Archive for July, 2006
What is intriguing me today is the news that obesity has more quality of life costs for women, than for men. A study has found that the number of years of poor health as a result of obesity can be quantified and thereby compared between the genders.Apparently the study shows that obesity cost American women over three million years of lost health compared with just under two million years for men.
Thats about 5 million years of “lost health” in total, just in the United States.
It sounds a bit complicated, however it does go to show how something as common as obesity can exert a large effect on the health of the nation. The problem is, of course, that obesity is becoming more prevalent in the United States and elsewhere in the western world.
You can see it for yourself as you walk around any UK town or city. The number of people who are overweight to the point of obesity is definitely increasing.
The very sad fact is that you see more overweight children now. If only we could find a way of helping these kids understand the long term impact of their weight problems and help them realise that they are at risk from a variety of disorders that will reduce their ratio of “healthy” years and increase their chances of leading unhealthy lives.
I suspect that those large numbers of “health cost years”, mentioned in the study are set to increase before long, unless children (and probably more so, parents) can be better educated about the perils of being overweight.
July 31st, 2006
Written By: chris
I can recall my trip to the north eastern Himalayan state of beautiful and colourful tribes – Arunachal Pradesh, a decade or so back.
My friend and guide Bida Taku, an Arunachali, was an avid walker. He was always 10 steps ahead of me in our entire trek and had to bear with my slow pace while climbing the virgin forest hills. I actually envied his pace and his remarkable ability to sustain his climbs even if we were same age and had similar stature.
During my entire trip I wondered how he could do what I couldn’t, so asked him what his secret was. “I carry more oxygen in my blood than you even if we are equally strong”, Bida was candid in his explanation. I remember having wondered if there was something amiss with my blood.
I decided to get my blood tested once I was back home.
At the end of our trek, just as we were about to leave, Bida fell terribly sick. I had to take him to the hospital and had to postpone my departure for he had nobody to look after him. Since he was advised to go for some routine blood test I had an opportunity to look at the laboratory report.
To my surprise, his red blood corpuscles count was 17.5. The sceptic in me murmured – “I think you have some primitive laboratories which may have defective instruments or chemicals,” as I disbelieved the report completely.
Bida informed me that was not rubbish, for that was his actual RBCs count. He further told me that even his father had a similar count and his mother too had somewhere around 15 or so. People living in the mountain have much higher RBCs level. Whereas ordinarily healthy people living in the plains have their RBCs mostly in the range of 11-13.
A few years back I happened to discuss the subject with my teacher. It was not difficult to understand, as he explained. Adverse climb and difficult terrains of the hills were part of everyday life of hill people. They have had their quota of pranayama, the rejuvenating breathing exercises day in day out, since their childhood.
My teacher told me that his RBCs count was more than 17.
I had understood what Bida had said. He definitely carried more oxygen in his blood as he had much greater number of RBCs – red blood corpuscles are the carrier of oxygen; more RBCs mean more oxygen.
Bida had aptly given me the reason for my inability to keep pace with him during our treks. It was the reason I had refused to accept and it took yoga to show me what he meant.
July 28th, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
I wrote a few days ago about how hot it is in the UK at the moment.
Don’t think I’m complaining, as I’m not. Far from it actually as I quite like the good weather day in day out. We poor Brits aren’t used to it as our summers are usually rain, a bit of sun to remind us that it really is summer, then more rain again.
Nice though all this hot weather is, there is a serious downside. Apparently the sun kills 60,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
According to that report, these deaths are caused by various skin cancers, though it fails to mention the thousands of deaths that resulted in France from the heat wave in 2003, which were mostly caused by heat stroke and dehydration.
I spent three months in Australia about ten years ago, just as the Australians were starting to become concerned about the numbers of people who were contracting skin cancer from too much exposure to the sun.
I was shocked by the appearances of some youngsters there, whose skins were looking many years older than their actual years. Excessive exposure to the sun had prematurely aged their skins and wrinkles were starting to appear. It was noticeable, however, that people were making an effort to avoid too much sun exposure and the sun block costumes were becoming very popular on the beaches, particlularly for children.
Here in the UK, this summer, we are seeing people who have become very tanned, and many who have been badly sunburnt. If we start to have a run of hot summers like this, then even we Brits need to start paying heed to the dangers of the sun and make sure that we don’t add to those world wide statistics.
July 27th, 2006
Written By: chris
The most difficult person for me to initiate into yoga so far has been my own daughter, Diya.
