an artist's concept of the circumbinary planet Kepler-16b - the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars. The cold planet, with its gaseous surface, is not thought to be habitable. The largest of the two stars, a K dwarf, is about 69 percent the mass of our sun, and the smallest, a red dwarf, is about 20 percent the sun's mass. These star pairs are called eclipsing binaries

Astronomers searching the skies for distant planets have detected two Saturn-sized worlds orbiting distant suns, the smallest planets found thus far outside our solar system. The discovery boosted the likelihood that even smaller planets - perhaps the size of Earth - exist elsewhere in the universe, Professor Steve Vogt of the University of California-Santa Cruz said. This artists concept shows a view of the discovered planet orbiting 79 Ceti.

NASA handout image shows an artist's 

concept of the circumbinary planet 

Kepler-16b - the first planet known to 

definitively orbit two stars. The cold 

planet, with its gaseous surface, is not

 thought to be habitable. The largest of 

the two stars, a K dwarf, is about 69 

percent the mass of our sun, and the

 smallest, a red dwarf, is about 20 percent 

the sun's mass. These star pairs are 

called eclipsing binaries.

NASA handout image of an artist's concept illustrating an icy planet-forming disk around a young star called TW Hydrae, located about 175 light-years away in the Hydra, or Sea Serpent, constellation. Astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory detected copious amounts of cool water vapor, illustrated in blue, emanating from the star's planet-forming disk of dust and gas. The water vapor, which probably comes from icy grains in the disk, is located in the frigid outer regions of the star system, where comets will take shape.

A newly discovered planet, designated by the unglamorous identifier of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, orbits a red star five times less massive than the Sun and located at a distance of about 20,000 light years, in this undated artist's impression. A new planet-hunting technique has detected the most Earth-like planet yet around a star other than our sun, raising hopes of finding a space rock that might support life, astronomers reported on January 25, 2006.

  

A handout photo from the European Space Agency released December 10, 2008 shows an artist's impression of the Jupiter-size extrasolar planet, HD 189733b, being eclipsed by its parent star. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have measured carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the planet's atmosphere. The planet is a ?hot Jupiter?, so close to its parent star that it completes an orbit in only 2.2 days.

Handout picture released June 14, 2005 shows an artist's conception of a newly discovered planet being shown as a hot, rocky, geologically active world glowing in the deep red light of its nearby parent star, the M dwarf Gliese 876. The heat and the reddish light are among the few things about the new planet that are certain, depending on the thickness and composition of its atmosphere - if any - it could range from being a barren, cratered ball of rock like Mercury or the Moon, to being a featureless, cloud-shrouded cue-ball like Venus.

A rich starry sky fills the view from an ancient gas-giant planet in the core of the globular star cluster M4, as imagined in this artist's concept. The 13-billion-year-old planet orbits a helium white-dwarf star and the millisecond pulsar B1620-26, seen at lower left. The globular cluster is deficient in heavier elements for making planets, so the existence of such a world implies that planet formation may have been quite efficient in the early universe.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star in this image released by NASA November 13, 2008. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish."

Image shows composite image of Elephant's Trunk Nebula, an elongated dark globule within the emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation of Cepheus, one of the first images from the new Spitzer Space Telescope released by NASA on December 18, 2003. The new Spitzer Space Telescope, that looks at the cosmos with infrared detectors, has lifted the dust veils from newborn stars and a bumptious comet, and revealed the detail in the spiral arms of a neighboring galaxy.

A handout image received April 5, 2005 from the University of Jena and the European Space Observatory ( ESO) shows the first photograph of a planet (B) beyond our solar system and the star, GQ Lupi (A) around which it orbits. The planet is thought to be one to two times as massive as Jupiter, according to the scientists who imaged it. It orbits a star similar to a young version of our Sun.

A new view of the Whirlpool Galaxy, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken, is released by NASA on Hubble's 15th anniversary April 25, 2005. The new Whirlpool Galaxy image showcases the spiral galaxy's curving arms where newborn stars reside and its yellowish central core that serves as home for older stars. During the 15 years Hubble has orbited the Earth, it has taken more than 700,000 photos of the cosmos.

A California astronomer has discovered what he believes is the 10th planet in our solar system, a group of NASA-funded researchers said on July 29, 2005. The new planet, known as 2003UB313, has been identified as the most distant object ever detected orbiting the sun, California Institute of Technology astronomer Michael Brown said. This artist's concept shows planet 2003UB313 at the lonely outer fringes of our solar system. Our sun can be seen in the distance. The new planet, which is yet to be formally named, is at least as big as Pluto and about three times farther away from the Sun than Pluto.

Healthy food substitutes

You don’t have to deprive yourself of all things tasty, if you’re battling cholesterol, diabetes, weight or blood pressure – to name a few. Simple, everyday replacements for what you’re eating can significantly impact your health and wellbeing. These healthy food substitutes will allow you to still get all the flavour and satisfaction you’re used to.

Easy, healthy food substitutes: 

IN: Red rice

OUT: White rice

Red rice has far more nutritional benefits over white rice that most of us are used to eating. Dr Jyothi Prasad, practicing dietitian at Manipal Hospital, Bangalore says, “Red rice has more fibre in comparison to white rice, as white rice is stripped off its fibre and vitamins during the refining process.”  And red rice is a safer option for diabetics too.

IN: Skimmed milk

OUT: Whole milk

Choose slim milk over whole milk. Here’s why! “Skimmed milk has less fat, which means it can help keep your weight under check. In the run long it is more heart friendly,” advises Dr Prasad. This is strictly not advisable in the case of growing children, unless there are concerns about obesity.

IN: White meat (chicken and fish)

OUT: Red meat (mutton, beef, pork and organ meat like liver and heart)

When it comes to non-vegetarian options, choose chicken and fish over mutton, beef or organ meat like liver. Chicken and fish (white meat) is far healthier than beef, mutton and pork (red meat). 

Dr Prasad explains, “white meat has less fat and cholesterol than red meat. It gives the same amount of protein with an added advantage of lesser fat.” Dr Prasad stresses that fish provide essential fatty acids, which are heart friendly, and also aid brain development in children.

IN: Whole-wheat flour and multi-grain flour

OUT: Refined flour or maida

Refined flour, maida, only has carbs and no other nutrients, which means calories sans benefits. So pick whole-wheat flour instead. Whole-wheat flour packs in proteins, vitamins and fibre, which are all extremely beneficial. So choose cakes, bread, biscuits and rotis made of whole-wheat flour/ multi-grain flour, available aplenty in the market today.

IN: Fresh fruit juice

OUT: Colas, energy drinks and fruit concentrates

Give the colas and energy drinks a break, and reach out to fresh fruit juices. Colas, energy drinks and the various other concentrated juices available in the market, contain noting more than sugar and calories. Further, energy drinks, Dr Prasad warns, contains caffeine, which isn’t good either. Dr Prasad advises one to opt for fresh fruit juices instead, “they pack in vitamins, minerals and a little bit of fibre too.” Even packages juices, as long as they are free of sugar, are a better choice. So chuck those colas today!

IN: Citrus juices, spices and herbs’ dressing

OUT: Oil dressings

Citrus juices, spices and herbs’ dressing is any day healthier than oil dressings, even if you’re using the heart-healthy oil, olive oil. “Spices, herbs and lime juice add zing to your salads without adding the extra calories that oily dressings do,” Dr Prasad says.

IN: Herbs, citrus juices and spices

OUT: Salt

Cut your salt, and supplement it with herbs, citrus juices and spices. “Adding too much salt is detrimental to your health, it can put you at risk of blood pressure and more. So cut down your salt intake by adding herbs, citrus juices and spices to add to the taste,” suggests Dr Prasad.

IN: Egg whites

OUT: Whole eggs

Egg whites are any day better than eating whole eggs: “Egg yolk is a rich source of cholesterol and must be completely eliminated if one has complaints of high cholesterol or has a family history of heart disease,” says Dr Prasad. However, in the case of children, whole eggs are more a better bet any day.

Surya Namaskar

Whether we like it or not, we are getting on and nothing can stop ageing. Be it glowing skin or a lean body, the intention is to age gracefully. Suryanamaskar is a sequence of yoga poses that are almost universally beneficial; with benefits that counter many aspects of ageing. The 12 poses of Suryanamaskar help maintain muscles, help retain flexibility and boost metabolism. Practising Suryanamaskar either at a slow or fast pace help with digestion, soothe the nervous system and strengthen the heart. Not just that, these asanas help you feel energetic, rejuvenated and keep stress 
and anxiety away.

1. Namaskar Mudra: Stand straight with your feet together, hands by the side. Now, bring your palms close to your chest in namaskar mudra and breathe normally. Benefit: Pose 1 and 12 help retain balance and strenghtens your back, 
neck and shoulders.

