Using Internet, apps to manage blood pressure is not advisable.

(HealthDay News) -- People who turn to the Internet or iPhone apps for help in controlling their blood pressure may be led astray in some cases, two preliminary studies suggest. In one study, researchers who did a sweep of YouTube videos on high blood pressure found that one-third offered "misleading" information. Most often, that meant the video advocated supplements or other alternative therapies that haven't been scientifically proven to lower blood pressure.

"It's quite concerning," said lead researcher Dr. Nilay Kumar, who is scheduled to present the findings Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in New York City.

"The videos that were misleading seemed to get a lot more hits than the videos from authoritative sources," said Kumar, a physician with the Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts.

Those authoritative sources included the American Heart Association, medical universities and professional medical societies, Kumar said.

The other study, scheduled for presentation at the same meeting, looked at the accuracy of two home blood pressure devices that people connect to their iPhones. In each case, an app keeps track of their numbers and can send the information to their doctor.

Overall, the study found, both devices were inaccurate when compared with traditional doctor's-office measurements. Across 112 readings taken by the same person, one device gave numbers that were too high -- by an average of 3 to 5 points -- while the other gave numbers that were 5 points too low.

The bottom line? The study "sends a loud and clear message that such technology needs to be vetted against the standard technology before accepting these blood pressure readings at face value," said Dr. Domenic Sica, president-elect of the American Society of Hypertension.

"This technology clearly needs better refinement," said Sica, who was not involved in either new study.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost one-third of U.S. adults have high blood pressure. But only about half of them have the condition under control.

Elevated blood pressure increases your risk for heart disease and stroke, the leading causes of death in the United States.

It's important that people with high blood pressure be "self-empowered" to take part in their own care, Sica said. But they also have to be careful about their sources of information.

Since so many people get health information online, Kumar's team wanted to check the accuracy of blood pressure information on YouTube -- a site that draws more than 1 billion "unique users" each month, according to the company.

The researchers searched the site using the terms "high blood pressure" and "hypertension," and ended up screening 176 videos -- a small sampling of the total hits their search retrieved.

Overall, the majority of the videos were deemed "useful." They included information on how high blood pressure develops and how to prevent and treat it. But one-third provided misleading information, Kumar's team found.

Often, those videos focused on supplements or other therapies that aren't proven to lower blood pressure -- such as L-arginine, garlic and coenzyme Q10 supplements, according to Kumar.

Many also featured ads for the products, which "suggests they were driven by financial motivations," Kumar said.

If you go online for blood pressure information, he suggested you stick with reliable sources such as the American Heart Association or the U.S. National Library of Medicine website Medline Plus.

Sica agreed. As for iPhone blood pressure devices, he said questions remain. It's not clear, for example, how they stack up against traditional home blood pressure monitors, he noted.

But those traditional devices are not all the same, either. In general, the heart association and other groups advise people to use automated (rather than manual) monitors that have an arm cuff. Devices that take wrist or finger measurements are less reliable.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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How the internet may be affecting us negatively

here is an article pulled together by Dr David Lowenstein talking about how the internet may be a affecting our life style because virtually all we do now is on the internet, from studying to communicating , advertising and sevral other vital and very important life activity.

Breakdown of Communication

Our growing dependence on the Internet has dramatically changed the way we communicate with others. Instead of talking to people or spending time with them, we often resort to less personal forms of communication like texting or emailing. There’s nothing wrong with using these methods of communication, but they lack voice inflection and emotion, and that often confuses or frustrates people. At the same time, these less personal forms of communication make it easy to ignore the people we’re with. It’s sad to see friends out to dinner who are looking at their phones instead of each other. So, while the information on our smart phones may be fascinating, let’s be careful not to miss out on the joy that comes from personal relationships with family or friends.

Increased Need for Instant Gratification

The Internet has taught us that everything and everyone is available at the touch of a button. Gone are the days of relying on “snail mail” to connect with people far away.  While I’m thankful for the increased technology and how it helps us connect with people around the world, I worry about our increasing dependence on instant gratification. When we know that people are able to send and receive texts and emails instantly, we inadvertently impose unrealistic expectations on others and on ourselves. We live in a technological age where people expect others to drop everything to respond to a text, email or tweet.

Inability to Focus on the Present

The advent of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has created an obsessive need to share our personal lives with the world. Many people have trouble “living in the moment” because they are too busy sharing the “moment” with everyone else. This constant need to peer into the lives of others can open the door for feelings of jealously, judgment and neglect.

Effect on Children

Internet addiction affects young people in many ways, from sleep deprivation, to social withdrawal, to poor grades. Children who are allowed unrestricted access to the Internet can encounter harmful information that may be dangerous to their well being. Cyber bullying is a serious issue among young people, and it can create lasting mental and emotional effects. Internet predators should also be a concern. Many of these individuals are extremely tech-savvy and constantly on the lookout for new ways to connect with children.

