Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
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 […]
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 […]
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 SLEEP
_ THE SLEEP _ Prologue: When I was working as a medical specialist in Saudi Arabia, my duty time was 7.30 am to 5 pm and additional calls at night. If I woke up at 2 am to treat a serious patient and finished work at 3 am, technically speaking I worked 1 hour extra. My Saudi boss used to say that I can come 1 hour late next day at 8.30 am as I worked previous night for 1 hour extra. It is stupid to say the least and cruel to say the most. The issue is not 1 hour night disturbance but you do not get good sleep after being woken up at midnight and your next day is spoiled due to day-time sleepiness. I am sure that medical professionals, police, military, fire brigade etc will agree with me. Even today, I am the only physician in the […]
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: Prologue: A well educated and qualified doctor from western country practiced in an underdeveloped tribal area of an African country full of quacks and god-men but became very popular. When asked how such a scientific and rational doctor became popular among tribal, he gave a simple answer. He said that one third of patients are psychic, another one third have self limited illnesses and the remaining one third have illnesses which need his attention. The quacks and the god-men can cure psychic & self limiting illnesses but only he could cure the rest and that is why he became popular. This is the difference between the conventional scientific medicine and traditional unscientific medicine. Thousands of years ago everybody believed that the sun revolves around the earth & the earth is stationary but today, everybody believes that the earth revolves around the sun & rotates on […]