2. Back bending Chakrasana: Inhale and raise your hands. Now, arch your back and stretch your arms upwards as much as you can. Once in this position, breathe normally. Benefit: Pose 2 and 11 help with digestion and tone the arms and spine. They also make back and hips more flexible.

3. Padahastasana: Exhale and bend forward. Touch your toes without bending your knees. Look downwards and breathe normally. Benefit: Pose 3 and 10 increase blood circulation and stimulate the lymphatic system. 
They also tone abdominal tracts.

4. Ashwa Sanchalanasana: Inhale and place your palms on the floor. Now bend your right leg (between your hands), at a 90degree angle from the floor. Stretch your left leg backwards and arch your back. Then look upwards and breathe normally. Benefit: Pose 4 and 9 help build hand 
and wrist muscles.

5. Santolasana: Exhale and place your right leg behind you, aligned to your left leg. Make sure your hands are aligned below, with your shoulders. Your shoulders, back and hips should be in a straight line. Once you're in this posture, breathe normally. Benefit: Pose 5 and 8 strengthen your heart and relieve shoulder ache.

6. Shashtanga Mudra: Bend your elbows, chin, chest and knees towards the floor. Tuck your elbows on the sides and close to the body. Then, raise close to the body. Then, raise your hips and breathe normally. Benefit: Pose 6 strengthens your arms and legs, increases flexibility in the neck and shoulders and helps release tension in 
the neck and shoulders.

7. Sarpasana: Inhale and raise your upper body up to your elbows, your chin raised upwards. Bend your shoulders backwards. Your waist should touch the floor. Breathe normally. Benefit: This asana stimulates circulation in abdominal organs, aids your digestive tract and stretches your body.

8. Parvatasana: Exhale; raise your hips pushing the upper body, keeping your heels on the floor. Keep your knees straight and face downwards-with your eyes on the navel region. Once in position, breathe normally. Benefit: See Pose 5. It stimulates blood circulation and helps strengthen 
arms and wrists.

9. Ashwa Sanchalanasana: Place your left leg forward, in between your hands and inhale. Now arch your back, raise your chin and keep your palms flat on the floor. Breathe normally once you are in this posture. Benefit: See Pose 4. It also exercises your spine and arms.

10. Padahastasana: Bring your left leg forward (towards your right leg), keeping your knees straight. Touch your toes while keeping your neck relaxed. Once you attain this posture, breathe normally. Benefit: See Pose 3. It also stretches your back 
and leg muscles.

11. Back Bending Chakrasana: Bring your palms together, inhale, raise your hands and upper body and arch your back. Breathe normally once you attain this posture. Benefit: See Pose 2. It helps tone arms 
and shoulders. 


12. Namaskar Mudra: Come back to the starting position slowly, while exhaling. Benefit: See Pose 1. It also stimulates the respiratory system.

Surya namaskar is a sequence of yoga poses that counter the many effects of ageing. Apart from physical benefits, it helps with the digestive and nervous systems.

Lead me from Bad to Good

ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।

मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ।।

asato mA sadgamaya |

tamaso mA jyotirgamaya |

mRRityormA amRRitaM gamaya ||

Lead me from the unreal to the real,

Lead me from darkness into light,

Lead me from death to immortality.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IskFXMiLpas

Be supportive without pushy parent

How to be supportive without being a pushy parent

'It's not the winning, it's the taking part' is easier said than done sometimes, and that's as true for parents as much as it is for children. 

Most parents naturally want their child to succeed, and it's normal to want to do all you can to help them to do so. But it's a fine line between encouragement and interference: at what point does your encouragement make you a pushy parent?

Don't get carried away

Anne, a dance teacher and mum of a swimming-pro son, often notices parents at the galas pushing the boundaries of healthy encouragement. "The things they shout are just plain embarrassing – you just cringe for their children, who feel their efforts aren’t good enough." Some children can’t bear their parents supporting them at sports competitions whatsoever, with some even keeping the event a secret until it's over.

If this is the case, you can’t challenge their choice or go behind their back. Anne continues: "The one time I did this my son didn’t let me watch another of his galas for months." Let that be a lesson to you!

Don't compete with other parents

A sure sign of pushy parenting is when the child’s needs come second to their parents. Take Paula, 48, mum of 18-year-old Francesca. When her daughter’s A-level results were lower than a close friend’s, she embarrassed both by comparing them, making her daughter feel inferior. It’s this kind of behaviour that defines the pushy parents from the encouraging ones. The lesson to be learnt here is to show your children you’re proud of them whatever they do. 

