Menses Need not be a Barrier in Sex: Study

What does one do if one feels horny at 'that' time of the month? Many treat sex like a forbidden fruit when the woman is menstruating. Probably, the thought of it makes us imagine an uncomfortable and messy picture. But this need not be so. According to studies, sex can be an equally enjoyable activity as otherwise, even during those few days.

Notions like having sex during your periods is more painful or dangerous, or it might affect a man's performance levels, have no scientific explanation. But, both the partners need to comfortable with the idea. Before anything starts, perceptions like 'it's unclean' or 'dirty' need to be shown the door.

Having sex during menses is a great pain reliever for women, informs gynecologist Dr Vrushali Lampat. She says, "Sex releases feel-good hormones called endorphins. These are known to reduce the menstrual pain and cramps to a large extent. This, in turn, releases feelings of depression, anxiety or anger that women usually face during their menses." The physical activity also causes additional contractions which releases blood faster, and in more quantities than usual. This reduces the duration of the menses.

Research says that women enjoy sex more during their periods. Explaining the facts, Dr Lampat adds, "The fullness in the pelvic and genital areas during their periods cause heightened levels of pleasure. It is usually noticed that the nearing of the menses cause a flare in the feelings of having sex in women. This can be attributed to the raging hormones that play riot during the time."

This is also one of those rare times when couples can have unprotected sex as the risk of pregnancy is at its minimum. Those who feel that using a condom deprives them of complete satisfaction can make use of this opportunity. But doctors add a word of caution. Consulting sex expert Dr Ganesh Raisinghani advises, "Though it is an ideal time to have unprotected sex, it is also the time when a woman is most vulnerable to infections. Hence, we suggest using protection at all times. Also, oral sex and experimenting with different positions should be avoided completely."

Whether or not to have sex at such a time is a matter of personal choice. But if both the partners are cool about it, then why not?

Typically women menstruation cycle falls after twenty eight days. During this cycle women menstruate for three to five days and it is often seen that their menstrual cycle may fall early or late by few days and according to gynecologists it is quite normal. The menstruation of women is determined by various factors like changes in hormonal level, level of stress and natural cycling of their body. Here are explained some possible causes of delayed menstruation.

Due to Pregnancy : When periods of a woman is delayed by several days then many possibilities can be considered ,one of the primary possibility is pregnancy. When woman get pregnant, then she will have no menses. The self home test available to confirm pregnancy is not accurate. So it is always better to make test two or three times to confirm pregnancy in proper lab.

Due to onset of Menopause : Onset of menopause is another reason for delayed menstruation. Menopause is the permanent end of menstrual cycle. This is end of reproductive life of females in which monthly cycle is ceased for rest of her life. The average age for developing menopause in women is fifty one years. Menopause symptoms can be checked by every woman such as hot flushes, joint pain, irritation, depression, fatigue and frequent heartbeats. These symptoms show that a woman is likely to pass through phase of menopause.

Due to adverse affect of Medication : Adverse affect of certain medication can cause delayed menstrual cycle. Some medicines which contain hormones or hormone imitating substance can imbalance hormones in women. Some birth control pills having hormones can disrupt the menses cycle in order to prevent pregnancy. Delayed menses is there fore effect of that drug and not a side effect. Women should consult doctor to take alternative medicine.

Due to certain environmental conditions : Some environmental conditions can attribute to delayed menses. Women who suffer from stress may delay the onset of their menses. Some causes of stress may include emotional trauma due to loss of their near one and stress causes due to marital problems are the possible causes of delayed menses.

Above said conditions can delay menstrual cycle of women. They should consult their doctor to check for any disease that might cause delay in menstruation.

HIV+ve dumped outside hospital in Delhi

By M H Ahssan

Painful shrieks ring out from under a white sheet in the Neurosurgery Emergency ward of LNJP Hospital .

It's a destitute woman crying out for help. HIV-positive , disoriented, and bearing a gaping wound infested with maggots, the 40-year-old woman was found on a street outside the hospital last Monday.

The case has again highlighted the plight of mentally unstable destitutes left on the capital's streets to fend for themselves.

When Newsindia visited the hospital on Saturday, the woman was lying on a bed with a sheet draped over her head. Records show she was earlier treated at the hospital's ENT department for a severe ear infection and then taken away by an NGO.

But this time, she was found dumped outside the hospital, disoriented and sick, with maggots digging into a severely infected wound behind her ear.

Sources said the woman had been put through neurological tests and will need regular dressing for her wounds till all the maggots are cleared. Till then, a question mark will hang over her nutrition. Since she is admitted to the emergency ward, there is no arrangement for meals, and her nutritional requirements are not being met as per her physical status, sources said. "She is surviving on intravenous fluids. The staff members have been buying food to feed her off and on," the source added.

LNJP medical superintendent Dr Richa Dewan denied any negligence in the treatment of the destitute woman.
"We found her outside our hospital on September 12. She was very sick. But we have admitted her and have managed to give her every possible treatment .

But till the maggots are cleared we cannot think of any other kind of intervention. After this problem is solved, we will start her on anti-retro viral treatment (for HIV) and look into her psychiatric needs. She is being kept in the emergency, as it a place where she can be looked after better," Dewan said.

On what the government proposes to do for the growing number of destitutes on the streets, minister for health and family welfare, Kiran Walia, said she was concerned. With no ready solution to offer, the minister said her department was planning to set up two halfway homes for the homeless who are in need of long-term care, and also a hospice for elderly destitutes.

Can India lead the mobile-Internet revolution?

By M H Ahssan

The country could become the world’s first truly mobile digital society. But grasping the opportunity requires unprecedented cooperation between the private and public sectors.

Almost 1,500 years ago, Indian mathematicians, including Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, and Pingala, transformed mathematics by conceiving the rules of the binary numeral system. While those rules today lie at the heart of the code powering the Internet, India has relatively few Internet users: just 7 percent of its population is connected to the Web, compared with 32 percent in China and 77 percent in the United States.

