What High Heels are Really Doing to your Feet

They make you look taller, leaner and more glamorous - just ask heel fanatic Victoria Beckham.

But our love affair with spindly stilettos is threatening to leave us alarmingly down at heel, according to a staggering new piece of research.

An infographic featured by The Washington Post illustrates, in shocking visual detail, the negative effect the stylish female's choice of footwear has on their bodies.

The diagram shows how wearing high heels places excess force on the inside of the knee - a common site of osteoarthritis among women.

One study found that knee joint pressure increased by as much as 26 per cent when a woman wears heels.

The height of your heels and a narrow toebox can create a thickening of tissue around a nerve between the third and fourth toes, which can lead to pain and numbness in the toes called Morton's neuroma.

Consultant podiatrist Mike O'Neill, from the College of Podiatry, recently warned that squeezing feet into smaller shoes can also cause long-term damage including arthritis, stress fractures, and trapped nerves, which may even require surgery or steroid injections.

Another common effect of wearing heels is bunions, a problem Victoria Beckham has admitted to.

Tight-fitting shoes can cause a painful bony growth on the joint at the base of the big toe, which forces the big toe to angle in toward the other toes.

A study found that one in five feet operations are to remove bunions.

Based on the average cost of private treatment of about £4,000, this equates to £10.5million a year.

The research also highlights an issue they have dubbed 'pump bump'- caused by the rigid backs or straps of high heels which irritate the heel and create a bony enlargement also known as Haglund's deformity.

Ankle injuries are also a huge cause for concern as high heels impair balance and a wearer is therefore at greater risk of falling, which could lead to a sprained or broken ankle.
High heels also cause the body's weight to be redistributed and prolonged wear can lead to joint pain on the ball of the foot called Metatarsalgia.

The higher a heel, the more damage it will have on your Achilles tendon as it causes it to tighten up and create pain.
And it seems that younger women are most at risk as a study found that the younger the woman, the higher their heels.

Roughly 20 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 own a pair of six-inch high heeled shoes. This compares with 10 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 and just 3 per cent of 35 to 44 year olds.

And it isn't just your feet and legs that are suffering as a result of vertiginous footwear.

Spindly stilettos also put strain on your posture by pushing the centre of mass in the body forward, taking the hips and spine out of alignment, as well as putting excess pressure on the forefoot.
Mr O'Neill said: 'There's absolutely no doubt women who wear high heels are putting themselves at risk of permanent injury in the name of fashion. Given a choice between a stylish pair of shoes or nice feet, many will go for the stylish shoes.

'However, the higher the heel, the more they tilt your body forward and the more you have to lean back to compensate. This can put your pelvis out of alignment and cause compression of the spine.
'High heels ram your foot forward, which squishes your toes together and can cause ingrown toe nails, rough areas of skin, blemishes, and calluses.

'And because your toes are squashed, the moisture gets trapped, causing soggy toes, which is a breeding ground for athlete's foot.'

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Artificial Ear that Looks and Works Just Like the Real Thing

An artificial - and very lifelike - ear has been built by scientists using a 3D printer and cartilage from sheep.

The organ was designed by plastic surgeons to make it look as likelike as possible.

Researchers from Massachusetts then grew the required number of cartilage cells to fit custom models under the skin of lab rats.

Wire was added to the moulds to give the implants their shape and make them bend and flex like human ears.

Scientists are now preparing the ear for clinical trials in the hope they could be used in transplant operations.

As the technology is customisable, the scientists claim they could eventually use the process to produce realistic looking ears for individual patients on a 'rapid timescale.'

The ears were built by Thomas Cervantes, from Massachusetts General Hospital, and his colleagues.

A 3D digital model was created and designed with help from a facial plastic surgeon to make sure the shape and proportions were correct.

The resulting model was printed and cast in polydimethylsiloxane, a special silicone compound, to create a mould which was then split along the outer contour, resulting in two pieces.
These moulds were filled with cow collagen, the naturally occurring protein that gives skin elasticity and strength.
Researchers then harvested ear cartilage cells from sheep.

These cells were implanted under the skin of lab rats and the team then spent three months growing enough cartilage inside the rats to replace the cow collagen used in the moulds.

The researchers said that the modelled ear had enough definition in the curves and lines to be recognisable even once a layer of skin had been applied to it.

'All the implants were well tolerated,' said Cervantes.

'The implants with wire resembled a human ear, whereas implants without wire were flattened and distorted.
'The surfaces of both were white, glistening and grossly resembled cartilage.

'The constructs with the embedded wire framework had significantly improved size and shape fidelity, compared with those without the framework. The implants were flexible.'

The same team previously carried out a proof of concept study on mice using cartilage cells in an ear-shaped collagen mould, but this was only analysed in 2D.

The researchers said: 'The technology is now under development for clinical trials, and thus we have scaled up and redesigned the prominent features of the scaffold to match the size of an adult human ear and to preserve the aesthetic appearance after implantation.

'We also employed more rigorous methods to analyse the fidelity of the ear geometry after implantation.'
They added: 'These quantitative shape analysis results have identified opportunities to improve shape fidelity of engineered ear constructs.'

Each year thousands of children are born with a congenital deformity called microtia, when the external ear is not fully developed. 

Many have an intact inner ear, but experience hearing loss due to the missing external structure.
The findings feature in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

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Jasleen The Giant Baby

At nearly a stone, she is twice the weight of the average newborn girl.

But even more remarkable is that Jasleen’s mother managed to deliver her naturally, without the need for a Caesarean section.

She was born on Friday in Leipzig, Germany, weighing 13lb 8oz (6.11kg) and measuring 23in (57.5 cm) long.

‘My 11-year-old daughter was a third of her weight, my two-year-old son a little under that.

'My stomach was a lot bigger this time around but I had no idea there was such a giant inside.’

Doctors discovered that the mother was suffering from undiagnosed gestational diabetes which can cause abnormally big babies.

Jasleen is Germany’s heaviest, beating a 13lb boy called Jihad born in November 2011, but is 10lb lighter than the world record.

She is doing well but remains in neonatal intensive care at Leipzig University Hospital while doctors monitor her.

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8 year old Pan Xianhang Known as “Fish Boy”

Eight-year-old Pan Xianhang can't sleep at night.

Known as “Fish Boy” by locals in the Eastern China province of Wenling, little Xianhang is covered head-to-toe in thick, itchy scales.

Diagnosed at birth with the rare genetic disease Ichtyosis, Pan has lived his whole life with unbearable pain, often suffering from overheating and extreme itching.

According to the Argentine newspaper, El Periodico, Pan’s mother says the young boy just wants to attend school without itching.

His severe skin abnormalities have affected the shape of his eyelids, nose, mouth, and ears, while also limiting movement of his arms and legs, Imagine China reports.

It is estimated that each year, more than 16,000 babies are born with some form of Ichthyosis, varying in severity of symptoms, according to Foundation for Ichthyosis & Related Skin Types.

While there is currently no cure for the disease, cold water can alleviate the symptoms of overheating and a thick cream can help to prevent the skin’s cracking. Doctors are currently looking into other ways to treat the boy.

Pan is not the first to make headlines for this stifling disease.

Metro reports on a 2012 documentary called 'The Boy They Call Fish', which highlighted the story of a severely mentally handicapped 18-year-old Vietnamese orphan, Minh Anh, who suffers from the same disease in a special ward of a Saigon hospital.

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500-year-old mummies of sacrificed Inca children reveal their secrets

Her body is so perfectly preserved that it is hard to believe this girl died more than 500 years ago.

But what is even more remarkable is that scientists today have been able to learn the secrets of her death – by analysing her hair.

The 13-year-old Incan girl was heavily dosed with alcohol and coca leaves, which form the basis of cocaine, before being left to die of exposure high in the Andes as a sacrifice.

Known as the Ice Maiden, she is one of three children found in stone tombs on a mountain in Argentina.

The girl, the eldest of the three, was found cross-legged, with her head slumped forward and her hands resting in her lap.

She wore a feather headdress over her tightly braided hair and there were coca leaves between her teeth and balled up behind her cheek.

The children were discovered in 1999.

They are believed to have been sacrificed in a ceremony called capacocha, a ritual thought to have been used to instil fear and help control members of the rapidly expanding Inca empire.

Analysis of the children’s hair, which still contains a chemical fingerprint of their diet, shows that all three were plied with drugs and alcohol to subdue them in the months before they died.

Amounts were particularly high in the 13-year-old girl, perhaps because she showed more resistance.

The chemical analysis was carried out by researchers at the University of Bradford, and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers said the coca leaves, which release a mild stimulant when chewed and sucked, would have helped her cope with the demands of altitude.

The chicha, an alcoholic drink made from fermented maize, would have helped her deal with the cold.

But it could also have hastened her death by stopping her from shivering.

There is no evidence that the girl, known as the Llullaillaco Maiden after the mountain in northwest Argentina, was brutally killed.

Instead, it is thought she died of exposure. Priests would have waited for her to fall unconscious before placing her in a burial chamber.

Dr Andrew Wilson, from the University of Bradford, said: ‘We think it likely that the Maiden was selected for sacrifice 12 months before her death, after which her treatment changed, corresponding to the sharp rise in coca consumption.

‘She was then probably involved in a series of rituals, involving consumption of coca and alcohol in the build up to her sacrifice.

‘Both substances were controlled, were considered elite products.

‘The fact that in her final weeks the maiden shows consistently higher levels of coca and alcohol use compared to the younger children suggests there was a greater need to sedate her in the final weeks of life.’


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Lizzie Velasquez: A True Beauty From Within

When she was in high school, Lizzie Velasquez was dubbed “The World’s Ugliest Woman” in an 8-second-long YouTube video. Born with a medical condition so rare that just two other people in the world are thought to have it, Velasquez has no adipose tissue and cannot create muscle, store energy, or gain weight. She has zero percent body fat and weighs just 60 pounds.

In the comments on YouTube, viewers called her “it” and “monster” and encouraged her to kill herself. Instead, Velasquez set four goals: To become a motivational speaker, to publish a book, to graduate college, and to build a family and a career for herself.

Now 23 years old, she’s been a motivational speaker for seven years and has given more than 200 workshops on embracing uniqueness, dealing with bullies, and overcoming obstacles. She’s a senior majoring in Communications at Texas State University in San Marcos, where she lives with her best friend. Her first book, “Lizzie Beautiful,” came out in 2010 and her second, “Be Beautiful, Be You,” was published earlier this month.

14 Strange Facts About Kissing

1. Open-mouth kissing allows for the transfer of hormones from a man to a woman, in other words mucus membranes in the mouth are permeable to hormones like testosterone, which a man can introduce into a woman’s mouth through kissing. Therefore testosterone increases arousal in the woman, leading to higher chances of sexual intercourse.

2. Kissing is good for what ails you. Research shows that the act of smooching improves our skin, helps circulation, prevents tooth decay, and can even relieve headaches.

3. Kissing can become your new favorite exercise, a quick romantic kiss is said to help burn around 2 to 3 calories while a passionate kiss can burn 5 or more calories. The longer and more passionate the kiss, the more calories burned.

4. When it comes to our faces, kissing is the ultimate workout to keep our facial muscles strong. Our cheeks are kept tight and supple by the engagement of around 30 different muscles in our faces when kissing. Time to workout.

5. Men who kiss their partners before leaving for work average higher incomes than those who don’t.

6. Prostitutes are said to avoid kissing their clients to reduce the likelihood of bonding or emotional attachment.

7. The average person spends 336 hours of his or her life kissing.

8. While women use kissing to evaluate a partner’s potential for a relationship, men use kissing for a simpler purpose. Men are likely to use kissing as a means to increase the likelihood of sex.
Nonetheless, that’s not to say that all kisses from a man are sex-oriented.

9. Kissing has long been recognized as a good way for our bodies to pass along bugs that help build immunity. Once you’ve contracted a bug, your body then learns to strengthen itself despite showing symptoms of a cold or flu. Kissing merely helps expedite our immune system-boosting processes.