If you find you are concerned that your child’s achievements may affect your reputation or reflect badly on you, then your priorities are in the wrong place.

Don't try to bribe them

It isn’t uncommon for parents to offer their children rewards for achieving certain goals. Mum of three teenage girls Julie, 46, shared that she would give her daughters monetary incentives to achieve A grades at secondary school. While some may see this as healthy encouragement, others view it as plain bribery. 

The competition between parents to offer their child the biggest prize is also common, with Julie adding that her daughters said they would try harder if they knew they would be better rewarded than their peers. This is incentivising gone wrong, as the children are losing focus of what matters. 

Do let them set their own targets

Letting your children set their own goals, timescales and rewards could be your way to avoid pushy-parent-syndrome. Rather than dictating to them, compromise and discover your child’s needs. Everyone learns differently and we are all motivated by different things, so find what suits your child to optimise their motivation without exerting pressure. 

Let them realise their own mistakes instead of criticising them. For example, if it’s time management issues they lack then they need to face the consequences and learn themselves, even if that includes a telling off from their teacher. 

Finally, avoid hovering close by while they study or rehearse as this gives them opportunity to doubt themselves – give them independence by letting them come to you instead.

Don't force them into the limelight

If your child shows promise of being an all-singing, all-dancing star then it’s important as a parent to recognise their talents without forcing them into the limelight. Harvesting a talent can be worth its weight in gold in terms of your child’s confidence, and perhaps financially one day. But often the harder you push their talents, the further you push them away. 

Flute teacher Julia warns that the effects of pushy parenting can be detrimental to a child’s creative ability; ‘I can always tell when a child is under parental pressure. Their confidence falters and they lack communication with me, the tutor.’ She advises that if the child is content to enjoy a hobby without competition or performances then leave it that way. 

Do give them space

It can be tempting to march your sixteen year old down the high street to hand out CVs as soon as their National Insurance lands on the doormat, but your first job can be a daunting prospect and it isn’t something a teenager will do willingly if they’re under too much parental pressure. 

Michelle, mother of three,  recounts the impact on her daughter’s confidence when she tried to intercept her job application which she didn’t feel was adequate; ‘I did it out of love, but it wasn’t worth the embarrassment I subsequently caused my daughter, whose trust for me diminished.’ The greatest support you can provide in this circumstance is offering to help them write their CV and suggest taking them shopping for an interview outfit. 

Shadowing them as they dish out CVs, or even handing them out without their consent, is not going to win their trust, so give them the freedom to make their own mistakes.

Weight loss tips and medical aids

Weight loss remains a major health issue for many of us despite the onslaught of weight loss tips and medical aids that surround us.

Most of the contemporary solutions border on providing unrealistic weight loss solutions or are too time-consuming. Drastic dieting is never recommended since it can leave you malnourished and damage your body in an unredeemable manner. In order to lose weight naturally, i.e. without using any magic pill or gymming like a maniac, use the following tips:

Consider Whole Grains As Your Friends

Try to eat a larger concentration of foods made from whole grains (rotis, whole wheat breads, cookies and oatmeal) rather than refined or processed foods. Whole grains are more complex for the body to metabolize, taking a longer digestion route. This keeps the body busy for a longer period, ensuring that energy is released throughout the day. This helps to decrease the frequency and intensity of hunger pangs, particularly the sugar cravings.

Psychological Preparedness

Don’t be shy about your weight loss goals. In fact, use the people around you to your advantage. Announce it amongst your friends and family that they should thwart you every time you are headed for a bit piece of creamy cake or a cheese-loaded pizza.

Know Your Food

You need to be more alert when picking up packaged food items. Remember that non-saturated fats and essential fatty acids are the good kind of fats that your body needs for its basic functions. Food items bearing labels of low-fat or low-sugar might not necessarily contain lesser calories. Instead, try to make smarter substitutions. For instance, you can choose eggless baked items and juices without sugar.

Use Water As A Weight Loss Tool

Try to drink water every time you get hungry or you are about to have a meal, i.e. just before a major meal like a lunch or dinner. This is a simple and effective way of instantly quenching your hunger to a certain extent. More water also raises the metabolic rate or the rate at which the body uses calories, meaning you are losing more calories per hour.

Manipulate Yourself To Reduce Food Intake

Try to eat slowly, breaking your food into more bites. This will ensure that you derive more pleasure out of each bite, allowing each morsel to provide more satiety, ensuring your calorie intake at the dining table remain limited. Rather than taking single, big servings, try to take numerous small servings. This helps to establish the perception that you have been serving yourself repeatedly and also makes you more conscious about the amount of food you are about to consume.

