Health Adda

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. ...

With doctors widely perceived as “very serious” people, and clnics as “high stress” zones, many might wonder if humour has any scope with either of them. A dash of innocuous fun could prove an antidote for this “polluted” state . Of the several flavours of jokes that go around in medical corridors, many deal with doctor–patient communication .  It is said that “ A doctor who cannot take a good history and a patient who cannot give one are in danger of giving and receiving bad treatment” . You must have heard about that fat obedient patient whom the doctor had instructed to run 8 kilometers a day for 3 months. After 90 days he calls the doctor on his cell phone to complain, “Sir, I have lost 15 Kg weight alright, but having followed your instructions, am now 700 km away from home.” I am sure you can identify this patient! Sample this conversation between a surgeon and a patient in the clinic: Doctor: Have you ever had a surgery before? Patient: Yes Doctor: For what? Patient: For Rs...

The way we drink our tea may not only reflect our taste and style, but our health as well. Tea drinking is around 4700 years old and had its origin in China. Leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis (tea plant) were in use at that time as a remedy for wounds and diseases. With the legendary emperor Shenong brewing and drinking its extracts, tea drinking became a popular habit in this part of the world. The British, impressed with the brew and the customs that go with drinking it in China and Japan, tried to emulate and evolve a tea-drinking custom of their own, and soon “tea-time”became a familiar term across the globe. Every home or cafe seems to have its own flavour. The north Indian variety of “chay” is a glass of hot creamy milk (more cream as it gets more “special”) with lots of sugar and a lacing of  “tea liquor” of strong tea that grows on lower heights (Assam, Nilgiri, Sri Lanka etc). In contrast, the Chinese and Japanese prefer light green or jasmine tea without a drop of mi...