Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
OBESITY
OBESITY: _ _ Prologue: It only needs a daily excess of energy of 100 kilocalories (the equivalent of a small chocolate bar) to lead to an increase of around 5Kg of fat over 12 months or 50 Kg over 10 years. For thousands of years obesity was rarely seen. Obesity is a modern problem – statistics for it did not even exist 50 years ago. The increase of convenience foods, labor-saving devices, motorized transport and more sedentary jobs means people are getting fatter. It was not until the 20th century that it became common, so much so that in 1997 the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized obesity as a global epidemic. The WHO describes the “escalating global epidemic” of obesity as “one of today’s most blatantly visible — yet most neglected — public health problems”. Obesity is a bigger health crisis globally than hunger, and the leading cause of […]
ALLERGY
ALLERGY: ______ ______ Prologue: Medical representatives of pharmaceutical industry frequently visit doctors to promote their products and shower doctors with drug samples, gifts and tours. One medical representative gifted me a perfume to promote his new product. I do not use perfumes. However, human mind is curious and when a perfume was given to me as a gift, I thought why not use it. Two weeks after using perfume, I developed itching skin rash over my body known as ‘Urticaria’ and dermatologist diagnosed it as allergy to perfume. The priciest perfumes and skin care products can cause allergic reactions because of the chemicals that give them their scent. In one fragrance, there may be as many as 26 allergens. The figure above shows urticarial skin rash in another patient. Allergy is not a disease but a mechanism which may play a role in a number of disorders. You can be allergic to anything […]
SANITATION
Note: During routine maintenance of website, the article ‘Sanitation’ was inadvertently lost and therefore I am re-instating it in its original form now. It was posted in December 2012 but now it is posted in March 2013. The article ‘Fear’ is following the article ‘Sanitation’. Dr. Rajiv Desai. MD. March 20, 2013 ________________________________ Saturday, December 1st, 2012 SANITATION : _ The picture above shows open defecation near railway track in India. _ Prologue: After writing many articles on topics which concern us in our daily life; right from food, environmental pollution, water and clothing, I thought I must write on the most important and most neglected subject, namely sanitation i.e. safe disposal of human excreta (feces & urine). Till the age of 15 years, I did not have the luxury of private toilet as I was brought up in a middle class environment in Mumbai where shared toilet was the […]
FEVER
FEVER: _ _ Prologue: “Humanity has but three great enemies: fever, famine, and war. Of these, by far the greatest, by far the most terrible, is fever.” – Sir William Osler. For last 20 years, I have been treating fever and my patients included everybody from poor to wealthy; from honest to corrupt; and from politician to bureaucrat. I fully agree with Sir William Osler. No matter how high or low socioeconomic status and no matter how good or bad the person is, fever make them very helpless, very fearful, very vulnerable and very apprehensive. I have seen patients coming to hospital in ambulance with fever for one day; relatives pleading to save life and next day patients are fine & discharged. Fever is a common complaint leading families to seek medical attention. When I wrote on “Heat illness”, I thought I would follow it up with article on fever […]
THE PAIN
THE PAIN: _ _ Prologue: Pain, as a proper subject of scientific observation and study, has long been neglected by medical science. Perhaps, like death, it reminds us too much of our failures as physicians. Or perhaps, like sex, it was seen as too private or subjective a subject for objective analysis. Whatever the reason, pain was never mentioned as a topic in my medical school, residency, or internship training. Pain is the most common symptom of disease and the request for its relief probably the most common demand placed on the doctor. Pain is too important a topic to continue to be ignored. Pain is clearly a multidimensional experience. It is neurophysiological, biochemical, psychological, ethnocultural, religious, cognitive, affective and environmental. The topic of pain is extremely complex to say the least. Pain is that pervasive, invasive, all-encompassing personal warning that something-is-wrong signal. Pain is associated with a wide range […]
