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| HEALTH & FITNESS |
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Watch your gait
for early diagnosis Emotional
intelligence for success in life Overcoming dental
anxiety Health Notes
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Watch your gait for early diagnosis Commonly encountered gait disorders Ataxic gait — unsteady, non-coordinated walk with a wide base of support while feet are thrown outwards. Causes could be alcoholic intoxication, brain injury or degeneration. Antalgic gait comprises a limp adopted to avoid pain on weight-bearing structures (as in hip, knee, or ankle injuries), characterised by a very short stance phase on the injured side. Waddling gait is a distinctive duck-like walk as in childhood or later in life due to knee arthritis, hip dislocation or muscle weakness of the lower limbs. There are certain changes in the gait which start with aging. It is extremely pertinent to understand that walking requires effective coordination of musculoskeletal sensation, motor control and attention. The speed of walking remains stable until the age of 65 years. The decline starts and elderly people start taking shorter steps as calf muscles weaken, and balance starts declining. The walking posture changes only slightly if elderly persons suffer from osteoporosis. Abnormal gait happens if the following happens: Treatment Treating the cause often rectifies gait abnormality. Correcting the leg length inequality by enhancing the heel/ adding sole in the shortened limb. Use of cane — Cane can be used by the patients suffering from knee and hip arthritis in the opposite hand of the affected side. During walking cane is moved in concert with the affected limb. The more the weight applies on the cane, the less will be the pressure applied through the affected joint. The handle of the cane should be at the level of the wrist on the extended arm with elbow being flexed 20 to 30 degrees. Exercises Non-impact conditioning exercises vis-ŕ-vis walking/stationary cycling, etc, are encouraged as soon as possible. It is important for an individual who starts limping to consult the doctor for appropriate treatment, otherwise delay can lead to permanent disability. The writer is a former doctor/physiotherapist, Indian cricket team. E-mail:
chadhar587@gmail.com |
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Emotional intelligence for success in life "Development of the personality of the child" is the main objective of modern education. Personality is not only the external appearance or behaviour or interaction with other individuals in his immediate environment. It consists of the inner beauty of an individual. A person has two aspects: external and internal. If a person is internally balanced and externally well-adjusted, he is considered to possess a well-integrated personality. A well-balanced personality means a person should be physically fit, mentally alert, emotionally balanced and socially adjusted. The present-day formal education being provided to our children lays more emphasis on physical and mental development, and less on emotional and social development. Physical development means we are helping the child to develop his motor abilities like speed, power, strength, agility, flexibility, moveability, endurance etc. Mentally, we are helping the child to develop his entire intellectual functioning — the abilities of learning, retention, memorisation, thinking, reasoning, imagination, decision-making, problem-solving etc. All these aspects deal with his cognitive development. It means we are trying to develop his intelligence quotient (IQ). According to the latest thinking, it is not the IQ which matters, but it is the EQ (emotional quotient) which helps an individual to be successful in life. It means that the person should be emotionally matured and balanced if he wants to be successful and happy in life. To get a good job in life, a higher level of IQ is very important. But to be successful in one's profession, it is the EQ which helps get excellence and seek happiness and job satisfaction. Many big people have proved to be a failure in their jobs as they did not have control over their emotions. Emotions are a very important part of one's personality. Every person experiences the feelings of love, affection, anger, fear, jealousy, revenge, etc. But how he copes up with these types of feelings depends upon his good personality traits and especially his level of emotional intelligence. Hence EI is the most important component of one's personality. The concept of intelligence was given by a French psychologist, Alfred Binet, in 1905 when he was the Director of Public Instructions in Paris. But the concept of emotional intelligence was popularised by Daniel Goleman, a Howard-educated American psychologist, who worked in New York Times as a journalist, though this term was introduced in 1990 by two Yale psychologists— Peter Salovey and John Mayer. According to them, EI involves abilities that may be categorised into five domains. (i) Self-awareness: Knowing about one's own strengths and weaknesses. (ii) Managing emotions: Observing one's own and others' intense feeling and trying to understand them in order to have self-control. (iii) Motivating oneself: Intrinsic motivation which is developed through the love for the work itself. (iv) Empathy: Putting oneself into the mental condition of another person to have a positive attitude or understanding the psychic condition of another person. (v) Handling relationships: Developing social competencies and skills to have better interactional and inter-personal relationships. EQ can be instrumental in achieving success in many areas of professional life and can help in increasing productivity, speeding up adaptation to change, developing leadership skills and stimulating creativity. People with a high EQ are happier, healthier and more successful in social relationships and in their profession. They are aware of their own feelings, show empathy and compassion for others and have high self-esteem. EQ is largely learnt and continues to develop throughout life and is conditioned by life's experiences. Unlike IQ EI can be improved throughout life. The level or potential of one's emotional intelligence can be measured resulting in one's EQ. And the good news is that EQ can be increased and enhanced. Knowing about one's emotional intelligence in terms of an EQ has wide educational and social implications for the welfare of individuals and society at large. The writer is a former Head, Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala. |
