Making soap at home - a site that provides some information

Link to site.

Here is a detailed site that provides lots of link to how to make soap at home, and there are a number of people who do not believe in buying soap from outside, but instead prefer to make soap from their own ingredients, where they are also confident about the quality of the ingredients used to making soap.
Some information used are:
Soap Making Basics
Types of Soap & Soap Making
Cold Process Soap Making Basics and Recipes
Melt and Pour Soap Basics and Recipes
Soap Making Books
Liquid Soap Making
There is enough information available in this site to provide the required level of details.

More details about asthma - some facts and information

Meaning of the word, derived from ancient Greek. Asthma is a word meaning 'panting or shortdrawn breath'. As the word means, one of the common symptoms of an asthma patient is that they get frequent attacks of breathlessness, in between which he/she may even be completely normal. It is an allergic condition resulting from the reaction of the body to one or more allergens, and is the most troublesome of respiratory diseases.

Symptoms of asthma: Primarily, gasping for breath. Patients suffering from asthma appear to be gasping for breath. In more detail, what happens is, actually, they have more difficulty in breathing out than breathing in, and this is caused by spasms or sudden involuntary muscular contractions of the smaller air passages in the lungs.

Asthma Causes: Allergy can be caused by weather conditions, but there are other factors as well. Asthma may be caused due to an allergy caused by different factors such as weather conditions, food, drugs, perfumes, and other irritants. Allergies to dust are the most common.

Cures for asthma: Asthma treatment using Honey. Honey is one of the most common home remedies for asthma. It is said that if a jug of honey is held under the nose of an asthma patient and he inhales the air that comes into contact with it, he starts breathing easier and deeper. However, as with many natural treatments, you should not depend totally on them unless you are sure that they work.

Asthma treatment using Figs: Among fruits, figs have proved very valuable in asthma. They give comfort to the patient by draining off the phlegm. Three or four dry figs should be cleaned thoroughly with warm water and soaked overnight.

Asthma treatment using Lemon: Lemon is another fruit found beneficial in the treatment of asthma. The juice of one lemon, diluted in a glass of water and taken with meals, will bring good results.

STRANGE & COMPLETELY USELESS INFORMATION - Fun to read and interesting

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child
reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line
would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

Leonardo DiVinci invented the scissors.

No word in the English language rhymes with month.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears
never stop growing.

Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

"Stewardesses' is the longest word typed with only the left hand,
"lollipop" with your right.

The cruise liner, QE2 moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel
that it burns.

The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

The words 'racecar' and kayak' are the same whether they are read
left to right or right to left.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters
only on one row of the keyboard.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an
average of 6 months waiting at a red light.,

In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a
watch face, is 10:'0.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks,
otherwise it will digest itself.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels
in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which
occurs five times, "indivisibility."

The Bible does not say there were three wise men; it only says there
were three gifts.

Did you know that crocodiles never outgrow the pool in which they
live? That means that if you put a baby croc in an aquarium, it would
be little for the rest of its life.

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; a group of geese in the
air is a skein.

A 'jiffy' is an actualy unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye".

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every
letter of the alphabet.

The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a
letter is "uncopyrightable".

Barbie's full name is Barbara Milicent Roberts.

It's impossible to lick your elbow.

More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received
a telephone call.

Rats and horses can't vomit.

The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the
toughest tongue twister in the English language..........try it!

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in
your ear by 700 times.

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are
already married.

In the course of an average lifetime, you will, while sleeping, eat
70 assorted insects and 10 spiders. (I didn't know that!!)

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Cat's urine glows under a black light.

Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

Information about different types of phobias - a fear of something

STRANGE PHOBIAS

A phobia, is an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. Here are 45 such phobias:

Ablutophobia - fear of bathing.

Acerophobia - fear of sourness.

Alliumphobia - fear of garlic.

Allodoxaphobia - fear of opinions.

Amathophobia - fear of dust.

Anglophobia - fear of England or English culture, etc.

Anthophobia - the fear of flowers.

Arachibutyrophobia- fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.

Aulophobia - fear of flutes.

Automatonophobia - fear of ventriloquist' s dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues -

anything that falsly represents a sentient being.

Barophobia - fear of gravity.

Bolshephobia - fear of Bolsheviks.

Cacophobia - fear of ugliness.

Caligynephobia - fear of beautiful women.

Chorophobia - fear of dancing.

Cibophobia - fear of food itself.

Consecotaleophobia - fear of chopsticks.

