I Think

Recently one newspaper with quotes of a prominent endocrinologist in Mumbai reported that 15% of our children, yes our Indian children are overweight! I was simply flabbergasted to read that. Is such a figure possible in India- with nearly 35% of the population living below the poverty line? What a land of contradictions! Statistics also indicate that half of children under five are undernourished in many parts of the country. On one hand, we have a major issue such as malnutrition to tackle and on the other we have this problem of obesity. Unlike the issue of malnutrition, which is beyond the scope of individuals like you and me to solve, at least we can do something about the epidemic of obesity which goes on to increase the health society in general. In my opinion the easiest way to deal with this is to simply ‘exercise’. The word exercise means causing exertion to the body but that does not mean one has to get enrolled in costly gyms and start using all those fancy ultra-sophisticated equipment to reduce body weight. Just think if you could just do a few extra chores around the house such as gardening, dusting, cleaning, etc. even these could help you stay fit and trim. You can also get your children to take an active part in such activities so that they do not remain couch potatoes. Encourage them to skip, cycle, swim and play that will burn extra calories instead of watching TV whole day long. Taking the staircase and avoiding the lift helps you knock of excess fat and stretches your muscles too. If you could help it, try to reach your destination by walking instead of using your two or four-wheeler. If you must take a cab, get off a few miles before and try to walk the remaining distance. This way in every situation you could bring in some kind of ‘exercise’ into your routine. In fact doing your own work instead of getting someone else to do it is also a clever way of incorporating exercise in your daily life. Never grudge picking up things strewn around by a child – instead think it as an opportunity to exercise. A research team from Japan has shown that merely making women take 9000 steps everyday instead of their usual 6000 had a positive effect on their cholesterol levels. Many similar studies have shown health improvements can be expected even in exercise of low intensity. So go ahead and make exercise a way of life. Take a few steps more. Catch obesity by the horn and throw it out of the window before it catches up on you.

It is obvious that the government is preoccupied with issues like ‘No-confidence motions’ and ‘ Ayodhya movements’, while there are far more burning issues concerning health that need priority attention. An apparent lack of attention for health care projects is largely due to lack of knowledge of diseases and their impact on the society. If only ‘people’ who are in the ‘decision making chairs’ paid more attention to ‘Medical Education’ it would benefit almost every living being and every organization, both governmental and non-governmental in healthcare. Corporate hospitals need to justify the interests of their stock and share holders. In fact, a medically literate patient asks too many embarrassing questions and major hospitals who thrive on patient ignorance will never think of patient education. Also there are many well-meaning medical doctors, but are simply too busy and do not find time to talk to the patient for more than 2 minutes because he has his next patient waiting; has to wind up for the day and go home. Hence by and large education to society on health is rarely taken seriously and is largely ignored. When I started Thyrocare, I wrote a simple black and white newsletter called “Thyrocare News Letter” in the year 1996 (when the turnover of Thyrocare was only 10 lakhs per annum) and that was a major tool for Thyrocare to reach a 40 crore annual turnover in such a short span of 6 years. But many healthcare organisations to whom business was the only motive have been struggling to retain their business. They think a color brochure of their hospital, visiting card and a price-list is all that is required for business promotion. If someone says people do not read nowadays, it is wrong. People read and even medical doctors read and this was obvious when a crowd of more than 500 medical doctors (including senior most consultants in Mumbai) were seen at a medical book exhibition at Sunderbai Hall (Near Marine lines, Mumbai) in the first week of October 2003. Another wrong myth is that inviting medical doctors with a dinner and cocktail is a route for medical education. If I have to state from my experience it is a wrong ‘spirit’ and is not a cost-effective exercise for both the organisers and for the participants. This is further complicated by politics, preferences and demands to chairs in organisations, events and even scientific sessions. Various bottlenecks have made medical education to both the common man and the general practitioner, a neglected area. For AIDS, a programmer of Balbir Pasha in Mumbai or a Pulli Raja in Tamil Nadu can educate the common man. Yes it can and it is, achieving the objectives. At least something is better than nothing. Knowing the nature and impact of AIDS even the costs are justified. But are there not dozens of diseases where serious education is a must for general public as well as medical community? Doctors who have no time to speak can at least find time to write books in vernacular languages and such books should be subsidized by government and made available in book stalls and exhibitions at rates like, Rs. 10 to Rs. 50. There are enough people to buy and read if there are books worth reading. In case you are interested in writing books on diseases, tests and medical technologies, that will help common man to become medically literate and a general practitioner more laboratory oriented, please visit the site www.thyrocare.com where you will find a way to reach someone who is in need to know what you know. Let us try to do what is essential to make medical education possible, quantitatively. Quite a mammoth task. But nothing is impossible. If we start now, in another 2 decades at least 10% of the ideal level of medical knowledge can be achieved.

Synthetic pharmaceutical drugs may produce long-term known or unknown side effects. May be a valid argument. Looking for alternative medicines has become the need and herbal medicines are being explored. But the question still is “is it completely safe?” The contents of herbal medicines or various ayurvedic preparations are not known. They may contain mild to severe toxic substances (biological origin) or contamination (heavy metals), which if consumed for a long duration, may have deleterious effects. At least in case of standard pharmaceutical preparations, the contents are known or defined, studied and compared and many regulatory bodies have knowledge and control over their performance and side effects. Sadly, the Indian governmental regulatory body allows ayurvedic preparations to be marketed without stringent toxicity evaluation as is mandatory for all other pharmaceutical preparations, simply because these preparations have been in use for centuries. A good number of supplements of medicines may be safe enough. Thereby, presuming all herbal preparations to be safe, without even providing information and evidence on their safety, accepting and adopting all such preparations or recommending them to patients may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire.