Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal 19th September 2018

Video to watch: What is FDC?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGv6BRIG8UA

TEDx Video: Doctor-patient relationship:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ml1vKK2DQ

Health quiz for a healthier heart: True or False?

Taking blood pressure in both arms may reveal a higher heart attack risk.

TRUE: One should measure blood pressure in both arms. A difference of 10 points or more means a 38% greater chance of having a heart attack

Dietary fat wreaks havoc on your heart and your memory.

FALSE: Not all dietary fat wreaks havoc on your heart and memory. Saturated fat (in butter and red meat) can harm both memory and artery health while monosaturated fats (in olive oil and fish) actually improve both memory and heart health.

In quantum physics both the chicken and the egg can come first, claim University of Queensland researchers. This question was first posed by philosophers in Ancient Greece to describe the problem of determining cause-and-effect. A team of physicists from The University of Queensland and the NÉEL Institute say they can use quantum physics to prove that both the chicken and the egg can come first. In quantum physics, cause-and-effect is not always as straightforward as one event causing another. The weirdness of quantum mechanics means that events can happen without a set order.

To observe this effect in the lab, the researchers used a setup called a photonic quantum switch. With this device the order of events - known as transformations on the shape of light - depends on something called "polarisation". By measuring the polarisation of the photons at the output of the quantum switch, they were able to show the order of transformations on the shape of light was not set. The researchers theory was published in full by the American Physical Society in the Physical Reviews Letters journal.

NHA has launched a website (mera.pmjay.gov.in) and a helpline (14555) number to help prospective Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries check if their name is there in final list (ET Healthworld – PTI, Sept. 18, 2018). The National Health Agency (NHA) is the apex body implementing the Ayushman Bharat-- National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM).

J&J rejects reimbursement for faulty hip implant. A patient, who had to undergo a second replacement surgery in Bengaluru after learning about the flawed design of the first implant, was denied reimbursement, all because he raised the claim 10 years after the surgery. Rejecting the claim, Deputy International Ltd (DePuy), UK, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson said in an email to Reddy: “The primary surgery was done on 6 April 2005, which is more than 10 years from now. As per our protocol on ASR Recall Programme Reimbursement guidelines, we will not reimburse revision surgery beyond 10 years from the date of primary surgery. Hence your revision surgery expenses is not eligible for reimbursement” (ET Healthworld, Sept. 18, 2018).

WHO is developing Benchmark Documents for practice in Ayurveda, Panchkarma and Unani system as part of its global strategy to provide safe, effective and accessible Traditional Medicine to global community. Development of these benchmarks documents is included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) between WHO and Ministry of AYUSH. The WHO Working Group Meetings for three WHO benchmark documents scheduled 17 -19 September, 2018, were inaugurated on Sept. 17, 2018 at Jaipur … (Press Information Bureau, Ayush, Sept. 17, 2018).

The 3rd High-level Meeting on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) will be convened by the UN General Assembly in New York, USA on 27 September 2018. The meeting will undertake a comprehensive review of the global and national progress achieved in putting measures in place that protect people from dying too young from heart and lung diseases, cancers and diabetes.

Latest cardiac statistics in India

1. Cardiac ailments killed more Indians in 2016 (28%) than any other non-communicable disease (September 2018, The Lancet). These are double the numbers reported in 1990 when heart disease caused 15% of deaths in India.
2. Deaths due to cardiovascular diseases in India increased from 1.3 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2016, and more than half the deaths caused by heart ailments in 2016 were in persons less than 70 years of age
3. Ischemic heart disease caused 17.8% of deaths and strokes caused 7.1%
4. Rheumatic heart disease causes 1.1% of total deaths. But India still contributes to 38% of its global disease burden
5. 54.5 million people were affected by cardiovascular disease in 2016 compared to 25.7 million in 1990.
6. Hardening of arteries was more common in men than women, while strokes affect both sexes equally.
7. There are five major risk factors: Bad food habits (54.4%), hypertension (56.6%), air pollution (31%), high cholesterol (29.4%) and tobacco usage (18.9%). Among tobacco users, smoking was seen as a major risk factor in 83%.
8. Prevalence of cardiovascular disease in 2016 was the highest in Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu–more than 5,000 per population of 100,000. Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa and West Bengal are close second with prevalence between 4,500 and 4,999 per 100,000.
9. In rural areas, those living in the wealthiest 20% districts were associated with a relative increase in the 10-year cardiac risk by 13.1% compared to the poorest 20% districts. In urban areas, the corresponding increase was 4.3%.
10. More deaths in India (61.8%) in 2016 were due to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, while in 1990 more deaths (53.6%) were due to communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional (CMMND) diseases, according to a November 2017 study published in the medical journal Lancet.
11. In Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, the prevalence of the disease varied between 3,000 and 4,000 per 1,000,000 population. But the risk factors increased significantly compared to 1990. The disease burden has also increased about 15% in these states in recent years. (Source: PHFI)

Dr Harsh Vardhan released the draft India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) on Monday on World Ozone Day. India is the first country in the world to develop a document on Cooling Action Plan, which addresses cooling requirement across sectors and lists out actions which can help reduce the cooling demand. This will help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions. The overarching goal of ICAP is to provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all while securing environmental and socio-economic benefits for the society. (PIB, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Sept. 17, 2018).  

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is confronting five outbreaks of infectious diseases at the same time. The CDC has issued separate 3 Travel Alerts for Ebola, Measles, and Polio on September 14, 2018. In addition, the CDC is cautioning visitors to the country about the ongoing Yellow Fever and Zika viruses... (Precisionvaccinations.com)

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Elect CMAAO

President HCFI