Dikephobia - fear of justice.

Dutchphobia - fear of the Dutch.

Ephebiphobia - fear of teenagers.

Euphobia - fear of hearing good news.

Francophobia - fear of France or French culture.

Geniophobia - fear of chins.

Germanophobia - fear of Germany or German culture.

Hellenologophobia - fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology.

Hexakosioihexekonta hexaphobia - fear of the number 666.

Hippopotomonstroses quipedaliophobia - fear of long words.

Japanophobia - fear of Japanese.

Judeophobia- fear of Jews.

Lutraphobia - fear of otters.

Mnemophobia - fear of memories.

Mottephobia - fear of moths.

Nomophobia - fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

Odontophobia - fear of teeth.

Omphalophobia - fear of belly buttons.

Pakiphobia - fear of Indians of Pakistan's involvement in any tragedy in India

Panophobia or Pantophobia - fear of everything.

Papaphobia - fear of the Pope.

Phagophobia - fear of swallowing

Spectrophobia - fear of mirrors.

Trichophobia - fear of loose hairs.

Triskaidekaphobia - fear of the number 13.

Venustraphobia - fear of very beautiful and attractive women.

Vomitophobia - fear of vomiting.

Zemmiphobia - fear of the great mole rat.

Pivot - An experiment from Microsoft Live Labs

Pivot is a way to interact with massive amounts of data, available at this link. It requires Silverlight.
Pivot makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun. We tried to step back and design an interaction model that accommodates the complexity and scale of information rather than the traditional structure of the Web.
When we use the Web today we treat the most fundamental scenarios as separate activities. Search takes us from many things to one, browsing moves us from one thing to another, and recommendations expose affinities that enable us to explore related topics. Can we do better by combining these scenarios into a more unified experience?
At the heart of Pivot are "Collections." They combine large groups of similar items on the Internet, so we can begin viewing the relationships between individual pieces of information in a new way. By visualizing hidden patterns, Pivot enables users to discover new insights while interacting with thousands of things at once.

Kitchen Garden: Organic farming: Using organic insecticides

If you are into organic farming (or if you are following organic principles for your kitchen garden), then it is very important for you to know all about organic insecticides. One of the problems quote in traditional ways of farming is the use of chemical / synthetic pesticides that leave residues that make their way into animals and humans, and also end up polluting the soil and water. So, what is an organic insecticide ? It is a substance made from natural ingredients that is used for repelling insects and pests; you still need to repel pests and insects even if you go organic.
Organic insecticides are also specialized, in the sense that certain insecticides work on different insects / pests, and you need to do the necessary research to ensure that you have identified the pest you need to get rid of, and what insecticide you need to use. Before making that decision though, ensure that you have actually reviewed that you do have an insecticide or pest problem. Just because an insect is eating away the leaves from your plant does not mean that the plant or the produce is getting harmed (plants can take a loss of upto 25-33% of their leaf cover before their growth is harmed).
Further, ensure that you have also checked out that there are no natural predators that you can use; for example, certain bugs eat insects or pests as a part of nature, and using that solution might work out better. However once you have decided that you have a pest problem that cannot be solved by any other means, then you need to use an organic insecticide.

Ad: Click Here to learn how to double your tomato harvest!

