Sugar Addiction

You will be surprised to know that of all the addictive agents that you can list such as tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, betel and drugs, one that has probably sneakily getting you hooked from early childhood and making the largest impact on your health could be your addiction to sugar.

Sugar, scientists point out, poses far greater danger than we seem to realize; it is a toxin that harms our organs and disrupts the body’s usual hormonal cycles. Excessive consumption of sugar, they say, is one of the primary causes of the obesity epidemic and metabolic disorders like diabetes, as well as a culprit for cardiovascular disease. More than 20% of urban Indians and 10% of urban school children and adolescents in India are obese largely due to excessive consumption of sweets and sugar.

That the landscape of health across the world and especially in India is undergoing drastic change is reflected in the WHO’s recent report attributing over 60% of urban deaths in our country to life-style disorders of the heart, brain or cancers, replacing the old causes such as infections and starvation.  And what lies at the heart of these metabolic causes seems to be our addiction to sugar!

Our “Pavlovian” dependence on sweets start from infancy when we are introduced to sugar water, kheer, sweets and ice-cream.  And think again, how do we reward or show our love for someone? By giving him or her sweets, chocolates, rasagullas or laddoos!

The excess sugar that enters our body requires excess amounts of insulin to be secreted by the Beta cells of our pancreas. Over time, these cells get exhausted leading to diabetes. And as sugar cannot be stored in our body effectively, it is converted to fat that gets deposited in our buttocks, paunch, livers and heart!

Around the world, a growing body of opinion – the 'No Sugar’ movement – is leading a global fightback and warning that our sweet habit is completely out of control. Sugar, whether added to food by you or the manufacturer, is the greatest threat to human health. And unless we wise up and quit en masse, we don’t just risk personal obesity and disease, but national bankruptcy and collapse as the toll our ill health takes on our countries’ economies threatens to destabilise the modern world.

The sugar trail seems to be coming back to haunt India. Sugarcane has been grown in India since 500 BC. We learnt to make the white crystals from the juice much before the European tongue had its first taste of sweet  around 1500. In fact, sugar was called the white spice and was considered more preciious than gold, and shipped to Europe by the colonizers.

The movement is led by Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at University of California, San Francisco, author of Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar, numerous scientific and press articles, and presenter of “Sugar: the Bitter Truth”, a YouTube clip viewed more than 3,300,000 times.  

It is time we woke up and fought our most primodial addiction to save ourselves and our future generations!

Violence against Doctors

Violence against Doctors

Last week’s gory incident in which a renowned super-specialist, Dr. Rohit Gupta was mercilessly beaten up by disgruntled relatives in a private hospital in Allahabad has shocked not just doctors, but most sensible members of society.

The CCTV video showing the goons drag Dr Gupta to a room in the hospital and thrash him for over 15 minutes, has gone viral and evoked sharp outcry. Dr Gupta who sustained a fracture of his jaw bone and multiple other injuries is undergoing treatment in another hospital. He had gone to visit the 80 year old critically sick patient at 4 AM in the morning, who died, when this incident occurred.

The fall out of such an event causes great harm to society, especially patients in dire need of medical help at odd hours. I am sure Dr Gupta, having learnt the lesson of his life, will refuse to take calls at odd hours. And so will many other doctors practicing in small hospitals and nursing homes.  If society and administration doe not inspire confidence in doctors about their safety, they are expected to retract to safer zones.

It is not without reason that doctors tend to concentrate and practice in big cities and are reluctant to settle or open clinics in small towns and villages. Vandalizing clinics and beating up doctors is not uncommon in small setups making good doctors flee to safer pastures.

Grief and frustration are legitimate emotional responses of relatives especially in the event of death of a loved one. But anger often leads to violence. And unless the law enforcers provide adequate security to doctors, they are likely to play safe and not attend to suffering patients in desperate need, at odd hours.

The good old family physician who would make a home visit on a telephone call, has almost disappeared in most places. Well qualified doctors are reluctant to visit homes. The most badly affected are the frail and elderly. Apart from the inconvenience, it is the huge costs that families will have to bear to take them now to hospitals to seek medical attention.

Violence against doctors receives a perverted sanction from movies and television serials too. It is not uncommon to see bereaved relatives in TV serials catching a doctor by the collar when he breaks the bad news.

One could argue that doctors are sometimes rude, calloused and insincere in their dealings that evoke the ire of relatives.  That the medical profession is no longer held as noble and revered as it once was, is often attributed to a doctor’s monetary greed and sometimes, unethical ways. I  am sure there are black sheep in every profession, and the medical fraternity is no exception.

But the use of violence as an instrument to “teach” doctors a lesson is bound to boomerang and jeopardize the needy and the poor. 

It would be a great disservice to the community if civil society does not condemn such violence against doctors and ensure that the culprits are punished.