Happiness is all that Matters !

 It is indeed the time of the year when Indians try to reconnect with their families, travel long distances to congregate at their homes, pray and fast together, perform rituals, wear new clothes, hug each other and rejoice and try to keep their traditions and faiths alive. The food is rich, roads are crowded, and offices and businesses crawl but the air seems charged with a renewed excitement. If sceptics and cynics find it amusing to see members of a family geting together to fast, eat, pray and  celebrate togetheras meaningless old fashioned ritualds, the laugh may be on them!

It's not just lifestyle, human emotions too have a significant impact on an individual's well being, says a new study. Researchers from University of Kansas have found that positive emotions are critical for upkeep of physical health for people worldwide, especially for those who are deeply impoverished.
 "We've known for a while now that emotions play a critical role in physical health," said Sarah Pressman, assistant professor of psychology at KU and a Gallup senior research associate. "But until recently, most of this research was conducted only in industrialized countries. So we couldn't know whether feelings like happiness or sadness matter to the health of people who have more pressing concerns - like getting enough to eat or finding shelter. But now we do," she added.
 During the study, the researchers analyzed the data from the Gallup World Poll involving more than 150,000 adults. The participants reported their emotions, and also answered questions about whether their most basic needs like food, shelter and personal safety were adequately met.
 It showed that positive emotions such as happiness, enjoyment were unmistakably linked to better health, even when taking into account a lack of basic needs. While negative emotions such as worry and sadness were a reliable predictor of worse health.The association between emotion and physical health was more powerful than the connection between health and basic human physical requirements. Even without shelter or food, positive emotions were shown to boost health.

Another study affirmed that family rituals (such as birthdays, religious celebrations, and family reunions) are associated with marital satisfaction, adolescents' sense of personal identity, academic achievement, children's health, and stronger family relationships.Barbara H. Fiese, Ph.D., and colleagues at Syracuse University studied family rituals, , involve symbolic communication and convey 'this is who we are' as a group and provide continuity in meaning across generations." according to Dr. Fiese. "Also, there is often an emotional imprint where once the act is completed, the individual may replay it in memory to recapture some of the positive experience." Routines can become rituals if they move from instrumental to a symbolic acts.

Be it  Eid, Navratri or Durga Puja, celebrate it with emotional gusto. Never mind what the Westerners would say about our seemingly meaningless ceremonies. They probably envy us for them and for the fact that we remain ahead of them on the Happiness Index. What else is life all about?

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 27 september , 2009.

ARE YOU WATCHING OR PLAYING CRICKET?

With the Asian games scheduled in Delhi next year, it is time we looked at how the crowded schedule of matches and leagues are impacting our lives and health.

The involvement that most urban Indians have with sports today is to watch it on television or to read it in the papers. We love watching cricket on TV, sometimes bunking office or college to catch it live.  Many who were not veteran cricket watchers have taken to it so as not to be left out of party or coffee shop conversation.  Watching games together with friends is even more thrilling, as passions rise higher with exchange of expert observations and comments. And  chips, pizzas, samosas  or nuts to munch during the matches adds that extra dash of fun that make these sessions so interesting, while making us couch potatoes.

In urban India, the focus has shifted from “playing it” to “following it”, Boria Mazumdar style. Amongst youngsters, the question is no longer “What games you play?” but “What is your favourite game?”, the one for which you might rattle figures and show off your GK.  You are expected to know  how many centuries Sachin has scored in a 50-50, even if you never held a cricket bat.  For school kids, palying computer cricket is another way of relishing the game.

It is hardly surprising then that over 10% of urban school children in Lucknow are overweight. In a study undertaken by HOPE Initiative (www.hope.org.in) obesity was rampant in elite Lucknow urban schools, and correlated well with time spent before the TV screen . It is hardly surprising then that India is becoming the diabetic capital of the world, as obese children grow up and develop this disease . Contrast this with rural schools where none of the 20,000 children surveyed were overweight and where children play their own versions of bat and ball in open fields.

The reasons for not playing are many. Duration of school hours has shotened, and the limited time available is considered to be  “better “ utilized for studies. After all, what are schools primarily meant for? Within the class too, there is a division of studious guys who get marks, and the “sports type” who get the runs in interschool meets but do not  make to the IITs. Homes are no longer homes with fields around. Gathering a group at a remote field to play cricket is not easy; traffic and security hurdles have to be crossed first. And coaching classes take up the evenings anyway – after all engineer ban na hai na?

Is participation in sports dwindling then? The answer is NO. More youngsters are playing games, but not for fun or to remain healthy, but as a career option making it very competitive.  But the overwhelming majority of our urban Indians are content  following it in the media.  Our national obsession for games has not translated into making most of our urban youngsters actaually play them. Let us welcome the Asian games!

As published in HT city ( Hindustan Times) dated 20 september, 2009.

