Obesity: a nightmare of the future
Rohini, a child of a middle aged working couple, is a precious gift for her parents because they could see the day after so many prayers and after contacting medical experts of various specialities. But the child would not eat the traditional Indian meals and the affluence of parents would get her pizzas and cold drinks in plenty.

Lifestyle changes lead to drop in heart attack deaths
NEW YORK: Healthier eating habits and a decline in smoking may explain a large share of the drop in heart disease deaths the UK has seen since the 1980s, a new study suggests.

Coffee better than fruits and vegetables!
WASHINGTON: If you are addicted to coffee, and doctors warn you to quit the habit, don’t worry and just keep relishing the beverage, because it’s not that bad after all! In fact, according to a new study, the steaming cup of java even beat fruits and vegetables as the primary source of antioxidants.

A blood test to detect ‘Mad Cow’ disease soon
WASHINGTON: In a breakthrough research, scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have found a way to detect the malformed proteins that cause “mad cow disease”, in blood.

EYESIGHT
Eye donation: let it be family tradition
The cornea is the clear, transparent, tissue covering the front of the eye. It serves as a window to allow light to enter the eye. Vision will be dramatically reduced or lost if the cornea becomes cloudy from disease, injury or infection.

Ayurveda & you
Proper diet can prevent anaemia among women
Of the three types of cells our blood is composed of - the red blood cells, the white blood cells and the platelets, - the first ones or the red cells contain hemoglobin; an iron-rich protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues of the body.

Obesity: a nightmare of the future
Dr C.S. Gautam and Dr H.M. Swami

Rohini, a child of a middle aged working couple, is a precious gift for her parents because they could see the day after so many prayers and after contacting medical experts of various specialities. But the child would not eat the traditional Indian meals and the affluence of parents would get her pizzas, noodles and cold drinks in plenty. The caring mother gifted her a computer loaded with many games on her birthday. The child is living a life of princess with access to money, telephone, computer games, etc, while having a bite of ordered pizza.

The pampered baby with a plump body has started showing worse results in her school grades. Parents were unaware of the etiology of her present state till the physician pointed it out that a gradual fall in her scores may be because of a high-fat diet.

Changes in diet coupled with stress-filled lives and more sedentary modern existences are beginning to take their toll on the nation’s health. Basic nutrition is simple, yet there is mass confusion about what to eat and what effect foods have, and the reason for all of this misinformation is that it benefit food producers to have an innocent flock of customers who are left uncertain of how to judge what is healthy from what is not.

We are becoming a nation of obese, increasingly exposed to various food hazards, largely thanks to the lies and evilways of large corporations that will stop at nothing to increase their profits.

There is an excessive consumption of pizzas, noodles, ice-creams, beef/ham/cheese burgers which constitute the universally available fast food. Poori potato, samosas, chat, etc, are Indian fast foods.

These constitute junk food having empty calories, which means this kind of food contains the calories that are not particularly helpful to one’s body.

There are other feel-good foods like chocolates and artificially falvoured aerated drinks. If the sugary drinks and confectionery are consumed in large amounts it can cause malnutrition and create a thiamine deficiency because more of the Vit. B complex is required when more energy is consumed. Eating fast food saves time, requires less culinary skills and is tasty and appealing.

These days there is an emphasis on taste rather than nutrition. Convenience foods are manufactured commercially and on a large scale and consequently are low in nutrition.

Sugar craving is another cause for teenage obesity. This modern food culture is unsuitable to diet plans. Their energy, protein, fat and carbohydrate contents make these foods unsuitable in therapeutic diet plans, requiring complete manipulation of the nutrient such as energy, protein or electrolytes. High-carbohydrate snacks, when they enter the liver, are broken down to glucose which raises the levels of blood sugar.