The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals

Optimizing your Wordpress account - 2

A few weeks back, I had written about how to take some basic steps towards optimizing your Wordpress account. Imagine what would happen if more people started promoting your Wordpress Blog, or wonders of wonders, it appears on the front page of Digg or Slashdot. In such cases, unless you have optimized your Wordpress configuration already, you can be pretty much sure that your account will get to a state where the server is not able to handle the load, and will shut down; further if your account is on a shared server, you might have some uncomfortable queries from your host.
So, here are some points on how to optimize your account:
1. Since Wordpress works on a database system, it pulls every bit of content from the server. If there are a large number of requests for your blog, your server has to make that many DB queries to fetch the content. This puts a lot of stress on your server. User a Super Cache plugin to Cache some of the load and serve static HTML files instead of querying the DB (link to plugin, and page).
2. When you serve various files such as binaries, videos, images, scripts, etc from your server, it becomes slow. Place them on other servers, so that the load on your server is reduced. For example, you can get videos from Youtube and Photos from Flickr, and also, you can even hire some hosting space on another server or on a service such as Amazon S3 for this purpose.
3. If you are more advanced, look at your server logs; it may be possible to determine multiple requests from a bot or script that is of no good, blocking these may make your server behave a bit better
4. Look to get stats on how your web page is loading. If it takes a lot of time to load your page, there may be a lot of plugins working, or scripts loading, and so on. Some tools you can use for this purpose are - LiveHTTPHeaders (link, displays the HTTP headers), Firebug (link, Look at loading times for various artifacts on a page),
5. Inside your wp-config.php file, remove some of the DB calls that are not necessary. For example, hard-code your Template Path, Stylesheet path (link to relevant site). You will get some improvements.
6. Review your themes. Some themes call a lot of graphics, and overall call a lot of files. If your CSS files are divided into multiple files, combine them. Replace graphics wherever possible with text.
7. Review the plugins your are using to see whether they are required. Plugins can make your site much slower, especially if they do a lot of DB access and inefficient. If you are advanced technically, monitor the performance of your plugins.
8. Refer to this quick cheat sheet for DB optimization (link to cheat sheet)
9. Reduce the number of posts on the front page of your blog. Typically, Wordpress gives you 10 posts on your front page, you should reduce this to 3-4.
10. Use WP's Built in Object Cache as described on this page (link). From the same site, refer to the MySQL Query Cache.
11. For some detailed technical analysis of what can be done (link)
12. Clean Options (Finds orphaned options and allows for their removal from the wp_ options table) - Get it from this page
13. The combating comment spam page on Wordpress.org (link). If you have a good blog which is getting popular, increase in spam is only to be expected. Akismet filters out most comment spam, but just getting it into the junk spam list also adds some load to your server.
14. Page with 5 tips for making your Blog Digg / Slashdot proof (link)
15. High Traffic Tips For WordPress on Wordpress.org Codex (link)

If you know more ways beyond this, please do let me know.

Letting people know when you are dead and gone

If you are going to depart from this world, what would think about ? You would worry about the impact this would have on your family in terms of emotional and financial considerations, you would worry about whether you are going to leave with getting all the things done that you would have liked. However, would you worry about informing people on your online communities (including gaming worlds and social networks) that you are not going to be coming back, and they should not expect to see you there again. To some people, this is important as well, and hence an online service is coming up in this regard (link to article):

When Robert Bryant's father died, he left his son a little black USB flash drive in a drawer in his home office. The drive contained a list of contacts for his son to notify, including the administrator of an online group he had been in.
David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has set up a site called Deathswitch, where people can set up emails that will be sent out automatically if they don't check in at intervals they specify.
There's another site: Slightly Morbid. It also sends email when a member dies, but doesn't rely on them logging in periodically while alive. Instead, members have to give trusted friends or family the information needed to log in to the site and start notification process if something should happen.

Is aspartame dangerous

There is a story going around that the artificial sweetener, Aspartame, is actually very dangerous chemical that causes methanol toxicity which is causing a health epidemic; further, people are getting affected and the industry is suppressing all this information.
There is this article on Snopes that shows what the dangers being highlighted are, and then proceeds to get opinions from a range of medical experts about how all this is false, and bogus science. Read more (link)

What is Windows XP Activation

Most people are puzzled by the details of Windows Activation, and it is something that could affect them, for example, if they get a failed activation prompt.
So, here is article (link) that explains the details of Windows Activation. As a sample:

What is Microsoft Product Activation?
WPA is the licence that Microsoft uses that limits an install of a Microsoft product such as Windows XP. This would stop you from using your copy of Windows XP you used on your desktop to also work on your laptop.

Windows XP will generally remind you to activate your copy of windows about 30 days after installation (most common with Windows XP Home). This involves your computer contacting Microsoft and giving them some information about the current hardware you have installed. This returns a release code which will be recorded on your system.

What hardware does Windows check?
The system checks these ten categories of hardware:

* Display Adapter
* SCSI Adapter
* IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
* Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
* RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
* Processor Type
* Processor Serial Number
* Hard Drive Device
* Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
* CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM

List of mountain ranges

If you ever wanted to see a listing of the various mountain ranges in the world, or wanted to know whether a particular mountain range was located in a specific country, then this is the page for you. This Wikipedia entry has the listing for mountain ranges across the world, and is a source of invaluable information for kids wanting to know more in this respect.

So, you would never have know that Kurai mountains are in the Siberian Altai province.

Read more on this link.