10. Kissing creates feel-good chemicals in our bodies that help us feel relaxed.

11. Public kissing is a crime in Indonesia punishable by five years in prison.

12. Like fingerprints or snowflakes, no two lip impressions are alike.

13. Kissing releases the same neurotransmitters in our brains as parachuting, bungee jumping, and running, its exciting.

14. Just one kiss with tongue can transmit up to 278 types of bacteria. Those of us with OCD tendencies should try to forget this next time we get anywhere near a pair of lips.

10 Facts About Smiling

1. Smiling fights stress. If you're feeling burnt out and tired of the routine, just smile. When you smile, your body releases endorphins (aka “Happy Hormones”), even if it’s a fake smile, this sudden mood change will relieve stress.

2. Smiling makes you look really pretty. Who needs makeup when you have this secret ingredient to instant glam? A research study by Orbit Complete revealed that 69% of people find women who smile more attractive than women who wear a lot of makeup.

3. You’re first facial expression ever: A smile. All newborn babies smile, it’s a reflex action; something you don’t learn. Scientists believe that we’re all born with the ability to smile, since blind newborns can smile without picking that up from their surroundings.

4. Think of it as exercise. 53 muscles are used when you smile. Other smiles can take up to 5 muscles. So start working those muscles more often!

5. According to research, there are 19 different types of smiles expressing different emotions. From polite, social smiles to heart-felt smiles, with this little expression we can express ourselves in 19 different ways.

6. There are people who study laughter and its effect on the body that are known as “gelotologists”.

7. Smiling is medicine. Due to its stress-relieving properties, smiling can help strengthen your immune system and prevent colds.

8. Smile; it’s contagious. Yes, that’s not just a saying but rather a fact. Based on a Swedish study, people had difficulties frowning when observing other people who smiled.

9. Smile your way up the career ladder. Employers tend to promote people who smile more often than people who don’t at the workplace; for smiling shows confidence.

10. Smiling can reduce your blood pressure, so when you’re having a bad day at work just smile it off. Researchers have monitored blood pressures of different subjects after smiling continuously for a minute and noticed a decrease in BP in those whole smiled than those who didn’t.

Korea's Aegyo Sal

While most Western women spend ridiculous amounts of money to conceal or get rid of the puffy bags under their eyes, Korean women consider them a sign of beauty and resort to a variety of cosmetic procedures in order to get them.

Aegyo Sal, as the bizarre baggy-eyes trend is known in Korea, should not be confused with the saggy or dark purplish eyebags caused by lack of sleep and aging, those are considered unattractive pretty much everywhere. The trendy feature refers strictly to the slight puffiness of the lower eye-socket which has to match the color tone of the skin. Contrary to general beliefs and perceptions, Korean women find these little pockets of fat under the eyes cute and believe they give them a more youthful look by brightening the eyes. Ever noticed how a person’s eyes become puffy when they smile? The Koreans have, and they’ve come up with way of creating that illusion of a bright joyful facial expression without actually smiling – the aegyo sal.

There are a number of ways women can get the coveted aegyo sal look either permanently or temporarily. Aegyo plastic surgery is one of the most popular options, but they can also opt for different dermal fillers and even small rubber bands taped tightly under the eyes. Also, a simple search on YouTube yeield nearly 1,000 aegyo sal makeup tutorials for women who want something less drastic. These artificial eye bags can be seen on some of South Korea’s most popular actresses and singers, to the average women on the streets, and it doesn’t look like the trend is slowing down anytime soon. “Traveling to Asia, I saw so many girls with puffy eyes. I remember one morning; I barely had any sleep so when I went onto a shoot for work, the girls commented on my puffy eyes. I felt so embarrassed, but then I realized that they were complimenting them,” Michelle Phan, a popular Internet beauty and makeup guru writes on her site.

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The Five-Star Gibraltar's Sunborn Yacht Hotel

Images of a giagantic five star floating hotel that will cost around £130 million to build and is designed to provide luxurious accommodation and panoramic sea views in Gibraltar, have been unveiled.

The 142 metre super yacht will be permanently moored in Gibraltar's Ocean Village Marina, located off the southern tip of Spain, and is expected to open at the end of this year.
The oceanic behemoth boasts 189 rooms, banqueting suites, bars, restaurants, casino, a spa and gym, cocktail lounge, pool, sundeck and even a ballroom.

It will be one of the most luxurious places to stay in the Mediterranean, as suggested by these concept images.
The floating hotel is seven storeys tall and has 15,500 metres squares of floor space and will dwarf less super yachts in the marina.

Befitting a five star hotel, the 167 guest rooms, four executive rooms and 18 suites are expected to cost between £200 and £2,000 a night.

All of them feature wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling panoramic windows and 90 per cent of the rooms have an outdoor area.

Gibraltar's Sunborn Yacht Hotel came about as the company realised there was demand for a new luxurious hotel but no room to build one on the exclusive island.

The floating hotel is designed to be permanently moored in Gibraltar and will be attached by six strong hydraulic arms, each weighing eight tonnes.

Guests will enter the exclusive hotel through an enclosed glass bridge and Sunborn Gibraltar CEO, Brian Stevendale said that unlike cruise ships, guests will feel as if they are staying on dry land.

He told CNN: 'It's intriguing that something so large can literally just be plugged in to a port.'

The concept of a hotel on water was in answer to there being little space on the British territory of Gibraltar, which measures under seven square kilometres.

Monaco and Singapore have similarly thriving economies and a glamorous allure for holiday makers but accommodation and space is limited.

Mr Stevendale said: 'In Gibraltar there's a huge demand for hotels, but how do you do it in such a small jurisdiction?'

'Unlike traditional building -- which involves trucks, cranes and a huge amount of disruption -- we have a ready built product that can be delivered to these prime areas.'

Further hotels could follow in or places where a land-based development is impractical because a site is environmentally sensitive, has heritage status, or because there is simply no more room to build new hotels.

Despite its over-the-top interior, the company behind the super yacht claims it is eco-friendly compared to building a new hotel on land.
The ship is being constructed in Malaysia and has an engine to take it to its final location at Gibraltar, but because it has the ability to travel, Sunborn said similar yachts could be used at temporary events such as the Olympics or World Cup.

There are plans for similar hotels in London and Barcelona as well as tentative plans for others in North America, South East Asia, the Middle East and Russia.