Yet India has an opportunity to lead the world once again by becoming the first truly mobile digital society. All the elements are in place: the cost of network access and handsets is going down, wireless networks are going up, and Indian consumers already display an insatiable appetite for digital services. In addition, bypassing the personal computer—moving straight to widespread mobile access—simply makes sense. It would sidestep a host of hurdles associated with delivering affordable Internet services to a population that is geographically dispersed and relatively poor, in a country where infrastructure development can be problematic.

Can India actually transform itself from an Internet laggard into a world leader? The trail the country would blaze could serve as a model for other developing markets. But much depends on whether India can rediscover its revolutionary spirit and garner unprecedented cooperation and commitment from both the private and public sectors.

The Indian digital consumer

India’s base of 81 million Internet users is the world’s fourth largest. Yet this figure is a function of sheer population, not deep adoption: just 20 percent of India’s urban citizens are connected to the Internet, compared with 60 percent in China. And while China has 233 million mobile-Internet users, or 18 percent of its total population, India has just 17 million, or less than 1 percent.

Even though typical Indian consumers have no Internet access, they have a remarkable appetite for digital content. In fact, they consume an average of 4.5 hours of it daily across offline channels such as television, DVDs, and CDs. And while they use mobile phones predominantly for voice services, a whole segment of business has grown around retailers essentially operating as physical iTunes stores, charging fees to load music and other content onto mobile devices. The net result is that while India is a relatively poor country, more than 70 percent of its urban consumers already spend about $1 a month on content and services through offline, unorganized retail channels—a market estimated to be worth more than $4 billion annually.

The mobile Internet could deliver the personalized entertainment that Indian consumers crave. If India’s latent demand is unleashed, McKinsey research forecasts that the total number of Internet users will increase more than fivefold, to 450 million, by 2015. Total digital-content consumption will double, to as much as $9.5 billion. Including access charges, revenues from total digital consumption could rise fourfold, to $20 billion—twice the expected growth rate of China.

Development roadblocks

Realizing India’s potential won’t be easy. The country faces well-known challenges: the cost and ease of access to Internet services, infrastructure development, and the availability of relevant and local-language content. However, these challenges are less worrisome than commonly thought—particularly since the leap to mobile connectivity would allow India to sidestep some of them.

There’s enough development in devices, networks, operating systems, and operator strategies to suggest that India is on track to resolving the challenge of affordable, easy Internet access. The average price of smart phones that deliver much richer content, including video, is falling rapidly—already nearing $125, significantly less than the cost of PCs. Mobile devices also are inherently easier to operate than PCs, and the ability to access Web sites with a single touch or a voice command (critical given India’s high illiteracy rate) is becoming a reality. Finally, Indian operators are starting to offer innovative rate plans for mobile data use, addressing criticisms of the prices of data plans and their perceived opaqueness. Cheaper, easier access for all is on the cards.

It’s no secret that infrastructure development in India is a real challenge. McKinsey research on the country’s 11th five-year economic plan suggests that while the government has spent what it intended to, infrastructure (such as electricity connections and road building) is significantly behind schedule. More troubling is the reason: beyond the frequently mentioned issue of land ownership, delays in building “hard” infrastructure often stem from a lack of “soft” infrastructure, such as educated, skilled workers with project-management capabilities. These delays should encourage the leap to mobile-Internet access, perhaps delivered by the private sector. Mobile operators are aggressively rolling out networks across the country, including an impending 3G network, following recent auctions in which companies spent almost $30 billion acquiring telecommunications spectrum.

The government also is making large investments to overcome other hurdles. In particular, it is sponsoring efforts to give citizens unique identification numbers that will, for instance, allow identities to be authenticated with mobile devices. That will facilitate wireless banking and other services, such as e-health care. In addition, the ability to identify all citizens means that subsidies and incentives can be delivered to them efficiently. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Authority, for example, is supposed to distribute $8.5 billion to citizens in 2011. In the past, significant portions of such funds have failed to reach the recipients. The digital opportunity may substantially eliminate this problem, and citizens spurred by the prospect of finally getting what’s due to them should make the leap to mobile-Internet services such as e-commerce. Additionally, our research on e-payments has uncovered significant opportunities to drive down costs.

Embracing the digital opportunity

The most formidable hurdle to the realization of India’s digital promise is finding a sustainable way to deliver attractive returns for content companies at affordable prices for consumers. India differs from other Asian mobile-Internet leaders, such as Japan and even China, where access charges generate enough revenue for operators to finance the ongoing creation of value-added services. India’s telecom industry structure and poorer population are putting pressure on access revenue, and it’s unclear whether telecommunications companies will be able to extract sufficient profits from their mobile value-added services and entertainment or from their nascent local-advertising-driven networks to warrant continued large investments. To overcome this issue, private and public companies, as well as India’s government, must address two priorities.

Mobile content and services

The first step toward generating more profits from content and services is the creation of offerings that are compelling and easy to access and use, much like iPhone applications. That will require companies to raise their game in editing, visual merchandising, and marketing. More local-language content also is required, and it should be presented in new ways: voice and single-touch mobile-Internet access are essential, particularly to overcome illiteracy and a lack of familiarity with the Internet.

Making money from content

Financial institutions and regulators must promote the next phase of payment systems, a critical enabler that will affect the pace of development of revenue streams beyond consumer access and services. Selling regional and local advertising on mobile devices is essential: it’s the fastest-growing form of advertising in India, and there’s a desperate need for local content, given the country’s 23 official languages. Meanwhile, content providers should think about new ways of making money from the Internet—for example, by balancing free and priced material to reflect the value of content delivered in real time and in specific contexts, such as shopping coupons received by mobile devices as consumers pass certain stores.

All participants—public and private—have a role in unleashing the digital revolution’s true potential. Governments can promote access, undertake thoughtful regulation and oversight, and deliver public services such as information, health care, subsidies, and incentives. Banks and financial-services companies can enhance their online presence to build real-time, personalized relationships with customers. Insurance companies can address their high-cost, multilayered business systems and examine opportunities—for example, using the Internet to deliver product information and training more effectively. Advertising agencies can adopt new approaches to developing concepts, pricing, and measurements of effectiveness. And marketers can better address the way consumers now make purchasing decisions, finding new analytical approaches to the allocation of spending and the management of “buzz” and word of mouth.