My seven year old has all the reasons why she is unable to follow the regime every day seven days a week – “father if I get up early I sleep in the class while ma’am is teaching; then I feel sleepy in the afternoon after I return home, and I’m unable to do my homework if I go off to sleep; in the evenings I’m playing and then I am packing my bag, preparing my uniform and polishing my shoes for the school; so it’s late and I cannot get up early in the morning.”
Diya says all this and more in a single breath
But while she continues to be the most difficult person to involve in my own yoga practice, I continue to be perhaps the most difficult father to give up on those often forceful arguments – “reduce your playing hours, go to bed early, and if you do that you will need to spend less time learning; because when you do yoga you concentrate much better, hence you learn faster and then you have all the time to play”, is my refrain everyday after I wake her up to join me in the yoga practice at half past five in the morning.
Diya had been wearing specs to correct her left eye squint ever since she joined her school four years ago. She would break her expensive specs almost every month and I had a difficult time taking her to the eye specialist and optician more than 40 miles away. This was an expensive monthly grind.
The most disappointing part was that her squint had worsened so the doctor had suggested some eye exercises to complement the glasses she was using for the purpose.
But all that is a history now.
She has not had any new specs ever since she broke her last pair in May this year. The recent check up has confirmed that she does not need to wear her specs all day long as her squint has been reduced by 80%.
Diya has been practising yoga since May though she did not practise consistently at first. Her doctor believes the exercises he had suggested had worked. But honestly I never cared for his new prescription as I feel that Yoga had corrected her sight problems.
I keep reminding her how she got rid of her specs she has worn for as long as she can remember. And I encourage her to follow my yoga instructions as we proceed in our morning practice. But only for about 10 minutes or so as she is too talkative to concentrate properly.
Children must be initiated into yoga early. It’s a discipline which can set firm foundations for a responsible childhood and a basis for a thoroughly mature adulthood.
July 26th, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
I am writing this sitting on an excruciatingly hot train as I am travelling to a meeting in London today.
There have been record temperatures in the UK this month and all you really want to do in this heat is to sit in the garden with a long cold drink, or even to practise your yogic breathing if you are feeling particularly virtuous.
The last thing you want to do is to sit on a train and also the thought of pounding away on a treadmill in a gym seems very off-putting at the moment.
Whenever I feel that I’d rather be doing a thousand other things other than putting in the (static) miles on a treadmill, I think back three years to my encounters with another sort of treadmill - the stress test treadmill in the Cardiology department of the hospital where I worked.
I must have performed hundreds of stress tests on a huge variety of people, all complaining of chest pains and various conditions such as heart attack, angina and breathlessness. I hope never to be on that treadmill myself.
I recall a large number of patients, mostly elderly, but alarmingly some in the forties and fifties, who could not even walk at the slowest speed on the treadmill for three minutes.
Why am I reminiscing about those experiences in the Cardiology department, as I sit on this hot train?
Well, knowing that I would be going out later on today, I decided to do my swim this morning instead of the afternoon as I normally do. If you go to a gym regularly you’ll notice that you meet a completely different set of people to the ones who are there when you normally are.
This morning it seemed that most of the people were elderly, getting their swim out of the way to free up the rest of the day. Although they were swimming slowly and kept getting in my way, I didn’t mind a bit as I recognised that these are not the sort of people who end up being investigated for heart problems.
Like me they had resisted all the other temptations and excuses to do something outside and were committed to improving their health and fitness, even in these temperatures.
July 25th, 2006
Written By: chris
The participants at the yoga camps organized at different places across the country in India are asked to take an oath that they will teach yoga to at least 100 people, thus spreading the practice for healthy living.
Many of us yoga practitioners and teachers are campaigning for the same.
One of our close associates, an elderly gentleman had had a harrowing time convincing his equally elderly fellow neighbours on the merits of yoga. The old gentlemen were regular gossip mongers at a neighborhood park which was also frequented by our yoga associate. I call him Mr Joy for anybody who comes in his contact goes back filled with joy.
He shared his frustration with me several times over for not having been able to convert his friends into yoga followers. His being upset was obvious for he always believed that his friends would be the first ones to follow his advice and become yoga practitioners. But sadly for him and for us too to an extent, he was unable to deliver a message of joy to his fellow beings. This was talked over a number of times and was almost forgotten.
