Health Adda

If most schools were not closed for summer vacation  on June 5 th , the World Environment Day, students would have had to stand in the sizzling heat and clap their little hands as principals, teachers or guests undertook the annual ritual planting of sam plings in the school compound. While it is true that felling of tress has made the world a lot less green, and that tree leaves soak in a good bit of the excess carbondioxide that we emit in producing global war ming, I feel we need to move in more directions and with greater thrust. In fact, under this year’s theme  'Many Species. One Planet. One Future',   people from different parts are celebrating diversity, with sessions to name a gorilla to preserving rare species on the verge of extinction. To highlight environmental issues celebrations are being undertaken for 3 to 7 days so as to draw in every person into the event, as each person’s conviction and participation is crucial if the palnet has to survi...

The quick witted and dashing trade union leader George Fernandes, who went on to become the defence minister of India and is remembered for his fabled flight in a Mig fighter aircraft, is now unable to recognize his own relatives and recall his own name. The “cowboy” American president Ronanld Reagan, the tough no-nonsense British prime min ister Margaret Thatcher, and the Hollywood heartthrob Charlton Heston are also among the  26 million suffers worldwide afflicted by Alzheimer’s Disease, that robs  mental functions and reduces one to a blank vegetative state till they die. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is on the rise and is being increasingly recognized. The mother of a senior executive in Lucknow, who suffered from this disease and had became comatose was, in a rare show of  devotion, kept alive for 5 long years with life support at home. And some healthy relatives have cobbled together a group to learn and share from each other about how to care for their aff...

Of the several special “reminder” days that are scattered across the yearly calender, 19 th May has been declared World Hepatitis Awareness Day. Some may argue if this yet another “Day” was indeed necessary, now that we already have so many that it is hard to  remember. If World AIDS day (December 1) can be celebrated with such gaiety and World Malaria day (April 25) with such feverishness, Hepatitis surely deserves much more! While only 0.3 % of the Indian population is infected with the HIV virus, atleast 10 times more (3%) harbour the Hepatitis B infection. And with 1% of the Indian population harbouring Hepatitis C (3 fold more than HIV), around 4% of us harbour one of the 2 chronic Hepatitis infections. And most of us do not know about it, as it takes almost 20 years before symptoms and signs of liver disease appear! Strangely, Hepatitis, especially Hepatitis B, has become a glaring example of the disconnect betweent progress in scientific research and its impact ...

Baldness, or alopecia in medical parlance, is the description of the loss of hair from the head or body, and tends to be, almost invariably involuntary and unwelcome.Studies have estimated that around half of men around 50 suffer from some form of baldn ess. A quarter of men have it coming from the end of their first quarter, and three quarters of them are bald at their third quarter. Women are less affected, but around a fifth of them complain of thinning or loss of hair by their 50s.  Given the high prevalence, it is surprising that this common condition should be source of embarrassment at all.The most common form of baldness is the male pattern or androgenic alopecia in which the hairline starts receding, initially at the lateral sides of the forehead, the hair thins out and disappears from the top or back portions, and then rarely completely from the scalp. This pattern of baldness ensues as a mix of genetic predisposition and the male hormone testosterone. Hence ...