Binary mathematics lies behind the technology that underpins the Internet. After more than 1,500 years, India could again lead the world in a technological revolution. The consumer demand exists. The opportunity is real. Is India up to the challenge?

Changing Companies’ Minds About Women

By M H Ahssan

Leaders who are serious about getting more women into senior management need a hard-edged approach to overcome the invisible barriers holding them back.

Despite significant corporate commitment to the advancement of women’s careers, progress appears to have stalled. The percentage of women on boards and senior-executive teams remains stuck at around 15 percent in many countries, and just 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

The last generation of workplace innovations—policies to support women with young children, networks to help women navigate their careers, formal sponsorship programs to ensure professional development—broke down structural barriers holding women back. The next frontier is toppling invisible barriers: mind-sets widely held by managers, men and women alike, that are rarely acknowledged but block the way.

When senior leaders commit themselves to gender diversity, they really mean it—but in the heat of the moment, deeply entrenched beliefs cause old forms of behavior to resurface. All too often in our experience, executives perceive women as a greater risk for senior positions, fail to give women tough feedback that would help them grow, or hesitate to offer working mothers opportunities that come with more travel and stress. Not surprisingly, a survey we conducted earlier this year indicated that although a majority of women who make it to senior roles have a real desire to lead, few think they have meaningful support to do so, and even fewer think they’re in line to move up.

Our ideas for breaking this cycle are directional, not definitive. They rest on our experience in the trenches with senior executives, on discussions with 30 diversity experts, and on the reflections of leaders we’ve interviewed at companies that have been on this journey for years. These companies include Pitney Bowes, 38 percent of whose vice presidents are women; Shell, where more than a quarter of all supervisors and professional staff worldwide are women; and Time Warner, where more than 40 percent of the senior executives in its operating divisions are women and where the share of women in senior roles has jumped 30 percent in the past six years. Great progress, but even these three companies are the first to admit how much further they have to go.

Their collective experience suggests to us that real progress requires systemwide change driven by a hard-edged approach, including targets ensuring that women are at least considered for advancement, the rigorous application of data in performance dialogues to overcome problematic mind-sets, and genuine sponsorship. Committed senior leaders are of course central to such efforts, which can take many years. We hope our suggestions, and the real-life examples that illustrate them, will stir up your thinking about how to confront the silent but potent beliefs that probably are undermining women in your organization right now.

Invisible, unconscious, and in the way

For evidence of the problem, look no further than the blocked, leaky corporate-talent pipeline: women account for roughly 53 percent of entry-level professional employees in the largest US industrial corporations, our research shows. But according to Catalyst, a leading advocacy group for women, they hold only 37 percent of middle-management positions, 28 percent of vice-president and senior-managerial roles, and 14 percent of seats on executive committees. McKinsey research shows similar numbers for women on executive committees outside the United States—from a high of 17 percent in Sweden to just 2 percent in Germany and India. Our analysis further reveals that at every step along the US pipeline, the odds of advancement for men are about twice those for women. And nearly four times as many men as women at large companies make the jump from the executive committee to CEO.

To understand what’s going on, look to the words that appeared most frequently in open-ended responses to our recent survey as explanations for poor retention and promotion of women: “politics,” “management,” “the company,” “people,” and “the organization.” These forces manifest themselves in myriad ways. We’ve all heard endless variations on the mind-sets that set women up for failure:

“She’s too aggressive” (or “too passive”). Whether a woman is perceived as aggressive or passive, that’s different from the judgment a man would face, and she often doesn’t receive the coaching a man would to help her assimilate into the company’s culture.

“I don’t want to tell Bob he didn’t get that job.” There’s a limited pool of senior positions, and leaders are not comfortable telling protégés they have groomed for years that someone else is getting the spot.

“I don’t know how to talk to or mentor her.” Men tend to sponsor other men, find it harder to build relationships with people when they share fewer common interests, and sometimes are nervous about forging a close relationship that could seem inappropriate.

“If I put a woman in that role and she fails, it’ll set back all women.” Mind-sets like this one inadvertently treat men as individuals and women as representative of their whole gender.

“A woman isn’t right for that role.” Long-held stereotypes about the relative strengths of men and women survive, at least in vestigial form.

In the face of these silent but potent forces, it’s little wonder the careers of many promising women die on the vine. Slowly but surely—despite the best intentions of HR departments and individual executives—the experience of women starts to diverge from that of their male peers: Less opportunity for professional growth. Unintended performance bias and softer feedback. Fewer sponsors offering fewer opportunities and less advocacy. Lowered ambition. Greater satisfaction with staying put. Attrition and a fresh start at a different company.

A word about the role women play in this vicious cycle: they start out ambitious. Most young women, like young men, hope to move to the next level, and women who reach more senior levels retain that ambition. That said, women also turn down advancement opportunities for varied reasons, ranging from commitments outside work to risk aversion for positions that demand new skills to a desire to stay put in roles that provide personal meaning. In addition, mothers with more than one child are much more satisfied with staying put, our survey shows, though they remain highly confident about their performance and abilities.

Subtle changes in these attitudes toward advancement are another powerful benefit of changing how companies “think about women around here.” By addressing the mind-sets holding women back, corporate leaders can reshape the talent pipeline and its odds, increasing the number of women role models at the top and, in turn, making it likelier that more women will retain their ambition.

Changing companies’ minds

No program or initiative can be the “silver bullet” to advance women into senior roles. Rather, the whole organization must change. That’s hard work; it will take years and, potentially, even a generational transition. This goal requires a serious commitment from busy leaders, whose natural tendency is to discuss the issue, create a plan, and hand it off to HR. And it requires real engagement up and down the line, including engagement from women.

To make these changes, corporate leaders need to see them as no less important than a major strategic or operational challenge, such as falling market share or changing the corporate cost structure. And like efforts to address those challenges, efforts to advance women can’t just be add-on programs. They must be integrated into the organization’s daily work through goals, performance monitoring, processes that force tough conversations, and serious skill building.

Undertaking such a transformation in difficult economic times, when there are fewer opportunities to go around, may seem like a recipe for failure. But the fact is that these changes never will be easy and that a few companies, including those we focus on below (Pitney Bowes, Shell, and Time Warner), have managed to stay on course through both good times and bad.