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Overcoming dental anxiety Do you get uneasy before visiting a dentist? Do you find yourself sick to your stomach or get sweaty palms at the mere thought of a dentist? Relax! You are not alone. There are ways to quell your dental anxiety. Dental anxiety ranges from slight nervousness to phobia. Dental phobia may even stop you from visiting a dentist. Observe the signs of dental phobia: Fortunately, there are ways to calm your fears. To achieve this, one should be aware of the underlying causes of such fears. The few possible reasons can be the following: Fear of pain: This could be coarsely due to past unpleasant experience, but calm down your nerves as these days pain-free dentistry has evolved. Fear of sound of drill: Use of drill is quite common in almost all the dental procedures. A majority of patients find this sound awful. To combat this problem, you can use earphones to listen to some good music. Embarrassment: Some patients are conscious about the appearance of their teeth and mouth odour but feel free to share with their dentist. Loss of space: Some people are uncomfortable because of the close physical proximity to a dentist. So, choose a dentist and a dental clinic where you are comfortable, or take one of your guardians along with you. After finding the exact cause of your phobia, prepare yourself to visit the dental clinic. Communicate with yourself that if you will not visit a dentist, you have to either bear a severe toothache or you may end up losing your precious tooth. Also managing the toothache by using over-the-counter analgesics is a deceptive alternative and these can lead to grave side-effects. So, here are a few guidelines to curb dental anxiety. Choose your dentist carefully: You can choose your dentist by a word-of-mouth referral from a close friend, relative or a neighbour. Communicate: Communicate your apprehensions and discuss the details with your dentist. During the process if you find that the comfort level is missing, choose another dentist. Otherwise, continue with the same. Appointment time: Request your doctor to give an appointment at a time when you feel less apprehensive. Maybe it is the very first appointment in the morning so that you don’t have to sit in the waiting lounge of the dental clinic which can add up to your anxiety. Control: Give a kind request to your dentist to go very slow during the treatment, and also the amount of work done in one sitting should be less. Avoid any procedure in the first sitting and go for diagnosis and X-rays only. This will boost your confidence and you will be more receptive to the treatment during the next appointment. Talking hands: Convey your dentist that during the procedure if you are feeling claustrophobic, you can raise your hand to indicate and can request for a break to catch your breath. Distraction and other
psychological techniques: Medication: If the above techniques are not helpful enough, go for medication. It could be in the form of inhalation sedation, IV (intravenous) sedation, or GA (general anaesthesia). In inhalation sedation, the patient wears a mask over his mouth and inhales a gas (mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen) through this mask. It leads to mild sedation and the patient will be comfortable during the treatment. The effect of sedation wears off easily and you can independently move ahead. In IV sedation, the sedative drug is injected through the canula placed generally at the back of your hand. The effect is longer than the inhalation sedation. You need someone after the treatment to go home as you are prohibited to drive. You will be absolutely normal within a few hours. GA (general anaesthesia) is rarely done because of the risks involved in the procedure. It is used sometimes in children and people with special needs. The writer is a Panchkula-based dentist.
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Health Notes London: Pregnant women who smoke can triple the risk of child succumbing to a major cause of meningitis, according to scientists. Several studies have already suggested a link between passive smoking and meningococcal disease. Scientists at the UK Centre for Tobacco Studies carried out a systematic review of 18 studies and pooled their results to investigate the association. Their study, published in the online journal BMC Public Health, found that exposure to second-hand smoke both at home and in the womb significantly increases the risk of meningococcal disease. Passive smoking in the home doubled the risk in children and raised it even further in the under-fives. — ANI
Women drinkers pass on
habit to their teen kids
London: Mothers who drink heavily risk passing down their bad habits to their children, experts have claimed. According to the researchers, teenagers whose mothers “always” drank were nearly twice as likely to have alcohol problems in adulthood, the Daily Mail reported. The authors added that ministers should focus more on parenting instead of minimum pricing to tackle binge drinking. They warn that many parents — particularly the middle class — “reach for a bottle of wine at night to cope with the stress”. While adults may think it has “no impact on their families”, this habit may be “hampering” their ability to be effective parents. The research by Demos claims that as many as 2.5 million children — a fifth of the total — live with a parent who drinks hazardously. The study insists that the example set by a family is far more important than the proposed minimum price per unit of alcohol. — ANI
Bats with white-nose fungus
may help fight AIDS
Washington: Scientists have found that bats with white-nose fungus sometimes suffer in the same way that humans with AIDS do. Carol Meteyer, a scientist for the US Geological Survey, peered through a microscope at hundreds of little bats and started to notice something very weird. The bats had managed to survive the white-nose fungus that had killed millions of other bats hibernating in caves, mostly in the Northeast. But they had succumbed to something else that had left their tiny corpses in tatters, their wings scorched and pocked with holes. While studying these bats, Meteyer had stumbled upon a phenomenon never before seen in mammals in the wild. — ANI |
Gait disorders could be a major cause for fall, decreased physical activity and disability. Causes of gait variation could be multi-pectoral. Individuals limping as a result of polio are not a very common sight due to the combined efforts of Indian and international organisations. Chronic diseases like stroke and paralysis alter gait. Individuals afflicted with low back, hip, knee and ankle problems alter the gait to their most comfortable level in order to alleviate pain. In some cases, change in gait can affect other parts of the body — knee pain patients also start feeling low-back pain due to a change in gait. Gait alteration should alert the individual/physician so that the problem can be diagnosed and rectified at the earliest. 
Legs are of different lengths.