The Gibraltar vessel is the second floating hotel by the company, which opened the 'Sunborn Princess' at Naantali Spa Resort in Finland in 2002.

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Eccentric Businessman Replaces Villa Fence with Mind-Blowing Aquarium

Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu, a successful businessman and topographical engineer from Turkey, has built the world’s most amazing fence for his luxurious villa in Çeşme, Izmir. Eight years ago he replaced the metal fence at the front of his property with a 50-meter-long aquarium filled with hundreds of fish and octopuses. I know, you have to see it to believe it. Luckily we have the photos and videos to prove it.

Located just a few feet away from the shores of the Aegean Sea, Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu’s property has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Çeşme, attracting up to a thousand visitors a day, according to its owner. The villa itself is pretty impressive, but it’s not what draws so many people to this place. They come to see the aqua-fence. Eight years ago, the Turkish businessman had the eccentric idea to replace the front fence of his home with a giant aquarium full of various marine creatures from the Aegean Sea. Building the transparent structure was actually the easy part of the project. The hard part was linking the aqua-fence to the Aegean through a 400-meter-long buried pipeline, so the water could be changed continuously to keep the aquarium looking clean and its inhabitants happy. Gökçeoğlu hired a team of private divers to perform the task, and ended up paying approximately 40,000 Turkish Lira ($21,000) to fulfill his dream. The businessman says just seeing people line up outside his house staring at his creation makes it all worth it.

Sea bream, sea bass, mullets, eels and octopuses are just some of the marine species found in Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu’s aqua-fence. According to several reports, there are now almost 1,000 fish living in this man-made wonder. Even though it’s been eight years since it was first unveiled, the unique aquarium still draws crowds of tourists every summer. To make sure no one comes close enough to damage his fragile fence or steal some fish, the owner set up a surveillance network of 17 cameras with facial recognition system. Visitors can look, take photos and record videos, but getting too close will probably set off some kind of alarm.

So if you’re ever in Çeşme, be sure to stop by Mehmet’s place and check out his aqua-fence. I’m pretty sure it’s the only one of its kind in the whole world.

Meet the Famous Rubberband Boy - Stretching the Limits

Shay Horay, better known as the Rubberband Boy, is one of the world’s most unusual performers. During his unique act, Horay twists tight rubber band across his face until he looks like a grotesque monster out of a horror movie. Strangely enough, kids love him.

34-year-old Shay Horay is one of those lucky few who knew what they wanted to do with their lives very early on. The young New Zealander grew up surrounded by rubber bands in his parents’ office supply shop and used them to create all kinds of crazy contraptions inspired by his favorite cartoon, Inspector Gadget. When he was just 12 years old, Shay knew he belonged on stage, making a living out of showing audiences a good time and wowing them with his strange talent. Although he specializes in stand-up comedy, unicycle and pogo stick routines, it was the Rubberband Boy character that made him internationally famous. His ability to use rubber bands to make his face look mutilated turned out to be a great crowd-pleaser, and so far he has traveled to 25 different countries entertaining people with his unique act.

Entertaining audiences with his performances is pretty much the only job Shay has ever had, and although it has yet to make him rich, he says he is doing better than the average wage in New Zealand. ”It’s not, for me, about the money,” Horay told the Otago Daily Times. “My job is making people laugh and allowing people to have a good time. Everyone needs a few extra laughs in their day.” When he’s not performing on stage, the Rubberband Boy is busy setting new world records for most rubber bands over the face in under a minute. In 2011, he manged to stretch a circulation-stopping 78 rubber bands across his face, a feat that has yet to be equaled.

World's Biggest Beetle

These pictures show Titanus giganteus, the world's largest beetle and one of the most mysterious creatures on the planet.

Better known as the Titan beetle, it can grow up to seven inches long and has a jaw so strong that it can snap a wooden pencil in two.

Despite its terrifying size and fearsome bite, it is entirely harmless to humans, according to Oddity Central.

The insect hides away in South America's humid tropical rainforests and only ventures out to find a mate.

Intriguingly the larvae of the giant insect has never been seen. However, scientists believe that the grubs are two inches in diameter and can be up to a foot long.

Judging by large boreholes found in dead trees, scientists believe the grubs feed on decaying wood underground for several years before they are fully grown,

The male beetle does not feed during its adult life but needs energy to fly.

The energy comes from the reserves it gathered in its pupa stage and is used to fly just long enough to find a mate.

The creature is so large that it does not have enough energy to fly from the ground so instead must climb trees and launch itself from a branch before it actually takes to the air.

Females wait for the males to find them and fertilise their eggs so are consequently very rarely seen.

They defend themselves by hissing in warning and then use their huge jaws to bite attackers.

The Titan beetle also has incredibly strong legs and sharp claws that can tear animal and human flesh, but reportedly do not attack unless provoked.

They live in the rainforests of Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, the Guianas and Peru, where locals attempt to catch them after dark with bright lights.

While many people try and avoid the fearsome beetle, some tourists pay a lot of money to attempt to see the insect in its natural habitat. Indeed the creature is a brilliant example of a successful eco-tourism initiative.

The largest Titan beetle ever discovered was a staggering 16.7 centimetres long and was found in French Guyana.

A specimen of a normal-sized beetle can cost up to £400.

Andy Gross Cut in Half Illusion

Seeing a man cut in half at a traveling carnival may not shock you but what if you bumped into him walking down the street?

Magician and stand up comedian Andy Gross took his split-man prank out for a stroll recently, scaring the bejeezus out of innocent passersby.

In a hilarious video, the joker appears to be cut clean in half and carrying his legs.

He first marches into a park, surprising two women sitting on a bench having a refreshment.

One of the women is so terrified when the man approached them in two separate pieces, she sprints at full pelt to a sandpit and falls over face first.

The other woman bolts to her parked car screaming, and then speeds away.

In the creepy footage, the legless torso then walks down the pavement and frightens another couple of women out for a stroll.

Gross doesn't give away the secret behind the illusion, leaving you guessing.

In fact, he ramped up the scare-factor by growling at the unsuspecting strangers as he walks around holding his sawed off legs.

One woman can be heard on the video of the prank saying 'That is so not cool.'

