My Science School

Brushing your teeth several times a day and eating healthy foods are two ways to keep your teeth healthy and white. Another thing you can do is visit your dentist at least once a year.

At the dentist’s surgery, you sit in a special chair. It moves all different ways so the dentist can look into your mouth easily. First, the dentist puts a little round mirror on a handle into your mouth. This helps the dentist see the sides of your teeth. To feel for cavities, or holes, in your teeth, the dentist uses tiny tools called explorers.

Your dentist or the hygienist then cleans your gums and cleans and polishes your teeth to make them shine.

If your dentist finds a cavity in one of your teeth, it will need to be cleaned and filled. Before filling your tooth, your dentist may give you an injection in the gum near the tooth that has the cavity. The injection makes the area numb, so you cannot feel any pain while the dentist works on your tooth.

Remember, that the teeth you begin to get when you are only six years old have to last you the rest of your life. Take good care of them. Ask your parents for a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss after each checkup.

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What are your favourite foods? Maybe you like fish, hamburgers, or scrambled eggs. These foods all can be part of a healthy diet. But they are not enough. That’s because they are all proteins. Your body needs many different kinds of nutrients to stay healthy.

The best way to get all the nutrients your body needs is to eat many different kinds of food each day. When you eat a variety of foods, you can get the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

Eating a variety of foods means eating bread, rice, and other grains, especially whole grains.

It means eating nuts and beans for protein. It may also mean eating meats, such as beef, fish, and chicken.

Dairy products like milk and cheese are also important for a healthy diet. This food group is especially important for younger people, whose bones are still growing.

Finally, a wide variety of vegetables and fruit is very important for health. These foods contain vitamins and minerals that are critical to our well-being.

Foods that come in a package usually have labels that tell you what is in the food. These labels can help you understand what food groups are contained in a given item. That helps you to look for items with more fruit or vegetables and fewer addictive and preservatives, for example.

Food labels also tell you how many fats, carbohydrates, and other nutrients are in one serving of that food. This helps you to choose foods that are lower in fat and sugar and higher in nutritional value.

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Like a car, your body needs fuel to keep it running. Your body’s fuel is food.

Food contains the things your body needs for energy and to stay healthy. These include proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

Proteins provide energy and help make muscles, skin and other organs, and blood. They also help your body to heal itself. You can get protein from animal foods such as meat, fish, and milk products. You also can get protein from certain beans and nuts.

Fats provide a lot of energy. Your body needs some fats, but not too many. You can get fats when you eat meat, butter, certain oils, and some plant foods such as nuts, olives, and avocados.

Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. Many foods contain carbohydrates, including potatoes, pasta, and grains.

Food also contains vitamins and minerals. There are many different vitamins, such as vitamins A, C, and D. They all help keep your body healthy. Many fruits and vegetables have vitamins. There also are many different minerals, including calcium and iron. Calcium is good for your bones and teeth. Iron is good for your blood.

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Sometimes you go to the doctor when you are sick. Other times you go when you are not sick at all. This kind of visit is called a checkup.

Checkups are a good way for you and your doctor to see how well you are growing. It is also a good time for you to ask questions about your body and your health.

The nurse usually begins your checkup by measuring your height and weight. The nurse and the doctor keep track of how much you weigh and how tall you are at each visit. This is the best way for your doctor to see how well you are growing.

Next, the doctor listens through a stethoscope, to different sounds inside your body. The earpieces of the stethoscope fit in the doctor’s ears. The flat round part of the stethoscope is placed over the part of your body the doctor wants to hear.

The doctor holds the stethoscope on your chest and listen to the sound of your heart beating. The sound your heart makes is something like this: lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub. Then the doctor moves the stethoscope around on your chest and back to hear your breathing. The doctor will ask you to take a few deep breaths. If you are healthy, your lungs do not make much noise.

Then the doctor shines a light into your eyes. The light helps the doctor look at the inside of your eyes. You might have to read some letters on the chart. The doctor wants to be sure you can see well.

The doctor or nurse might ask you about the foods you eat, how much you sleep, and if you exercise. These are all important questions. To stay healthy, you need to eat healthy foods and get enough rest and exercise. Your doctor may give you some ideas about how to do these things.

