Health Adda

The importance of common salt, essential not just for life but for good health especially in hot times is unfortunately often overlooked. The balance and concentration of sodium in our body, is one of the most delicately monitored and finely tuned body functions and is kept constant concentration of 0.9%. Salt , also known as   table salt, or   rock salt is a crystalline mineral that is composed primarily of  sodium chloride (NaCl) , a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of ionic salts . It is essential for  animal  life in small quantities, but is harmful to animals and plants in excess. Salt is one of the oldest, most ubiquitous food seasonings and  salting  is an important method of  food preservation . The   taste of salt (saltiness) is one of the  basic human tastes . Most people expect a straight flat answer to the question “ How much salt should we consume each day?”. The National Academy of Sciences, USA, recommends that Americans consume a minimum

An elderly lady who had tolerated her mild symptoms of abdominal gas for decades, was suddenly metamorphosed to a vegetative state thanks to an unusual side effect of a newly launched drug for gaseousness!. The disturbing video of this lady, with shaking of hands and  twitching  of face, shown to a gathering of doctors in a meeting in Lucknow recently evoked a uniform surprise “Gosh, I did not know this could also happen!”. Dr Debnandan further shared information gathered from the net that  several  such instances of an ailment resembling Parkinson ’s disease have been reported with this agent, the disorder becoming permanent in many. Adverse reactions to medicines do occur in a minority and every doctor faces them from time to time. What constitutes a tragedy is when the reaction is grave or life threatening while the indication for prescribing the medicine was mild. Take for instance the side-effect of constipation that comes with many draugs such as pain-killers, anti-spasmodic

The deodorant spray, the next gen’s all too familiar “deo”, may be the cause of our excessive fatigue and exhaustion during hot summer days. Deodorants, meant to tackle the bad body odour especially from the underarms, do so by two methods. One is by killing the germs that colonize in these warm moist sites and break down secretions into smelly substances. Almost all deos are therefore antiseptic agents of a sort, containing some form or other of spirit, natural oils and perfumes. They work to keep us feeling clean and fresh. Many deos however are anti-perspirants as well, and work by blocking the secretion of sweat from the sweat- glands. This variety of sprays has become trendy as they make the skin look cool and dry even on sweaty days. They prevent the embarassing wet dark maps from appearing on the shirts, and make us stink less as there is less soaking of clothes with skin secretions. While many use the terms deodorants and anti-perspirants interchangably, they are not the

The month of May, when the mercury soars to 45 O C in the northern plains, can play havoc with your health, energy levels, mood and performance.The hot blast that strikes our face when we venture out in the afternoon these days  can dry up our body (dehydration) or cause excess body heating (heat or sun stroke), both of which can be quite serious. Dehydration is the commoner one, and claims around 2 million lives globally every year, especially from developing regions. Children are more susceptible, and once grossly dehydrated, often find it impossible to regain health. Symptoms and signs of dehydration include fatigue, headache, low BP, dizziness, fainting, dry mouth and reduced amounts of concentrated urine. It is often precipitated by an attack of vomiting or loose motions, or sometimes, a fast. Drinking large amounts of water (around 6-15 glasses a day) and increasing the intake of salt (through pickles, papads, salted nimbu paani or lassi) are the cornerstones of prevention a

Sample these questions: “Which country held a  parliamentary  meeting under water to draw the world’s attention to environmental issues?” What are trans-fats and why are they a health concern? What killed Michael Jackson and Elvis Prisley?, By what proportion do diarrheal diseases come down if hands are washed well before meals?”. These were some asked in HOPE Quiz finals held in Lucknow on 7 th May in which teams from 45  schools  participated. Quizzing has always aroused the most excitement among students since HOPE  started  reaching out to students in 2004. HOPE quiz 2012 started with an intra-school quiz that 75 schools of Lucknow hosted in April. The highest scoring 2 students were then invited to represent their school in a semi-final round, and from them the top 6 schools were chosen for the finals. Most questions were aimed at assessing if the student had been reading the daily news-papers and probing inquisitively into health aspects. While almost everyone knew about the

The suspicion that the moon might be affecting our moods and actions refuses to die down. A doctor colleague frantically approached me yesterday to seek help for an uncontrollable aggressiveness that he was experiencing towards his colleagues, patients, staff, and even his small child. When I opened the paper after having dispensed the usual advice to consult a psychiatrist, I realized that it was full-moon time, and that the moon had come as close to the earth as it possibly could. One could argue that this was mere coincidence, but a possible link between the lunar cycle and its effect on mood and behaviour prompted me to explore the internet with Google throwing up 10 million results in a fraction of a second. My suspicion was well founded as there were enough accounts. A police dispatcher recounted how full-moon nights were busy nights, when crime rates and murders soared, the police stations were full and people behaved aggressively. Back in the 1970s, a study published in th

