No Pill for this Ill

Does the medical profession really want society to be healthy?

 

Does this world, where business and money interests are supreme, want society to be healthy and tranquil? The answer is a big NO. No one wants to break her/his own rice bowl. The pharmaceutical industry, the most powerful lobby in the world today—thrice as big and powerful as the oil industry—will certainly not want people to be healthy. The medical profession is trying its best to make more and more people come into their net by ‘regular health check-ups’ of the healthy, run for the heart, run for cancer and so on; it is also doing its best to create iatrogenic illnesses. Hospitals, especially the corporate ones, seek more surgical post-operative complications, as the latter nets more money into their kitty than the original surgery itself.

 

Last year’s budget to treat non-fatal adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in Europe alone was $80 billion! Please give me one good reason why anyone should want to treat simple acne with azithromycin; but that is exactly what is done and on a long-term basis. A recent issue of The Times of India, in a front page news report, mentioned a study done in one Delhi medical college hospital, which showed that all (did I say all?) germs in the acne now have become resistant to azithromycin, a high-end antibiotic reserved for respiratory infections like pneumonia! Antibiotics are the time bombs waiting to explode anytime now.

 

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How to Save People From Snakebites

The desperate search for better antidotes that can work against many types of venom.

Matt Lewin waited for the paralysis to set in. Two anesthesiologists and an emergency-room doctor monitored his vitals while the mivacurium moved through him. Mivacurium paralyzes skeletal muscles the same way a cobra bite does, with the venom’s most deadly effect: It causes the diaphragm to stop contracting, and the victim suffocates. The doctors had chemically immobilized

Lewin, like a snake would, to see if they could reanimate him with a new snake-venom antidote.

It was an antidote Lewin himself had developed: a nasal spray of the compound neostigmine. Doctors first described neostigmine’s ability to undo snake-induced paralysis in 1972, but it is usually injected, and administered by doctors in a hospital. Lewin wanted to create a first-aid–style, no-supervision-required version that a person could stick up her nose after a cobra bit her. But his Afrin-like version had never been tested against snakebites—not even in mice, rats, chimps, or the other lab-test favorites that usually precede humans.

Lewin, prone in the research room, was the first test subject. (A known antidote to mivacurium waited right next to him, just in case.) At first, the effects of mivacurium felt relaxing, the ultimate shavasana. Then, Lewin couldn’t see. His breathing got shallower. He had trouble swallowing, couldn’t lift his head. Speech departed.

He felt impatient and dependent, like a child whose well-being depends on others. “Even though I knew I was being monitored intensely, they appeared to me very casual,” he says, “because they couldn’t experience what I was experiencing.” And what he was experiencing was a slow, staggering walk toward death (metaphorically, since he couldn’t even wiggle a toe). He could only hope that his antidote would grab his hand and lead him back.

“Everything that was going on was just in my head,” he says, “which was, give me the drug. Stop talking about Hank Williams, Jr.”

Underneath his anxiety, though, he knew that the doctors were confident and focused, playing out the scenario they had dress-rehearsed and planned for months. When he heard them approach his nose with the antidote, he got so excited that his heart monitor began beeping like crazy before the mist even entered his nasal cavity.

The effects were almost instantaneous. The muscles under his face jerked awake and reordered themselves. It felt cartoony, like CGI of a human morphing into an animal. Minutes later, the rest of his body worked. He rose from the bed like Lazarus.

“It worked!” he said.

His words came out slurry and garbled. He cried.

Raad the full article

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Old but not gold

Is India prepared for 300 million seniors in 2050? With the government's safety net for the elderly in a shambles, their sunset years don't look promising.

India now has over 100 million citizens over the age of 60, five times the number in 1950. Seniors now make up 8.6 per cent of the population. By 2050, India will have nearly 300 million seniors and make up about a fifth of the population, as per projections from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat.

Old but not gold
India now has over 100 million citizens over the age of 60, five times the number in 1950.

Joint families used to offer a support system for the aged
Several companies have launched retirement homes across the country.

'Just increasing pensions is not enough'
Retirement homes are now big business, with even big realtors venturing into it.

Poor quality of care
Mumbai’s homes are plagued by problems such as lack of financial resources, shortfall of care-givers, and poor quality of care.

Most homes in Delhi are run by NGOs
Most homes in the capital are run by NGOs, with several getting grants from government agencies.

Lower middle class left out
Interestingly, the elderly males prefer to use one of the 28 Corporation-run night shelters rather than join a home.

Filled to capacity
Kolkata has about 100 centrally funded homes, with an average capacity of 25-30 persons.

Read the feature in The Hindu dt. 5th Apr 2015

Medicine Wars

There is still no credible evidence of the effectiveness of homeopathy or ayurveda, say detractors. But every system has its own philosophy and can’t be judged by the same criteria, say supporters. Meanwhile, all five alternative medicines that fall under the AYUSH Ministry continue to thrive in India.

Questions over science swirl, but AYUSH stands firm

There is still no credible evidence of the effectiveness of homeopathy or ayurveda, say detractors. But every system has its own philosophy and can’t be judged by the same criteria, say supporters. Meanwhile, all five alternative medicines that fall under the AYUSH Ministry continue to thrive in India.