Next, the doctor shines a light into your ears. The doctor wants to be sure that all your ear openings are clear. If they are not, you may not be able to hear well.

At certain checkups, your doctor will give you one or more immunization injections. These injections help keep you healthy. Some injections hurt. But a little bit of pain you feel may save you a lot of sickness later. Some medicine has to be in injections, because your body would digest that medicine if you swallowed it, the same way it digests food. Then the medicine would not be able to work as well to keep you healthy.

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Once in a while, some part of your body hurts. It may be your stomach or your head. You feel pain.

It is never fun to feel pain. Sometimes you might even cry. Pain is a warning. Pain usually happens because you are sick or you have hurt part of your body. When you feel pain, nerves send a signal to your brain. Your brain understands the signal. If you did not feel pain, you would not know when something was wrong inside.

When you feel pain, tell your parents or your teacher where it hurts. They know how to make the pain feel better. For example, if you have a headache, your mother might suggest sleep, an ice pack, or medicine to help take the pain away. Other times you may need to see your doctor. Your doctor might have to do medical tests to find out what is wrong and how to make you feel better.

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Sometimes when you bump a part of your body, such as your elbow, the bump pushes a muscle against a bone. Tiny veins and arteries in the muscle break. Some blood leaks out, and soon, you have a bruise.

A bruise is like an inside out cut. A bruise does not bleed on the outside because the skin is not broken. Instead, the blood moves below the top layer of your skin. The blood shows through your skin as dark blue or black.

As the bruise heals, it may change colours. Each colour is lighter than the last. This means that the blood is moving back into your body. The muscle is getting well.

Burns are another way you can hurt yourself. When your skin burns, the burned spot puffs up. A blister forms. A blister is like a puffy little pocket in the layers of your skin. The top layer of skin pulls away from the layers underneath it, and the space fills with liquid. The top layer keeps germs from getting into the blister.

Again, your cells start to heal your burned skin. Slowly the liquid moves back into your body, and your blister heals.

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You are rolling along on your bike when suddenly you hit a stone on the road. You fall and cut your hand. It is bleeding and it hurts.

Right away, your body begins healing the cut. Your cells quickly jump into action and do their special jobs.

When you cut yourself, you begin to bleed. Almost at once the blood begins to clot. The cells stick together. Slowly, the blood gets thick and covers the cut. Then the blood dries and gets hard. It makes a kind of cover, called a scab, over the cut.

The cells along the edges of the cut grow and divide. New cells take the place of some of those that were hurt by the cut.

Still other cells to another kind of job. These are special healing cells. They make a kind of net that joins the edges of the cut together. Each day this net gets thicker, tougher, and stronger.

Soon the scab falls off. Then you can see the new skin underneath. Your body has healed itself.

Sometimes a deep cut leaves a mark on your skin, even after it has healed. That mark is called a scar. A scar forms when a deep layer of skin has been damaged. Scars may be red at first but the colour usually fades over time.

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Have you had a chickenpox or measles, cold, an ear infection, or the flu? If so, your body was under attack!

When you get sick, tiny germs called viruses or bacteria attack different parts of your body. Some of these germs travel from person to person in the drops of fluid that shoot out of your mouth when you sneeze or cough. Some are spread in food and water. These germs can make you feel sick.

Luckily your body fights back. And sometimes medicine helps your body fight the germs.

After you have been sick with certain illnesses, your body remembers the germs. If one of the germs tries to attack again, your body destroys it as soon as it enters your body. That’s why you usually get some illnesses, like chickenpox, only once.

You can get some illnesses, like colds and the flu, over and over again. This is because there are so many kinds of cold and flu viruses. If a new virus invades your body, your body does not know that virus, and so you get sick.

Do your parents tell you to cover your nose and mouth and when you sneeze? That’s because when you sneeze, tiny drops of fluid spray out of your mouth. Tiny germs travel in that fluid and can make other people sick too.

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The Government of India recently launched a mobile app called MANAS to promote mental health. What is special about the app?

What does it stand for?

The name MANAS stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System. The app, which is meant to act as a guide, has been developed to promote the mental well-being of people across different age groups in the country. In other words, its objective is to build a happier, healthier community.

