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How parents damage their children’s health
Ayurveda & you Common knee-joint injury Exercising harder keeps weight off
Will there soon be a cure for everything?
Malaysian doctors: neckties are a health hazard
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How parents damage their children’s health Childhood is regarded as the best period to rejoice and lead a carefree life. There are famous poems, songs and often quoted quotes in almost all the languages on childhood to support the above statement. A close look at the present routine of children, however, reveals an altogether reverse and disturbing scenario. The child today is a victim of atrocities of adults — the so-called caretakers — even at the unborn stage. The stress on the mother’s mind — “hope it is not a girl” — is directly transmitted each second to the foetus. The crime of foeticide is too well known to be repeated here. Most children suffer from mental retardation mainly due to their parents’ carelessness. Even after being born normal and healthy the pressures on children are tremendous which parents fail to realise. Wanting a child as chubby as “my neighour’s children” or to be tall, handsome and extraordinarily brilliant by hook or by crook are some of the stresses inflicted by parents on infants without realising that growth and development relate to a scientific phenomenon, which follows a definite pattern. Love and love alone can strengthen the process and no amount of pull and push can work; rather it can be detrimental to growth. In spite of the maternity leave facility, mothers introduce bottle-feeding due to several meaningless beliefs. This leads to impairing a child’s health for which only parents are to blame. Pushing a young one - when he/she is hardly two and a half years old — into the so-called play schools is another kind of stress inflicted by overambitious parents. During the first five years the best school is home even if home has uneducated people. Parents often argue that the school is only a play school, but the scientific argument is that during the early years of one’s life the brain and the body are not ready for disciplined joy. Let the child wake up when he wants; let him not have the pain of being pushed in a well-decorated school play room every day at 10 a.m. Let his own creativity develop at home. The worst is making him learn the alphabets when, according to the rules of development, the brain is not ready for even grasping the pencil. The brain development is interfered rather than facilitated with untimely instructions. The worst stress results from parents’ expectations. Due to being overambitious parents push their children into tuitions for academics and also into every other activity. They want their children to achieve what they themselves could not. The unending stress affects the health of children severely. It is, therefore, not surprising that hypertension, diabetes and heart problem are becoming common among youngsters. It is mainly such children who commit suicide too. Nothing should be done which affects a child’s health. Any kind of achievement has no meaning if a child develops a serious health problem.
The writer is a senior paediatrician and allergy specialist.
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Ayurveda & you
“Addiction to the pleasure of sedentary habits, irregular or excessive sleep, overuse of curds and other milk preparations and excessive intake of certain types of meats, freshly harvested cereals, alcoholic drinks and sweets and all kapha- aggravating factors are responsible for the causation of prameha or madhumeha (diabetes).” This is how Indian sages saw lifestyle aberrations as a causative factor of diabetes, considered a major health threat for Indians. Living with diabetes definitely requires certain lifestyle modifications with a view to preventing many of the complications associated with it. A balanced and low-calorie diet can work wonders. Choose foods that are low in fat and sugar contents, and rich in fibre and other essential nutrients. Whole cereal meals and sufficient intake of vegetables and pulses often keep the energy levels normal. Most of the diabetics suffer from high blood pressure, and, therefore, care should also be taken to curtail sodium intake. Fruits should be taken in moderation only. Alcohol fluctuates the sugar level and should be avoided on an empty stomach; in any case, its quantity should not exceed two drinks. Smoking increases the risk of multiple health problems and no amount of it is safe for the diabetics. After dietary modifications , the next important thing to do for diabetics is adopting a regular exercise schedule. Persons having a diabetic parent, brother or sister need a more regulated lifestyle, which includes sufficient physical activity. Simple walking, yoga and any other suitable exercise not only help in lowering the sugar level but also keeping the body weight down, strengthening the heart and lungs and keeping the metabolism in order. The physical condition of a diabetic and the possibility of other medical problems are to be kept in mind before advising the right exercise programme. Care should be taken not to overdo any exercise as hypoglycemic attacks after a workout are not uncommon. Diabetics need to take special care in situations such as when they are sick or are doing exercise or travelling. Managing diabetes means a regulated and well-planned lifestyle. The writer is a Ludhiana-based senior ayurvedic physician.