Then one fine morning I saw Mr Joy in his beaming best. “Looks like you have been to a saloon for a facial, Mr Joy”, I asked. “Today I have had my first session of yoga with the diehard skeptics,” he announced to my utter surprise. How it happened finally? I was too eager to know.
Mr Joy narrated the saga of his success, which did not come through with his efforts but because of the sudden demise of one of their fittest and perhaps most affectionate fellow gossipers. The gentleman who had passed away had had the best medical indicators in the group, the most talkative. He was also the staunchest opponent of the “hocus pocus called yoga”. He had died of brain hemorrhage induced by sudden rise of his blood pressure which could not be controlled in time.
That’s exactly what Mr Joy was talking to him about just a few days before his unfortunate death in the presence the others who too had all the arguments against the traditional system of healing. Mr Joy wanted the gentleman who had passed away to take to yoga to treat his persistent high BP but has met with no success.
The death of the gentleman proved to be a blow to the arguments the oldies had held against yoga. The golden advice of Mr Joy had registered with the fellow oldies. They were too shaken on the death and all seemed to wish they had heard the good advise of Mr Joy. A week after the sad event they all came knocking at the door of Mr Joy. That’s when they had had their first session of yoga. They have become quite regular with their early morning practice since.
The latest student of yoga in our community and who is also the first one from across our frontiers is Chris, the webmaster of this site. I am quite sure, Chris will not only do good to his health and well being but is already doing a great service to the suffering humanity through his generous effort we see in the site. A physiologist turning a yogi is no mean feat. That fills my heart with joy.
I will be even happier if I can get his wife and their children to join our community of health crusaders.
July 21st, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
Sometimes you read something that touches your soul, something that gives you hope and something that stirs tremendous admiration.
For me, today, that something, is the news that Jane Tomlinson, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six months to live almost six years ago, is succeeding in her grueling endurance feat to cycle 4,200 miles across America.
Very few fit and healthy people could tackle a feat like that - she has endured searing heat, exhaustion and pain, and is raising significant amounts for charity. Her example is also raising awareness of breast cancer and how it is possible to cheat the cancer death sentance.
Reading the article, you can see how her immensely positive outlook on life is probably helping, but it is also a good diet, fitness and sheer mental toughness that are combining to delay the inevitable. Of course she has undergone chemotherapy and takes other cancer drugs such as Herceptin, but it is her personality and drive that shine through.
I wish her well and hope that she continues to show us all that strength of mind and sheer determination can conquer all.
July 20th, 2006
Written By: chris
There’s hope for those who like nothing more than to slump in front of the television eating a ready meal as they watch the latest reality TV show.
These “couch potatoes” are not necessarily destined for an early trip to the “great soap opera in the sky”, that is if they follow the advice of some new research which shows that starting exercise in later life can help prevent heart diease.
The research not only confirmed that being active throughout your life does significantly reduce the risks of coronary heart disease, but also those who leap from their couch and pursue reasonably rigorous exercise, when in their 40’s and 50’s, also benefit from reduced heart disease.
I guess this makes sense as exercise not only helps you maintain, or improve your health, but feeling fitter gives you a better outlook on live, encouraging you to do more, which, in turn makes you more active.
Not only can you live more healthily, but you will probably maintain your health and fitness for longer whilst allowing those vital coronary arteries to flow as freely as possible.
July 19th, 2006
Written By: chris
The Einsteinian concept of ‘relativity’ is one of the most profound yet simple concepts you can come across. Profound more so because of its universality, the universality that makes it a simple solution for almost every conceivable enigma or problem or puzzle or whatever you call it - for everything that requires an answer, so to say.
It applies to us, in every aspect of our daily lives. It defines ‘new’, ‘old’, ‘young’, ‘aged’, ‘right’, ‘wrong’, in fact it defines dichotomies. And yet at the same time it blurs the dichotomies. For how young is young? How old is old? How fast is fast? How sick is sick? Just imagine - ‘relatively old’ could mean a few days (in the case of stale food) or a few million years (in the case of evolution)!
In today’s world, when everything whizzes by, when even nanotechnology will soon become passe, it is this one thing that will still be around to define what is the latest ‘new’, what is the latest ‘old’…
In this context, are our lives relative? In the face of that eternal constant, the great equalizer - death - yes, our lives are relative too. If that is the case, then does it make sense to run 5 kms every day, twist and contort your body in every conceivable position in an effort at physical stability and mental peace, try and climb the ladder of success, stay fit? Of all things, stay fit? If our lives are relative, and death is the constant, then what is the point of fitness, health, wellness?
