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| HEALTH & FITNESS |
How health depends on environment
Are you a heart patient? Take care of kidneys too
Helmets help prevent death
Tears could unmask SARS mystery
Secret behind dandruff unravelled
Temperature changes trigger asthma, eczema
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How health depends on environment
Educational status of the individual (teachers’ role) and parental influences have a major contribution to decide about the positive role of environment on health. FOOD: Over-eating, specially a high intake of refined carbohydrates such as sweets, white bread and high fat foods like dairy products, ice-creams and pastries result in over-weight, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Under- nutrition, on the other hand, exposes the individual to many infections and lowers the person’s stamina to prevent diseases and to recover from them. WATER: Lack of enough water for drinking and bathing results in diseases due to dehydration and skin disorders. Water contaminated with bacteria, protozoa and chemicals results in many gastrointestinal, eye, skin and neurological disorders. AIR POLLUTION: An adult can survive without food for three weeks, without water for three days but without clear air only for three minutes. Such is the importance of fresh air for life and hence the implications of environmental air pollution on health. The exhaust from chemical factories, thermal power stations, motor vehicles and generator sets has thrown a large number of pollutants into the environment. These have proved harmful to the human populations, through the polluted foods eaten, the polluted air breathed in and contact of chemicals with skin and eyes. The toxins in the polluted air mostly affect the lungs, skin, eyes, kidneys and the cardiovascular system. NOISE POLLUTION: Chronic exposure to noise results in the impairment of hearing and higher levels of blood pressure in children. Environmental noise pollution could thus be a contributing factor to higher prevalence of hypertension among city-dwellers. Ever increasing urban migrations and rapidly mushrooming industrial units have resulted in a grave ecological imbalance due to environmental pollution. TEMPERATURE CHANGES: The ideal temperature for human health is between 20-25°C (68-70°F). Temperature extremes result in high morbidity and mortality, specially from cardiovascular diseases due to fluid and electrolyte imbalance at high temperatures and due to increased peripheral resistance and high blood pressure at low temperatures. Higher mortality from the extremes of temperatures is mostly attributed to cardiovascular causes. Prevention and control of air pollution As the sources of air pollution are industrial, vehicular and domestic (indoor), the preventive strategies have to be focused at the following levels. INDUSTRIAL
AIRPOLLUTION:
This can be controlled
by strict legislation and recommending the height of chimneys and
provision of industrial filters for exhaust that is produce in thermal
power stations and other industries using coal, diesel, wood, kerosene
or other fuels as energy sources. Industrial units using such fuels
should not be allowed to operate in residential areas. Knowledge of
protective devices against chemical warfare may be extended in the
planning of preventive strategies against urban air pollution.
VEHICULAR POLLUTION: A regular preventive check
on the vehicles and punishment of defaulters is the only solution to
control vehicular air pollution. DOMESTIC POLLUTION: Passive inhalation of smoke from cigarettes and stoves and the use of generator sets run on kerosene, petrol or diesel are the sources of indoor air pollution. Strongly discouraging cigarette smoking, use of electrical inverters in place of generator sets and keeping the generator sets at high levels such as roof-tops and providing adequate air filters are recommended for the control of indoor pollution. — The writer is Chief Cardiologist and Medical Adviser, Batra
Hospital, |
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Are you a heart patient? Take care of kidneys too
WASHINGTON: According to a study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, older adults suffering from heart problems are also at a greater risk of kidney trouble. This comes in the wake of recent findings that patients with kidney disease are at greatly increased risk of developing cardiovascular
disease. But now it appears that patients with heart disease should be considered a high-risk group and targeted for evaluation and treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to Dr William M. McClellan of Georgia Medical Care Foundation, Atlanta. A review of medical records showed that most of the heart disease patients had moderately reduced kidney function, or CKD. This condition was found in 52 per cent of the people suffering from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or heart attack and 60 per cent of congestive heart failure (CHF) patients. When CKD is discovered, effective treatments can slow or prevent progressive kidney disease and ESRD. Still, many patients with CKD go unrecognised. Screening tests have been recommended for certain high-risk groups, such as patients with diabetes and high blood pressure, minority groups and the elderly. |