What You Can Do

When it comes to technology, here’s how you can create a healthy balance:

• Set time and usage restrictions for your entire family.
• Set aside specific times for responding to emails or reading text messages.
• Avoid distractions from your smart phone by turning it off or moving it out of sight.
• Establish boundaries for your kids regarding cell phone, social media and Internet usage.
• Create an honest dialogue with your kids about their Internet usage, and familiarize yourself with the people, websites and apps they connect with.

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Creating what would last long online is the key to online success.

here is a very interesting question i would want you to ask your self? would you want to create something that would last long and keep bringing money in or something that would bring money in for some months and later fades into the thin air? your answers would defiantly be that you want to create something that would bring in money for as long as the internet still exists.
The reason why i asked this question is while growing in world of internet marketing i have meet quite a number of online gurus, theses people are extra ordinarily good but because of certain mistakes and wrong decisions they have made in the past they do not have any thing online, what they have always comes and go. how? if you are someone that stay online and do use Google really well you would see several kinds of internet marketing strategy that drives money in really fast without owning a web site, all you do is use these strategies to make cool money, what i think is that these method of generating income is quite OK as well, but starting and maintaining this method is really unfriendly, if you are someone that has to cover a lot of expenses, i would strongly advise you not  to go into this methods of generating income online unless you have a website or a blog which still pays you.

The most friendly way to generate income online is to own a webpage, even one web site is OK, where you can generate traffics for what ever you choose to promote or talk about , your audience get to trust you and also would want to purchase any thing you wish to offer, when your motive online alone is to get as much money as you want, then you would have problems growing financially and also knowing the basics of maintaining an online business, i meet a guy who is really into online marketing and know pretty good and very valuable stuffs about generating income online and several other things, but he has a problem maintaining his online income and also generating more because he believes in short while income generating methods, so my advise for you is to put something that would last online, according to Nigeria blog queen, linda ikeji
her blog is her only source of income, she has worked really hard to build up good relationship between her and her audience. always put this at the back of your mind, the most important thing is that you get people to like what you do online, even if its one person that givings you attention today on your web page, don't give up, keep working hard someday you would start making your dollar without worry.

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The world now has 3 Billion users on the internet.

It was said that by the end of 2014, internet users would increase drastically and we would have more than 3 billion users, most users of the the internet would be coming from  developing world – with mobile-broadband penetration approaching 32 per cent.
      “Very newly released ICT [information and communications technology]  confirm once again that information and communication technologies continue to be the key drivers of the information society,” said Hamadoun I. Toure, ITU Secretary-General.
                                                                                                                                                           “Behind these numbers and statistics are real human stories. The stories of people whose lives have improved thanks to ICTs,” said Mr Sanou, adding “our mission is to bring ICTs into the hands of ordinary people, wherever they live. By measuring the information society, we can track progress, or identify gaps, towards achieving socio-economic development for all.”

Among those large amount of users all over the world, over three quarters are from developed countries while two-thirds come from the developing world. Moreover, people from developing countries make up for more than 90 per cent of those who are not yet using the Internet.

internet has also been growing In Africa, about one-fifth of the population will have access to the Internet; while in the Americas, nearly two-thirds of the population will be online by the end of the year. Further, Europe has the highest Internet penetration rate of 75 per cent, while the Asia-Pacific region has the largest population of Internet users.

Turning to mobile-broadband penetration, the number of its subscriptions will achieve 2.3 billion globally. 55 per cent of them are expected to be in the developing world. As shown in the ITU statistics, mobile-broadband remains the fastest growing market segment, with continuous double-digit growth rates in 2014. In addition, Africa takes the lead in its growth, from 2 percent in 2010 to almost 20 percent in 2014. Compared to the spike of mobile-broadband, fixed-broadband, however, reflects slowing growth in the developing world. The ITU report expects its penetration to reach 10 per cent by end 2014. Similar to Internet subscriptions, Asia-Pacific region also dominates the most users in fixed-broadband, while Africa has the least, with lower than 0.5 per cent of its population.

Regarding mobile-cellular, a significant step towards which subscriptions is that the number will reach 7 billion by end of 2014, with developing countries home to over 75 per cent among the users. This increase indicates the growing markets in the developing world.

Even as the worldwide growth trend of these ICTs continues, fixed-telephone penetration, however, lags behind. According to ITU, fixed-telephone users have been declining for the last five years. In addition, there will be about 100 million fewer subscriptions than in 2009.

ITU statistics are widely recognized as the world’s most reliable and impartial global data on the state of the global ICT industry. They are used extensively by leading intergovernmental agencies, financial institutions and private sector analysts worldwide. 

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