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| HEALTH & FITNESS |
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Myths &Facts EYESIGHT
Protect yourself from toxic gas
Health Notes
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Myths &Facts Myth 1: Eating too much sugar causes diabetes. Fact: Diabetes begins when something disrupts your body’s ability to turn the food you eat into energy. Your body breaks down much of the food you eat into glucose, a type of sugar needed to power your cells. A hormone called insulin is made in the pancreas. Insulin helps the cells in the body use glucose for fuel. Here are the most common known types and causes of diabetes
Myth 2: There are too many rules in a diabetes diet Fact: A “diabetes diet” means choosing food that will work along with your activities and any medications to keep your blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible. Not many changes will be present in the diet. Myth 3: Carbohydrates are bad Fact: carbohydrates are good. They form the foundation of a healthy diabetes diet — or of any healthy diet. Carbohydrates have the greatest effect on blood glucose levels, which is why you are asked to monitor how much carbohydrate you eat when following a diabetes diet. However, carbohydrate foods contain many essential nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and fibre. So, if you are diabetic, choose a diet with the most nutrients, like whole-grain breads and baked food items, and high-fibre fruits and vegetables. Myth 4: Protein is better than carbohydrates Fact: Since carbohydrates affect blood glucose levels so quickly, you may be tempted to eat less of them and substitute more protein. But too much protein may lead to problems for people with diabetes, especially kidney problems. In a diabetes diet, protein should account for about 15-20 per cent of the total calories you eat each day. Myth 5: You can adjust your medications to “cover” whatever you eat. Fact: If you use insulin, you may learn how to adjust the amount and type you take to match the amount of food you eat. This should not mean that you eat at your will and stabilise with medication. Most diabetes medications work best when they are taken consistently as directed by your doctor. Myth 6: You’ll need to give up your favourite foods. Fact: There is no reason to give up your favourite foods on a diabetes diet. Instead, try: Changing the way your favourite foods are prepared, reducing the serving sizes of your favourite foods, and prefering black lentil over wheat, an avoiding rice. Myth 7: You have to give up desserts Fact: Not true! You can develop many strategies for including desserts in a diabetes diet. These include, using artificial sweeteners, cuting back on the amount, and making desserts more nutritious. Myth 8: Diabetes is permanent Fact: Cure for diabetes lies in weight loss. 10 kg weight loss increases the life expectancy by 4 years. 80 – 90 per cent patients improve in all diabetic parameters with regular medication and normal weight loss. Dr. K.P Singh is Senior Consultant, Fortis Hospital, Mohali
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EYESIGHT
However, one cannot ignore the fact that fire crackers, if not handled with care and caution, could pose a serious health hazard to many who come in contact with them. That is why, every year a number of people across the country, lose their eyesight and sustain burns during the festival. They could bring about untold miseries to revellers and ruin their Diwali celebrations. Hence, the key is adopting a safety approach. That would go a long way in ensuring that you have a happy and safe Diwali. After an eye injury one may have complaints like diminishing vision, redness, watering and inability to open the eye. The injury may present with a lid tear, tear in conjunctiva, sclera-corneal tear with protrusion of eye contents or blood in the eye. Ocular trauma because of crackers can present in different forms like, foreign body entry in the eye, burns on face, blunt injury and perforating Injury. These in any form may lead to traumatic cataract, retinal edema, retinal detachment, infection or total disfigurement of the eye. We have seen children loosing their eye sight because of the eye-injuries during these festivals despite full treatment being instituted in time. Not only vision but many times the eye ball is disfigured and in spite of treatment the child has a sunken eyeball which is cosmetically disturbing. Care one should take once the injury has occurred is: l
Wear protective goggles while lighting fireworks to prevent eye injuries l l l l l l Few don’ts one should be aware of are: l l l l l l l l l l l l Few do’s and don’ts can prevent loss of eyesight and other mishaps during the ensuing Diwali festival. Injuries in any form don’t assume it harmless. Even a small injury may be vision threatening. Basic knowledge about primary care will make the treatment easier and faster. ENJOY YOUR CRACKERS WITH A LITTLE BIT CARE AND LOT OF CAUTION The Writer is Chairman and Medical Director, Centre for Sight, New Delhi. E-mail: drmahipal@gmail.com
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Protect yourself from toxic gas