System diagnosis: Fresh diagnosis

Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard / motherboard information, and much more...
Key features of Fresh Diagnose:

* System Information: Scanning your system and give a complete report about your computer's hardware and software, for examples: mainboard information, video system information, PCI / AGP buses information, peripheral (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.) information, Windows registry settings, and network information.
* System Benchmarks: Testing your system performance, such as CPU, hard disk, CD/DVD ROM, and compare it with other systems.

Read more and download at this link.

Information about Genetically Modified Food and Organisms

We have all heard of Genetically Modified foods, but most people are not aware of what they mean. I came across a good site (link) that attempts to explain this area in a non-technical manner. Hopefully, by the time you finish this article and the linked one, you would have understood far more.
GM is a special set of technologies that alter the genetic makeup of such living organisms as animals, plants, or bacteria. Biotechnology, a more general term, refers to using living organisms or their components, such as enzymes, to make products that include wine, cheese, beer, and yogurt.
Benefits

* Crops
o Enhanced taste and quality
o Reduced maturation time
o Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance
o Improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides
o New products and growing techniques
* Animals
o Increased resistance, productivity, hardiness, and feed efficiency
o Better yields of meat, eggs, and milk
o Improved animal health and diagnostic methods
* Environment
o "Friendly" bioherbicides and bioinsecticides
o Conservation of soil, water, and energy
o Bioprocessing for forestry products
o Better natural waste management
o More efficient processing
* Society
o Increased food security for growing populations

Controversies

* Safety
o Potential human health impact: allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects Potential environmental impact: unintended transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination, unknown effects on other organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity
* Access and Intellectual Property
o Domination of world food production by a few companies
o Increasing dependence on Industralized nations by developing countries
o Biopiracy—foreign exploitation of natural resources
* Ethics
o Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values
o Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species
o Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice versa
o Stress for animal
* Labeling
o Not mandatory in some countries (e.g., United States)
o Mixing GM crops with non-GM confounds labeling attempts
* Society
o New advances may be skewed to interests of rich countries

How to avoid Genetically Modified Food

This site (link) has a great set of instructions on how to avoid GM food, if you are uncomfortable with consuming GM food. Genetically modified food can be there in your supermarket and your home, and you may not be even aware of this fact.

- Become familiar with the most common applications of genetic modification.
- Buy food labeled 100% organic
- Recognize fruit and vegetable label numbers
- Purchase beef that is 100% grass-fed
- Seek products that are specifically labeled as non-GM or GMO-free
- Shop locally
- Buy whole foods

Article on 'Emergency Room Medicine for Cancer Treatment'

From the website:

Inside the emergency room and intensive care wards, where many believe some of the most accurate medicine is practiced, are common but extraordinarily safe and effective substances that save lives everyday. Interesting no one has thought to harness these medical super weapons against chronic disease or cancer.
What we have done to establish the nuclear core of our work is to go into the emergency room and take their best and safest medicines and apply their life saving qualities to cancer and other chronic diseases. The same medicine that can save a life on demand instantly in an emergency situation, like cardiac arrest, can use to battle the diseases that have been baffling the entire western alopathic establishment for decades.
What will come as a surprise to most allopathic physicians is that the healing agents we have selected are not pharmaceutical medicines but highly concentrated nutritional substances. We are talking specifically about magnesium chloride, iodine and sodium bicarbonate. These basic emergency room substances, along with ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid) make up our core protocol which together, along with other minerals and vitamins like selenium, zinc and vitamin C, can beat back the ravaging power of cancer and even diabetes.

Article on Magnesium and Cancer

From the website:

There is a power and a force in magnesium that cannot be equaled anywhere else in the world of medicine. There is no substitute for magnesium in human physiology; nothing comes even close to it in terms of its effect on overall cell physiology. Without sufficient magnesium, the body accumulates toxins and acid residues, degenerates rapidly, and ages prematurely. It goes against a gale wind of medical science to ignore magnesium chloride used transdermally in the treatment of any chronic or acute disorder, especially cancer.
Magnesium chloride is the first and most important item in any person’s cancer treatment strategy. Put in the clearest terms possible, our suggestion from the first day on the Survival Medicine Cancer Protocol is to almost drown oneself in transdermally applied magnesium chloride. It should be the first not the last thing we think of when it comes to cancer. It takes about three to four months to drive up cellular magnesium levels to where they should be when treated intensely transdermally but within days patients will commonly experience its life saving medical/healing effects. For many people whose bodies are starving for magnesium the experience is not too much different than for a person coming out of a desert desperate for water. It is that basic to life, that important, that necessary.