Use Fiber To Your Advantage

Try to include more fiber in your diet. This should include soluble and insoluble fiber for ensuring that the digested food in your intestines absorbs more water. This in turn ensures that the feeling of being full is achieved quicker. Insoluble fiber is found in leafy salads that also help you limit your food intake naturally. This is because the raw state of most salad ingredients means that you need to chew a lot more. The extra chewing and salivating that accompanies it helps to control the hunger pangs for a few hours.

Overcome Your Snacking Habits

Snacking is perhaps the biggest sin a dieter can commit. To ensure that you stay away from the urge to bite into a chocolate or cookie, keep your mouth busy with sugar-free chewing gum. Try to sip iced or hot herbal teas prepared with minimal amount of sugar throughout the day. These are low cal aids that help to establish the feeling of feeding yourself without consuming too many calories, preventing the urge to snack.

Keep Away From Salt

Salt is responsible for retention of water within the large intestine. Further, salt tends to keep our blood pressure high, making us more prone to sweating. These factors raise our thirst and the tendency to consume beverages, including teas and colas, which contain sugar.

Burn Your Sugars

If you cannot do without your daily intake of sweet or sugar-concentrated items, try to snack upon them during the morning hours. This ensures that the body will be using the calories extracted from your favorite milkshake throughout the day, reducing the number of calories stored as fat.

Exercise Easily

You don’t need to take upon heavy gym routines to exercise your problem areas. For instance, climbing up and down the stairs is one of the easiest, most accessible types of cardiovascular exercise that works-out your hips, legs and thighs beautifully. Combine this with undemanding calorie-burners like brisk walks, walking to the nearby market, walking when talking on your mobile and taking upon more household chores.

Weight Loss Precautions You Shouldn’t Ignore

Maintaining your body frame is vital at the time of losing weight. Weight loss often causes loss of vital protein, weakening the muscles that are necessary to maintain the elasticity of our tissues. To ensure that you don’t lose too much of your lean muscle mass, ensure you consume egg whites on a daily basis. Avoid the yolk since it contains a high amount of cholesterol. 

How sex improves our health

Of course sex is healthy, but did you know that a good sex life can provide specific health benefits? We spoke to the experts to find out just how sex improves our health (not that you needed any convincing).

1. It May Make You Thinner

Dread working out? Don’t break up with your treadmill just yet. But if it’s late and you haven’t made it to the gym, don’t forget that sex counts as exercise, too! “Sex burns between 75 and 150 calories per half-hour,” says Desmond Ebanks, MD, founder and medical director of Alternity Healthcare in West Hartford, Connecticut. It’s comparable to other physical activities, he says, like yoga (114 calories per half-hour), dancing (129 calories per half-hour) or walking (153 calories per half-hour).

Bonus: Sex may also help your muscles stay lean in the process. “Sexual arousal and orgasm releases the hormone testosterone, which, among other things, is necessary to build and maintain bone and lean muscle tissue,” he adds.

2. It May Improve Your Heart Health

You’re probably already aware that heart disease is the number-one killer of women. Eating a healthy diet, and keeping your cholesterol low and sodium in check are great ways to stay on top of heart health, but so is having sex. “Sex is exercise that raises heart rate and blood flow,” says Dr. Ebanks. “In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, researchers found that having sex twice or more a week reduced the risk of fatal heart attack by half.” While the study results were focused on men, Dr. Ebanks suspects similar effects for women, too.

3. It Can Help You Get a Better Night’s Sleep

What do you do to help you sleep? When chamomile tea and other remedies aren’t doing the job, sex may help—especially if you’re having trouble sleeping due to anxiety or stress. “People having frequent sex often report that they handle stress better,” notes Dr. Ebanks. “The profound relaxation that typically follows orgasm for women and ejaculation or orgasm for men may be one of the few times people actually allow themselves to completely relax. Many indicate that they sleep more deeply and restfully after satisfying lovemaking.”

4. It Can Boost Your Immune System

With all the concerns about cold and flu viruses, combating germs can sometimes feel like a full-time job. Surprisingly, there may be something you can do in the bedroom to keep your immune system strong, says Dr. Ebanks, who points to a study by researchers at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. “Individuals who have sex once or twice a week show 30 percent higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A, which is known to boost the immune system,” he says. So, make this your new cold-and-flu season mantra: Wash your hands and make a bedroom date with your sweetie—often!