But the priceless reaction of most of the victims will have you doubling over laughing.

Bloodletters who use razors to cure all ills: INDIA

These photographs show that the ancient tradition of bloodletting is not only still in existence but positively thriving in the streets of Delhi in India.
Hakim Ghyas' open air clinic outside the city's largest mosque offers treatments for hundreds of patients each day. 
Despite rapid improvements in healthcare in India, bloodletting has remained popular with many people who have chosen to shun modern medicine in favour of the archaic therapy.

Mr Ghyas, 79, claims the technique can cure most forms of arthritis, heart disease and even the early stages of blood cancer.
In a previous interview with CNN he also said that he did not charge patients for the treatment because most are ill and poor.

Instead, to make money, Mr Ghyas depends on one son who is a shopkeeper while another son is following in the footsteps of his father and helps with the bloodletting.
Bloodletting is an ancient custom that was first mentioned in ancient Greek and Sanskrit medical texts thousands of years ago.
It involves instigating controlled bleeding in an attempt to rid the body of what practitioners refer to as 'polluted blood'. The technique was modeled on the process of menstruation.

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates believed that menstruation functioned to 'purge women of bad humors'.
The basic premise of the therapy is that impure blood is the root cause of all ailments: If you rid your body of bad blood, you produce new blood and in turn restore your health.
Often several sessions may be needed to achieve that goal.
In Europe, bloodletting was discredited at the end of the 19th century as doctors felt it left patients weak and prone to infection, but it has had a recent resurgence, with a wave of people trying a version of it with blood-sucking leeches.
At the Delhi clinic, patients must first stand in the sun for half an hour to make the blood flow more easily.
Then the patient, still standing upright, is tied from the waist down with a rope, and the actual incisions are made with a razor blade.
Research has been carried out to see if there are in fact any benefits to the treatment.
Last year a study of 60 overweight people found that the bloodletting reduced blood pressure, as well as levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol and increased ‘good’ HDL cholesterol.

The results of the study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, amazed even the researchers.
According to another study from the Journal of the American Medical Association, those who donated blood every six months - and in effect bloodlet - had fewer heart attacks and strokes.
It is thought that this is because iron levels in the blood are reduced.
High iron levels have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Therapies using blood-sucking leeches have also become popular in Britain in recent years and a number of studies have backed up practitioners' claims.
One found that a single session of leeching – the medical application of bloodsucking leeches – can significantly reduce knee pain caused by arthritis for at least two months.
Researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany claimed improvement levels were comparable to those achieved with daily moderate doses of painkillers such as ibuprofen.
Another clinical trial at the university is investigating whether nerve pain caused by shingles could also be remedied by leeching.

6 Year Old Boy Allergic to All Foods

Most children dream of tucking into a slice of birthday cake, delving into bags of sweets, or scoffing an ice cream on a hot day.

But for Finlay Doolan the luxury of sweets - and indeed all food - must remain a dream.

The six-year-old suffers from a rare and incurable condition called eosinophilic esophagitis and eosinophilic colitis which makes him allergic to everything he eats and means he must rely on a drip to provide him with nutrients.

Diagnosed three years ago, Finlay is unable to eat any food because it aggravates his throat and colon and makes him sick. The immune is so rare it affects as few as one in 10,000 people.

Both conditions are caused by the body producing too many of a type of white blood cell in his oesophagus and colon.

Overweight Woman Whose Boyfriend is 'Thin, Fit and Muscular'

The idea that couples should be paired by body weight (thin with thin, and overweight with overweight), has lead one Californian woman to stand up and face bullies that taunt her everyday.

Gloria Shuri Nava, 25, from San Jose, is overweight. Her 22-year-old boyfriend of 18 months, Ali, who she met online, is 'fit and muscular'; and according to Miss Nave, many people can't comprehend why he would want to date her.

In a candid essay for Yahoo!, Miss Nava writes: 'When people say things out loud, their comments range from cruel ("Is he blind?" "He's only with you to get a green card") to awkward quips such as, "It's great he can see past your looks," or "He's so nice for being with you."

And the remarks even extend to her friends.

'Now and then, even people close to me made unkind remarks,' Miss Nava, a prominent beauty blogger on YouTube recalled. 'Once, when I confided to a friend, "I can't believe he likes me!" he answered, "Yeah, I know!"

But some of the worst comments come from her own fans. Miss Nava's YouTube channel, Glowpinkstah, where she reviews beauty products and shares details about her life, has more than 250,000 subscribers.

'While most are supportive, there are a fair number of bullies,' she says.

Some of the more hurt questions she has received include: '"She has a boyfriend? What is wrong with the world?" and "These two had sex?! Oh god, why?"'

But Miss Nava, who says she has been overweight her whole life, is trying to get past the comments and relish her relationship regardless of what society thinks.

The pair met online in 2009, after Ali, who currently lives in Glasgow Scotland and is moving to California this summer to get his PhD in clinical psychology, saw one of Miss Nava's videos.

They began instant messaging, and for two-and-a-half years, spent hours talking online, developing a close bond from thousands of miles away - and each knew exactly what the other looked like.

'I knew he was into big girls,' Miss Nava admits. 'His exes were chubby.

'Some think it's weird, but it's like having a thing for blondes: It's just a preference.'

Finally in December 2011, having still not meet in person, the couple admitted their romantic feelings for each other and five months later Ali flew to California to meet Miss Nava, and her family, for the first time.

'When Ali landed at San Francisco airport. . . I turned around and saw him walking toward me with a huge smile on his face,' she recalls.

'He gave me a hug, and kissed me on the lips. I thought to myself, He's my boyfriend, and he's here!'

Miss Nava, who has actually lost 40lbs since the couple first met a year ago, believes Ali is the 'best thing to have ever happened to me.'

'He's been good for my health,' she explained. 'I was at my heaviest when we met, and I've lost 40 pounds since. My goal is lose 80 pounds total, and he's very supportive.

'Before Ali, I never showed any skin whatsoever, but he makes me feel confident going out in a cute little dress that doesn't cover me head-to-toe. I can wear a sleeveless dress, shorts - things that typically people don't want to see me wearing -and not care.'