Make it personal

Make no mistake: as a senior executive, you are already influencing your company’s approach. If you’re not paying much attention to the issue of women’s advancement, you’re ensuring that things won’t change. As Shell’s executive vice president of global supply and distribution, Peggy Montana, says, “When you look at corporate mind-sets, change starts at the top. I haven’t seen change in diversity start from middle management.”

And if you’re personally committed, you can catalyze change that will improve not only your company’s treatment of women but also, in all likelihood, its business results.⁵ In the early 1980s, Pitney Bowes CEO George Harvey learned that the most productive newly hired salespeople were women, many of whom had previously been schoolteachers. Curious to know the explanation, he visited sales offices late in the day and discovered women “writing personal notes to their customers with a lot of conviction”—a practice that, further inquiry revealed, seemed to be driving sales.

According to Pitney Bowes executive vice president Johnna Torsone, Harvey’s recognition of the value of these committed women touched off a wave of change. Torsone says Harvey became “determined to open up an environment that allowed people to come in who hadn’t had a true opportunity on a level playing field.” They would be motivated, he reasoned, and their success would “increase the competitive environment for the men and for everybody else in the organization.” The end result, Torsone explains, “was an HR strategy based on business.”

This is a powerful idea that resonates with our experience: strong as the general business case for women is, companies are more likely to transform mind-sets if they build their own case. That case should be grounded in the impact women are having at your own organization—whether hard business results or indirect benefits, such as building better teams. Harvey’s commitment also highlights the importance of having leaders start this journey by changing their own mind-sets: all transformations start with the self; leaders influence everyone else in the organization through their attitudes and actions.

Change the conversation

It’s one thing for executives to commit themselves to change. It’s another to actually make progress. A starting point is making sure enough women are being considered for advancement, to boost the odds that some will get through. Broadening the conversation ensures that high-talent women aren’t “underexposed,” compared with men, as senior executives talk through promotion possibilities. While putting one woman on the promotion slate will not change the discussion, focusing on metrics will. And though most companies are loath to consider quotas, they’re far from the only way to introduce a hard edge to the ongoing talent dialogue.

Pitney Bowes, for example, focused on the front end. For a number of years, every list of candidates for promotion there had to include 35 percent women and 15 percent minorities, equal to their representation in the workforce at the time. Harvey chose this approach because “he felt that white men had been disproportionately advantaged and had gotten complacent,” Torsone explains.

Shell focused on outcomes, setting a long-term target for women at the top: currently, 20 percent of the company’s senior executives worldwide. So far, women hold just over 15 percent of those positions, up from 10 percent in 2005. The company includes an assessment of progress against this target in all senior executives’ reviews and presents the overall results in its annual report.

At Time Warner, chief diversity officer Lisa Quiroz explains that each division is required to have a succession plan and a robust promotion slate for its top layers of management. The CEO and the HR chief review the plans and slates every year for diversity, among other criteria. This review also includes specific discussions about how individual women are being prepared for their next role, including rotation among the company’s divisions and between staff and line roles. For more than a decade, a noticeable part of each divisional CEO’s bonus has depended on meeting the company’s expectations for diversity.

Will men raise concerns? Maybe. They did early on at Pitney Bowes, despite support for diversity from the top. “George [Harvey],” Torsone explains, “brought challenge and passion to the focus, but it felt alienating to the men. That was not the intention, and so it had to evolve. When I came in, we broadened our efforts to upgrade talent development, making it better for everyone. We still see resistance from men occasionally, but the overall culture changed, and those attitudes are really disappearing.”

And what about women? Shell’s Montana says her response to fears from women that they’re getting jobs just because of their gender is, “Get over it. I’ve never seen a selection panel pick somebody on the basis of, ‘She’s not really qualified, but we need a female in this job.’ It just doesn’t happen. We’re running a business, and we’re not taking undue risks. It’s never going to be a risk-free exercise. But neither is it for the rest of the population.”

Use data to create transparency and challenge entrenched mind-sets

Most companies collect some data on diversity. Yet few track the results in enough detail to help executives gain a real understanding of what’s going on in their own departments or business units and how their mind-sets may be contributing. Furthermore, many companies track data only at the executive level, not down to the front line. They therefore have no idea what their pipeline really looks like, let alone how to improve it. PepsiCo, by contrast, tracks the progress of women at all levels and shares the results throughout its talent review processes. As a result, the full pipeline of female talent—not just the senior ranks, which are much harder to influence rapidly—is highly visible.

When the findings are impossible to overlook, leaders can use them to make the invisible mind-sets visible and then manage these mind-sets to remove their influence. Pitney Bowes carefully rates and scores each division’s diversity plan and, like Time Warner, includes in its bonus decisions an executive’s success in promoting diversity. Furthermore, Torsone says, from the time this process was started, during the 1980s, the CEO “would talk about it at every operating and management review.”

Of course, any top-down talent review process conducted primarily by senior men can unintentionally reinforce the status quo. Bottom-up survey data can help shake things up, however. Each year, Shell asks all employees to answer a survey with 61 questions, ranging from how they like working at the company to whether they feel able to speak up freely. The company uses the results from five of these questions to measure the inclusiveness of the work culture and how it changes year to year. Shell also analyzes the responses of groups such as men and women, different nationalities, and different tenures to see whether their experiences diverge.

One way the company uses the results is to measure the effectiveness of supervisors in creating an environment where everyone feels engaged and able to excel. The results flag outliers: parts of the organization where everyone can thrive and those areas where some or all employees feel stymied (those are addressed by specific follow-up plans). Over the years, Shell has seen the gap between men’s and women’s experiences shrink—a positive trend. There’s still the question of whether gender-based attitudes influence responses to surveys like these. In our experience and in Shell’s, though, they are much better than nothing.

Rethink genuine sponsorship for women

For men and women alike, effective sponsors can make careers through ongoing, in-the-moment support. Sometimes that means supporting women in stretch roles. In the words of a female executive at a financial-services firm, “The head of the business offered me a big promotion that entailed a move, but then he said, ‘We’re going to make 100 percent sure that you don’t fail. We have your back, so take this promotion.’ He called the executive who would become my new boss to extract that commitment, and that made it a lot easier for me to take on this scary, big step.”