This article is not meant to scare you on Diwali, but it does intend to create awareness about the possibility of inhalation of toxic gases and the harm they can cause. After all, a lot of gaseous products, some of which are toxic in nature are produced by the combustion of fire crackers and other explosive materials. Burning and bursting of crackers produces inorganic gases such as the carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and ozone etc. Most of these gases have irritating action on the mucosal surfaces as that of the respiratory tract, the eyes and the gastro-intestinal tract. They also cause irritation of the skin surface especially over the exposed areas of the face and the arms. The local irritation leads to excessive watering of eyes and nose, sneezing, coughing, itching and sometimes vomiting and abdominal pain. Such effects are common, often temporary and forgotten after the exposure is over. More importantly, the emissions also include the toxic and poisonous gases such as the carbon mono-oxide, phosgene and the cyanides, even though is very small concentrations or traces. The local action, especially on the respiratory tract, may also predispose to infectious problems such as the respiratory catarrh, bronchitis and pneumonia especially in the children, the elderly and other prone populations (diabetics, patients on steroid therapy and those with cancers or other chronic diseases). The gaseous exposure may precipitate an acute attack of asthma in known asthmatic or allergic individuals. The effects of other toxic or poisonous gases are small and subtle, but more permanent. To avoid and minimise the dangers, there must be checks and exploding firecrackers in the vicinity of people should be severely curtailed. High rise crackers are safer since the discharge occurs high in the open skies and gets diluted. At individual level, people who are prone to their effects need to be very careful and cautious. They may need to increase the dosages of their daily medications required for control of their diseases. Sometimes, additional drugs are required for prevention. It is somewhat troublesome to realise that the happy and festive occasions may sometimes end up with misery and pain. But this is precisely the reason why discipline is important to inculcate in celebrations.
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Health Notes Washington: A new study has revealed that children with persistent abdominal pain who use audio recordings of guided imagery along with standard medical treatment are three times more likely to improve the problem. And those benefits were consistent for six months after treatment had ended. “What is especially exciting about our study is that children can clearly reduce their abdominal pain a lot on their own with guidance from audio recordings, and they get much better results that way than from medical care alone,” said lead author Dr Miranda van Tilburg, assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine and a member of the UNC Centre for Functional GI & Motility Disorders. —
ANI
Sidewalks, parks, farm markets cut diabetes risk
CHICAGO: If you are what you eat, you may also be a product of where you live: Living in a neighbourhood where it's pleasant and easy to walk and fresh fruits and vegetables are close at hand can slash a person's risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research shows. In fact, the risk of diabetes associated with living in such a “healthy” neighbourhood was 38 per cent lower than for people who lived in the unhealthiest places, Dr. Amy H. Auchincloss of Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia and her colleagues found. —
Reuters
Detox diets can cause the body to break down
MELBOURNE: Any diet or detox program involving fasting could cause the body to break down, experts have warned. Some companies have launched aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at young women who want to lose weight. But doctors insist that such programs are of no benefit. "There's no medical or scientific evidence that there's any health benefits from fasting," the Daily Telegraph quoted Dr Jane Smith from the Royal College of General Practitioners as saying. “You could be doing your body harm. There's a lot of money to be made selling magic (solutions) to people,” Smith added. Lemon Detox Diet is one of the most popular programs. Its fans include Beyonce and Tania Zaetta. The mixture of palm and maple syrup, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and pure water claims to shed weight and cleanse the body. Dieticians suggest that instead of going for such diet programs, people should cut out caffeine, alcohol and high fat foods for a week to achieve the same results. —
ANI
Abused women suffer more mental, physical ills
NEW YORK: Even if the obvious signs of domestic violence can be hidden, women who are abused may be at risk of other conditions not usually associated with such abuse, according to a new study. Women who have been abused by their partners in the past year are more likely than women who have never been abused to be diagnosed with illnesses ranging from depression to chest pain to urinary tract infections, a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows. —
Reuters
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Diwali and fire crackers have almost become synonymous. Fire crackers provide such a visual delight and could indeed be appreciated from the aesthetic point of view. Crackers add brightness and joy to our celebrations.
Festival season especially on and near Diwali is traditionally the most opportune time for celebrations with lights and crackers. There is a several fold increase in the concentration of pollutant gases during these months.