Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
People who survive heart attacks often describe pains in their chest, neck, shoulders, arms or jaw. Sometimes the chest pains are the least noticeable of all discomfort and sometimes not present at all. Those who do experience chest pain sometimes describe it as a crushing pain, as if the chest was being squashed by a … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered question
The term "stroke" covers several different potentially dangerous conditions. Some of the symptoms are quite common for example headache. The trigger for seeking advice would be if the headache arrives unusually quickly, grows in ferocity and last many hours. Other worrying signs which should lead you to seek medical advice are sever dizziness or … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Yes Ginkgo nuts are edible. They are used in Asian, especially Japanese, cuisine usually either roasted or grilled. They are the fruit of the Asian Ginkgo tree. Oval in shape, a pale green and similar in size to the average olive, the nuts are used for dessert and in savoury dishes. The Ginkgo nut is … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Glasswort is an edible plant which grows on salt marshes. It is also known as marsh samphire and is traditionally eaten with fish. The plant is harvested in the same way as asparagus by snapping off the edible spears of new growth as it pushes through the earth. It is European in origin and grows … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Wearing gold jewellery has been a sign of wealth and status for many centuries and it is well known that the rich have longer than average life spans and less health problems than the poor. But does gold itself have health giving properties? Yes it does. A French scientis Jacques Forestier discovered in 1929 … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
For children the most common accidents in the home leading to injury are falls followed by collisions with people and objects. This usually involves running into a person or object or having an object fall on the child. Around 50,000 children a year visit hospital because of something they swallowed, inhaled or got stuck … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Wildly fluctuating blood sugar levels can be a symptom of serious illness. If you feel inexplicably sleepy, thirsty, shaky or famished even though you have eaten recently these could be signs of problems with your blood sugar levels. Your doctor will want to check that you are not suffering from diabetes or another serious condition. … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Healthy eating advice advocates a minimum of five fruit and vegetable portions a day. In some countries this is six and looks set to rise. Portions are often quite substantial amounts of food and there are rules governing how many juiced fruit drinks or portions of dried fruit can be included each day. The standard … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Scientists have discovered that all the DNA of modern potato crops can be traced back to Peru and potatoes cultivated over 7,000 years ago. The potato was grown widely across Latin America from early times. It was "discovered" by Spanish explorers and brought back to Spain around 1570. Its popularity was limited for some time … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
All potatoes contain substances known as glycoalkaloids. The most common in potatoes are solanine and chaconine. Light reacts with these substances to turn potato flesh green. The green parts of a potato are a guide to where these substances tend to accumulate which is just below the potato skin. Ingested in large quantities these … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
There have been two serious potato famines in the UK. The Irish Potato Famine of 1845 to 1849 and the Highland Potato Famine of 1846 to 1857. Both were caused by a disease known as potato blight, proper name Phytopthora infestans, which damaged potato crops right across Europe from the 1840s onwards. This disease is … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
The Irish Potato Famine lasted from 1845 to 1849. It is estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million people died as a result of the famine. Many more emigrated in a desperate attempt to save their families from starvation and mass unemployment. Although potato blight, the disease which led to the loss of potato crops, … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
The Highland potato famine lasted eleven years from 1846 to 1857. It is called a famine but is often described as being more of a failure of agriculture rather than a true famine. Just as in Ireland the potato crop was seriously damaged by the infection known as potato blight. However, the causes of the … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
In building terms a supporting wall is one which is vital to maintain the integrity of the building. In layperson's terms it means that if you knock a supporting wall out without replacing it with an alternative means of support the building, or part of it, is at risk of falling down or being seriously … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Constipation is usually signalled by a feeling of fullness and sometimes bloating below the waste. It is the result of faeces becoming stuck in the intestines. We might feel as if we want to go to the loo but when we wit down we are unable to pass a stool. There are lots of causes … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Adoption is a very unusual form of legal action because it takes away such an important legal set of rights from birth parents and assigns them totally to another person or couple. Even the child's birth certificate is taken away by the court and replaced by an adoption certificate implying that the status of the … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Sadly there are lots of cases in which parents who choose to adopt find themselves unable to parent the adopted child adequately. Despite intensive preparation classes and counseling sessions some people find themselves unwilling or unable to meet a child's needs. Usually these parents seek help long before the adoptive placement breaks down completely. Often … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Most countries outlaw such practices but it is undoubtedly true that money can buy you a baby in many parts of the world. The reasons for this are complicated. Poor people everywhere are at the mercy of loan sharks and unscrupulous employers. People rarely sell their children on a whim or simply to make money … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Farmers around the world are often poor because the market price for their products has fallen to less than the cost of producing the goods or to a level which allows them to make insufficient profit from their labour. In rich countries agricultural subsidies protect many farming families from extreme poverty but the same grants … Read more
Shelagh Young
Shelagh Young answered
Eating out of season produce means one of two things. Either the fruit or vegetables have been grown in artificial conditions such as heated greenhouses or they have been grown in another country. Both practices are very energy hungry. Fresh produce is often air freighted around the world and this is a very energy … Read more