The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Arthritis patients suffer winter blues
Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Home remedies to tackle joint pains:

Keep yourself warm, especially the areas where the problem exists.

Use of moist heat therapy, where a towel dipped in hot water is applied over the problem areas, is specially effective.

Hot water bottle is also effective.

Regular exercise must be done to avoid stiffness.

Use of medicine in extreme case or application of analgesic creams or ointments, which increases blood supply to the muscles, soothing and relaxing them.

Chandigarh, December 23
Come winters and the number of patients suffering from joint, spine and neck pain shoot up in hospitals. The plight of those already suffering from problems like arthritis and spondylitis is even worse, as even slight exposure to the cold leaves them with stiff muscles, almost restricting their movement. "While the number of trauma patients has suddenly declined, almost 50 per cent of the people coming to our outpatient department come with problems of joint pain, stiff neck or frozen shoulder," said Dr Vijay Goni, Assistant Professor in the Orthopaedics Department at the PGI.

While the patients whose problem is very acute are made to do physiotherapy, including heat therapy, others are just given some medicines to reduce the swelling and inflammation. "Winter is the worst time of the year for patients suffering from rheumatoid and gout and arthritis and osteoarthritis, as their problem precipitates, making even normal movement difficult," said Dr Goni.

A large percentage of patients seeking remedy for joint pain are women above 40 years. The first and foremost thing that orthopaedic doctors suggest is that since the pain is maximum in the morning, when a person gets up, one should try to mobilise all joints by making slow movements rather than trying to get out of the bed immediately. Due to the morning stiffness, patients who have acute joint pain could even suffer from locking or clicking of the joints.

Generally, rheumatoid arthritis affects people of younger age group. In case of ankylosing spondylitis, the soft tissues and ligaments around the joints get inflamed, causing stiffness and pain. Though, the problem of goutis arthritis is directly related to the level of uric acid, which gets deposits due to high intake of protein rich diet. "Since winter is a problematic time of the year for such patients, they should take special care to ensure that protein rich food like red meat, paneer, milk products and kidney beans should be completely avoided," suggest doctors.

SPORTS

City team for national tae kwon do meet
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, December 23
Chandigarh will take part in the Eighteenth National Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Championship going to be held in Mumbai from December 25. The city team has been trained by Gurpreet Singh Dhillon, Technical Director and President of the Tae Kwon Do Association of Chandigarh.

The team: Boys: (in black belt section): Tarun Kataria (below 54 kg); Rajesh Kumar (54-63 kg); Amarjit Singh (63-71 kg); Jaswinder (71-80 kg). Colour belt section (senior): Surinder Kumar below (54 kg); Gaurav Sachdeva (54-63 kg); Pardeep (63-71 kg); Sunil Channa (71-80 kg); Sikandar Gilhotra (80 kg and above). Colour belt section (junior): Bablu Dharamvir (below 52 kg); Keshav Dutt (52-58 kg); Rahul (58-64 kg); Amandeep Singh (64-70 kg); Mohinder Singh (70 kg and above). Colour belt section (sub-junior): Shubham Dhillon (below 24 kg); Lovekesh (24-30 kg); Ishaan Soni (30-36 kg); Amit Mittal (36-42 kg); Ravi Kapoor (42 kg and above).

Girls (colour belt section-junior): Amandeep Kaur (42-48 kg); Rajini (48-54 kg). Colour belt section (sub-junior): Gitu Singh Bindra (34-40 kg).

Vijay, Monu bag carrom title

The Tribune Staff Carrom Tournament concluded on the Tribune premises this evening. Vijay Anand and Monu Sharma beat V.P. Gupta and Vikas Ghai 22-9 in eight-board doubles final. In the singles final, Vijay Anand beat Monu Sharma 15-8.

Results: Singles: Vijay Anand-1; Monu Sharma-2; Vinay Parkash Gupta-3.

Doubles: Vijay Anand and Monu Sharma-1; V.P. Gupta and Vikas Ghai-2; Harbinder Singh and Vinay Chaudhary-3.

Shivalik School gears up for gymnastics meet
Our Sports Reporter

A gymnast practises for the 44th Senior National Gymnastics Championship to be held at Shivalik Public School, Phase VI, Mohali, from December 27. — Photo by Malkiat Singh

Chandigarh, December 23
For the first time in the history of Mohali the Chandigarh Gymnastics Association will hold the Senior National Gymnastics Championship in the township. The five-day event, which is being held after a gap of more than 25 years, will be staged in a huge indoor hall at Shivalik Public School, Phase VI, from December 27.

