UNICEF report warns of impact of poor diet on the health of children globallly

(UNICEF, Oct. 15, 2019): A new report from the UNICEF “The State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition” has found that that at least 1 in 3 children under five – or over 200 million – is either undernourished or overweight. Almost 2 in 3 children between six months and two years of age are not fed food that supports their rapidly growing bodies and brains. This puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death.

The report provides the most comprehensive assessment yet of 21st century child malnutrition in all its forms. It describes a triple burden of malnutrition: Undernutrition, hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients, and overweight among children under the age of five, noting that around the world:

• 149 million children are stunted, or too short for their age,
• 50 million children are wasted, or too thin for their height,
• 340 million children – or 1 in 2 – suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A and iron,
• 40 million children are overweight or obese.

The 26th Perfect Health Mela closed on a successful note

#MainFitToHiIndiaFit: Join the Fit India-Fit Delhi movement

The curtain came down on the 26th Perfect Health Mela yesterday with the valedictory ceremony and the HCFI Awards that were presented in the categories of media and journalism, CSR and community service, health education and patient well-being.

The three-day event was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi with the theme “Fit Delhi, Fit India”.

The inaugural day was graced by several eminent personalities such as Shri CK Khanna, Acting President BCCI, Ms. Meenakshi Datta Ghosh IAS, Co-Chair HCFI Round Table on Health & Wellness Building Consensus; Shri Satish Upadhyay Former Chairman Education SDMC; Shri Bejon Misra, International Consumer Policy expert; Dr. Girish Tyagi, President, Delhi Medical Association; Ms. Richa Bharti, Consultant Media & Communications, Ministry of Health, GOI; Prof. Dr. Monica Chaudhry, Director, School of Health Sciences, Ansal University and Dr. Nisha Mendiratta, Associate Head, Splice, Department of Science and Technology (DST), GOI. ....read more

Exercise done before breakfast better improves blood sugar levels

Changing the timing of when you eat and exercise can help people better control their blood sugar levels, suggests a new study from the universities of Bath and Birmingham published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The six-week study, which involved 30 men classified as obese or overweight and compared results from two intervention groups (who ate breakfast before / after exercise) and a control group (who made no lifestyle changes), found that people who performed exercise before breakfast burned double the amount of fat than the group who exercised after breakfast. They found that increased fat use is mainly due to lower insulin levels during exercise when people have fasted overnight, which means that they can use more of the fat from their fat tissue and the fat within their muscles as a fuel. ....read more

Writing a Vedic Will – as I understand it

Sometime back, I used to think that a ‘will’ simply meant how my finances would be controlled by my wife and my children after my death. As I started acquiring Vedic knowledge, my interpretation changed. Following is the gist for writing a Will, as I understand it the Vedic way. Of course, writing a will requires a sound state of mind, two witnesses, signed registered paper with accompanying, if possible, audio-visual link ....read more

Healthcare News Monitor

Delhi: Soon, get birth and death certs online for free

TNN-Paras Singh

NEW DELHI: Residents of south Delhi will soon be able to get birth and death certificates online for free. The facility through Citizen Service Bureaus (CSB) will, however, continue to levy a nominal fee. South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) commissioner Gyanesh Bharti’s proposal argues that the fee discourages people from generating certificates online as everyone doesn’t have access to online payment modes. “About 70% people still go to CSBs for these certificates,” the proposal reads, adding that online name addition and correction facility would soon be made available through modification in software. The proposal is likely to be cleared in the next House meeting as councillors have already passed private member resolutions on these lines. In 2019, 62,000 birth certificates were issued online against 1.45 lakh generated through CSBs. In 2018, 73,000 birth certificates were generated online against over 2 lakh offline. The first copy of both birth and death certificates is delivered at home without any charges. However, people need to pay Rs 21 for subsequent birth certificate copies. Rs 31 is charged in case the baby’s name is added after one year of birth. Similarly, generation of death certificate costs Rs 11. The corporation’s deliberative and executive wings now want to do away with the application fee. East Delhi Municipal Corporation had started the first free copy scheme. Senior health department officials, however, argued against doing away with the fees.

Telangana has the highest number of clinical trial labs in India

Medgazette 24 -Shreyas Tanna

Hospitals run by the government are the biggest clinical trial labs in Telangana and Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences which top the charts with about 21 clinical facilities out of the 200 in the state. Meanwhile around 339 dangerous cases of deaths were reported in the country during the last year out of which only one case of abortion was reported in NIMS. A study of clinical trials registry data of ICMR by TOI has revealed that out of 571 clinical trials in Telangana region and the state, around 50 percent of them were a part of NIMS which was in a list constituted by Gandhi Hospital, Osmania General Hospital, MNJ Cancer Institute, and Niloufer Hospital. Though clinical trials have approval from the ethics committee, legal experts suggest for trails choosing government hospitals is sensitive. Former central information commissioner Professor Madabhushi Sridhar said that most of the patients who come to government hospitals are poor or belong to the lower middle class by social strata and illiterate by education. The consent issues have to be verified. If the person who is signing the consent form is not informed properly, he may sign or put a thumb impression and give an unlikely consent. The government has to research into this aspect, he said. NIMS ethics committee chief Dr. N Kavitha Reddy stated, most of the clinical trials are ICMR-related in NIMS and just a few are authorized by drug companies. The trials are mainly related to oncology, neurology and nephrology wings, she added.

Follow Gandhian way of eating to counter hunger, says Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

The Hindu

Eat less, safe and healthy to reduce burden of non-communicable diseases, he says… Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has now prescribed the Gandhian way of intake of food — eat less, safe and healthy — to counter hunger and reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases in the country. The Minister also advocated developing the habit of sharing surplus food. “Our Eat Right India movement is a crucial trigger for the much-needed social and behavioural change,” noted the Minister. The Ministry has now also launched the ‘Food Safety Mitra (FSM)’ scheme, along with the ‘Eat Right Jacket’, and ‘Eat Right Jhola’ to strengthen food safety administration and scale up the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.

Medical negligence plaint against 2 doctors

TOI

Hyderabad: The father of an 18-year old girl, who died after undergoing a surgery for tonsillitis, lodged a complaint with Kachiguda police on Friday accusing two doctors of medical negligence. Kachiguda police said that P Swathi, a housewife, died on Thursday while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kachiguda. As the deceased had been complaining of throat pain for the last two months, her family members consulted a doctor in their village in Sangareddy district, who declared that it was a case of tonsillitis and prescribed medicines. As Swathi was still suffering from pain, they brought her to Hyderabad and consulted an ENT doctor at a private hospital in Kachiguda. On Thursday, doctors performed the surgery, but later told Swathi’s family members that her blood pressure has gone down. However, after sometime, she was declared dead. Kachiguda police registered a case under section 174 (suspicious death) of CrPC.