All About Positive Health

Paradip in Orissa, India is a port town. In the early morning, when I and many like me go for a walk in the coastline road, invariably encounter people of nearby slum dwelling on encroached land, attending call of nature in the road side. They even do not hesitate seeing us. This was the scenario in my village some ten years back. Now almost each family has a toilet in their home, thanks to the initiative by non-government organizations and Govt. collaboration. I do not understand the philosophy behind allowing slums to develop at the first place, try to evict them later on and fail, following a long protracted legal battle. There is perhaps a lot of local politics involved in it.

Open air defecation has its own hazards to the community as a whole. This habit is responsible for transmission of a number disease by face-oral route. These may be dysentery, worm diseases, typhoid and many more.

The main headache of people in the developing countries is earning the livelihood. When there is paucity of food who will think of putting a toilet in place! Govt. aid for the purpose is many a times biased by caste, it does not take poor as one class and so there is discrimination in providing the aid. Many always press for categorizing poor as one class irrespective of their caste, creed and religion; but there is also nasty politics involved in it. So, if the economic condition of people improves, they will think of having a latrine in their home. Some people have the taboo of having a toilet near the living rooms and kitchen, which is thought as unholy. This belief is changing fast in the rural India and linked directly to increase in number of toilets in the community.

A little political will is required, at least in India to enable people to have a toilet in each family by the way of improving their economic condition and a little persuasion.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Innovative toilets flush away disease, not water (innovationtoronto.com)

Rice is the staple diet of more than 50% of population of world. In India, most of the people depend on rice as food. India is one of the most important countries in production of varieties of paddy. It is a good source of carbohydrate and contains about 8-9% of good quality protein. It also contain some B vitamins.

Rice is extracted from paddy after milling. Too much milling or polishing removes most of nutritional value. Washing with a lot of water; cooking in more than required amount of water and draining the water removes much of vitamins from it. Thiamine is a important B vitamin, it contains. In it’s deficiency, people suffer from beriberi. Beriberi is marked by soreness in tongue, anemia, swelling of body due to involvement of circulatory system; and blunting of sensory and motor nervous system etc. Rice consists of three parts namely; germ,endosperm and the outer layer called pericap. The endosperm contains most of carbohydrate where as germ and pericap contain most of vitamins.

Parboiling is an age old established process of preserving the nutritional value of rice in India. This is done in tree steps; 1) soaking paddy in water heated upto about 65 degrees Celsius temperature for 4-5 hours and draining the water; 2) steaming as such; and 3) drying under sun. This process hardens the outer layer of rice making it resistant to insects; the vitamins and nutrients percolate into the deeper layer making those relatively non removable to milling and making it easily digestible by gelatining the starch. Thus, parboiling helps it in many ways in preserving the nutritional value. Rice should not be washed in copious amount of water for many times making the water soluble vitamins vulnerable to be washed away. It also should not be cooked in a large amount of water, and water be drained;which will take away nutrients with it.

So, parboiling and cooking in just the amount of water will protect the nutritional value.

Image via Wikipedia

The advertisements given in the media are often very attractive and surpass the scenes from the cinema.In India various type of such advertisements are seen .The TV and Newspaprs take the lead.The adds range from cancer cure to  a quick weight loss and many more.The desperate persons especially with medical problems fall victim to it.Consequently they are exploited.I do not know the status in foreign counties.But I hope there might be a system in place to assess the credibility of the facts to be advertised.Sometimes the media  shifts the responsibility with a foot note that they do not endorse the credibility of the matter advertised and advice the watchers to verify the same.

But is it possible for a common man in India to ascertain the truth in it ? A lot of frauds are also  seen in financial and education sector.Will it not be possible to set up a mechanism to verify the correctness of the facts before they are advertised ?

Some times some people do not avail a chance and let that go. A folk tale in Orissa,India describes how people ignore the opportunities.Once “Lord Shiva and His wife Goddess Parbati“were in the sky to observe the people of earth.They saw a poor man in skeletons begging for food but was not getting anything.Parbati became felt pity for him and asked Shiva to see this and also asked why people created by them should suffer like this.God replied to it with a smile that some do not like a grab an opportunity and are lazy ,consequently suffer.And He wanted to show that to Goddess Parbati then and there.The god put a pot full of gold coins on the road of the beggar .But the beggar at that moment wanted to mimick a blind man and walked closing his eyes.He gave a kick to the pot and walked past to open his eyes later .Consequently he missed the gold filled pot.Then the god asked his wife to interpret it and they went on the voyage.

Something of the sort happened to-day in our hospital.A person injuring his Achilles tendon came to me.Since ours is a private hospital only for port trust employees ,other people have to pay for the service with a token price only.I inspected the injury and asked him to deposit the required fees to get the tendon repaired .But the person expressed his inability to pay.I suggested him if he does not have the money he can pay it later also.He was not willing for that also.But on humanitarian ground I offered him to repaired it free of cost using material we get as physician’s sample but he has to get admitted to the hospital for some time.And to my utter surprise he declined for that and went away. Instantly my staffs reminded me of the story I just narrated.
The thick tendon through which the calf muscles get anchored to the heel bone is called Achilles tendon named after the Greek mythological hero Achilles.This is a tough tendon in the body.This tedon lifts the body weight off the ground while walking.