Tobacco kills, SAVE Yourself

Two thosand people will die today in India due to tobacco. India is home to 250 million tobacco users with around 900,000 succumbing to tobacco-related diseases every year.  We ranks 1^st in the world for incidence of oral cancer, caused almost entirely by tobacco use. One of our senior ministers had to be operated in USA for cancer of the cheek due to his Gutka habit. Although his face reveals a lack of symmetry, it is a matter of satisfaction that he is cured of cancer, and has turned a major anti-Gutka campaigner in Maharashtra.

One wonders how this habit started and spread in mankind’s history. There is no scientific doubt that tobacco may provide even the slightest benefit to human health. It has no nutritive value. While smoking, one inhales 43 cancer causing substances, 15 harmful chemicals and 400 poisons, all in a single puff.  Tobacco contains nicotine that provides what little kick that people get of it. It is however addictive and habit forming.

The habit usually starts at a young age, usually in school or college, under “peer pressure”, when seniors get ther juniors initiated. It ususally starts with a spirit of adsolescent experimentation or rebellion, and helps a young person enjoy a feeling of having “grown up”. The occasional fag then becomes a way of life, a fashion or personality statement and then very soon, a habit that gets increasingly difficult to kick. Smoking rates in India are growing at an alarming 7% annually.

The harmful effects of smoking are well known to even those who smoke: lack of stamina, chronic cough, and increased risk of heart disease, stroke and stomach ulcers. Smokers are at high risk  of cancers, not just of lungs, but of the mouth, pancreas and bladder too. Contrary to the popular “macho” image projected by the tobacco industry, smoking reduces potency in men and causes infertility and birth defects in women.

Smokers tend to be self centered, with scant regard for the welfare of their families and those around.  Innocent children ad spouses exposed to 2^nd hand smoking because of an uncaring man, are often harmed this way. They often develop asthma and bronchitis. Sudden infant deaths occur more commonly in homes where someone smokes. Spouses of smokers are at increased risk of developing premature heart disease and cancers. Further, children growing up in a “smoking home” are more likely to take to it in life. Would any caring father then continue to smoke for that little kick they enjoy?

One often finally kicks the habit after a major health problem like a heart attack. By then much narrowing of the arteries have already occured. One wishes it was much earlier. Two drugs are now available to help those who wish to stop. But what is really required is just simple will power and a sense of concern for those around. Unfortunately, both seem to be in short supply.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 13 september , 2009. 

BLIND YET 'WATCHING ' TV

Children of Navjyoti School for the blind, located in Mohanlalganj love “watching” soap serials on TV. “They  follow the family dramas and all that is happening in the country by listening to the voices on TV and “picturing” the characters in their minds”, says Sister Jessy,  principal of the school that houses 65 blind children aged 6 to 14 years.

And if your eyes turn moist with sadness for these “deprived” children, just hold on! They do not feel deprived as they do not know what they miss by way of vision, as they never had it. The term for them is neither “deprived” nor “handicapped”, but “challenged”, indicating that their inability to see poses a challenge for them to achieve almost all that their “visually eqipped” colleagues can. They can sing, dance, play on the swings, study, pass exams and get jobs. The way they appreciate beauty may however be somewhat different: Shreya Ghoshal may be more beautiful to them than Karina Kapoor, as it is through voice and sounds that they perceive the world.

I was amazed to see these children put up a group dance in which they came together at times with their outstreched swinging hands meeting that of their partnersin perfect harmony; so strong is their spatial sense that they could almost “see” where the partner’s hand was at that moment. They also put up a play where their lack of vision made no dent to how they moved around on the stage, faced each other and acted their parts!

Suman showed me how she reads and writes without any vision. Her books and notes are in Brail, a form in which the paper is perforated or elevated in patterns so that alphabets and numbers can be recognized by touching with her fingers. The school also has computers equipped with software that converts the alphabets that we recognize by their 2-dimensional shapes into Brail forms

Blindness afflicts 1.5% of our population making India the country with the largest number of blind people (15 million) of the gliobally estimated 37 million. Lack of vision in children may be of several types. Some have it at birth and then lose it due to damage to their corneas, commonly due to deficiency of Vitamin A, or they may have very high refractive errors like myopia, while some may be blind from birth, as most children in this school are. They have perfectly normal intelligence, and a much enhanced sense of touch and sound.

The children of Navjyoti love music; they sing very well and are very fond of learning the sitar or the drum. And what touched me most was to see that they could laugh and play, and be happy, putting many long faced people with “sights” to shame. A vist to this school taught me much about life.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 6 september, 2009.

Swine Flu in U.P.

Swine flu has already infected more than a thosand people in this country and claimed 7 Indian lives, and seems poised to spread rapidly across the country causing  a great deal of havoc.  The virus has already infected 1.6 lac people in more than 168 countries of whom 1160 have died. The WHO has termed it a “pandemic”, implying that the disease has become global.  Its entry into India has been late, but with the high population density (jargon for “crowded”) in most cities here, it is expected to spread faster than wild fire.