Why delivering good gratifying medical care is so complex is because it involves not just knowledge, skills and ethics but another vital component that is often overlooked, called medical etiquette. Medical etiquette is simply good proper behaviour that is expected of physicians and nurses when dealing with patients. Simple, etiquette is usually not given much importance during medical training in this country and is hence often found woefully lacking in our professionals. Consequently, do not be surprised to meet a top-notched specialist with a string of degrees below his name, who may forget the etiquette of offering you a seat when you enter his chamber, and continue talking on the phone. A resident doctor, who comes to train with us to become a superspecialist, is often grossly deficient in etiquette. In the busy and crowded OPD, I see him often examining a female patient in the presence of 10 unrelated spectators. In the ward, I see him doing an ascitic tap (drawing fluid

Although one cannot imagine a hospital without nurses, their importance in the delivery of care often goes unrecognized. It is not uncommon to hear of instances when a very critical patient with little hope of survival, has been successfully operated upon by a team of highly specialized doctors, brought back to life as it were by a group of intensivists in the ICU, and then, after several weeks in hospital when hope has mounted, suddenly dies due a wrong injection or infection from a catheter due to nursing lapse. What relatives experience at such times is a deep sense of betrayal and anger, that soon replaces the gratitude and appreciation that the previous few weeks of heroic achievement had earned. And what compounds matters in busy hospitals is that nurses neither have the time nor the training to provide emotional support to grieving relatives at this stage, ensuring that they go back with permanent bitter memories and impressions of this hospital. To be fair to nurses, jus

Ruby is  finally  set to undergo surgery for a blocked and ulcerated food-pipe that has plagued her for 12 long years. Inshallah, if all goes well, this 30 year old frail 40 kg girl might get another chance to live life with grace and vigour, when a loop of intestine replaces her gullet and allows her to eat normal food. Her problems had begun suddenly 12 years ago when she had accidentally swallowed sulphuric acid, used to clean floors and commodes that her father had kept in a clear water bottle. She still shudders to think of the intense burning, choking and pain, the swelling around her mouth and the agony of drips in hospital. A week later she had noticed difficulty in swallowing food that had progressed to obstructing even the passage of her saliva. She had withered rapidly from a 55 kg energetic girl to a skin-and-bony 20 kg in three months and had become so weak that she needed hospitalization and drips again and again. It was around then that her association with us started w

Spring is the time when allergy reaches its peak every year with sneezing, stuffy or running nose, scratchy eyes, a nagging cough or itchy skin. More severe allergic symptoms include urticaria or angry hives on the skin and breathlessness or wheezing. Global observations show that allergies are on the rise year after year; 2011 set a record and experts expect 2012 to be worse. This increase has been attributed to increased levels of carbondioxide in the atmosphere due to global warming, that feeds plants and leads to greater release of pollen in the atmosphere. The culprit is usually pollen that comes either from grass or from tress. Pollen from blooming plants are carried by the wind and brought on to our bodies where some of them trigger allergic reactions. As they enter the body through the nose and wind-pipes, they often selectively trigger reactions at these sites. While many allergy experts recommend testing to find out the exact cause like identifying species of plant pollen th

News-watchers were shocked to learn how a young robust 19 year-old Vishwanath, collapsed suddenly and died while playing football (soccer) recently in Bangalore. This happened at a time when soccer lovers were recovering from a similar incident in which the Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba, collapsed on the field from a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and had to be rushed to hospital. The possibility that young, well-trained athletes at the high school, college, or professional level may die suddenly of heart disease seems incomprehensible. It is a dramatic and tragic event that devastates families and the community, especially as these young people seem to be the fittest in society. SCA in young athletes triggered by vigorous activity occurs in 1 of 100,000 sportsmen annually. FIFA lists around 92 players who died while playing soccer, half of whom from SCA.YouTube contains an interesting video showingMiklosFeher slumpingsuddenly to the ground and dying, and another of Anthony van Loo wh

How wired parents get when their stressed kids take the board exams showed up yet again when they went on a ruckus over a question that appeared in the English paper asking students to provide an imaginary account of a bomb blast in a crowded place. Opinion seemed sharply divided with some parents on edge calling it “insensitive”, while ex-students terming it contemporary and relevant. Parents argued that stressed to the hilt that exam-goers are at these times, asking them to imagine and describe a gory scene of a bomb blast would add to their children’s distress. Could not the paper -setters’ think of pleasant topics that could soothe their raw nerves? Some students garnered their parents’ sympathy and mentally cushion them in the event of a less than expected performance. “It is all the insensitive board’s fault!” is what they are chanting along with their parents, having found a convenient scapegoat should it be necessay when the results come in. Successful ex-students and teachers