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Helmets help prevent death The laudable move of the Chandigarh Police to ensure strict compliance of the helmet laws transcending gender barriers has, unfortunately, evoked unwarranted reaction from various religious and political quarters. Several evaluation studies done all over the world indicated that the death rate among two-wheeler riders got reduced by 30-40 per cent, head injuries by 30-40 per cent and hospitalisation by 30 per cent if helmets are worn by the riders and pillion riders, says a report prepared by Dr G. Gururaj of the Centre for Injury Prevention and Safety promotion, National Institute of Mental Health. “Since brain is a major organ controlling the functioning of an individual, there is a greater need for protecting this organ in all adverse situations,” the report said. Incidentally, motorist have no other effective safety cordon than wearing helmets. Riders without the helmet had suffered severe injuries like brain haemorrhage and skull fracture by more than two or three times. One of the leading road safety experts of the country, Dr Dinesh Mohan, Henry Ford Professor at the Motor Transport and Injury Prevention Programme, IIT, New Delhi, regrets the politicisation of safety laws and reveals that motorcyclists and pillion riders are five to 10 times more accident-prone than those using four-wheelers. “When safety is concerned, a helmet is the only protective device available to motorcyclists and pillion riders. That is why the brains behind the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, incorporated the provision for mandatory wearing of helmets in the Act,” he says in his research paper, Agenda for Road Safety. The two-wheeler riders and pillion riders face increased risk of death or injury due to certain characteristics of the vehicles like smaller size, less visibility, difficulty in balancing and greater exposure to environment, he adds. In fact, compulsory use of helmets has been an integral part of international road safety norms and has helped in reducing brain injury trauma significantly and proved more effective than mere education and sensitisation drives.
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Tears could unmask SARS mystery
LONDON: Tears could help provide a breakthrough in finding an effective diagnosis for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). According to a study in British Journal of Ophthalmology, this highly infectious respiratory virus has been found in tears, which suggests that analysing tears, could help researchers unravel many mysteries associated with the
virus, including the unrecognised source of its spread. The researchers chemically analysed tear samples from 36 patients with suspected SARS and eight of these patients subsequently turned out to have probable SARS. The researchers say in the study that if the infection is diagnosed at an early stage then this method may make treatment and isolation more effective. However, they have cautioned that the presence of the virus in tears poses a hazard for healthcare professionals caring for these patients.
— ANI
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Secret behind dandruff unravelled
LONDON: Scientists at the British Hair and Beauty Division of the household giant Proctor & Gamble have managed to demystify the reason behind the recurrence of dandruff. According to the Independent, the presence of a fungus called Malassezia, a “lipophilic” that grows on the scalp secretes waste products which irritate the skin, causing it to flake off prematurely. According to Dr Steve Shiel, the senior scientist, “We’re very excited about this, because it’s breakthrough research. People have known about the fungus and there have been arguments about how it is linked to dandruff. But now we know we can aim to kill the fungus.”
— ANI
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Temperature changes trigger asthma, eczema
WASHINGTON: According to the data collected by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), weather conditions are responsible for the increasing rates of asthma and eczema. Seasonal variations in temperature, altitude, outdoor humidity and latitude all affect the rates of these diseases. The study collected data from children 6 to 7 and 12 to 13 years old from over 50 countries. Indoor humidity is important, because house dust mites, a major allergen for asthmatics, thrive in moist air. Humidity also encourages mould, which may be a respiratory irritant, the study says. Centres where average outdoor humidity drops below 50 per cent for at least one month a year had lower rates of asthma. Similarly, higher altitude and greater seasonal temperature variations were associated with lower rates of asthma. Increasing latitude was associated with higher rates of eczema while higher outdoor temperatures were associated with lower rates. The authors conclude that climate may be a factor in the prevalence of asthma and eczema, and suggest that climate change from global warming might influence rates of these diseases in the future.
— ANI
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Life thrives on two types of environment: (1) The
external environment from which the organism gets its food and air to
survive. (2) The internal environment, the milieu which regulates the
metabolic processes at the cellular and mitochondrial level for life
to be sustained at its optimum. The external environment, which
provides us the food we eat, water we drink and the air we breathe, to
a large extent, regulates the ingredients provided to our body that
control the internal environment.