Health Adda

You will be surprised to know that of all the addictive agents that you can list such as tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, betel and drugs, one that has probably sneakily getting you hooked from early childhood and making the largest impact on your health could be your addiction to sugar. Sugar, scientists point out, poses far greater danger than we seem to realize; it is a toxin that harms our organs and disrupts the body’s usual hormonal cycles. Excessive consumption of sugar, they say, is one of the primary causes of the obesity epidemic and metabolic disorders like diabetes, as well as a culprit for cardiovascular disease. More than 20% of urban Indians and 10% of urban school children and adolescents in India are obese largely due to excessive consumption of sweets and sugar. That the landscape of health across the world and especially in India is undergoing drastic change is reflected in the WHO’s recent report attributing over 60% of urban deaths in our country to life-sty

Violence against Doctors Last week’s gory incident in which a renowned super-specialist, Dr. Rohit Gupta was mercilessly beaten up by disgruntled relatives in a private hospital in Allahabad has shocked not just doctors, but most sensible members of society. The CCTV video showing the goons drag Dr Gupta to a room in the hospital and thrash him for over 15 minutes, has gone viral and evoked sharp outcry. Dr Gupta who sustained a fracture of his jaw bone and multiple other injuries is undergoing treatment in another hospital. He had gone to visit the 80 year old critically sick patient at 4 AM in the morning, who died, when this incident occurred. The fall out of such an event causes great harm to society, especially patients in dire need of medical help at odd hours. I am sure Dr Gupta, having learnt the lesson of his life, will refuse to take calls at odd hours. And so will many other doctors practicing in small hospitals and nursing homes.  If society and administration