Read the article

‘Ayurveda believes every substance is medicine’

Interview with Dr. Dinesh Chandra Katoch, Adviser (Yoga) in the AYUSH Ministry.

Read the Interview

‘Are Randomised Control Trials really required?’

Interview with Dr. R.K. Manchanda, Director-General, Central Council for Research in Homeopathy.

Read the interview

All appeared in The Hindu dt. 26th Apr 2015

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The Dementia Plague: the growing dementia problem could bankrupt the healthcare system

12 Indian foods that cut fat

You don't have to acquire a taste for olive oil, seaweed or soya to maintain a low-fat, healthy diet. Indian cuisine can be healthy too, if it's cooked with oil and ingredients that take care of your heart and health.

Ayurveda suggests you include all tastes — sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent — in at least one meal each day, to help balance unnatural cravings. Here are 12 foods that can help you lose weight and gain health:

Turmeric; Cardamom; Chillies; Curry leaves; Garlic; Mustard oil; Cabbage; Moong dal; Honey; Buttermilk; Millets; and Cinnamon & cloves.

Read the full post

A-Z of superfoods for weight loss

According to the British Nutrition Foundation, eating fruits and vegetables, which are low in energy density (i.e they provide fewer calories per gram) has been shown not to just help lose weight but also to keep it off long term.

Know the A-Z of Fruits & Vegitables

How to lose weight without dieting

While there are plenty of fad diets that may help you lose weight, they also leave you feeling hungry and food-deprived. For all those who don't have the time or inclination to undertake a crash diet or even hit the gym, we've got some great news. If you want to slim down the healthy and painless way, try the following strategies. After all, it's not what you eat but how you eat.

CHEW MORE, EAT LESS
DON'T SKIP BREAKFAST
CONCENTRATE ON YOUR FOOD
DON'T OVERCOOK YOUR MEALS
FRUITS BEFORE MEALS
HAVE SMALLER MEALS, MORE OFTEN
AVOID EATING AFTER 8 PM
THINK AND DRINK

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Old before your time: When your body really starts going downhill

There's no denying the ticking of a woman's biological clock - but men are not immune, either. French doctors have found that the quality of sperm starts to deteriorate by 35, so that by the time a man is 45 a third of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Here, with the help of leading clinicians, Angela Epstein identifies the ages when different parts of the body start to lose their battle with time.

Read the full article

Interesting articles to read -- 14-09-2012

Interesting articles to read -- 14-09-2012

CSR: A pragmatic approach. Instead of focussing only on philanthropy, resources could be pooled to create more ethical companies in the country. Read

Microsoft India to incubate 11 firms in Bangalore Read

Universities and mass action. Universities are temples of learning and factories of ideas, thought, dialogues, analysis, research and interpersonal interactions. Read

Remembering two giants of Indian science. Read

A whole new serving. Here are ways to rustle up healthier versions of your child’s favourite foods. Read

Engage yourself in this “Stand By Me”, Playing For Change Song Around the World Both entertaining and inspiring. Listen

Archives

Interesting articles to read -- 01-09-2012

Interesting articles to read -- 01-09-2012 Organ Donation: The multiplier effect By Rekha Dixit Read

You're Wired to Be a Leader By Geil Browning Read

High Five: “Don’t Get Swayed By The External Environment” By Vikram Bakshi of McDonald’s outlines five points to think through before you embark on an expansion plan Read

The Henry Ford of Heart Surgery

In India, a Factory Model for Hospitals Is Cutting Costs and Yielding Profits.

Dr. Shetty, who entered the limelight in the early 1990s as Mother Teresa's cardiac surgeon, offers cutting-edge medical care in India at a fraction of what it costs elsewhere in the world. His flagship heart hospital charges $2,000, on average, for open-heart surgery, compared with hospitals in the U.S. that are paid between $20,000 and $100,000, depending on the complexity of the surgery.

The approach has transformed health care in India through a simple premise that works in other industries: economies of scale. By driving huge volumes, even of procedures as sophisticated, delicate and dangerous as heart surgery, Dr. Shetty has managed to drive down the cost of health care in his nation of one billion.

His model offers insights for countries worldwide that are struggling with soaring medical costs, including the U.S. as it debates major health-care overhaul.

"Japanese companies reinvented the process of making cars. That's what we're doing in health care," Dr. Shetty says. "What health care needs is process innovation, not product innovation."

At his flagship, 1,000-bed Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital, surgeons operate at a capacity virtually unheard of in the U.S., where the average hospital has 160 beds, according to the American Hospital Association.

Narayana's 42 cardiac surgeons performed 3,174 cardiac bypass surgeries in 2008, more than double the 1,367 the Cleveland Clinic, a U.S. leader, did in the same year. His surgeons operated on 2,777 pediatric patients, more than double the 1,026 surgeries performed at Children's Hospital Boston.

Read the full story by Geeta Anand appeared in the Wall Street Journal of dt. November 25, 2009.