5. It Can Improve Your Mental Health 

The quickest way to boost your mood, fight depression and beat anxiety? Patricia Tan, MD, a board-certified internist in Arizona and medical expert for JustAnswer.com, says the answer is simple: sex (in a loving, committed relationship, of course). “Psychologically, sex improves one’s mental health by building intimacy and reducing stress,” she says. “The stress reduction component lowers a person's cortisol level, thereby reducing the chances of increased blood pressure, hyperglycemia and increased acidity in the abdomen.”

6. It Can Help Relieve Pain

You might change “Not tonight, honey, I have a headache” to “Yes, tonight, honey, I have a headache,” or so says Dr. Ebanks, who believes there’s a real correlation between sex and pain management. “Through sexual arousal and orgasm the hormone oxytocin is secreted in your body, which in turn causes the release of endorphins,” he explains. “Because of these natural opiates, sex acts as a powerful analgesic.”

7. It Can Help You with Bladder Control

It may sound weird—the idea that sex can help you minimize incontinence—but it’s true, say experts. Sex therapists have long recommended that women do Kegel exercises (flexing the muscles in your pelvic floor) throughout the day, but also during sex. Why? Not only can the exercises help increase pleasure, they also strengthen the muscles associated with incontinence. You can do Kegels anywhere (including during intercourse), so don’t be shy! Gently flex and tighten your pelvic floor muscles in the same way you would to stop the flow of urine. Hold for three seconds, then release.

8. It May Give You Healthier Skin

Could sex make you more beautiful? It sounds far-fetched, but Eric Braverman, MD, founder of PATH Medical Center in New York City, says having sex releases a key compound in the body that is good for all kinds of things—including improving your complexion. During sex, your body produces a hormone called DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone). “It can boost the immune system, give you healthier skin and even decrease depression,” he says. So much for the $79 night cream!

Urine-soaked eggs

Urine-soaked eggs a spring taste treat in China city

A girl looks at a pot of regular hard-boiled eggs, next to a pot of hard-boiled eggs cooked in boys' urine in Dongyang, Zhejiang province  REUTERS

DONGYANG, China (Reuters) - It's the end of a school day in the eastern Chinese city of Dongyang, and eager parents collect their children after a hectic day of primary school.

But that's just the start of busy times for dozens of egg vendors across the city, deep in coastal Zhejiang province, who ready themselves to cook up a unique springtime snack favoured by local residents.

Basins and buckets of boys' urine are collected from primary school toilets. It is the key ingredient in "virgin boy eggs", a local tradition of soaking and cooking eggs in the urine of young boys, preferably below the age of 10.

There is no good explanation for why it has to be boys' urine, just that it has been so for centuries.

The scent of these eggs being cooked in pots of urine is unmistakable as people pass the many street vendors in Dongyang who sell it, claiming it has remarkable health properties.

"If you eat this, you will not get heat stroke. These eggs cooked in urine are fragrant," said Ge Yaohua, 51, who owns one of the more popular "virgin boy eggs" stalls.

"They are good for your health. Our family has them for every meal. In Dongyang, every family likes eating them."

It takes nearly an entire day to make these unique eggs, starting off by soaking and then boiling raw eggs in a pot of urine. After that, the shells of the hard-boiled eggs are cracked and they continue to simmer in urine for hours.

Vendors have to keep pouring urine into the pot and controlling the fire to keep the eggs from being overheated and overcooked.

Ge said he has been making the snack, popular due to its fresh and salty taste, for more than 20 years. Each egg goes for 1.50 yuan, a little more than twice the price of the regular eggs he also sells.

Many Dongyang residents, young and old, said they believed in the tradition passed on by their ancestors that the eggs decrease body heat, promote better blood circulation and just generally reinvigorate the body.

"By eating these eggs, we will not have any pain in our waists, legs and joints. Also, you will have more energy when you work," said Li Yangzhen, 59, who bought 20 eggs from Ge.

The eggs are not bought only at street stalls. Local residents are also known to personally collect boys' urine from nearby schools to cook the delicacy in their homes.

The popularity of the treat has led the local government to list the "virgin boy eggs" as an intangible cultural heritage.

But not everyone is a fan. Chinese medical experts gave mixed reviews about the health benefits of the practice, with some warning about sanitary issues surrounding the use of urine to cook the eggs.

Some Dongyang residents also said they hated the eggs.

"We have this tradition in Dongyang that these eggs are good for our health and that it would help prevent things like getting a cold," said Wang Junxing, 38. "I don't believe in all this, so I do not eat them."

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Paul Casciato)