Fast foods may provide protein, riboflavin, ascorbic acid and calcium, but if these become substitutes for regular meals, these will definitely result in a high intake of salt, energy and fat and a low intake of folic acid, biotin, pantothenic acid and iron. The material used for preparing fast food itself is relatively of low grade and fatty. High insulin produced in response to hyperglycemia promotes fat deposition, which is further aggravated by sedentary life-styles. The result is that 25 per cent of males and 36 per cent females above the age of 20 years are overweight.

Problems associated with the poor diet and the lack of exercise — like heart disease, diabetes and cancer of the lung, liver and colon — are on the rise. For the first time, obesity is regarded as a disease of childhood as well as adulthood. So, the young generation spends money to buy the expensive food served in cafeterias and then spends money on how to lose weight by going to a gym and health clinic.

An inadequate level of fibre in the diet has been found to be responsible for many disorders, like coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hyperlipidemia, gall stones varicose veins, diabetes, constipation, diverticulitis, psychosocial dose problems, weak bones and reproductive hormonal disabilities.

Obesity was earlier the problem of the developed countries, but now even the developing countries are facing the threat. Technology has made it easy to follow sedentary life styles, which must be avoided at any cost.

Professor Swami of the Department of Community Medicine is Director-Principal, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh. Professor Gautam is associated with the Department of Pharmacology of the hospital.

Lifestyle changes lead to drop in heart attack deaths

NEW YORK: Healthier eating habits and a decline in smoking may explain a large share of the drop in heart disease deaths the UK has seen since the 1980s, a new study suggests.

Research has shown that since the 1980s, heart disease deaths have fallen by roughly one-half in many industrialized countries.

The relative importance of the various reasons for this decline is not fully clear, however.

A central question is whether “primary” or “secondary” prevention is more important. Primary prevention refers to the prevention of heart disease in healthy people, while secondary prevention means reducing potentially fatal complications like heart attack in people with diseased heart arteries.

Right now, the priority in the UK and the US seems to be on the latter, according to Dr. Belgin Unal of Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey.

But in their study, Unal and his colleagues found that primary prevention was responsible for about half of the steep decline in heart disease deaths in England and Wales since 1981 — with diet changes and a reduction in smoking getting most of the credit.

All told, primary prevention was four times more effective at preventing deaths compared with treatment of existing heart disease, according to the researchers’ estimates, which were published online by the British Medical Journal.

Primary prevention works, Unal told Reuters Health, because it targets people who are generally healthy, encouraging smoking cessation and lifestyle changes to cut cholesterol and blood pressure before they rise too high. Medications are also part of preventing heart disease, but they are prescribed only after cholesterol and blood pressure climb to a concerning level. — Reuters

Coffee better than fruits and vegetables!

WASHINGTON: If you are addicted to coffee, and doctors warn you to quit the habit, don’t worry and just keep relishing the beverage, because it’s not that bad after all! In fact, according to a new study, the steaming cup of java even beat fruits and vegetables as the primary source of antioxidants.

The study by the University of Scranton states that coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in American diet, and both caffeinated and decaf versions appear to provide similar antioxidant levels.

“Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source. Nothing else comes close,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr Joe Vinson, adding that high antioxidant levels in foods and beverages don’t necessarily translate into levels found in the body.

Antioxidants in general have been linked to a number of potential health benefits, including protection against heart disease and cancer, but Vinson said that their benefits ultimately depend on how they are absorbed and utilised in the body.

The researchers analysed the antioxidant content of more than 100 different food items, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, spices, oils and common beverages. The data was compared to an existing US Department of Agriculture database on the contribution of each type of food item to the average estimated US per capita consumption. The results were surprising. Coffee came out on top, on the combined basis of both antioxidants per serving size and frequency of consumption. It outranked popular antioxidant sources like tea, milk, chocolate and cranberries.

Of all the foods and beverages studied, dates actually have the most antioxidants of all based solely on serving size, but since dates are not consumed at anywhere near the level of coffee, the drink comes as the top source of antioxidants, Vinson said.

Besides keeping you alert and awake, coffee has been linked to an increasing number of potential health benefits, including protection against liver and colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease, according to some recently published studies.