This tendon gets severed mainly by accidents,assault or in collagen diseases.When partially torn the person can walk limping and disability is more severe if completely torn.The person can not stand on toes of the affected foot.And if completely severed a distinct gap can be felt over an intact skin or the end can be seen if skin is cut.The upper end of severed tendon usually is dragged by the calf muscles to an upper level and may not be seen.Tendon repair is a special procedure and done under aseptic conditions .It can be performed under local.regional or general anaesthesia.The repair is done using a non-absorbable suture material.After repair a plaster of paris cast is given to immobilise the foot for 6 weeks.After that period a gentle physiotherapy makes the patient fit for duty.The results are good.

Food grains such as groundnuts,maizes and parboiled rice may get infested with fungus.This, if occurs because of Aspergillus Flavus poses a health risk.One toxin called Aflatoxin is produced by it.Aflatoxin B1 is linked to serious diseases and deaths in India .Ingesting these contaminated grains may cause serious liver disease i.e. hepatoma, a cancer of liver or cirrhosis of liver.
Increased moisture and humidity facilitates fungus growth.The food grains must be stored dried and moisture content be below 10%.If contamination is noticed the food should be discarded.

A molecule of aflatoxin.

Aflatoxin B1

The slender ,hanging structure is appendix

Poor, most of the time bear the brunt of disease aggression.One of the serious complications of appendicitis is appendicular lump.After an acute attack if not treated adequately (without Surgery) body tries to contain the infection.In the process the near by intestine and omentum try to isolate the infected appendix by surrounding it from all the sides and in the process a mass or lump is formed in side the abdomen to be felt from lower abdomen.This may in turn progress to abscess (collection of pus) formation,perforation of apendix and even infection of blood called septicemia.

Infected appendix

These patients are usually treated conservatively as surgery at this stage is riskier. But still if the lump progresses the conservstive treatment is abandoned in favor of intervention (Surgery).Again here it may not be possible for the surgeon to treat for cure of disease .He has to amelorate the potentially grave situation and defer a definitive surgery to a later date.

All these carry risk for the patient.And in this part of India there are poor people who do not have any other option rather than to accept the situation.They come late because of various reasons.One important aspect being their financial status.Initially they they expect this pain in abdomen may not be severe and go away automatically,better to wait rather than to go to a doctor and spend money which is a wastage .That amount can be used to feed themselves.But in the long run when it aggravates they even sell all their property to get treated.
Treatment facilities in terms of man power and infrastructure is lacking in this part .Added to it is the high pricing of drugs and indifferent attitude of Govt. service providing agencies compels the poor to sit at home expecting auto cure , go to quack or indulge in folk remedies.

This grim situation should improve to claim that India is a welfare state.

Image via Wikipedia

Cancer cervix of uterus seen mostly in elderly ladies.It is a treatable cancer if detected early.Whitish watery discharge, post menopausal bleeding and thereafter pain back are some of the symptoms of it.But are usually late.The disease occurs from bad hygiene,multiple child birth and as a result of papilloma and herpes virus infection apart from other causes.These aforesaid causes can be treated leading to a step in preventing the disease.At present screening tests base upon taking out scrapping of  the cells from cervix and examining what is called PAP smear.Also can be tested for the presence of virus but has not been performed in large scale.Recently a DNA test is coming up. After screening test the patient is subjected to cone biopsy of cervix and a host of other imaging studies for conformation of disease and planning of treatment.
Now researchers say ladies can be vaccinated against Human Papilloma Virus(HPV) so that immunity develops and a fraction of disease can be prevented in this way.Maintaining hygiene which is not practiced in India very much mainly due to poverty. and limiting child birth will also go a long way in preventing a further chunk of this disease.
So early detection through the srreening tests and the preventive  
measures will save or enhance the quality of life of these victims.  

Removed cancer cervix with uterus

The climate GOD, at last become happy to make the mankind in this part of India feel the cool of Rainy season.It is pleasant now.To-day is a holiday but emergency section in hospital is on as usual. Now it is in news that Govt. want to double the salary of doctors willing to work in remote localities. I do not know whether this will yield any result.Basic question is not only salary.It all about infrastructure and other facilities.In remote areas there is no good residence facility,if one is there it may not be electrified and if that is there no provision of water supply.Something will be in shortfall.If all these are there no good facility (school) for study of their children.If all of the above are there there will be lack of proper equipments for smooth  professional work and growth.  After completion of study one doctor always wants to utilize his knowledge in treating patients and in want of the facility he draws  flak. Also there is no full proof transfer policy,Policy for career progression, policy for promotion and above all low payment in comparison to other less stressful jobs.
  It is not that the so called think thaks do not know it ,it is their mental set up not to give better facility to doctors . Govt. should short out these problems before relying too much  only on hiking the pay to draw doctors to remote areas.
All these are causes for why I left Orissa Govt. service.