A visit to the hall this evening saw finishing touches being given to the venue under the supervision of Mr D.S. Bedi, Director Principal of Shivalik School and the man behind the holding of the event.

Coaches were busy giving tips to trainees. They were all praise for the hall. The 110x120 ft hall has gypsum ceiling and deco-turf synthetic surface. It has a separate spectator gallery. Mr Bedi said: “ITBP Gymnasium Hall, Behlana, and Shivalik Public School were in the race to host the meet. But the food and accommodation facilities at this venue won the decision in its favour,” said Mr Bedi.

Mr Sameer Deb, ITBP coach, was happy at the facilities available at the venue. He said they expected better performance from their men in artistic gymnastics event. He said they were placed ninth in the event in team championship last year and this time they hoped to be among the top three.

Mr Inderjeet Singh, Ms Neelam Sharma and Ms Madhavi Bharaj, all SAI coaches, were also hopeful of better performance from their trainees. They said top city gymnasts were currently busy participating in the Inter-Varsity Gymnastics Meet being held at Amritsar and would arrive in the city on December 27

Ms Madhavi Bharaj said women gymnasts from the city would take part in artistic and rhythmic gymnastics. Rhythmic gymnastics involved ball, hoop, ribbon and rope event, while artistic gymnastics involved balancing beam, uneven bars, vaulting horse. Men’s artistic event involved high bar, Roman rings, pommeled horse, parallel bars and vaulting horse disciplines.

Dropped cager rues body’s decision
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, December 23
Politics between two warring factions of coaches in a local basketball association has taken its toll. The victim is Navneet Kaur, an upcoming state-level basketball player who has been representing the city in various basketball nationals for the past more than six years. She has been dropped from the 12-member UT women basketball team for the senior national basketball meet to be held in Cuttack.

When this correspondent met her at her Sector 24 residence, Navneet was in no mood to talk. Her parents were seen comforting her by saying that she should take the matter in true sportsman’s spirit.

When Navneet agreed to talk, she said she had received a letter by the Chandigarh Basketball Association 10 days ago asking her to attend a camp for the national championship. All these days she had been attending the camp regularly.

Up till last evening, she was confident about her selection to the senior team. But today, she was told that another girl, Mandeep, had been selected in her place for the tournament.

Navneet alleged that no valid reason was given for her being dropped. The team left this evening for Cuttack. She said though two girls — Harjeet and Jaswinder — never attended the camp, they were selected.

The mother of Navneet said her daughter’s career could be ruined due to infighting between two factions of coaches in the association. She said Navneet had been a dedicated and outstanding basketball player. She said Navneet had won a bronze medal in the National Women Sports Festival last year. She has also represented the UT in the Senior National Netball Meet. She alleged that it was unjust on the part of the selectors to ignore her. She alleged that a basketball coach had even asked Navneet to give chance to other players, since she had participated in a number of national events.

Mr Jugraj Singh, secretary of the association, was however not available for comments, as he is accompanying the UT team.

The team: Sapna Rana, Mandeep, Harjeet Kaur, Shivani, Jaswinder, Kamaldeep, Ranjeeta, Pushpa, Rajita, Sandeep, Amandeep and Manpreet.

ADMINISTRATION

Excise dept raids garment shops
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23
A team of officials of the Excise and Taxation Department, UT, today raided the premises of six shopkeepers in Sector 17 dealing in readymade and woollen garments. Goods worth Rs 50 lakh that were not shown in the account books were unearthed.

According to a senior official of the department, the names of the raided shops are Elvis Jeans (Rs 10 lakh), Excellent Collections (Rs 6.42 lakh), Dash Jeans (Rs 8 lakh), Ludhiana Garments (Rs 11 lakh), Selection Jeans (Rs 8 lakh) and Rajdeep Collections (Rs 6 lakh) in Sector 17-D.

He said these traders were not issuing proper receipts to customers, and were evading the payment of sales tax to the exchequer by not showing the stocks in their account books.

He claimed that at the rate of 4.4 per cent sales tax on woollen and readymade garments, the evasion worked out to over Rs 2 lakh.

But as per the provisions of the Sales Tax Act, he said, these tax evaders may have to pay 100 per cent penalty as well.