Thanks to her boyfriend's support, Miss Nava has launched The Beauty Adjustment, which focuses on the message that 'there is no one "normal" way to look or love.'

'Beauty and relationships come in all shapes and sides: brown, yellow, short, tall, thin, fat - and one partner doesn't have to mirror the other. Love is love. That's a lesson that Ali taught me, and now I want to teach it to the rest of the world,' she said.

Poisonous Tiny Blue Frog That Can Kill 10 Men

British experts have successfully bred a rare species of frog that is so poisonous it can kill ten men.

The blue poison dart frog is only 2.5cm long and is usually found in the tropical forests of Costa Rica and Brazil. But the species is under threat in South America, where their habitat is being destroyed.

Now animal experts at Walford and North Shropshire College have successfully bred one of the deadly amphibians in their lab.

Simon Metcalfe, the animal technician who led the project, said: 'Although eggs were laid on several occasions, the students had been unsuccessful in getting the eggs to progress to tadpoles.

'They had always gone mouldy and not formed. After researching environmental conditions required and their breeding behaviour, a few adjustments were made and we waited for the first clutch of eggs to be laid.

'Now all our research and effort has paid off and our first froglet was moved out of water and on to dry land, its metamorphosis now complete.'

A male and female blue poison dart frog were donated to the college by a student who left to join the army.

Once the pair had produce a fertilised egg, the team placed it in an inside pond, where it took 12 weeks for the froglet to develop.

The team of four experts set the water's temperature at 27C (80F), and lit it with UV lights, to recreate the conditions of the frog's natural habitat.

But despite the frog's fearsome reputation, the students have nothing to fear from the tiny frog because it only becomes venomous after eating certain toxic tree barks and insects in the wild.

'Blue Lake' The Clearest Lake in The World

Blue Lake, in the Nelson Lakes National Park, has extremely clear water, with visibility tests showing visibility of up to 80 metres.

A lake at the top of New Zealand's South Island has some of the clearest water in the world, a study has found.

Research by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research shows that the visibility in Blue Lake in the Nelson Lakes National Park is up to 80 metres. The water is considered almost as "optically clear" as distilled water. 

It surpasses the renowned Te Waikoropupu, or Pupu, Springs in Golden Bay, where visibility of up to 63m has been reported. Water visibility was considered outstanding when it exceeded about 40m, Niwa said.

The lake's clarity might be bettered only by ocean waters such as those in the southeast Pacific near Easter Island.

"Blue Lake is characterised by blue-violet hues seen only in the very clearest natural waters," Niwa said.

"It is highly unusual in its geological and hydrological setting, being apparently spring-fed from neighbouring glacial Lake Constance. Almost all suspended particles appear to be filtered from the water as it passes through landslide debris that forms a dam between the two lakes – which probably accounts for its extreme visual clarity."

Niwa scientist Mark Gall said researchers suspended a black disc, a metre in diameter, under a buoy. They then paddled away in a boat while looking at the disc. Visibility was measured when the disc disappeared.

Niwa aquatic optics specialist Rob Davies-Colley said it was highly significant that the clarity of the water in the lake was close to pure water.

"The absorption of light by pure water is not well known in some parts of the spectrum, including the ultraviolet."

Some of the best data might be collected from Blue Lake, he said.

'Snowflake' The Albino Gorilla

A famous albino gorilla that lived for 40 years at the Barcelona Zoo got its white coloring by way of inbreeding, new research shows.

Snowflake was a male Western lowland gorilla. He was born in the wild and captured in 1966 by villagers in Equatorial Guinea. As the only known white gorilla in the world, Snowflake was a zoo celebrity until his death of skin cancer in 2003.

A few studies had attempted to get to the bottom of what caused Snowflake's color-free complexion, but the exact genetic mutation had never been found. Now, Spanish researchers have sequenced the gorilla's entire genome, revealing that Snowflake was probably the offspring of a pairing between an uncle and a niece.

Explaining albinism

In humans, four genetic mutations are known to cause albinism, a syndrome marked by a lack of skin, eye and hair pigment. People with albinism are at high risk for vision problems and skin cancers because of this missing pigment.

Using frozen blood from Snowflake, researchers led by Tomas Marques-Bonet of the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva at the University of Pompeu Fabra sequenced the entire genome of the late ape. Comparing that sequence with those of humans and nonalbino gorillas, Marques-Bonet and his colleagues narrowed down the cause of Snowflake's albinism to a single gene, known as SLC45A2. Snowflake inherited a mutant form of this gene from both of his parents.

The gene has previously been linked to albinism in mice, horses, chickens and a species of fish.

World's Ugliest Dog Competition

Mangy mutts from around the globe will gather this week at the only beauty pageant they might ever stand a chance of winning - the world's ugliest dog contest.

The annual show welcomes all dogs from pugs to terriers, sausage dogs and chihuahuas with their owners to the Sonoma-Marin Fair, California, in an attempt to discover the worst-looking canine on Earth.

Now in its 25th year, the contest - which has even spawned a book - sees dogs judged in four main categories - first impressions, unique features, personality, and audience reaction.

The aesthetically-challenged winner will not only be able to boast they're the polar opposite of the champion at Crufts, but will also take home a trophy, $1500 and a meal at a local restaurant prepared by a top chef.

Among the contenders this year are Creature with a huge under bite, Icky with sporadic wiry fur and Boolah who appears to have an uncontrollable tongue.

Event producer, Vicki DeArmon, 54, said: 'I've been producing the world's ugliest dog contest for seven years now - it's been a wild ride.

'The contest has grown from a small hometown fair event to one in which the entire world is engaged.

'The announcement of the winner each year ricochets around the world with that dog's photo being shared from China to Bolivia to France.

'We usually have between 20 and 30 dogs and we're on target for that again this year.

'In fact, 50 per cent of our contestants this year are first time participants and very often, the winner is a new dog. So one of those may well be our winner.

'The winning dog will get world fame and recognition, hitting the talk show circuit and appearing at local dog events.

'Many go on to become doggy ambassadors in their hometowns for the rescue dog movement as many of our contestants are rescue dogs who are now living in their forever homes and are much loved.'