A comprehensive, secure, national digital well-being platform, the pilot version of the app was launched by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, K. Vijay Raghavan. Endorsed as a national programme, the app was initiated by the Office of the PSA, and jointly executed by NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) Bengaluru, AFMC (Armed Forces Medical College), Pune, and C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), Bengaluru.

The MANAS app integrates the health and wellness efforts of various ministers, national bodies, and research centres. It is based on life skills and psychological processes, and delivers age-appropriate methods to promote positive outlook. It has gamified interfaces to enhance user engagement, supports teleconsultation, and will also be tracking the health of users.

The current version of the app focuses on promoting positive mental health in people aged between 15 and 35, although the ultimate aim is to cover all age groups. The app is not available for public use as yet. According to some reports, field trials will be carried out in the next few months to validate the app.

What is mental health?

If you’ve been wondering what mental health is, the WHO defines it as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. Our mental health influences how we think, feel, and act, how we handle stress, and how we relate to others. It is important at every stage of our life.

Impact of the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in people’s lives. There have been reports of people experiencing increased levels of stress, anxiety, fear, frustration, and depression, owing to loss of income, increased isolation, uncertainty, etc. With the country reeling under a second wave of coronavirus, people are once again forced not to step out of their homes except for essentials, to wear masks, and maintain social distancing. With the closure of schools and colleges, students have largely been confined to their homes. While online classes try to ensure continuity of education, not all can afford it due to a variety of reasons. The prolonged stay at home can mean different impacts and challenges for different sections of people. In these trying, uncertain times, it is hoped that the introduction of the MANAS app will go a long way in helping people and promoting mental well-being.

Cause for concern

• According to a report published in The Lancet Psychiatry last year, there were 197.3 million people (14.3% of the population) with mental disorders in India in 2017.
• Depression and anxiety disorder were found to be top mental illnesses.
• Also 28% of global suicides take place in India.

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With COVID-19 cases surging in several parts of the country, there have been reports of some States facing acute shortage of medical oxygen. But what is medical oxygen?

Used in healthcare

You may think there is enough oxygen in the air around us. But the natural air around us has only 21% of oxygen and the rest is a mixture of other gases such as nitrogen (78%), argon and carbon dioxide. Medical oxygen is pure oxygen used for treatment of patients in hospitals. The oxygen from the ambient air is separated using a special technique, inspected and packaged into cylinders for use in hospitals. There are different grades of oxygen such as industrial oxygen, aviator breathing oxygen, and medical oxygen.

Life-saving gas

The oxygen we breathe gets into our bloodstream, providing our body with energy. Every cell in our body needs oxygen for proper functioning if there is not enough oxygen in our bloodstream to supply our tissues and cells, then we need supplemental oxygen to keep our organs healthy. Medical oxygen is a critical component in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. Illnesses such as this cause the oxygen level in the body to dip, which affects the functioning of the cells, if left untreated. If the cells don’t function properly, it affects the organs and the functioning of all systems in the body, causing even death in extreme cases. So giving medical oxygen becomes essential as it restores the oxygen level in the cells and tissues, saving life. COVID-19 is said to primarily affect the lungs in patients. As it causes oxygen deficiency in the body because of its impact on the lungs, patients are put on oxygen therapy to maintain the function of the vital organs. Again, too much oxygen can be dangerous. That’s why doctors and caregivers keep a close eye on patients to ensure that they get only the required amount of medical oxygen, and not more. Did you know a pulse oximeter, a small, clip-like device into which a finger is inserted, tracks blood oxygen levels, and can diagnose oxygen deficiency?

States with a high demand

Amid the spike in cases, the Centre has decided to import 50,000 metric tonnes of medical oxygen plants at 100 new hospitals in far-flung areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for synergy between various ministers and State governments to ensure smooth supply of medical oxygen and for ramping up its production.

According to the Union health ministry, the Centre-appointed Empowered Group (EG2), constituted last year to ensure availability of essential medical equipment during the pandemic, is monitoring the situation of demand and supply of medical oxygen. The country has the capacity to produce over 7,000 metric tonnes of oxygen per day. It is said that the maximum consumption of medical oxygen is by States with high COVID-19 cases such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Rajasthan.

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