At other times, the best thing a sponsor can do is offer tough love. Shell’s Montana says she has “held some people back from the next level until they had more of an operational P&L role. I felt that if they didn’t have it, at least in a reasonably early time in their career, it would hold them back once they had the opportunity for more senior levels.”

Clear as the benefits are, so are the challenges of sponsorship for women: many male executives feel more comfortable sponsoring men or simply don’t know how to be effective sponsors for women. Take one common kind of sponsor we’ve met in dozens of workshops—the “relentless coach” who pushes the sponsoree to the breaking point. While many men recall this grueling experience with gratitude and even affection for the sponsor, it doesn’t work well for many women, especially those who carry the burden of responsibility at home in addition to their work. Another valuable, but often controversial, kind of sponsor is what we call the “devil’s advocate.” We all value being challenged to make our work better, but many women find that constant questioning drains their confidence and energy. With self-awareness and training, sponsors can learn to adapt their styles to the individual and situation at hand.

Effective sponsors are deeply, personally engaged, down to the level of small details, whose importance adds up. Time Warner’s Quiroz describes true sponsorship as “someone being planful about what you do, who you’re exposed to, what development programs you go to, who you have lunch with, whether you’re getting feedback or being assigned a coach.” At her company, leaders work hard to make women’s careers “intentional.” One key: making sure that sponsorees attend Time Warner women’s leadership programs, where participants interact with top management and learn to overcome their own limiting mind-sets and behavior. So far, among the more than 300 leaders who have attended Time Warner’s program for senior women, 22 percent have been promoted, compared with only 11.8 percent of all women at a similar level in the company.

We hope you draw inspiration from these examples. If you’re ready to start challenging the broadly held mind-sets holding women back in your organization, first become conscious of your own beliefs and how they affect your behavior and decisions. Then, as you help your company move forward, remain vigilant: every time a senior executive leaves or enters an organization, its culture can—and does—shift. It is up to the senior team to help new executives become active participants in this journey and to make regular efforts to inject the energy that the organization as a whole will need to change its mind about women.

Arabian Ghava: A taste of Saudi hospitality

By Rima Al Mukhtar

Nothing defines Saudi hospitality more than offering guests a cup of Arabic coffee. The ritual of serving Arabic coffee in Saudi Arabia is a sign that a guest is welcomed and honored. It is usually served with dates, chocolate or any type of local sweets.

Preparing and serving coffee is the same across the Arabian Gulf, although the ingredients and flavors differ. Saudis prefer their mocha beans to be from Yemen, but if it cannot be found, coffee beans from Brazil or Kenya are an appropriate substitute. The coffee beans need to be freshly roasted and ground to a very fine, soft powder before making the coffee.

In the old days, coffee beans used to be roasted in a light skillet and then ground in a brass mortar. Nowadays, the mortar has been replaced with an electric coffee grinder. Coffee beans can also be bought already ground in supermarkets and coffee houses.

Arabic coffee is a lightly spiced coffee made traditionally, without filtering it. It needs practice to serve unfiltered coffee while keeping the grounds in the “Dallah,” which is Arabic for pot. The resulting flavor is strong and intense with aromas that will bring your imagination to the mysterious Middle Eastern deserts.

Making Arabic coffee is not difficult; it just requires time, which is an important part of the ritual. To make the Arabic coffee, a few essential items are required.

• 3 cups water
• 2 tbsp ground decaffeinated coffee
• 3 tbsp cardamom (coarsely ground)
• 1/4 tsp saffron (This is optional but it will add a signature aftertaste and give the coffee a golden sheen).

Boil the water in a pot. Add the coffee to the water and bring to a boil over low heat. (In Saudi Arabia, the coffee would be strong and caffeinated.)

Remove from heat and allow coffee grounds to settle. Put the cardamom in another pot and add the saffron. Bring back to a boil and serve immediately.

Milk, cream or sugar is never added to this kind of coffee.

Arabic coffee needs to be poured into small cups with no handles called “Fenjan” in Arabic. Those small cups are smaller than espresso cups and it’s especially made for Arabic coffee.

Serving Arabic coffee has strict rules and etiquette when serving. It requires the host or hostess to personally hand each small cup to the guest. He/she needs to hold the pot with the left hand, pour the coffee and serve it with the right hand.

Arabic coffee plays a huge part in socializing and is drunk during all types of occasions. When a guest finishes drinking his/her “Fenjan” and wants more, he/she has to jiggle the cup slowly as a sign for the host to refill it again and offer more dates.

Why Do We Snore?

By M H Ahssan

When we were children, we used to be amazed at those who snored while sleeping. The sight and sounds made us muffle our laughter lest we disturb or anger the sleeping person. We did not know why people, especially men, made such funny noises in their sleep. We found it hilarious and we made competitions out of the noise. Those who produced the loudest and funniest sounds were winners. Of course, the boys won the prize for their performances every single time. But then, our mothers would reprimand and disperse us from the area of the scene.

At that time, I thought that snoring was a harmless habit, but I could not understand why it happened. Little did I know that snoring is a symptom of a condition that can be more than harmless to health. Let us see together the cause or causes of this symptom, which can sometimes be a serious condition in the sufferer and very disturbing and annoying to the sleeping partner.

Snoring generally afflicts a good section of the adult population, men, the obese and older citizens in particular. Occasionally, people who are physically exhausted, mentally stressed out, or emotionally troubled tend to snore or have nightmares. Knocked out, the person “sleeps like a log” on the back, breathing noisily from the mouth. The sleeping partner is usually the victim who has to endure the tumultuous sounds, resulting in sleepless nights if he or she does not plug their ears or take refuge in a separate room. A study indicated that the memory of the partner can become affected by the sound of snoring. Let us go into details to understand how snoring is generated and why it happens.

There are two categories of snoring: The benign kind and the more critical one, sleep apnea. I shall start by giving descriptions of both types so that the sufferer and partner can evaluate the condition in order to get adequate help and medical treatment if needed.

