Health Adda

  A good night’s sleep, so essential to rest your body and mind, and restore ‘energy” and vitality, is becoming a casualty for many these days. Last week a 58 year old lady complained that she woke up with a startle in the middle of the night dreaming of “drugs”, something she had never been exposed to all her life. Another reported a nightmare in which he felt someone was “strangulating” him by tightening something around his neck, till he woke up feeling choked! Yet another reported dreaming that he was in an ICU of a hospital with PPE draped figures surrounding his bed while he was being prepared to be hooked to a ventilator. Bad dreams can be disturbing to say the least. One wakes up with a startle or in sweat, feeling disturbed and uneasy, and feeling drained. The mood in the morning is usually uneasy and snappy. Creative thinking has usually gone for a toss…postponed to yet another day when one feels more cheerful and positive.   Several factors could be contribu...

At times such as this after 5 months into the pandemic when  Covid  infection numbers are still climbing up, life is anything but “normal”, and uncertainty is looming like thick clouds over our heads, many are getting the feeling that they are reaching the snapping point!   It was in this context that 260  teachers of  one of the reputed school chains , Lucknow Public School,  gathered  Sunday  for an online interactive session by HOPE Initiative to discuss and explore strategies of coping and resilience.   Of the many segments of society that are facing  the present brunt , school teachers  are a particularly hard-hit lot. Apart from the  universal  fear of infection, they find themselves being pushed into crazy degrees of multi-tasking: looking after   children’s studies, cooking, chores  at home  in addition to the teaching. To make matters worse, they are being pushed from their comfort zone of conventio...

In the recently held inter-school skit competition named HOPE-SKIT, yet another of HOPE Initiate's innovative ways of creating awareness on health issues,   more than half of the 46 participating schools focused on   bullying as their central theme, finally pulling it out from under the carpet and placing it on   centre stage as a major health menace. A chief hurdle in controlling bullying in schools, as illustrated by students of Lucknow Public School, Janakipuram,, is the victim’s diffidence and lack of courage to complain.   But are the victims really to blame? Victims of bullying are usually the most timid and innocent of the lot, and it requires sensitivity to understand why they prefer to suffer silently rather than raise their voice in protest. The harsh truth is that they feel uncertain about the sincerity and ability of their teachers and parents to protect them from the retaliation from their tormentors. At the core of the issue, therefore, is t...

A good breakfast can help students score better in the coming examinations. Evidence suggests that eating breakfast really does help students learn. After fasting all night, the brain needs a fresh supply of glucose — or blood sugar. That's the brain's basic fuel. "Without glucose," explains Terrill Bravender, professor of Pediatrics at Duke University, "our brain simply doesn't operate as well. People have difficulty understanding new information; they have a problem with visual and spatial understanding, and remembering." Haven’t we all had the experience of our brains struggling desperately to get that crucial name, term or date during the exam, which we had known till yesterday? Slips in calculation are more frequent when the brain runs without enough fuel. Dozens of studies from as far back as the 1950s have consistently shown that children who eat breakfast perform better academically than those who don't. In a recent study of 4,000 e...

Students who do well in examinations and score high marks are no doubt bright and hardworking, but many who do not are often equally intelligent and turn out to be even more successful in life. Some of the famous achievers such as Bill Gates,  Einstein  and Thomas Edison have not been stellar performers in school, highlighting a deep disconnect between performance in examination and success. Intelligence Quotient or IQ for instance,measures a person’s logical or analytical ability and is conventionally regarded as the main arbiter his potential. Our deep cultural bias that puts a premium on such scores is reflected in the questions that parents and teachers ask of children, such as “Who is the best student in your class? Who is the topper of your school?” and so on, giving undue importance to only scholastic success. In this rigid system, children who have other skills and capabilities such as leadership, music, games and organizational ability are often made to feel sec...

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 al...

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...

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...