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Common knee-joint injury Anterior cruciate ligament
(ACL) tear is one of the most common injuries sustained in the knee-joint. ACL restrains the anterior and the rotational movement of the tibia. The dilemma to undergo arthroscopic repair of the ligament or conservative treatment usually leads to a lot of despair. Reasons for the frustration of decision making could be the following: a) Cost of surgery and the required period of rest post-surgery. b) Repaired ACL knees tend to remain unstable for prolonged periods of time risking further damage to restored
ACL. c) Surgical reconstruction does not strengthen the knee. It merely puts the ACL or a substitute of the ACL back into position within the knee. Non-strengthening of the knee area keeps the individual to the risk of further injury. Thus, surgery should be recommended for those sport persons who have to participate in a particular game as quickly as possible. Others should be evaluated on merit, keeping in mind the age, instability of the knee-joint, cost of treatment and the individual’s requirement (whether a sport person), associated injuries,
etc. ACL injury occurs in the following situations: When an individual turns suddenly while walking, jogging, playing, etc. Exertion of a direct/indirect force on the knee, e.g. while sidestepping, pivoting or landing from a jump. Women are at a greater risk of ACL injury than men due to their wider pelvis, increased flexibility, weak thigh muscles, and small size of the
ACL, etc. Symptoms Instant pain, swelling leading to a restriction on or the loss of movement. Knee “give away” feeling. Snap or “POP”
noticed Intra-articular swelling due to bleeding. Post-injury the following guidelines should be
followed:
First and second week
In the third
week
Fourth week
People suffering from the ACL injury should immediately take a decision to undergo conservative treatment or arthroscopic reconstruction; otherwise the knee can become unstable and degenerative changes appear very soon. |
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Exercising harder keeps weight off NEW YORK: People who consistently engage in high levels of exercise over the long haul are the most successful at losing weight and keeping it off, a new study shows. Among a group of overweight men and women participating in an 18-month weight loss programme, those who were still getting 75 minutes of exercise daily a year after the programme ended had lost 12 kilograms, compared to 0.8 kg for people who were exercising less. But only 13 of the 154 people who completed the study were able to sustain this level of activity, Dr Deborah F Tate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and her colleagues found. “Strategies are needed to help participants maintain high levels of activity over the long-term,” she and her colleagues conclude in a report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The researchers initially assigned 202 people to either a high physical activity group who aimed to burn 2,500 calories per week (equivalent to a 75-minute walk daily) or standard behavioural treatment, including 30 minutes of exercise daily, equivalent to 1,000 calories per week. Twelve and 18 months later, people in the high activity group had lost significantly more weight than those in the lower activity group. Although the participants in the high activity group were able to sustain the 2,500 calorie per week exercise goal during the 18-month study, their activity level declined once treatment ended, which resulted in no between-group differences in activity or weight loss at 2.5 years. However, a small subgroup of people who stuck to the 2,500 calorie per week exercise regimen after the 18-month treatment period ended maintained a significantly larger weight loss than those who didn’t exercise as much. — Reuters
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Will there soon be a cure for everything? This is a golden age for cancer drug discovery. More than three decades on from US President Richard Nixon's famous declaration of war against the disease - decades during which progress at times seemed painfully slow - we are finally starting to reap the benefits of the billions of pounds invested in the search for new cures. Herceptin, the breast cancer drug, is the harbinger of what is to come. It was one of the first "designer" cancer drugs - targeted on a sub-group of women, the 25 per cent with HER-2 positive breast cancer — and halved their risk of recurrence. A raft of new drugs are awaiting approval or in the final stages of development that could transform cancer care. Professor Karol Sikora of Imperial College, London, says the proportion of patients with cancer who die of the disease could fall from its present level of two thirds to a quarter during the next 20 years. But as medicine leaps forward, the NHS will struggle to keep up. The drugs in the pipeline will not be cheap. Herceptin costs more than £20,000 a year and patients have gone to court to force Primary Care Trusts to pay for it. The next generation of cancer drugs may cost even more - up to £100,000 a year. If they can be convincingly shown to extend life or improve its quality, they will generate demand, even if the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) deems them too expensive for the NHS. Obesity, smoking, loss of sexual desire and Alzheimer's disease are all targeted