Health Adda

As the world is celebrates the 100 th bitrh anniversay of Mother Teresa, who has become the lasting symbol of caring and loving for the sick and the poor, I wish she had gone around in her younger days inspiring medicos to add empathy to the medical science they practice. What is often forgotten in these arrogant hi-tec days is that modern medicine needs all its 3 legs – science, skills and caring, to stand firmly in society. Ironically, although photographs of Mother Teresa  often adorn the walls of rich homes and institutions, her spirit of humanitarism seems wanting, especially in hospitals and clinics, where it is needed most. There was a time not long ago, when physicians and nurses didn’t have much else to offer patients other than personal attention, comfort, compassion and concern for their ailments. Medical professionals were revered and respected for that and for what little they could do in regard to symptomatic treatment for incurable conditions. The Twen...

If what is shown in TV soap operas, widely considered to reflect the mood and pulse of the society, is any indicator to go by, then doctors being held by the collar by anxious relatives, is not surprising.  Aggression against doctors is on the rise and is imapacting the way doctors deal with patients. If you ever had an emergency at home and wished the doctor would come running with just a phone call, you must have been disappointed. One of the direct fallouts of increased aggression has been the discontinuation of “home visits” by most GPs. The official explanation is the difficulty and inadequacy of organizing tests and medical support for a critically ill patient at home, but  at heart most doctors shudder at  being trapped  in a sick patient’s home with anxious relatives demanding miracles, and threatening them if things don’t work out well.  Physicians are nowadays wary of giving injections to seriously ill patients at homes and clinics lest his...

If college students  and truck drivers in India know that  condoms protect from HIV infection or if mothers know that the best strategy to save their children when struck with diarrhea is to feed them ORS (oral rehydration solution), it has been largely due to awareness waves generated by  foundations  and non-governmental organizations. They have often pro vided the much needed boost to our government’s resource-crunched meagre efforts at public awa reness and health promotion. Some of them such as the Wecome Trust that has support ed research on diarrhea, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has stemmed the tide of HIV infection in this country. In fact Mr Bill Gates’ concept of corporate philanthropy and his recent enthusiasm in giving back to society from which he made his big bucks has infected many billionnaires such as  Mr Warren Buffet who has pledging a sizeable part of his wealth for similar work.  Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundatio...

When food procured from the local grocer and prepared for serving to the Prime Minister during his recent visit to Kanpur was found to contain impurities, it made headlines for a day. That a billion Indians eat the same food considered unsuitable for the prime minister’s consumption, every day, does not seem to arouse us. A wide variety of chemicals, pesticides, impurities, hormones, toxins, additives and insecticides find their way into our bodies through the food we eat. It begins with chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in farming. Of late, our farmers have discovered that injecting a hormone called oxytocin, which is normally produced by the human body for making the uterus contract or express milk from breasts, can enhance farm produce and make the fruits and veggies look fatter, bigger and garden-fresh. Another chemical agent, calcium carbide, is commonly used to ripen fruits. There is growing concern what they might be doing to us when we consume them. The da...

That medical gossip makes interesting news was clearly evident when the headlines and front pages of major dailies blared about Mr Amitabh Bachhan’s intestin al diverticuli or Mr Manmohan Singh’s blocked coronaries, dispeling the daily din and clamour of politicians and criminals to corners of its remote pages. While politics is their staple diet, a glance through the pages of the morning papers or magazines display a good dose of medical news, be it beauty tips, cancer scares or hot news from the oven of medical research. Of the several types of health news, “tragic tales” of individuals who have lost their limbs, livers or lives due to medical negligence is the type of story that the novice reporter feels most excited to file. “Happy case reports” of how a child from Pakistan successfully underwent a heroic corrective surgery for a rare heart disease, and went happily back home, comes next. It brings with it a “feel good factor” and comes as a whiff of freshness amidst t...