Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
THE STRESS
THE STRESS: _ _ Prologue: In my previous article “Creativity”, I have stated that I had lived a very stressful life in India. The word “stress” caught my imagination as everybody experiences some stress everyday in modern world. Stress is a term that has become part of daily language in the 21st century. While stress is not new, it is a term that is used so often that perhaps it might be time to take a closer look at its meaning. If you were to take a poll in downtown and ask people to define stress, or explain what causes stress for them, or how stress affects them, you would probably receive many different answers as people that you asked. The reason is that there is no definition of stress that everyone agrees on because what is stressful for one person may have little effect on others and we all […]
NICOTINE ADDICTION
NICOTINE ADDICTION: _ Mirror shows the harm caused by smoking. _ Prologue: On 3rd December 2007, I posted comments “Tobacco and Smoking cigarettes” on www.ourbollywood.com highlighting evil effects of tobacco smoking. I also stated “Cigarette and tobacco industries defend themselves for providing employment to thousands. You cannot earn livelihood by killing innocent people because then, you become criminals. Smoking cigarette is not a personal matter as passive smoking also kills innocent bystanders.” Later on, I posted the same comments on my website but yet I see tobacco epidemic everywhere. So I decided to revisit the topic again in public interest. For long time, people did not realize that smoking was an addiction and that nicotine was the cause; in fact, cigarette smoking was widely perceived as a glamorous behavior. When your parents were young, people could buy cigarettes and smoke pretty much anywhere — even in hospitals! Ads for […]
THE ANGER
THE ANGER: _ Prologue: Back in the 1700’s there was a Scottish surgeon called John Hunter regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. He had a very bad temper and, not surprisingly, suffered from angina pectoris. He used to say: “My life is at the mercy of any scoundrel who chooses to put me in a passion”. This was prophetic. At a meeting of the board of St. Georges Hospital, he became involved in a heated argument, walked out, and dropped dead. The government of India wrote to UN that my personality is not good and I have to improve. They were referring to my alleged angry nature. I am using the word ‘alleged’ because the government had no contact with me and based their judgment on mere ‘hearsay’. Indian TV channel was investigating my performance in government hospital secretly and found that I […]
HEAT ILLNESS
HEAT ILLNESS: _ Prologue: Heat stroke is not new to the medical community. In 24 B.C., Roman soldiers with heat stroke were instructed to drink olive oil and wine while rubbing both liquids on the body. In the 1500s, physicians recommended stimulating friction and bloodletting to “release the heat”. In the 18th century, the cause of heat stroke was once thought to be drinking cold water. Patients would receive the diagnosis of “hurt by drinking cold water.” Amazingly, public pumps were posted with signs warning about the risk of sudden death from drinking cold water. Today, heat illness is the number one weather killer in the world and kills more people every year than tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding and lightening. Heat illness is more common in poor & middle class people than rich people because air-conditioners are beyond the reach of majority of middle class people (especially in developing countries) and […]
THE CYCLONE
THE CYCLONE: _ _ Prologue: I am not fond of weather analysis. Many times I inadvertently watch weather forecast on TV which I find quite boring. Nonetheless, after discussing earthquakes and tsunamis, I felt that I should discuss adverse weather events which also affect our lives. A storm is any disturbed state of atmosphere, and strongly implying severe weather; marked by strong wind, thunder, lightning and heavy precipitation (rain, ice etc). Storms are created when a center of low pressure develops, with a system of high pressure surrounding it. This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds. Storms generally lead to significant negative impacts to lives and property. The vertical wind shear in thunderstorm can cause airplane crashes. Severe weather is also responsible for plenty of helicopter crashes, and delay launch of space shuttles. There are various types of storms including tropical […]