The snoring sound is uttered from the throat during inhalations and exhalations. It starts low as the person falls asleep and gradually rises rhythmically as he or she gets into deep sleep until a loud crescendo is reached. A toss or change in the head or body position usually interrupts the rhythm with a grunt. Snoring can happen even during short naps in the train or the airplane. Snoring starts as the person gets into deep sleep, especially if he is lying on the back with lips slightly separated. With breathing in and out, the gurgling sounds are caused by the vibrations generated by the relaxed pharynx, the airway between the palate and larynx in the throat. This area becomes lax with age or excess weight as the muscles lose elasticity. The person generally snores louder and more when he or she is tired, exhausted or overweight. Exhaustion can even trigger snoring in non-habitual snorers. Snoring strikes more men than it does women. Toddlers and children with enlarged adenoids snore very loudly as they are forced to breathe through their mouths. They need to be checked by a specialist for evaluation of the condition.

As for sleep apnea sufferers, they are woken up with startling snorts frequently during the night, gasping for air. Because sleep apnea has grave consequences on health and may potentially be caused by more serious disorders, it should be look into seriously. It afflicts a smaller percentage of the population. It is not only characterized by loud snoring, snorting and interrupted breathing, but it also awakens the person with a choke, leaving the victim gasping for air and life.

A sleep apnea sufferer, in fact, stops breathing as much as two whole minutes before he wakes up with a stifled sound and coughing. This happens due to the collapse of the palate soft tissue or the receding tongue, which obstructs the air passage. The loss of breath can reach up to 200 times during the night. With the interruption of breathing, oxygen in the blood plummets to dangerous levels, awakening the person frequently with a loud gasp. This can go on all night without the sufferer realizing the extent of danger to his or her life. However, the sleeping mate can get extremely alarmed, dreading recurrence of choking.

Another rare condition is called central sleep apnea. Breathing is actually halted not due to blocked air passage, but because the diaphragm — the flat muscle at the separation of the rib cage between upper ribs — loses elasticity and does not expand enough to allow oxygen in the lungs. When the breast muscles stop functioning, no air is allowed in or out. This is a life-threatening condition that should not be neglected.

Sleep apnea sufferers become battered with interrupted sleep, sleep loss and poor brain oxygenation, resulting in sleepiness, drowsiness and irritability the following day. Sleep deprivation and insufficient oxygen supply to the brain lead to diminished productivity, a decline in cognitive skills, and inadequate mental responses and physical reflexes.

These are not the only side effects. Sleep and oxygen deprived individuals can be exposed to blood pressure higher than normal and an elevated risk of developing heart disease or developing strokes. Because of deprivation of restful sleep, some sufferers can succumb to emotional or depressive problems and irritability. With inadequate profound sleep, dreams do not occur. Sleep experts call that “dream deficit,” which can lead to psychotic and emotional disorders. Decline in mental performance, including memory, is also a symptom.

Before getting into therapies or suggestions, I would like to discuss the possible causes for habitual snoring, as it is known that it is not a disorder but a symptom. Sleeping on the back, excess weight, obesity and lax throat muscles can induce and emphasize the frequency and loudness of the gurgling sounds, coming from the throat.

Snoring is a guttural sound made by some when sleeping. As they drift into deep sleep the noise rises softly and rhythmically, unless interrupted by changing position or waking up. Obesity and sleep position are triggering factors. Due to sleeping on the back and excess weight, the soft tissue and muscles at the back of throat collapse. Breathing through the mouth causes the collapsed tissue to vibrate and produce snoring. With sleep apnea, the more serious type, the person is woken up by multiple choking attacks during sleep, as breathing stops for as long as two minutes, depriving the snorer from oxygen and sleep.

If the habit is not the result of physiological obstruction of the airways, the treating physician should look for an inflammation of the air passage and prescribe an allergen elimination diet. Refined sugar and carbohydrates, saturated and trans fats, fried and processed foods, artificial sweeteners and additives, cured meat, smoking and alcohol are possible causes. Allergenic substances lead to inflammation in the airways and elsewhere in the body. Excess red meat and dairy increase mucus, which blocks airways, triggering snoring.

Another system to look into is the digestive tract. As I have emphasized in earlier articles, this system gets the most beating, hence it should be checked out. Gut problems and acid conditions promote mucus formation. Long-term intake of antibiotics and drugs affect the microflora, “beneficial bacteria.” Overindulgence and acidity also contribute to the symptom.

The condition requires the intake of live culture yogurt, fermented foods, fresh fruits and vegetables (dark leafy greens) and their juices, fish, healthy fats (omega-3, 6, 9) and probiotic supplements in order to recover the equilibrium of the gut.

For casual and sleep apnea cases of snoring, lifestyle and diet modifications can help relieve the disorder. This includes regular moderate activity without exhaustion. A healthy balanced nutrition should include the foods in the previous paragraph. Meals should be of reasonable portions. Even little weight reduction is effective in reducing the frequency and sonority of snoring.

It is of paramount importance to stay away from allergens and pro-inflammatory foods and substances (refined sugar and carbohydrates, processed and fried foods). The diet should include plenty of water, green tea and caffeine-free herbal infusions. Raw nuts (no peanuts) and fresh and dried fruits are nutritious snacks, rich in healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and anti-inflammatory detoxifying phytochemicals.

Occasional fruit and vegetable juice fasts help cleansing and getting rid of inflammatory conditions. Lifestyle and diet modifications are necessary to correct the disorder along with a weight loss program. Even little weight reduction can minimize the loudness and frequency of snoring. Heavy meals should be avoided and not less than two to three hours away from bedtime.

Sleep apnea sufferers should be evaluated by a professional. Most of the cases respond well to the above measures of anti-inflammatory diets free of allergens, weight loss, good hydration, regular moderate activities, deep breathing and stress reduction. Smoking and alcohol should be avoided. The treating physician may recommend a laser procedure to unblock the nasal passage. Radio wave therapy can help shrink part of the soft tissue that block the airways. The procedure should be done by an experienced physician for precision. For milder conditions, oral devices are prescribed to prevent obstruction of the airways.