The swine flu germ is a virus that belongs to the family of Influenza viruses, and has a particular profile termed H1N1.  This particular virus normally causes flu in swines and pigs. Recently this virus mutated and crossed over to man, causing human disease. Further, it has mutated to adapt itself to spread from one person to another and thereby started an infectious cycle amongst humans.  The problem originated in Mexico and spread to other parts of the world. The virus spreads by droplets shed by an infected person while sneezing, coughing or speaking, or when we touch infected places and then put our hands in our nose or mouth.

Infection with any of the influenza viruses (including H1N1) produces similar symptoms: running nose, sore throat, cough, body aches and fever.  Sometimes, the infection becomes severe and the lungs get involved, resulting in shortness of breath or breathlessness. Further progression may cause high fever, fall in blood pressure, shock and failure of several organs of the body and may cause death.

                There is no doubt that this infection is extremely contagious; hence people who come in contact or face to face with an infected person run a high chance of catching it. Hence it is important to isolate infected persons so that they dont shed the virus in the air in crowded places and infect others. Also, personal protection such as wearing masks in crowded places and washing hands with soap and water frequently can help.

                The virus is however not very deadly; what it means is that it proves fatal in a very small proportion of people that it infects. To use statistics, of around a 10000 people that get infected, around 4 will probably have a sever e illness and succumb. Hence the case fatality ration is 0.4, compared to 10 for SAARS in which 100 people died for every 1000 that were infected.  That is the reason why doctors are saying “don’t panic”. It is a relatively lower risk disease.

                Most people who get infected with H1N1 get well on their own, just as they do for all seasonal flu infections: a few days of illness, take a few paracetamol tablets, warm saline gargles, ginger tea, and that is all. Only in a very few, the infection becomes so sever that he needs a special antiviral medicine called Tamiflu.

                Both the testing facilities and the medicine Tamiflu have been made available in a few government hospitals in Lucknow. At the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, the Department of microbiology has been equipped to carry out the test, and if need be, dispense the medicines.

                The infection is expected to spread and cause illness in many of us over the next few months. The present handicap is the limited places where the test is available and that the government has banned Tamiflu from being sold in medicine shops, as it fears there could be panic testing and buying. It is hoped that the government hospitals and outlets are able to cope with the surge of patients that this pandemic may create.  In UK for instance, any person suspected to have the infection can call into a helpline number, and if the symptoms suggest swine flu, is provided the medicineds without even having to meet a doctor.

                Vaccines to prevent swine flu are not available yet; several countries and laboratories are working hard to develop one. It might take around 6 more months before we can have one in India. Till then, prevention, widespread  and easy availability for testing and easy access to medicines may help check spread of this virus , and save many lives.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 6 september, 2009.

Swine Flu: Who's Making the Bucks?

While swine flu is still spreading, the mass hysteria and the whining of the media seems to be settling. People seem to have come to terms with the following facts:

1.       1)It is an infection caused by a variant (H1N1) of the Influenza A virus, that regularly causes seasonal flu in India and elsewhere

2.       2)It spreads from one person to another through droplets of saliva shed while speaking, sneazing or coughing, or by touching contaminated surfaces.

3.       3)The symptoms of this infection are similar to those of ordinary flu: running nose, cough, fever, body aches, and rarely breathlessness. You can’t distinguish the 2 by symptoms alone.

4.       4)The risk to life with either of the 2 infections is very small; around 99.9 % of those infected recover on their own, even without any special medicines like Tamiflu. Local figures show that of 700 people tested at SGPGI, 80 had swine flu, almost all of whomhave recoverd and none have died.

Who then benefited from the mass hysteria that was created a month or 2 ago?

First, it was the media ofcourse. They had something new to blare, and the more the viewers could be frightened, the viewing of their channels and the TRP went up.

Second, the mask manufacturers and retail shops selling them. Mask-makers vyed with one another to get their brands endorsed as the exclusive preventive mantra. Retailers hoarded and sold masks at exorbitant prices while gulible well-meaning citizen coughed up large amounts to buy them.

Crowded and unprepared government hospitals and unaccustomed CMOs had their fleeting moments of glory when the rich and the powerful  knocked (or banged) on their doors for Swine flu tests or doses of the “magic drug” Tamiflu.

 Private hospitals and labs, which were anxiously waiting and parleying with the government, have now started beaming from ear to ear.  Panic is driving the rich to their doors for the test priced at Rs 10,000/- . “What is the value of money before life?”  is what they will tell their rich clients before fleecing them.

The pharmaceutical cmpanies probably got a raw deal; their Tamiflu was not allowed to be sold at retail shops. Their stock prices did not rocket this time the way they did during the last Avian flu epidemic. Why was the government so unkind to only them? 

And those who benefited most were companies manufacturing the diagnostic kits for swine flu. Two USA based companies, Invitrogen and Allied Biosystems, quietly made huge profits as panickstricken governments of developing countries mopped up their kits. In fact, USA with 16% of its GDP going to health, did not undertake such widespread testing for swine flu as we did with our meagre 2%. Our recent national frenzy with swine flu is helping companies come out of the economic recession.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 30 august , 2009.