Of the many things patients have taught me is why they like some hospitals and hate others. You will find streams of grateful patients in a shabby government hospital for in stance, while there would be many who would choke on their drinks in a party with the mere mention of that hospital’s name. The factor that seems to sway opinion most is the final outcome of an index patient; if he was brought in moribund and finally walk out, then all the dirty linen, the “paan” stained corridors, the constant drone of mosquitoes and the rude words from nurses are often forgiven, and the hospital assumes the symbol of a new life. If the end goes awry, as often it does in a referral hospital where critically ill patients are shunted to, the hospital becomes blotched in the minds of relatives and friends across generations. But how do first timers, who have often come in for a consultation or procedure react to a new hospital? The initial impressions often prove crucial. Was the entrance clean and

Around 10 million people in India are unknowingly consuming high levels of arsenic in their water,  with  many showing signs of chronic poisoning. A recent investigation showed that the ground water (wells, deep tube wells) of several parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar contain far higher levels of arsenic than is considered safe and permissible for human consumption. The plight of people residing in these regions came to light due to the dark spots and patches on their skins and by their rough and scaly palms and soles. People from adjacent regions could smell there was something wrong with inhabitants of some villages and declined marrying into these homes out of fear of some infection. While the disease is not infectious, arsenosis, as it is called in medical science, is a disease that is being increasingly recognized across the world. Geographical regions with high arsenic content in ground water and human inhabitants of the regions showing a characteristic disease pattern ha

Indian children, being loyal to their parents in contrast to their Western counterparts, are often diffident to blame them for their misery during exams. In Manthan 2012, an inter-school debate organized by HOPE Initiative, in which 100 high-school students from 43 schools participated, several children finally admited to what their teachers had always suspected: the main source of stress during exam times was in fact, their parents. Researchers have noted that the phenomenon of exam stress occurs more often in the Eastern hemisphere, especially in countries such as India, Japan and Korea. It has its origin in the aspiration of parents to see their children better-settled and financially secure. Paradoxical as it may sound, this parental desire that claims several hundred lives every year by suicides, often stems from their concern for the welfare of their children, a sentiment that abounds in Indian parents. It also has roots in unfulfilled desires or yearning to see their children c

The line that divides “second opinion” from “medical shopping” is a blurred one. “Second opinion” is the seeking of another medical opinion to verify or validate what the first doctor had diagnosed or advised, and is often quite a valuable step. Most in their normal senses would not seek another opinion for a common cold. On the contrary if the diagnosis is of a sinsister kind such as cancer, or if the  treatment advised is of the risky or expensive kind, such as a heart surgery, it is quite natural for a patient  to seek a confirmation or endorsement by another expert in the field. Indeed, good physicians and surgeons often advise their patients to consult a second physician so as to get convinced of the unpleasant diagnosis and then return with greater motivation to embark on a treatment that is challenging. The diagnosis of cancer is certainly one such situation. It often comes as a shock and evokes a sense disbelief and denial in patients with thoughts like “it just can’t be true,

Doctors excel at making simple things sound complex and grave by their deft use of terms that sound truely Greek or Latin to our common ears. If, for instance, you go to a doctor with bleeding from the nose, he will diagnose it as “epistaxis”, a word that sounds so ‘propah’, but merely means bleeding from the nose! Many of the diagnostic terms we hear are therefore words from another language that sounds bombastic but tells what the patient told. if you are running fever, your doctor will label it “pyrexia”, and if it has been going on for more than a couple of weeks, he will call it “pyrexia of unknown origin” or PUO to impress you. The term “heme” stands for blood (remember hemoglobin that gives blood its red colour) and comes in medical jargon in many avatars. If someone vomits blood, the doctor calls it “hematemesis”, if your piles bleed, he says “hematochezia”, and if your urine contains blood, he will label it as “hematuria” and so on..... Great medical terms but meaning only wh

The buck-you-up cup that gets us going in the morning has indeed survived intense scientific scrutiny for 20 years regarding its health safety, and has emerged largely unscathed with, in fact, some benefits to claim instead. A recent study showed that moderate coffee drinkers were less likely to develop liver cirrhosis, degenarative brain disorders, and heart disease. Scientists, still groping for a cause of the enigmatic Alzheimer’s disease, a degenrative condition of the brain that wipes off its victim’s memory and higher mental functions, were surprised to find that those who drank 3-5 cups of the brew a day had a lower chance of having the disease. A similar “protection” was also seen from another degerative condition of the nerves and brain, called Parkinson ’s disease. Coffee, a drink made from brewing beans of the coffeacute plant, contains several chemical compounds that affect the human system. Apart from caffeine, the main constituent that provides its stimulant effect, it c