An important aspect is sleep position. Sleeping on the back can facilitate tongue recession and collapse of palate soft tissue. With this in mind, the snorer should sleep on either side with chin close to collarbone to lock the jaw to prevent breathing from the mouth, the tongue from receding, and palate from collapsing, which result in airway obstruction, choking, and oxygen deprivation. Reduced oxygen can cause damage to the brain and heart.

Studies showed that exercises to the palate and repetitive swallowing and chewing motions reduced snoring considerably. Strengthening the palate tissue is done through pushing the tongue backward toward the palate and holding it for several seconds. Twelve repetitions are required; each time holding the tongue forcefully longer. Stronger throat muscles and weight reduction minimize the collapsing of soft tissue and frequency and acuteness of snoring as well as neck size, an apnea indicator. Playing mouth musical instruments also tightens the muscles in the area. Exercise therapy is definitely an economical and less harmful way to treat the disorder.

Snorers may suffer unconsciously from snoring and sleep apnea, but the partners are subjected to different kinds of torment. The loud snoring is similar to mental torture. They are prevented from sound sleep that allows body and brain to repair, let alone dreaming, which is important to mental health and stability. Even if they drift into slumber at first, they are jerked awake by sudden loud snorts or scary sounds of choking, coughing and gasping for air by the snorer. They are kept awake by the snoring and fear of losing a loved one.

According to a study, women whose partners snored loudly were more prone to memory decline. Some partners wear earplugs or cover their ears with pillows; others quietly leave the bedroom to sleep elsewhere in order to have healthy sweet dreams.

These may be solutions to partners but not to sufferers who need someone to assist them when they get into bouts of choking. Partners can be of great help to snorers by gently waking them up to change head positions and make them toss to either side. If side sleeping is not comfortable, support their backs with pillows to maintain the position. Snoring can be reduced tremendously with a side position, locked jaw and closed mouth. Sleeping on the back encourages snoring and breathing through the mouth, resulting in lower oxygen intake and high acid reflux. Sleeping on the face prevents snoring, but it is not good for the neck and upper spine.

There are gadgets in the market and medical appliances prescribed by doctors to prevent choking and maintain smooth breathing. Above all, sleep apnea requires treatment. Surgery may be a necessity for acute conditions. However, natural therapies minimize the repercussion of snoring on health or risk to life. Anyway, the condition is too risky to neglect!

N.B.: Individuals with medical conditions or on medication should consult their physicians when they decide to introduce anything new in their diet even if it is natural.

The Benefits of Regular 'Running'

By Dr.Selma Roth

We all know that in order to stay healthy, we need to move our body — preferably 30 minutes a day and a minimum of five times a week. However, we often make up numerous excuses not to exercise, ranging from “no time” or “too tired” to “no one to go with.”

These pretexts might work for some sports that are time consuming and costly, but they certainly don’t apply to running. Running — or call it jogging if you are a beginner — does not need too much of your time, is cheaper than any other sport, and can be done anywhere and at anytime. All you need is a good pair of running shoes, and off you go! Moreover, running is one of the best workouts there is, as it is a very intense sport.  Newsindia gives you the multiple health benefits of running to keep you motivated if you’re already a runner or to make you want to start running right now!

For many people, the most important reason to start running is to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. They are right; running is a great way to burn calories. Research has shown that the pace does not matter that much. It is mainly the distance and your body weight that count. While running, a person burns approximately his weight multiplied by the number of kilometers he runs. So a person who weighs 70 kilos will burn 700 calories in a 10 km run.

Apart from the calories burnt during the workout, your body will keep burning more calories after the run, while it is repairing your muscles from the training session. In addition, as running builds muscle mass, your resting metabolism will go up. Running also speeds up the digestive system and can help relieve digestive problems. Starting to run, naturally, is not a license to eat whatever you feel like, but it will, combined with a balanced diet, definitely help you to reach or maintain a healthy weight.

Running strengthens the heart, which is a muscle just like all other muscles in our body, and helps prevent heart attacks. When we make our heart work, it will get stronger and bigger and will need less beats per minute to transport the blood and oxygen through the body. In fact, the heart of an inactive person beats 36,000 more times each day than that of a runner.

Apart from a stronger heart, regular running improves our cardiovascular health. During a run, a person’s arteries expand and contract three times more than when being sedentary. This helps maintain the elasticity of the arteries — it keeps the arteries open — which in its turn lowers blood pressure by keeping the blood flow smooth. Regular running, in addition, raises HDL (good) cholesterol and reduces the risk of blood clots.

Contrary to what most nonrunners say and perhaps wish to believe, running does not destroy your joints and bones. In fact, the opposite is true: Those who run regularly will have stronger bones as they age compared to those who do not run. Our bones seem to respond to the law of “use it or lose it.” They react to physical demands by growing stronger. The reason is simple: running increases oxygen flow to and flushes out toxins from the joints. In addition, as said before, runners are less likely to suffer from obesity, which appears to be the main factor in developing osteoporosis. Again, a healthy diet with a sufficient amount of calcium and vitamin D is indispensable to maintain healthy joints and bones.

The bones and joints of runners are not only stronger, but also better protected, as jogging will strengthen the muscles around them. True, running will not make you look like a body builder, but it will definitely make the muscles in your legs, hips, back and even arms stronger. Depending if you focus on sprints or long-distance running, your muscles will be more or less bulky, but even those skinny and weak-looking marathon runners have strong leg and core muscles that enable them to complete the 42.195 km race.

As all cardio workouts, running helps maximize the lungs’ potential, as it keeps them strong and powerful. We normally use only 50 percent of our lung potential, but running encourages the use of the other half. Research has proven that the lungs of a runner work 1.5 times better than those of the average adult. This means your life overall will improve, as it will make all activities easier — from playing with your kids to taking the stairs, and from taking a dive in the sea to playing a musical wind instrument.

Running has long-term benefits. Given that running has a positive effect on the immune system by creating a higher concentration of lymphocytes in the blood, you will have a smaller chance to get a cold or other viral infection. Related to this is that running improves sleep and helps control stress levels. Indeed, an intensive running workout is one of the best ways to relieve off stress and daily frustrations.