Philippines Wooden Scooter

The municipality of Banaue, in the Philippines, is widely known for its spectacular rice terraces, but few people know it’s also the setting of a traditional race that has daredevils riding wooden scooters downhill at speeds of up to 50 kph, without any kind of protection.

The wooden scooter has long been the preferred means of transportation for Ifugao (Philippine for“people of the hill) in Banaue, and is still used today, as a cheaper alternative to gas-powered motorcycles and scooters. They were created centuries ago to help people travel downhill faster. The men-folk had to walk up the surrounding hills almost every day to gather firewood and tend to their rice crops, and carrying the load back down was an exhausting task that took them hours to complete. People started making light scooters almost entirely out of wood, and pushed them uphill whenever they had something to transport back to their village. At the top, they would simply strap the load on both sides of the vehicle and let gravity take them back down in a matter of minutes. In time, making wooden scooters became an art form, and masters of the craft began decorating them with all kinds of designs, from local animals and birds to human heads. Today, the Ifugao still celebrate this useful invention by participating in a seven-kilometer wooden scooter race down a steep road along the famous Banaue Rice Terraces.

Every year, during the Imbayah Festival, Banaue’s woodcarving artisans showcase their most intricate wooden scooters in a traditional race that attracts visitors from all around the world. Barefoot and wearing nothing but their simple ethnic attire, these Ifugao daredevils race down a seven-kilometer windy road down to the town of Banaue. Powered only by the force of gravity, the home-made scooters reach speeds of 50 kph, meaning one wrong move could cost racers their lives.

The World's Thinnest Watch

The world's thinnest watch - just 0.8mm thick - has been designed using a single piece of bendy stainless steel.

The CST-01 watch is thinner than a credit card and shows the time on an electronic ink display. This E ink design uses the same technology as the screen on the Kindle e-reader.

It has a 0.5mm flexible electronic component built-in and a Thinergy Micro-Energy Cell battery that can be charged in 10 minutes and has a lifetime of 15 years.

This micro energy cell can be recharged 10,000 times.

This battery's charge then lasts for a month before needing to be recharged.

The CST-01 is powered by an energy-efficient Seiko Epson System on a Chip (SoC).

To make the watch ultra-thin it doesn't have any knobs or buttons.

The CST watch is made by the Chicago-based firm Central Standard Timing, and is the brainchild of Dave Vondle.

He founded Central Standard Timing with colleague Jerry O'Leary. Both are interaction designers and electrical engineers at global design firm IDEO Labs in Illinois and used the labs to thoroughly test the design's flexibility.

Vondle came up for the idea for the CST-01 after taping an E Ink panel around his wrist.

He then said to O'Leary: 'I want to make a watch like this.'

'All aspects of design and engineering were carefully considered for the CST-01’s unique functional and aesthetic benefits, said Vondle.

'The CST-01 is the most minimal expression of a timepiece.

'It’s ‘time’ embedded in a band,' added co-founder and fellow IDEO Labs colleague Jerry O'Leary.

The project was launched via a Kickstarter campaign in February this year after Vondle and O'Leary showed off the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

More than $1 million (£655,000) was raised and the first shipments to Kickstarter backers are expected to be sent in September.

Other customers can pre-order the watch from Central Standard Timing's website and these are expected to be shipped by December.

The CST-01 comes in four models and each one comes in three wrist sizes - small, medium and large.

The black CST-01BL and the white CST-01WH both come with an uncoated stainless steel band and costs £69 ($109).

The CST-01NR has a black front and a black coated stainless steel band and the CST-01RG has a black front and a rose gold coated stainless steel band.

These two models cost £76 ($119).

To charge all models and switch between 12-hour and 24-hour formats, customers also need to buy a base station for £22 ($35).

The unit is powered with an included micro-USB cable that can be plugged into any standard USB port.

To plug the station into a wall plug, customers can buy the Universal Wall Adapter for £10 ($15).

The Ship Shape Hotel

At first glance, it looks like millions of pounds of ocean liner has run aground on rocks.

Thankfully, the ship's setting is deliberate, as someone decided to take the full cruise experience and drop anchor on dry land for the first hotel of its kind.

The Sun Cruise resort in Jeongdongjin, South Korea, is perfect for those who find the motion of the ocean leaves them feeling sea sick.

The town is said to be one of the most popular spots in South Korea to watch the sun rise across the Sea of Japan, especially on New Year's Day.

The revolving bar at the top of the ship lets visitors gaze at a panoramic view of the horizon.

Canny tourists can enjoy the whole experience for about 80,000 South Korean won - only £45.12 a night, though flights to get there may cost a little more.

The ship has 211 cabins, ranging from hotel-style bedrooms to private apartments.

Canny tourists can enjoy the whole experience for about 80,000 South Korean won - only £45.12 a night, though flights to get there may cost a little more.

The ship has 211 cabins, ranging from hotel-style bedrooms to private apartments.

Superyacht can be Controlled by an iPad

Here's the latest plaything for the super-rich - a giant three-hulled yacht that cost £15million to make and would fit as comfortably in outer space as it would on the open sea.

Described by Boat International magazine as 'one of the world's most amazing super yachts', the 42.5metre-long Adastra is a floating pleasure palace equipped to entertain a billionaire with even the highest of standards.

She is the the new pet of Hong Kong-based shipping magnate Anto Marden, 64, and his wife Elaine, whose uses for her may include - among other things - gliding between the two tropical islands they already own off the coast of Indonesia.

Designed by Sussex-based yacht designer John Shuttleworth, the Adastra is so high-tech, it can even be controlled remotely at the touch of an iPad... as long as you don't get any further away than 50 metres.

The yacht's high-concept, space-age look is no gimmick. The shape has been specially developed to cut through waves as it glides across the high seas.

Adastra was unveiled in China and took three years to build, as well as two years of planning and design. It is 42.5 metres long, 16 metres wide and weighs 52 tons.

Her enormous petrol tank coupled with her dynamic sailing efficiency allows the Adastra to travel up to 4,000 miles without refuelling - the same distance from London to New York.

‘It takes the power trimaran concept further than has ever been attempted before,’ Mr Shuttleworth told Boat International.

‘The challenge of turning this concept into a viable luxury yacht has taken us to further research and to develop new thinking on stability and comfort at sea for this type of craft.’

