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Showing posts from May, 2020

TESTING THE HEART

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Heart care has become an industry. A number of heart institutes are being opened every day worth crores of rupees, in one or the other part of the country. The main aim of these institutions is to make money by performing as many bypass surgeries or angioplasties, because these operations only can earn astronomical amount of money. Estimations of Rs. 3 Lacs to Rs. 5 Lacs for one such operation are not uncommon. Some of the hospitals still perform these operations for as low as 65000, if they are in a small city like Coimbatore or Varanasi! In these hospitals, necessary and unnecessary investigations or tests are also performed as a secondary source of revenue. Every cardiologist sends for a battery of investigations. Blood samples are drawn several times from the patients in a day in these hospitals. Many of these investigations are also done for the outdoor (OPD) patients also. The other day one of my patients told me that for tests only he has spent about Rs, 50000 in a heart hosp...

REDUCE STRESS AT WORKPLACE

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Many institutions within the current culture, while paying lip service to stress reduction , put intense pressure on individuals to behave in ways that promote tension. Employers should take measures to prevent stress from work overload and should provide help to deal with work-related stress. Treating stress has a no. of benefits, not only for the individual but also for the employer. Theory of Anekant: The best way of manage stress THEORY OF MULTIPLE VIEW POINTS (ANEKANT) ANEKANT, or the theory of multiple, different points of view emphasizes upon the fact that a single event is bound to be analyzed differently by different individuals. This depends upon one’s training, more values, priorities and so on. Every person has his own thinking and rights to express his views. Following “Anekant” one avoids many conflicts and helps oneself to perceive the different opinions of others. Story of an Elephant and Three Blind Persons. There w...

HISTORY OF YOGA

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Yoga is the one of the world’s oldest branches of spiritual inquiry, and one of the longest standing, most intense experiments on the human spirit. Yoga teaches guidelines and values to follow, and practices for purification for the body, mind and spirit. The earliest text with just a hint of the guidelines for the yogic tradition is the Vedas, the sacred canon of Hinduism, dating back some 3000 years to 1500BC. The Vedas explore the possibilities of the human spirit and of the energy and powers in the universe, and discuss the purpose and meaning of life. The roots of yoga evolved from the spiritual and metaphysical disciplines of the Vedas and the Upanishads, a sacred text from near 600 BC. Yoga however rejects the pursuit of metaphysics, and sticks to the practical path of transcending the ego in order to awaken the center self, the pure being of consciousness and awareness. Yoga looks to engage in the spiritual path rather than to speculate about it. It is the exercise o...

CHESTPAIN

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The smooth working of the human body is governed by a wonderfully co-ordinated functioning of the various organ systems like the digestive system, circulatory system etc. Nervous system is one such system comprising of the brain, the spinal chord and the nerves. The nerves act as pathways to carry sensation to the brain and spinal chord convey the commands from them. The nervous system thus comprises of the sensory and the motor parts. All the order from the brain are transmitted to the muscles by the motor nerves. As a result the muscles execute the command and the movements take place. The sensory nervous system has a wide spread distribution all over the body. The nervous branch and re-branch to reach all the areas of the human body. The sensation of pain is picked up at one end by these nerves. This is then delayed to the spinal chord from where it eventually goes to the brain. Any injury to any part of the body or inflammation leads to stretching of these nerve endings ...

RISING BURDEN OF HEART DISEASE IN INDIA

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Rising Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in India The number of heart patients in India was roughly estimated as 1.5 crores in 1992 by the World Health Organization that increased to 5 crores by the year 2001. The same is expected to touch 10 crores by the year 2010. Although accurate figures may not be available due to a variety of reasons like non-reporting of deaths., lack of diagnosis in many who suddenly die or do government mechanism (who can collect data from the cardiologists) to count them and so on, the fact remains that the numbers are racing up. Few sample studies of small groups in Rajasthan, Delhi and Kerala show that number of coronary heart patients have doubled (2% to 4%) in villages whereas in cities there has been a three-fold increase (3.45% to 9.45%) from 1960-90. In Kerala the number of heart patient are even higher (13% in the cities and 7% in the villages). This is mostly due to high consumption of coconut oil. It is estimated that about 25-30 la...