How to view and manage event logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP

In Windows XP, an event is any significant occurrence in the system or in a program that requires users to be notified, or an entry added to a log. The Event Log Service records application, security, and system events in Event Viewer. With the event logs in Event Viewer, you can obtain information about your hardware, software, and system components, and monitor security events on a local or remote computer. Event logs can help you identify and diagnose the source of current system problems, or help you predict potential system problems.

How to View Event Logs
To open Event Viewer, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, then click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. Or, open the MMC containing the Event Viewer snap-in.
2. In the console tree, click Event Viewer.

The Application, Security, and System logs are displayed in the Event Viewer window.

Read more at this site.

What is a black hole ?

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing can escape after having fallen past the event horizon.
The name comes from the fact that even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. light) is unable to escape, rendering the interior invisible. However, black holes can be detected if they interact with matter outside the event horizon, for example by drawing in gas from an orbiting star.
The gas spirals inward, heating up to very high temperatures and emitting large amounts of radiation in the process. While the idea of an object with gravity strong enough to prevent light from escaping was proposed in the 18th century, black holes as presently understood are described by Einstein's theory of general relativity,developed in 1916.
This theory predicts that when a large enough amount of mass is present within a sufficiently small region of space, all paths through space are warped inwards towards the center of the volume, forcing all matter and radiation to fall inward.
While general relativity describes a black hole as a region of empty space with a pointlike singularity at the center and an event horizon at the outer edge, the description changes when the effects of quantum mechanics are taken into account.
Research on this subject indicates that, rather than holding captured matter forever, black holes may slowly leak a form of thermal energy called Hawking radiation.
However, the final, correct description of black holes, requiring a theory of quantum gravity, is unknown.

Cheapest gas - GasBuddy.com

GasBuddy.com can help you find cheap gas prices in your city. It is a network of more than 181+ gas price information websites that help you find low gasoline prices. All web sites are operated by GasBuddy and has the most comprehensive listings of gas prices anywhere.

Gasoline prices change frequently and may vary by as much as 20 percent within only a few blocks. It's important to be able find the service station with the lowest priced fuel. GasBuddy web sites allow motorists to share information about low priced fuel with others as well as target the lowest priced stations to save money when filling up at the pumps!

Search by US Zip Code or City, State at this site.

Details about Hepatitis B

HEPATITIS B

What is hepatitis B? Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. Most adults who get hepatitis B have it for a short time and then get better. This is called acute hepatitis B. You can have hepatitis B and not know it. You may not have symptoms. If you do, they can make you feel like you have the flu. But as long as you have the virus, you can spread it to others.

Sometimes the virus does not go away. This is called chronic hepatitis B. Over time, it can damage your liver. Babies and young children infected with the virus are more likely to get chronic hepatitis B.

What causes hepatitis B? Hepatitis B is caused by the hepatitis B virus. It is spread through contact with the blood and body fluids of an infected person. Hepatitis B is one of the most easily spread (contagious) forms of viral hepatitis, which includes hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. However, hepatitis has many other causes, including some medications, long-term alcohol use, fatty deposits in the liver, and exposure to certain industrial chemicals.

How HBV is spread? HBV is spread when blood, semen, or vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood) from an infected person enter another person's body, usually in one of the following ways:

Sexual contact. The hepatitis B virus can enter the body through a break in the lining of the rectum, vagina, urethra, or mouth. Sexual contact is the most important risk factor for the spread of HBV in North America.
Sharing needles. People who share needles and other equipment (such as cotton, spoons, and water) used for injecting illegal drugs may inject HBV-infected blood into their veins.
Work-related exposure. People who handle blood or instruments used to draw blood may become infected with the virus. Health care workers are at risk of becoming infected with the virus if they are accidentally stuck with a used needle or other sharp instrument infected with an infected person's blood, or if blood splashes onto an exposed surface, such as the eyes, mouth, or a cut in the skin.
Childbirth. A newborn baby can get the virus from his or her mother during delivery when the baby comes in contact with the mother's body fluids in the birth canal (perinatal transmission) . However, breast-feeding does not transmit the virus from a woman with HBV to her child.
Body piercings and tattoos. HBV can be spread when needles used for body piercing or tattooing are not properly cleaned (sterilized) and HBV-infected blood enters a person's skin.
Toiletries. Grooming items such as razors and toothbrushes can spread HBV if they carry blood from a person who is infected with the virus.
In the past, blood transfusions were a common means of spreading HBV. Today, all donated blood in the United States is screened for the virus, so it is extremely unlikely that you could become infected with the virus from a blood transfusion.

