Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal 7^th December, 2018

A million lives could be saved by 2050 through climate action: Taking bold climate action now, could help save a million lives and a lot of money by the middle of the century, said the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, launching a special report as part of the ongoing COP24 climate conference in Katowice, Poland. As the world is coming together to define ways to move forward on climate action and the realization of the objectives defined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, WHO stressed that it’s not just the planet that would benefit - an estimated one million lives could be saved through reductions in air pollution alone … (UN, Dec. 5, 2018)

Every citizen must be trained to save others in times of life-threatening distress, says Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu. Addressing a gathering at Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Camp, being organized at Swarna Bharat Trust, in Vijayawada, he urged the teaching community to inculcate the values of care, empathy and compassion among students from schooling to make them responsible citizenry. Saying that 4280 per 1,00,000 population in India suffers it in comparison to 60-151 per 1,00,000 in the USA, the Vice President stressed the need to bring in a law to make CPR training compulsory in schools so that one can help the fellow human being in case of a sudden cardiac arrest.

Shri Naidu called upon companies and institutions in both public and private sector provide first response training to their employees such as CPR in the advent of cardiac arrest and first aid in case of accidents. He opined that chance of survival of the distressed would increase manifold if they were provided CPR or first aid as every minute counts in resuscitation of such victims… (Press Information Bureau, Nov. 6, 2018)

Why Income tax on pension? Every retired person after rendering 30 to 36 years of service to the Govt or the Department where he worked and for all his services the Department pays him a salary, which is of course treated as income and is liable for income tax.  But after retirement he is paid pension as a superannuation fund for his livelihood on account of serving for so many years. Here a question arises as to why Income Tax is levied on pension.  This is not an income for any services or work.  This is only a deferred wage by the Department to the employee who have served the Department for so many years.  Then why Income tax on pension? The irony is that MPs & MLAs pension is not taxable.

Smoking vs vaping: Smoking is declining. As per WHO, smoking could decrease from 22.1 per cent of men and women in 2010 to 18.9 by 2025. In the US alone, the number of adult smokers is expected to plummet from 19 per cent in 2010 to 12.5 per cent within seven years.

In addition to price increases and countless public health prevention campaigns, there is evidence that the growth in smoking e-cigarettes, known as vaping, has played a significant role in decreasing tobacco consumption over the past decade, with the belief that it is less toxic.

A study published by the Drug and Alcohol Review last month claims former smokers who have quit and now vape are less likely to take up smoking cigarettes regularly again.

A 2016 WHO report submitted before the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which 180 countries have signed up, stated nations should consider cutting the use of e-cigarettes because there was not enough evidence to show they curbed smoking. It suggested countries should consider imposing restrictions on vaping, including tighter controls on sales and advertising. WHO argued while the long-term effects were largely unknown, these were reasonable measures.

Several neuroscientific studies have revealed how seeing pictures of dishes triggers a reaction in the reward system of our brains, making us hungry. Pictures of people vaping not only trigger desire to vape in the brains of people seeing them, but also reinforce herding behaviour.

One invariant in human behaviour is that anything that requires little effort is more likely to be adopted than a costly action. If buying vaping material becomes difficult and buying cigarettes remains relatively easy, there is a chance that people might go back to smoking

131 AFM cases in the US: The number of US cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a devastating polio-like disease striking children has now reached 134 as per US CDC. However, this years outbreak appears to have peaked and is expected to decline for the remainder of 2018. The mysterious illness is thought to be related to infection with a common type of virus called an enterovirus. AFM can cause paralysis.

Consuming alcohol regularly may lead to long-term weight loss in diabetics as per a new University of Pennsylvania, study published in the journal Obesity. 

Healthy adults had less bloating, increased well-being, and a small but significant weight loss on low-gluten (LG) compared with high-gluten (HG) diets, a study found. The differences appear linked to differences in dietary fiber associated with components of the two diets, not to gluten per se, the researchers report in an article published online November 13 in Nature Communications.

71% Indians have poor muscle health and about 68% people in India are protein deficient, a recent survey has pointed out. Citing reports, experts on Monday said 84% of Indian vegetarians and 65% of non-vegetarian diets are protein deficient. “According to our latest survey with IPSOS, a leading global market and opinion research firm, around 68% of people have lower protein content in their body than adequate and 71% of the people have poor muscle health,” InBody Clinical Executive Dr Ankita Ghag said in a statement.

The findings stated a correlation between poor muscle health and protein deficiency in India which needs to be addressed, she added. “We believe there is a need to build awareness about the importance of muscle health amongst Indians and find appropriate solutions,” Ghag said … (Hindustan Times, Dec. 4, 2018)  

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