HEALTH

Dietary supplements spark row
Health Dept warns of side-effects
Pradeep Sharma

Panchkula, February 1
The Health Department and mega pharmaceutical firms are on a collision course over the sale of some dietary supplements, which have flooded the market. While the department maintains that the dietary supplements and other medicinal substances, manufactured by some leading pharmaceutical companies such as Lupin, Biological Evans,Wockhardt and Nicholas, have certain side-effects, the companies contend that the products had been certified “safe” by the Drugs Controller General of India(DCGI).

According to Dr Satbir Chaudhary, the pharma cutical giants manufacture these substances in India as there are not legal statutes to regulate dietary supplements.

All dietary supplements contained therapeutically-useful substances — mainly herbs and doses of vitamins, minerals, metals and allied substances which affect human health.

For instance, Ranbaxy sells Revital capsules , which contained the traditional herb Ginseng.

Ginseng had allegedly caused several deaths in Germany, the USA and the UK recently on account of its serious side-effects, including increase in blood pressure, decrease in blood sugar and skin rashes.

In fact, the WHO has cautioned the regulatory authorities to curb the non-medicinal use of Ginseng.

Acting on the WHO’s advice, the Drugs Inspector, Mr Kamaldeep Dhawan, served a legal notice on Ranbaxy.

However, in its reply to the notice, Ranbaxy highlighted several medical benefits of Revital in stress and depression under the title “medical rationale of Revital”.

The legal department of the company claims that Revital is a “food article” and does not have any use as medicine.

Ranbaxy went on to claim that the DCGI had allowed the company to manufacture Revital as food supplement in 2000.

However, the Drugs Inspector said that the letter of the Ranbaxy was not as per the law.

Kids examined at health camps
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 1
Over 1,000 children were provided with medicines free of cost and their medical check-up was done at two health camps organised by the UT Red Cross at Maloya and Palsora here today. The health camps are part of the 16 camps that the UT Red Cross will organise.

Children were given medicines free of cost. The next camp will be organised on February 15 at Citco Community Centre, Industrial Area, and Government High School, Hallomajra.

SPORTS

Hari Narayan crowned Mr North India
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, February 1
Hari Narayan of Chandigarh was adjudged “Mr North India —Champion of Champions” in the Mr North India Bodybuilding Championship held at the DAV College Auditorium, Sector 10, today. Hari Narayan had yesterday won “Mr Chandigarh” championship.

The one-day meet was organised by the Chandigarh Amateur Body Building Association under the aegis of the Indian Body Building Federation (IBBF). Mr Suresh Kadam, general secretary of the IBBF, along with Mr Pradeep Baba, president of the North India Body Building Association, was present on the occasion.

As many as 90 bodybuilders drawn from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, J and K, Uttaranchal and Chandigarh, which was held in the presence of national and international judges. Twenty-five officials took part in the meet.

Results: below 60 kg: Rohish Kheda (Punjab) 1, Lekh Raj Gurung (Uttaranchal) 2, Bhisham (Delhi) 3. Below 65 kg: Daljeet (Punjab) 1, Illyas (Chandigarh) 2, Naresh Kumar (Rajasthan) 3.

Below 70 kg: Sushil Kumar (Punjab) 1, Shashi Kumar (Delhi) 2, Bihari Lal (Punjab) 3.

Below 75 kg: Parvesh Kumar (Punjab) 1, Ankur Sharma (Haryana) 2, Anurag Pandey (Chandigarh) 3.

Below 80 kg: Hari Narayan (Chandigarh) 1, Jagat (Delhi) 2, Anshul Arora (Chandigarh) 3.

Below 85 kg: Rama Kant (Chandigarh) 1, Suresh (Delhi) 2, Meharban Singh (Chandigarh) 3.

Below 90 kg: Narinder Singh (Punjab) 1, Rohit (Delhi) 2, Vishal Tyagi (Punjab) 3.

Above 90 kg: Jagjeet Singh (Punjab) 1, Sanjeev Kumar (Chandigarh) 2, Mukesh (Delhi) 3.

Varun leads Harmukh club to victory
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, February 1
Superb batting by Varun, who scored 44 runs in just 26 deliveries, enabled Harmukh Cricket Club to beat Nestle XI by five wickets in the First Er Bharat Kesho Gupta Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Sector 3 stadium.

Brief scores:

Nestle XI — 119 for 6 in 22 overs (Arpinder Bedi 35, Rakesh 30, Rajiv 29, Naveen 4 for 20, Raj Kumar 3 for 23).

Harmukh CC —123 for 5 in 22.5 overs (Varun 44, Ajay 28, Mayur 3 for 20, Arpinder Bedi 2 for 29).

In another tie, Education XI defeated Honda Cricket Club by 12 runs.

Brief scores:

Education XI —150 for 6 in 22 overs (Rajesh 39, S. Aslam 20, Sumit 2 for 25, Vikas Kansal 2 for 30).

Honda CC — 138 in 22 overs (Subodh 28, Ravinder 20, Subhash 2 for 30, Ravinder 2 for 14).

Handball championship

Government College, Ludhiana, bagged the Panjab University Inter- College Inter Zonal Handball (men) championship. SGGS College, Sector 26, Chandigarh, secured second place while DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh and PU campus clinched second, third and fourth places, respectively.

In the matches held today DAV College, Sector 10, defeated PU campus 15-04. The half time score was 9-4. The scorers were Nand Lal 6, Rajnish 2, Ramesh 2, Narinder 2, Sanjay Kumar 1, Kapil 1. For PU the scorers Sunil Kumar 2, Pawan 1, Baljinder Singh 1.

The match between Government College, Ludhiana, and SGGS College, Sector 26, saw a 24-24 draw. Half time score was 16-11. Scorers for Government Colege were Avtar Singh 9, Amarjit Singh 4, Davinder Singh 4, Rajdeep Singh Virk 4, Rajiv Rawat 2, Mohinder Singh 1. For SGGS College the scorers were Shiv Dayal 13, Hardeep Singh 4, Rajnish 3, Amrinder Pal Singh 2, Sukhdev Singh 1, Deepak Rawat 1.

Judo tourney

The Amateur Judo Association, Chandigarh, will hold the senior state judo championship on February 8 at Sharda Sarvhitkari School, Sector 40, Chandigarh. City judokas for the senior national judo championship to be held at Cuttack (Orissa) will also be selected on the basis of this meet.