Contagious and incubation periods: Symptoms appear an average of 60 to 90 days (although they can appear 45 to 180 days) after you have contact with the hepatitis B virus (incubation period). Blood, semen, and vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood), whether fresh or dried, are highly contagious (HBV can be easily spread) during this period and for several weeks after the onset of symptoms.

Blood contains the highest quantities of the hepatitis B virus.
Blood and other body fluids that contain the virus can remain contagious for at least a week and possibly much longer, even if they are dried.
If you have a short-term HBV (acute) infection, you usually cannot spread the virus after antibodies against the surface antigen of HBV appear. This generally takes several weeks. If you have a long-term (chronic) HBV infection, you are able to spread the virus as long as the condition lasts.

A mother who has the virus can pass it to her baby during delivery. If you are pregnant and think you may have been exposed to hepatitis B, get tested. If you have the virus, your baby can get shots to help prevent the virus.
You cannot get hepatitis B from casual contact such as hugging, kissing, sneezing, coughing, or sharing food or drinks.

What are the symptoms? Less than half of those with short-term (acute) hepatitis B infections have symptoms. Symptoms include:

Jaundice (the skin and whites of the eyes appear yellow). Although jaundice is the defining sign of hepatitis B, it does not occur in most cases. Jaundice usually appears after other symptoms have started to go away.
Extreme tiredness (fatigue).
Mild fever.
Headache.
Loss of appetite.
Nausea.
Vomiting.
Constant discomfort on the right side of the abdomen under the rib cage, where the liver is located. In most people, the discomfort is made worse when their bodies are jarred or if they overwork themselves.
Diarrhea or constipation.
Muscle aches.
Joint pain.
Skin rash.

Most people with chronic HBV have no symptoms.

If you were infected with acute HBV but had no symptoms, you may not find out that you once had hepatitis B, or that you currently have long-term (chronic) HBV infection, until you have a routine blood test or donate blood or until a family member or someone you live with is found to be infected. Some people never know they have hepatitis B until a health professional finds that they have cirrhosis or liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma). However, this is uncommon.

Your health professional will diagnose hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection based on a physical examination, your medical history, and blood tests. You will be asked questions about risk factors for hepatitis B (such as about your job or sexual activity) and about factors that could make the disease worse (such as your alcohol use or family history of liver cancer). If your health professional thinks you have been exposed to or are infected with the virus, you will need tests to find out more about your condition.

Hepatitis blood tests include:

Hepatitis B antigens and antibodies, which help determine whether you are or were once infected with HBV, whether you have been immunized, whether you have long-term (chronic) HBV infection, and whether you can pass the virus to others (contagious) .
Hepatitis B viral DNA (HBV DNA), which detects genetic material (DNA) from the hepatitis B virus. HBV DNA indicates that the virus is multiplying in your body (active) and that it is contagious.
Tests that determine whether the hepatitis A, hepatitis C, or Epstein-Barr (which causes infectious mononucleosis, or "mono") viruses are causing your hepatitis if the results of your tests show that HBV is not multiplying in your body.
Tests that determine the cause of liver inflammation if it is not a viral cause.
Tests that determine whether you are infected with hepatitis D along with hepatitis B.

Liver tests include:

Bilirubin, albumin, and prothrombin time, which help determine how well your liver is functioning. Cholesterol testing also may be done.
Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase, and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), which help determine whether your liver is damaged or inflamed. These tests measure enzymes. However, these tests alone are not a reliable way to confirm a diagnosis of hepatitis B. Additional tests usually are needed.
Tests may be done if you have chronic HBV infection and are considering antiviral treatment. These tests also may be used to determine whether treatment has been helpful in controlling liver damage caused by chronic HBV infection. They include:

Diagnostic imaging.
Abdominal ultrasound
CT scan
MRI (may be used in rare cases)
Removing a tissue sample from the liver (liver biopsy).

If you have chronic hepatitis B, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that you be vaccinated for hepatitis A if you have not been vaccinated or are not immune to this disease.

If you are at risk for liver cancer, an alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) test may be done. If the AFP level is elevated, it may indicate liver cancer.

If you have chronic HBV infection, you will need to visit your health professional regularly. He or she will do blood tests to monitor your liver function and the activity of the hepatitis B virus in your body. Some of the tests can tell your health professional whether HBV is actively multiplying in your liver, which increases your risk for chronic hepatitis. Chronic hepatitis can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma).