The researchers, however, advise that one should consume coffee in moderation, because it can make you jittery and cause stomach pains. — ANI

A blood test to detect ‘Mad Cow’ disease soon

WASHINGTON: In a breakthrough research, scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have found a way to detect the malformed proteins that cause “mad cow disease”, in blood.

The discovery, appearing in Nature Medicine is expected to lead to a much more effective detection method for the infectious proteins responsible for brain-destroying disorders, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans.

The blood test would make it much easier to keep BSE-infected beef out of the human food supply, ensure that blood transfusions and organ transplants do not transmit vCJD, and give researchers their first chance to figure out how many people may be incubating the disease.

“The concentration of infectious prion protein in blood is far too small to be detected by the methods used to detect it in the brain, but we know it’s still enough to spread the disease,” said UTMB neurology professor Claudio Soto, senior author of the Nature Medicine paper. “The key to our success was developing a technique that would amplify the quantity of this protein more than 10 million-fold, raising it to a detectable level.” — ANI

EYESIGHT
Eye donation: let it be family tradition
Dr Mahipal S. Sachdev

The cornea is the clear, transparent, tissue covering the front of the eye. It serves as a window to allow light to enter the eye. Vision will be dramatically reduced or lost if the cornea becomes cloudy from disease, injury or infection.

The main causes of corneal blindness are injuries, malnutrition, infections, chemical burns, congenital disorders and post-operative complications or infections

Fortunately, lost sight due to corneal diseases can only be restored through corneal transplantation. This is a procedure in which the cornea of a donor eye is grafted to replace the diseased cornea of the patient. A significant proportion of these patients can have their sight restored through corneal transplantation.

You can help this happen. Let eye donation be your family tradition. Donate eyes of your dearest after death. Age does not matter. The eyes of the deceased of any age can be donated whether he/ she has pledged the eyes or not.

Spectacle wearers, and people suffering from systemic disorders like asthma, tuberculosis diabetes and hypertension can also donate eyes. Patients who have undergone cataract surgery can donate eyes.

Eyes have to be removed within six hours after death. So, lose no time in informing the nearest eye bank. You could be instrumental in ensuring an eye donation in time. If someone unfortunately dies in your family or friends circle, remember to call the nearest eye bank. Till the authorised person comes to remove the eyes, switch off fans, keep the airconditioner or cooler running and place wet cotton with ice over the closed eyelids. It will help keep the tissue moist and increase the viability of the donated cornea.

The eyes are removed by a trained person using a sterile procedure. It leaves no scar/disfigurement of the face. The donated eyes are never bought or sold. A request for eye donation is always attended to.

Corneal blindness affects mainly children and young adults who have a long life ahead of them. In India approximately 22,000 corneas from donated eyes are collected against the requirement of about 1 lakh corneas per year. Because of this huge lack of donor eyes in India new patients are added each year to a long list of already waiting patients.

Steps for the prevention of corneal blindness:

* All children below six years of age need supplementary dose of Vitamin-A solution

* Vaccinate all children as per schedule.

* Wear protective goggles in hazardous industries.

* Prevent eye injury, keep sharp articles away from the reach of young children.

* Be careful about the use of chemicals during Holi and crackers on Divali, etc.

* For any eye problem consult an eye specialist.

1. What is cornea?

Cornea is the glass-like covering over the pupil of the eye.

2. Why does the cornea get damaged?

The cornea usually gets damaged because of infections or injuries of the eye or poor nutrition especially in childhood.

3. How can the eyesight in these patients be restored?

Persons who have lost their sight because of damage to the cornea can hope to regain it with corneal grafting.

4. Who can be an eye donor?

Anyone’s age or sex is not important, and it does not matter if you wear glasses or have undergone a cataract operation or any other eye surgery. All that is needed is a clear and healthy cornea.

5. Are any costs involved in eye donation?

No fees are charged from the family. The eye collection centre will rush a doctor to the donor’s home. This is a free service in the public interest.