A recently held poster-making competition organized by HOPE Initiative ( www.hope.org.in ) on 22 nd September in which 170 artistically-inclined school students representing 36 schools took part, once again drove home the point that perceptions and emotions, rather than dry bits of medical information, often shape our attitudes towards health and its hazards. Pix 1: Students pouring imagination and colours on to their posters. The Governor of UP Shri BL Joshi, who graced the ceremony in Lalit Kala academy as chief guest, expressed appreciation and intrigue at the imaginative and creative ways in which students from class 6 to 12 had depicted topics ranging from “Life Style Diseases” to “Road Traffic Accidents”. Pix 2 : Shri BL Joshi surveying the posters “Health” can be as boring a topic, if students are lectured on the virtue of eating apples, to an as amazingly exciting one if they are encouraged to research and present issues as they see through their own eyes. Sample this...

As the examination draws very near, it is crucial to stop the endless reading and change gear to startegizing on how to improve and polish your performance.  Students forget that marks come home based only on what is written in the answer paper, for the examiner (especially in board examination) has no way of knowing how much you know, have toiled or what a nice guy you are! It is your performance that determines your score. Therefore, it is time to get smart at this final stage and maximize your marks with the following tips. 1.      Stop acquiring further informaton, and shift your focus to improving your presenation. Remember the “R”s : Read, Retain, Recapitulate, Reproduce, (w)Rite, and Revise. The time for Reading is up. 2.      Focus now on “retaining” and “recapitulating”. The best way is to go chapter by chapter, trying to recollect the points and diagrams, mostly with the book closed, taking a peep into it once in a while when y...

Siddharth, a class 12 student, is a disturbed boy these days. He stays mostly indoors, has allowed hair to grow on his face, looks and feels tense, is not sleeping well,and is getting increasingly uneasy about the future. With the board examinations approaching and several worries playing on his mind, his greatest concern is about failing to meet his parent’s expectations. Rohit, the son of his father’s colleague, had scored a 93% in the boards last year, a target that puts his father’s reputation is at stake. And if he gets a mere 70%, how would he face his inquisitive neighbours, who would call to brazenly enquire about his marks? How would his mother face their relatives, some of whose children had scored over 90% in their boards in recent years? Studies have shown that the primary driver of examination stress in oriental countries such as India and Japan, is surprisingly, well-meaning parents themselves, who in turn are driven by a sense of insecurity for their children’s future. ...

Shubham, a 17 year old student of Modern School and son of our colleague, died in a two wheelr accident last week, sending shock waves, sorrow and remorse in our hearts yet again. We all know that two-wheelers are the backbone of the middle class especially of its youth. W ith 45 lac new two wheelers hitting Indian roads every year and 12 000 new registrations every day accidents are bound to rise. The number of precious young lives being lost is however disproportionaly high with 115,000 deaths every year in Delhi alone. The recurring and haunting theme that runs through all these tragedies is that they were not wearing helmets while riding their two wheelers. Why then do riders not wear helmets? Road research instistute cite these as the common excuses: 1.           “I am a good driver. It cant happen to me” 2.           “There are no cops on this route at this time” 3.           ...

The two words that are being hurled frequently at exam goers these days are “Concentrate” and “Relax”, both difficult to practice, yet being vital determinants of a good examination performance. “Concentration” is the proverbial hippopotomus, easy to recognize, but not always easy to understand and master. Students often remain buried in their books for long hours, with little going into the heads or staying there! Remember, concentrating is about focussing the mind, not merely looking into books or repeated reading. This simple 2-minute technique helps improve cncentraion. Close your eyes and visualize the blue sky in your mind for just 2 minutes. Every time a passing cloud comes between you and the sky, consciously ignore it, and bring your focus back to the blue sky that lies beyond the cloud. Hold your mind in control there for just 2 minutes and don’t let it waver. It sounds simple but may take time to master! If you are able to do it, you will probably be doing very well in the...