Morning Medtalks with dr KK

What is the definition of tobacco tar

Dear Colleague

What is the definition of tobacco tar:As per National Cancer Institute USA tar is a chemical substance made when tobacco is burned? Tar contains most of the cancer-causing and other harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke. When tobacco smoke is inhaled, the tar can form a sticky layer on the inside of the lungs. This damages the lungs and may lead to lung cancer, emphysema, or other lung problems. Cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products may produce different amounts of tar, depending on how they are made. Inhaling tobacco smoke also causes other types of cancer, including cancers of the mouth and throat.

Good News: Anil 35, a resident of sahapur jat, came to us for aortic valve replacement in May 2014. Sameer Malik Fund an initiative of HCFI sponsored his surgery done at RML hospital. He attended the annual day of Sameer Malik Function at the ashram and we found him not well. We did his echo and found his valve was stuck because of a clot. We immediately got him admitted at RML hospital and got the clot dissolved using the streptokinase therapy. He came for the follow-up today and is fine. His life saved twice in five years.

Is Bariatric surgery the answer

The surgery could extend life expectancy and quality-adjusted life-years cost-effectively in overweight and obese patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitisas per Dr. Jagpreet Chhatwal of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment in Boston. Also two studies conducted in the UK and Denmark found that weight loss and gastric bypass surgery respectively can reverse type 2 diabetes;

What about Vitamin D and asthma

A new study finds vitamin D may be protective among asthmatic obese children living in urban environments with high indoor air pollution. The study out of John Hopkins University School of Medicine, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, was published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

Can tax be the answer

People in Berkeley, California, dramatically cut their soda consumption after the city implemented a “soda tax,”

Let us enlist indications for bariatric surgery in India:

1. All adults with a BMI = 37.5 kg/m

2. All adults with a BMI 32.5 to 37.4 kg/m2 with at least one serious comorbidity (Type 2 diabetes, Obstructive sleep apnoea, Hypertension, Hyperlipidemia, Obesity-hypoventilation syndrome, Pickwickian syndrome (combination of OSA and OHS), Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, Pseudotumor cerebri, Gastroesophageal reflux disease, Asthma, Venous stasis disease, Severe urinary incontinence, Debilitating arthritis, Impaired quality of life, Disqualification from other surgeries as a result of obesity (surgeries for osteoarthritic disease, ventral hernias, or stress incontinence).

3. Adults with BMI between 27.5 to 32. kg/m2 AND one of the following comorbid conditions (Uncontrollable type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome)

Play safe, play with natural colour. Never use malachite green. Apply coconut oil.

Traditionally, Holi colours were derived from natural sources. Go back to nature. Off-late, these hues have been contaminated with hazardous compounds.

1. Malachite green (most commonly used, a most toxic, potential carcinogen, most ocular injuries). The substance has been banned in the United States since 1983 in food-related applications. It is banned in the UK.

2. Rhodamine

3. Gentian violet

4. Auramine O

5. Lead oxide

6. Copper sulphate

7. Mercury sulphite

8. Chromium iodide

9. Silica

10. Mica dust

Even fungal contamination of such powders has been proven.

These powders, through contact with skin (dermatosis), respiratory tract or eyes may provoke unsought complications.

Being poorly biodegradable and resistant to the conventional waste-water purification processes, they are harmful to the environment too. With respect to the eye, the chemicals, their constituent endotoxins and fungal contamination produce ocular surface toxicity by induction of oxidative bursts in granulocytes.

The ocular manifestations may vary from mild chemical conjunctivitis to a secondarily infected corneal ulcer, all falling under the spectrum of ocular alkaline injury.

Primary prevention

1. Application of coconut oil over the skin and hair, which can act as a possible shield

2. Sunglasses

3. Evading the use of contact lenses during such activities.

4. Use of natural colours.