6. Can I choose who will receive the corneas from my eyes?

You may make a request to that effect to the eye bank. But the corneas are usually transplanted into the next two patients on the waiting list to avoid any unfair practice.

7. Can my family meet the person who receives the corneas from my eyes?

No. The recipient will always remain anonymous. But the family should take pride in knowing the fact that the donor’s eyes have been used to restore vision to two blind people.

8. Can the eyes be removed at home?

The eyes can be removed at home or any other place where the body is kept after death.

9. What are the normal and religious views on eye donation?

Religious leaders throughout the world have voiced their support for eye donation as an expression for the highest humanitarian ideals.

The writer is Chairman and Medical Director, Centre for Sight, New Delhi. E-mail: msachdev@bol.net.in

Ayurveda & you
Proper diet can prevent anaemia among women
Dr R. Vatsyayan

Of the three types of cells our blood is composed of - the red blood cells, the white blood cells and the platelets, - the first ones or the red cells contain hemoglobin; an iron-rich protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues of the body. Anaemia is a condition when our blood doesn’t have enough red cells. Described in ayurvedic literature as “pandu roga” - commonly referred to as “raktalpta”, — anaemia affects a large number of our population, more commonly the women.

Modern medicine describes anaemia according to its causes which range from simple deficiencies of iron, folic acid or B vitamins to certain conditions where the red cells are damaged due to infections, intake of drugs and some autoimmune or chronic disease process. Ayurveda attributes wrong or under- nutrient diet, worm infestation, conditions involving chronic blood loss and the doshic imbalance or the physiological malfunctioning as the main reasons for it. On an average, more than 20 per cent of the female population suffers from anaemia.

Except for weakness and fatigue, mild anaemia does not produce any serious symptoms. Its worsening or chronic forms are accompanied by a number of systemic disturbances like the pallor of the skin, gums and nails, tachycardia or fast heart beat, shortness of breath, chest pain, anorexia and low immunity. In women these presentations are compounded by many other problems like menstrual disturbances such as excessive or less bleeding and irregular periods, recurrent infections, edema and general rundown and lassitude.

Anaemia poses greater risk for the women who are of child-bearing age or are going through a phase of pregnancy. Due to the loss of blood the occurring during the periods or the increased demand for it for the development of the foetus during pregnancy, the iron reserves in the body are depleted more rapidly. Though the capacity of the body to absorb iron from the diet is a crucial factor, on an average, the Indian woman’s food and eating style do not support her in this regard.

In India, most women are not only vegetarian but also not mindful of availing themselves of a nutritious diet. In the rural, poverty-stricken and uneducated sections of society, the girl child is mostly anaemic and undernourished. Anaemia is less common among that section of society which does not subscribe to certain beliefs that come in the way of getting proper nutrition from the diet. Of the non-vegetarian food, egg, fish, liver and other red meats are an excellent source of iron.

For vegetarians, whole grains, leafy green vegetables and fruits provide sufficient blood forming factors. Palak, methi leaves, chukandar, carrots and tomatoes among vegetables and apple, banana, black grapes and plums from the fruit side are a good source of iron. Vitamin C enhances the absorption of iron and the concomitant use of citreous fruit with an iron-rich diet can be of great help in anaemia. Calcium, zinc, antacids, junk food and additives found in packed and preserved eatables interfere with the proper absorption of iron.

Ancient ayurvedic seers developed a number of formulations which not only improve the haemopoietic system but also counter the complications of anaemia. Starting from simple bhasmas of lauh, mandoor and swarn makshik, there are several ayurvedic medicines like punarnava mandoor, navayas lauha, lauhasava and pradrantak lauha which are easily absorbed and help women to fast gain normal health. On the preventive side, right from the childhood, women’s overall emphasis should be on taking a diet which includes all the essential elements necessary to keep the body fit and healthy.

The writer is a Ludhiana-based senior ayurvedic physician