There is a very valid point to all these seemingly futile endeavors (’futile’ in the context of relativity). The point is to live, for how many ever days you get to, a full and happy life. A life where you have the physical ability to do things you want to do, the mental peace and balance to be as you want to be. The point is to live the days of our lives with abandon. To not spend our days worying about disease, sickness, death. To be able to do 500 squats, run 5 kilometers, run 20 flights of stairs happily, sprint with your pet dog over a 50 meter stretch and maybe even win… To live as long as you get to, and be proud about yourself, that you have a body that you have taken care of, loved… that is why exercising and all is important, more than being just trim. because you take care of those things that you care about (the term ‘take care’ is self-explanatory), love.
When the focus becomes the act of living, and not the fact of living, is when we can say we have taken the first steps to a healthy and eventful life…
July 18th, 2006
Written By: daisy
One of the most revolutionary rewards of information technology is turning into an unpleasant feature of our working lives – too many emails choking our inboxes vying for our attention. I am concerned here only with the messages other than spam.
Like all kinds of problems in our life we have more than a fair share of unanswered emails in our mail boxes. But then are we patient enough to read through and answer the mails we choose to open? My experience says we don’t.
I receive about 60-70 mails a day which are not spam. Atleast 60% of the mails are incomplete responses to my queries addressed to the concerned persons. The responses clearly show that either the senders did not go through my mails from top to bottom, had no patience to write more than they did or simply chose to ignore the queries left unanswered. A majority of responders thus resort to impression reading – going through a few top lines, a couple of them in the middle, and a response is shot.
The breed of impression (read, impatient) readers is growing.
The end result is incomplete responses, which means repetition of unanswered queries in my follow up mails, more time spent unproductively. Sometimes such carelessness leads to blunders. Yet we claim that we are a people in hurry, capable to doing much more than the time allows.
I can recall incidence of incomplete responses or unanswered mails was not the scenario say five years back. Over the period despite the most advanced repertoire of information technology at our disposal we have grown into an impatient and incommunicable lot with terribly decreasing attention spans.
There are hardly any areas of our life which get our undivided and unhurried (read, unharried) attention We jump out of bed in the morning late; we rush through ablutions hurriedly as we are late; breakfast is a pain in the throat as it means gulping down morsels of food as big as we picked them up from our plate, as we are late; and then we turn into devils behind the wheel as rash drivers because we are late.
Let’s face it; we are a generation of workers going out of focus about just everything about our lives.
Recently I was invited to introduce the basics of yoga to a group of busy executives from an IT company. All of them were overworked and just everything they did as part of their job was firefighting. They often left assignments in hand unfinished for one reason or the other resulting into piles of work left incomplete at the end of the weeks.
Responding to mails was one of the most neglected aspects of their chaotic routine.
For all of them the last time they were happy about their jobs was when they received their appointment letters on joining. It’s just hell thereafter, all agreed.
We discussed time management as the first step to make space for yoga in their life. Unless their job demanded they had to get into the habit of going to bed early; by 10 o’clock preferably. They had to be up early too, say at four – six hours of sound sleep are more than enough for an ordinarily healthy individual.
I prescribed them Aalom Vilom (AV), one of the seven breathing exercises under the yoga regime of pranayama. AV is a single-nostril breathing practice. After morning ablutions one has to sit cross-legged, relaxed on a thin mattress spread on the floor. One should preferably choose a quiet place in his house, out on the terrace or a public park. Closing his eyes, he should start with deep inhalations and exhalations five times each, very slowly.
This should be followed by actual AV. One should press one’s right nostril with his thumb and inhale through the left without exerting too much. This is followed by pressing the left nostril with two middle fingers and inhaling through the right. It takes 2-2.5 seconds for a single inhalation or exhalation. It is a good beginning to do AV for five minutes. But those five minutes must be undivided and without break. A very short break for a few seconds to clear up one’s nose, as a beginner would need to, though is fine. The duration could be extended to 10 minutes over a period of few weeks to a month.
For an ordinarily healthy individual 15 minutes of AV is advisable. The practice makes the practitioner focused, helps him plan and develop concentration in his work and day to day routines. He can set priorities clearly, take decisions and work on them without deviating or getting distracted.
The change will be reflected in the mailbox itself.
July 17th, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
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