The CDC recommends that all pregnant women have the hepatitis B surface antigen test. This test also may be repeated later in the pregnancy if a woman is at high risk for infection.

People who were once exposed to the hepatitis B virus, especially people who moved to the United States from a country where the virus is common, often develop lifelong protection (immunity) against HBV and do not need to be vaccinated. However, people from countries where HBV infection is common may carry the virus and should be screened for the virus.

You can be screened for hepatitis B before getting vaccinated. However, keep in mind that:

Hepatitis B vaccination may cost less than screening. Screening costs include the cost of a health professional visit and laboratory tests. If antibodies against HBV are not found, you will have to pay for the full vaccination series (three shots given at different times), including the cost of additional office visits.
You can receive the hepatitis B vaccine even if you already have antibodies against HBV in your bloodstream, and no harm will result.
Treatment Overview Treatment of hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection depends on how active the virus is and whether you are at risk for liver damage such as cirrhosis. Short-term (acute) hepatitis B usually goes away on its own; home treatment is used to relieve symptoms and help prevent spread of the virus. In long-term (chronic) HBV infection, treatment includes monitoring the condition and using antiviral medications to prevent liver damage. If hepatitis B has severely damaged your liver, a liver transplant may be considered. The American Association for the Study of Liver Disease has made recommendations on who should receive antiviral treatment for chronic hepatitis B based on the presence of hepatitis B antigens in your blood, the level of HBV DNA in your blood, and the levels of your liver enzymes. Initial treatment Your initial treatment for hepatitis B (HBV) infection depends on whether you are seeing your health professional because you believe you may have
recently been infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), you have the symptoms of acute HBV infection, or you have chronic HBV infection. If you believe you have recently been exposed to HBV, you should receive a shot of hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) and the first of three immunization shots of hepatitis B vaccine. It is important to receive this treatment within 7 days after a needle stick and within 2 weeks after sexual contact that may have exposed you to the virus. The sooner you receive treatment after exposure, the more effective treatment is. If you have the symptoms of acute hepatitis B, treatment with medication is usually not needed. Home treatment usually will relieve your symptoms and help prevent the spread of the virus. To help relieve symptoms and prevent the spread of the infection:
Slow down to reduce fatigue. Reduce your activity level to match your energy level. Don't go to work or school unless your workload can be reduced to match your energy level. Avoid strenuous exercise. As you start to feel better, go back to your regular activities gradually.
Eat right. Even though food may not appeal to you, it is important to get adequate nutrition. For most people, nausea and loss of appetite become worse as the day goes on. Try eating a substantial (but not heavy) meal in the morning and lighter meals later in the day.
Drink plenty of liquids to avoid dehydration. It is important that you keep your body well-hydrated when you have hepatitis B, especially if you have been vomiting. Drink plenty of water and, if you can tolerate them, drink fruit juices and broth to obtain additional calories. Rehydration drinks help replenish electrolytes.
Avoid alcohol and drugs. Hepatitis B makes it difficult for your liver to process drugs and alcohol. If you take drugs (prescription or illegal) or drink alcohol when you have hepatitis, their effects may be more powerful and may last longer. In addition, alcohol and some drugs can worsen liver damage. You should avoid alcohol until your health professional feels that your liver is completely healed, which may take as long as 3 to 4 months. Ask your health professional about using prescription medications.
Try to control itching. People with hepatitis B sometimes develop itchy skin. You can use nonprescription medications, such as Benadryl or Chlor-Trimeton, to control itching. Talk to your health professional before taking nonprescription medications.
Prevent the spread of HBV by informing people you live with or sleep with about the illness, not sharing personal toiletries (such as razors and toothbrushes) , and using a condom or abstaining from sex.
If you have chronic HBV infection, treatment depends on how active the virus is in your body and the potential for liver damage. The goal of treatment is to stop liver damage by preventing the virus from multiplying.
Antiviral medication is used if the virus is active and you are at risk for liver damage. Medication slows the ability of the virus to multiply. Antiviral medicine for hepatitis B include

Interferons such as interferon alfa-2b and pegylated interferon alfa-2a.
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) such as adefovir, lamivudine, and entecavir.

Whether or not you are taking medication, you will need to visit your health professional regularly. He or she will do blood tests to monitor your liver function and the activity of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in your body. Some of the tests can determine whether HBV is actively multiplying in your liver, which increases your risk for chronic hepatitis. Chronic hepatitis can lead to liver damage and disease such as cirrhosis or liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma). Ongoing treatment Ongoing treatment for chronic hepatitis B (HBV) infection consists of using antiviral medication (if necessary) and seeing your health professional on a regular basis to monitor the virus and check for liver damage. Antiviral medication for hepatitis B includes:
Interferons such as interferon alfa-2b and pegylated interferon alfa-2a.
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) such as adefovir, lamivudine, and entecavir.
Whether or not you are taking medication, you will need to visit your health professional regularly. He or she will do blood tests to monitor your liver function and the activity of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in your body. Some of the tests can determine whether HBV is actively multiplying in your liver, which increases your risk for chronic hepatitis. Chronic hepatitis can lead to liver damage and disease such as cirrhosis or liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma).
Treatment if the condition gets worse Hepatitis B (HBV) infection can lead to liver damage and diseases such as cirrhosis or liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma). If you develop significant liver damage because of hepatitis and your condition becomes life-threatening, you may need a liver transplant.

Home Treatment
Home treatment is important for relieving symptoms and preventing the spread of hepatitis B virus (HBV).

While there is no specific medical treatment for short-term (acute) hepatitis B, there are some things you can do that may help you feel better while the illness is running its course.
Slow down
Reduce your activity level to match your energy level. You don't have to stay in bed, but listen to your body and slow down when you become tired.
Don't go to work or school unless your workload can be reduced to match your energy level.
Avoid strenuous exercise.
As you start to feel better, go back to your regular activities gradually. If you try to meet your regular pace too soon, you may get sick again.

Eat right
Even though food may not appeal to you, it is important to get adequate nutrition. For most people, nausea and loss of appetite become worse as the day goes on. Try eating a substantial (but not heavy) meal in the morning and lighter meals later in the day.
Health professionals used to recommend a high-calorie, protein-rich diet to people who have hepatitis. This is no longer believed to be of any benefit, and such foods can be hard to eat when you feel nauseated. Try to maintain a balanced diet while eating foods that appeal to you.
Avoid dehydration It is important that you keep your body well-hydrated when you have hepatitis B, especially if you have been vomiting.

Drink plenty of water.
If you can tolerate them, fruit juices and broth are other good choices because they provide additional calories.
Many of the "sports drinks" available in grocery stores can help replace essential minerals (electrolytes) that are lost during vomiting. You can also make your own rehydration drink.
Avoid alcohol and drugs Hepatitis impairs your liver's ability to process drugs and alcohol. If you take drugs (prescription or illegal) or drink alcohol when you have hepatitis, their effects may be more powerful and may last longer. In addition, alcohol and some drugs can worsen liver damage.

If you are taking prescription medications, your health professional may instruct you to stop using them until your liver has had time to heal. Do not stop taking prescription medications unless your health professional has told you to do so.
Check with your health professional before taking any new medications or continuing the use of nonprescription medications, including herbal products and acetaminophen (such as Tylenol). Acetaminophen can worsen liver disease, especially if you continue to drink alcohol.
You should avoid alcohol until your health professional feels that your liver is completely healed. This may take as long as 3 to 4 months.
People with hepatitis sometimes develop itchy skin. You can control itching by keeping cool and out of the sun, wearing cotton clothing, or using nonprescription medications, such as Benadryl or Chlor-Trimeton. Talk to your health professional if you want to take nonprescription medications.

Be sure to follow the instructions for use that are provided with the product, and stop using the product if you have any side effects.
See your health professional regularly if you have chronic HBV infection If you have been diagnosed with long-term (chronic) HBV infection, your health professional will recommend that you be vaccinated for hepatitis A if you have not been vaccinated or are not immune to this disease. For more information on hepatitis A, see the topic Hepatitis A. You also will need to visit your health professional regularly. He or she will do blood tests to monitor your liver function and the activity of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in your body. Some of the tests can tell your doctor whether HBV is actively multiplying in your liver, which increases your risk for chronic hepatitis. Chronic hepatitis can lead to liver disease such as cirrhosis or liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma).
Can hepatitis B be prevented? The hepatitis B vaccine is the best way to prevent infection. The vaccine is a series of three shots. Adults at risk and all babies, children, and teenagers should be vaccinated.
To avoid getting or spreading the virus to others:

Use a condom when you have sex.
Do not share needles.
Wear latex or plastic gloves if you have to touch blood.
Do not share toothbrushes or razors.