by new drugs already licensed, or are about to be, which will find a ready market. This will create a financial dilemma for the increasingly stretched NHS. If it declines to pay for them - as in some cases it already has - will patients be forced to go without? Or will they be permitted to buy them privately (for those who can afford to) and continue to receive the rest of their care free on the NHS? The British Department of Health says "co-payments" are not permitted. A spokesman said: "You cannot be both an NHS patient and a private patient at the same time. Co-payments would risk creating a two-tier health service and be in direct contravention with the principles and values of the NHS." Yet the private health insurer Western Provident Association obtained a legal opinion from Nigel Griffin, QC who concluded there was "no bar to a patient buying his own drugs and having them administered as part of a course of NHS treatment." — The Independent
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Malaysian doctors: neckties are a health hazard
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian doctors have declared neckties a health hazard and called on the heath ministry to stop insisting that physicians wear them. Citing studies that show ties are unhygienic and can spread infection, the Malaysian Medical Association says they are not often washed and carry germs that can cause pneumonia and blood infections, the Star newspaper said today. “And when doctors are doing their clinical rounds, they dangle all over the place,” the paper quoted association president Dr Teoh Siang Chin as saying. But the Star quoted a ministry official as saying it needed more proof that neckties were a danger before it relaxed the dress code for doctors in hospitals.
— Reuters
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Health Notes
Dr Ronald M. Evans, who used the drug — a synthetic designed to mimic fat — on mice, also found that even when the rodents were not active, turning on the chemical switch activates the same fat-burning process that occurs during exercise. The boffin now hopes that such metabolic trickery will lead to a new approach to treatment and prevention of the human metabolic syndrome. Sometimes called syndrome X, the human metabolic syndrome consists of obesity and the often dire health consequences of obesity: high blood pressure, high levels of fat in the blood, heart disease, and resistance to insulin and diabetes. — ANI Green tea helpful in rheumatoid arthritis Washington: A study by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System has suggested that a compound in green tea may provide therapeutic benefits to people with rheumatoid arthritis. The study analyses a potent anti-inflammatory compound derived from green tea. Researchers found that the compound called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) inhibited the production of several molecules in the immune system that contribute to inflammation and joint damage in people with rheumatoid arthritis. The compound from green tea also was found to suppress the inflammatory products in the connective tissue of people with rheumatoid arthritis. “Our research is a very promising step in the search for therapies for the joint destruction experienced by people who have rheumatoid arthritis,” said Salahuddin Ahmed, lead researcher on the study. — ANI Alcohol induces breast cancer in women Washington: A new study has shown how alcohol-induced breast cancer develops in women. Alcohol (EtOH) consumption is a well-established risk factor for breast cancer in women. The study was conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre. Researchers found that moderate alcohol consumption significantly increased the tumour size of breast cancer and micro-vessel density in mice vs. control mice. A significant increase in tissue protein levels of VEGF was also found in the tumours of the mice treated with EtOH vs. control group. EtOH intake did not cause significant changes in the body weight of the mice. — ANI Stem cells can revive lost sense of smell Washington: A recent study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions has identified a backup supply of stem cells that can mend the harshest damage to the nerves in charge for our sense of smell. According to scientists, these cells laze about and do nothing under normal conditions, but when the adjoining cells die, the stem cells spring into action. A report on the discovery will appear online next week in Nature Neuroscience. “These stem cells act like the Army Reserves of our nose supporting a class of active-duty stem cells that help repair normal wear and tear. They don’t come in until things are really bad,” explains lead author Randall Reed, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. — ANI Memories can now be restored
According to the researchers, this study can be the forerunner for developing new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease or other neurodegenerative diseases. Li-Huei Tsai and colleagues used mice that were genetically modified to feed an antibiotic to generate a protein called p25, which is associated with brain cell death. “If memories can be recovered then that suggests they were never erased and indicates that perceived memory loss is likely to be due to an inability to retrieve memories,” New Scientist quoted Tsai, as saying. — ANI
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