It is the result of five years of planning and construction, and rivals anything owned by yacht-lover Roman Abramovich.

The hull of the Adastra is built from glass and Kevlar and can house nine guests and six crewmen. The deck saloon has a panoramic view while the open cockpit has sofas on both sides. The open deck running aft also has a door that hinges out to create a bathing platform.

Boat International magazine said Adastra 'could spell the future for efficient long range cruising'.

Homemade Lightsaber Burns Through Objects

A 20-year-old specializing in DIY lasers has apparently made his own version of a functional Star Wars lightsaber. In a video demonstration, he uses the device to light things on fire — paper, a match, even a ping-pong ball.

DIY laser enthusiast Drake Anthony describes himself as a teenager in Eureka, Illinois, who has been building lasers and electronics since he was 12. Online he goes by the name Styropyro and recently showed off his homemade lightsaber. Anthony described the parts as a 9 mm 450 nm laser diode from a DLP projector — the digital light processing kind you see in classrooms — and two 18650 lithium ion batteries usually found in laptops.

In his YouTube video, Anthony measures the output as an “insane 3W” and said it’s the strongest handheld laser he’s ever used. Then, only showing his hands, he proceeds to show what the lightsaber can do by carefully passing objects through the device. A piece of cardboard burns, electrical tape goes up in flames, a match ignites and a tiny solar car toy gets spurred along the tiled floor.

Anthony’s lightsaber isn’t quite the real Jedi Knight deal yet. For one, it doesn’t seem as deadly as the fictitious ones, TheNextWeb.com pointed out. Plus, the lightsaber doesn’t look like it would be safe to carry around in your pocket. I also imagine that using it would be kind of like waving around an acetylene torch. But kudos to this kid for making a such a realistic version.

Anthony does say in the video that he doesn’t even like handheld lasers this strong but knew his video subscribers would enjoy seeing it. He strikes me as a careful DIYer who’s not going to start waving one of these around in public.

Eyeball Licking In Japan

A dangerous fetish has eye experts seeing red and those who practice it seeing pink.

It is eyeball licking -- a strange erotic activity wherein participants actually put each other's tongues on each other's peepers.

Alternatively called "oculolinctus" or "worming," eyeball licking has few public advocates but they include Elektrika Energias, a 29-year-old environmental science student in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"My boyfriend started licking my eyeballs years ago and I just loved it. I'm not with him anymore, but I still like to ask guys to lick my eyeballs," she told The Huffington Post. "I just love it because it turns me on, like sucking on my toes. It makes me feel all tingly."

It's also a very intimate act, she said.

"I don't ask just anyone to do it. Guys I like a lot are more likely to not think it's so weird. I've never had anyone turn me down though," she said.

Eyeball licking has been around at least since the mid-2000s and a simple YouTube search brings up hundreds of videos from oculolinctus lovers who want to share their peeper porn with others.

However, eye experts are worried that this dangerous fad is gaining popularity with preteens, especially after news reports of elementary school students in Japan who dared to test their ocular boundaries and caused multiple cases of pinkeye, otherwise known as conjunctivitis, the Daily Caller reported.

In one classroom of 12-year-olds, one third of students confessed to "worming" or being "wormed." Officials only noticed something was up when some of the lickedstudents showed up to school wearing eyepatches, ShanghaiList.com reported.

Currently, eyeball licking is only attempted by a small percentage of adventurers, including HuffPost Weird News journalist Andy Campbell, who said he had his own eyeball tongued to see what it's like.

"It's strange to have something touch the eye without it hurting," Campbell said. "I was a receiver, not a giver. I don't see it as a sexual thing. But you have to be comfortable with someone."

San Diego ophthalmologist Dr. David Granet are worried that the news of eyeball licking will cause it to spread.

"Nothing good can come of this," Granet warned HuffPost. "There are ridges on the tongue that can cause a corneal abrasion. And if a person hasn't washed out their mouth, they might put acid from citrus products or spices into the eye."

Dr. David Najafi, an ophthalmologist in La Mesa, Calif., said if the licker has a cold sore, it is possible to spread herpes into the eye as well.

"The cornea is very sensitive and could be scarred," he warned.

Other dangers from "oculolinctus" include conjunctivitis or "pink eye," a swelling of the thin, filmy membrane that covers the inside of the eyelids and the white part of the eye.

You might have been the old superstition that masturbation causes your vision to blur, but eyeball licking can actually cause blindness, according to Dr. Phillip Rizzuto, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

"The bacteria in the mouth is nothing like the bacteria in the eyeball, which is why we no longer recommend people lick contact lenses to moisten them," Rizzuto said.

Those serious problems may not be enough to stop eyeball licking lovers like Energias, who admits her habit did put her eyesight at risk at one point.

"I got some weird offshoot of TB in my eye once. I ended up with corneal ulcers and I spent like a month in the hospital," she said. "Nobody really knows why. Well, I got over it, and I'm fine now. That was like six years ago.

"I'm just safer now, I guess ... Live and learn. I mean they don't really make tongue rubbers, but maybe they should."

World’s Fastest Clapper Can Smack His Hands Together 13 Times a Second

Everyone, put your hands together for Bryan Bednarek, allegedly the fastest clapper in the world. In a YouTube video that recently went viral, he was able to clap 802 times in just 60 seconds,thus setting a new record.

How fast can you clap your hands? You probably think you’re pretty good at it, but try keeping your fastestrhythm up for a whole minute. I tried it and I almost pulled a muscle in the process. And it’s all Bryan Bednarek’s fault for making it look so easy on camera. A friend of his filmed him pulverizing the current official record for most claps in one minute, and posted it on the internet, just to make the rest of us feel bad. According to the video counter, Bryan managed to smack his hands together 802 times, a whopping 81 times more than what Guinness record holder Kent French managed back in 2003. I don’t know if the count is right, but just the way he manages to keep up the insane clapping pace is unbelievable. This guy is like The Flash of clapping.

There’s no word yet on whether Guinness has verified the video and deemed French’s record to be broken, or if they’ve asked Bryan to do it all over again for an official count, but the guy seems pretty confident about his ability. I wonder if he does his thing at concerts?