Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal 20th October 2018

Florida reports first pediatric flu fatality. Several patients including one child have died from influenza as the first week of the 2018-19 flu season drew to a close, according to news and public health department reports.

World Osteoporosis Day: “Love your Bones” The most common osteoporotic fractures are spine (vertebral) fractures, a major cause of pain, disability and loss of quality of life. Up to 70% of spine fractures remain undiagnosed, leaving sufferers unprotected against the high risk of more fractures. Back pain, height-loss and stooped back are all possible signs of spine fractures.

“Better Data, Better Lives” This is the theme for the World Statistics Day, which emphasizes the critical role of high-quality official statistical information in analysis and informed policy decision-making in support of sustainable development. It also reflects the importance of sustainable national statistical capacity to produce reliable and timely statistics and indicators measuring a country’s progress.

Gabapentin tops pregabalin for pain reduction in patients with chronic sciatica, results of a head-to-head comparison show. But at least one expert has concerns about this conclusion (JAMA Neurology, Oct. 15).

Call to overturn ban on e-cigarettes in Thailand. The Ends Cigarette Smoke Thailand group, orECST, has filed a request to the director of Law and Litigation Department in the Office of the Ombudsman Thailand, asking for the ban on e-cigarettes to be reconsidered.The devices were banned on December 12, 2014, by the Ministry of Commerce, which also banned shisha tobacco. According to the Office of the Consumer Protection Board, the sale of e-cigarettes is prohibited. Vendors and smokers can be fined 500,000 baht and put in jail for five years, while producers or importers could be fined one million baht and jailed for up to 10 years…

The ESCT believes that making e-cigarettes legal would bring benefits to both sides as the government would receive more tax and dropping the ban would improve Thailand’s image after tourists were fined for smoking e-cigarettes, drawing criticism from many quarters. On the slightly positive side, legalizing e-cigarettes would allow the tens of millions of people who smoke cigarettes to use something less harmful, according to research ((Asia Times).

A single intravenous dose of 0.5 mg/kg has a rapid and robust antidepressant effect according to a dose-ranging study of ketamine as adjunctive therapy for treatment-resistant depression (Molecular Psychiatry, Oct. 3).

Many women who have served in the Armed Forces in the US have experienced sexual assault, and those victims of assault are more likely to be infertile, a cross-sectional study of infertility in veterans shows (American Society for Reproductive Medicine 2018 Scientific Congress in Denver).

A 2-month weight loss regimen using meal substitutes followed by long-term weight maintenance through diet and exercise may be an optimal approach to preventing type 2 diabetes through lifestyle, new data suggest. Main results from the Prevention of Diabetes Through Lifestyle Intervention and Population Studies in Europe and Around the World (PREVIEW) study were presented October 5 here at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2018 Annual Meeting.

“Now any victim, at any age, can complain the sexual abuse faced by him/her as a child”, says Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Minister of Women and Child Development. The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India had recently consulted Ministry of Law in view of the overriding provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act over other criminal laws and provisions of mandatory reporting of such offences. The Ministry of Law after examining the provisions of POCSO Act vis-à-vis provisions of CrPC has advised that there appears no period of limitation mentioned in Section 19 in regard to reporting of the offences under the POCSO Act, 2012. The POCSO Act does not provide for any period of limitation for reporting the child sexual offences.

A shift toward more plant-based diets can help save the planet. A study published Oct. 10, 2018 in the journal Nature, found that as a result of population growth and the continued consumption of Western diets high in red meats and processed foods, the environmental pressures of the food system could increase by up to 90% by 2050, "exceeding key planetary boundaries that define a safe operating space for humanity beyond which Earths vital ecosystems could become unstable," according to study author Marco Springmann of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food at the University of Oxford. Sustaining a healthier planet will require halving the amount of food loss and waste, and improving farming practices and technologies. But it will also require a shift toward more plant-based diets, according to Springmann.

You need a joint replacement if (Harvard)

1. You can no longer complete routine daily tasks without help.

2. You have significant pain, like pain that keeps you awake at night despite the use of medications, pain that keeps you from being able to walk or bend over, pain that isnt relieved by rest, or pain that isnt helped by non-surgical approaches.

3. Your doctor says that less-complicated surgical procedures are unlikely to help.

4. You have osteoarthritis and feel the disease is wearing you down physically, emotionally, and mentally.

5. You are suffering severe side effects from the medications for your painful knee or hip.

6. Tests show advanced arthritis or significant joint damage

20 Nobel Prizes that changed medicine forever:Ivan Pavlov (1904)“ In recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the subject has been transformed and enlarged.”

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, expanded our knowledge of digestion and identified the role of nervous system in the secretion of gastric juices and their ability to affect movement in the intestinal canal. A master surgeon, he believed that surgery on conscious animals was key to greater physiologic understanding of organ system. His research on digestive systems of dogs won Pavlov the Nobel Prize, although he is most often remembered for his experiments in classical conditioning (Medscape).

Video to watch: TEDx Video: Doctor-patient relationship www.youtube(dot)com/ watch?v=i9ml1vKK2DQ

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Elect CMAAO

President Heart Care Foundation of India