Regular running simply improves your physical appearance. Besides helping you to maintain a healthy weight and building muscles, running makes your hair and skin look healthier (because of the improved blood circulation) and slows down the aging process by preventing muscle and bone loss. As the saying goes: We don’t stop running because we get old; we get old because we stop running.

Ever heard of the term “runner’s high”? During a running session our brains release endorphins and other feel-good hormones that make us calm and sometimes give us a sense of euphoria. This is called a runner’s high. Running is even frequently recommended to people suffering from depression and other psychological disorders, because studies show that running reduces depression symptoms. However, running has more psychological benefits.

Healthy adults who exercise regularly are generally happier than those who don’t. Running also builds confidence and gives a feeling of empowerment. It increases self-esteem, especially when you accomplish a previously set goal, such as running 30 minutes without a break or finishing a 5 km run. Running helps the mind to focus and get rid of any anger or fear. Since the movement is a monotonous one, the effects of running can be similar to those of meditation. While running, we can free our mind of negative thoughts and trigger creativity.

This list with health benefits is hopefully sufficient (though not exhaustive!) to make you tie your running shoe laces. Then comes the next question: how to start? Next week we will discuss the best way for a beginner to start running.

Oud: The Scent of Arabian Luxury

By Rima Al Mukhtar

A renowned Arab Caliph once said: “If I were a merchant, I would only trade in Oud perfume, so that if I did not make a profit, I would have profited from its sensational scent.”

Oud (agarwood or agar) comes from trees found in India, Cambodia, Yemen, Thailand and Ethiopia. It is a certain fungal infection that comes from Aquilaria trees, which is peeled off the tree. The chips are initially pale and light in color; the heartwood turns dense and dark as a result of the growth of a dangerous mold.

Oud has a very strong and unique scent that is available in chips, which are lit and burned. The scented smoke is called Bakhoor. Oud is also available in an oil form, which is placed in small perfume bottles. People apply the oil on certain areas such as behind the ears and on the wrists for a long-lasting scented effect.

Oud oil is produced by mashing agarwood and placing it in distilling pots and covering them with several inches of water. The lid is then closed and the pot is heated until the water boils. The boiling water ruptures the cells of the wood and the vapor of agarwood oil and steam rises to the top of the pot and escapes, released through a tube leading to a condenser. The condenser cools the vapor and is itself repeatedly cooled by water.

After soaking, the barrels of agarwood mash are emptied into distilling pots and placed over wood fires for distillation. The heating process may look primitive, but the fires are tended by skilled workers who control the temperature quite carefully.

As the vapor passes through the condenser and is cooled, it reverts to a liquid form and is collected in a vessel where the oil and water separate. The water is drawn off leaving the agarwood oil.

Several distillations will generally occur, with the first producing the highest grade of agarwood oil and the last, the lowest. These distillations may continue over a week’s time. After distillation, the remaining mash from the distilling pot is left in the sun to dry. It will then be ground up and used to make joss sticks (incense). Before being bottled, the agarwood oil is filtered to remove dirt and impurities.

Bakhoor, the scented smoke, is made from placing the Oud chip on a bed of natural coal or lighted charcoal, which allows the wood to burn and puff the fragrance of the authentic Oud. Once the chip is burned out, it should be thrown away.

Traditionally in Saudi Arabia, when Oud is lit, the Oud burner is passed around from one person to another as part of Saudi hospitality. An old odd fact about Bakhoor is that when a host is tired of his visitors and wants them to leave, he/she would burn a chip of Oud and walk around the room. Guests would then know that this is a polite signal for them to leave.

Oud in its oil form (dehan) is a considerable investment. It is sold and measured in 12-milliliter bottles called tola. Prices for one tola range anywhere from SR300 to SR8,000. Anything below this price might be a copy or a Chinese imitation.

According to Um Mohammed, a Saudi woman who mixes Oud and has been selling it for a living for over 30 years, says there are other kinds of Oud aside from oil and Bakhoor. There is a special mix called Mabthouth.

“Mabthouth is an Oud paste that is made by crushing Oud wood and adding different scents from Oud dehan and flower oils. Then, the paste is shaped into balls,” she explained. “This paste gives a different smell than what a normal Oud chip would give. As soon as you put the Mabthouth on the flaming coal, you will smell different kinds of Arabian scents all together.”

There are different kinds of Mabthouth that are produced every year. Um Mohammed said that she takes each mixture under study before displaying and offering them to clients. Price range for Mabthouth goes from SR100 to SR500 per box.

Um Mohammed takes small poor quality pieces of Oud (wood chips), crushes them into tiny morsels and mixes them with different oils. When burned, this mixture gives off a better scent than the poor quality pieces when burned alone. This is only done to improve the quality of Oud.

Only natural materials are used to manufacture Arabian Oud mixtures. Um Mohammed uses musk, patchouli, oak, jasmine flower, rose flower, saffron, cedar, amber, bergamot, sandalwood and, of course, agarwood.

Saudi women use a certain method of Bakhoor burning: They walk around the house holding the burner to scatter the smoke in every room. They also wave their abayas and clothing above the smoke so that it picks up the scent and stays there for long. Other Saudi women use Oud and Bakhoor as body perfume by applying dehan on their hair. They put some of the dehan on the tip of their fingers and run it through their wet hair, or they just wave their hair on the smoke coming out of the Bakhoor burner.

Imam Bukhari reported that Oud is known to be an excellent scent for strengthening the body and the mind. According to him, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Treat with Indian incense (Oud Al-Hindi) for it has healing for seven diseases; it is to be sniffed by one having throat problems and put in the mouth for one suffering from pleurisy.”

Oud is also used to traditionally treat asthma, chest congestion, colic, nausea, kidney problems, thyroid cancer, lung tumors, and post childbirth. It is also a general tonic in China, India and Japan.

International perfume brands such as Tom Ford, Armani, Dior, Kilian and more are now embracing Oud for its distinctive long-lasting scent and are including it in their luxurious perfume mixtures.

Popular brand stores in Saudi Arabia that are famous for selling high quality Oud are: Arabian Oud, Ajmal and Abdul Samad Alqurashi.