RIGHT ? or WRONG ?
MODERN MEDICINE
From scientific orbit to political nonsense to spiritual domain
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
-- Wayne W. Dyer
‘MODERN MEDICINE’ is a conundrum, not a precisely defined science of knowledge. It has been evolving and continues to evolve forever. As such, what was said to be RIGHT yesterday may be revised as WRONG tomorrow ! It happened with so many things during the COVID pandemic. Even earlier, many drugs which were promoted as effective and safe were banned later, and Pioglitazone, an anti-diabetic drug, was suspended and the suspension was revoked within about a month's time. Uncertainties and vicissitudes prevail in life as well as in medicine. Science may explain HOW a thing happened but not WHY it did. That's why even scientists pray to the Creator.
For many questions in medicine, there are no satisfactory scientific answers. For instance, why should there be yellowish discolouration of nails in a lung disease ? Read about it in my article wherein I reported the world's first case of "Yellow Nail Syndrome" associated with COVID, TB and diabetes (
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/yellow-nail-syndrome_28.html ). Some who embraced a bad lifestyle lived long, and some who lived a very healthy lifestyle died early. Rightly or wrongly, we gave the name "Metabolically Healthy Obesity (MHO)" to the obese people who live a normal healthy life. We don't know why some are spared. Do some seemingly unscientific things play a part ? Institutions (AIIMS, Delhi; University of Michigan; Yale School of Medicine) which denounced certain things earlier are embracing them now. And some are protesting at it. In the light of accumulation of more knowledge we continue to convert WRONGS into RIGHTS and RIGHTS into WRONGS. In this scribble, a few are cited as examples. A hundred more are there to be uploaded later.
"Change of opinion is the only constant thing in clinical practice." -- T. Rama Prasad
And, science is bent sometimes to serve vested interests. After around 1970s, academic activities have not been fully flawless. My father was a doctor (MBBS), and I graduated in medicine (MBBS) in 1965. So, I had witnessed the changing scenario in medicine over a long period of time . In the days of my father, people were hesitant to send their children for medical education, as they thought it was an 'untouchable' work -- touching dead bodies, dissecting dead bodies, cleaning foul-smelling wounds, etc. There were only a few medical colleges, only a few specialists, only a few hospitals, only a few drugs and only a few diseases. And there were almost no frauds in the medical field. Now, there are many. You may have a peep into some of the frauds cited in a few of my writings below --
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/03/medical-literature.htmlhttps://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/hydroxychloroquine-hcq-and-coronavirus_29.html
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-noble-profession.html
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/medical-conferences-clinical-meetings_30.html
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/science-and-nonsense-about-covid.html
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2020/02/over-healthcare.html
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2023/01/covid-vaccines-safe-or-unsafe.html
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/medical-conferences-clinical-meetings_30.html
Read them, they are just a click away. You are confused, and these writings may confuse you more !
SPIRITUALITY, REIKI, YOGA and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
The following is a PRESS REPORT in The New Indian Express :
NEW DELHI: TNIE, October 2023 :
"Coming soon, the Department of Spiritual Medicine at AIIMS Delhi
AIIMS Delhi issued an order stating that it should create new disciplinary departments in transplant medicine, medical education and spiritual medicine.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has just formed a committee to recommend a roadmap for a department on spiritual medicine. Sections of the staff and faculty panned the decision, claiming it was deviating from an evidence-based approach. … If the proposal fructifies, AIIMS will become the first government healthcare institute to open a department that is not a branch of modern medicine. Sections of the faculty, however, see it as anti-science. “It’s against scientific temperament and will put this premier health institute in a poor light,” a senior professor said. The institute has been promoting anti-science activities and now it has decided to legitimise it in the form of a department, the professor added. … Dr Rima Dada, AIIMS spokesperson, said the proposal is in a nascent stage. It will take an integrated approach and aid the modern medicine departments. Yoga and Reiki will be part of it. There was, however, no clarity on the faculty who would run the department. She pointed out that the University of Michigan and Yale School of Medicine already have dedicated courses for spirituality in science. The institute is also planning to introduce spirituality in MBBS, according to sources.”
This newspaper report indicates that a TANTRIC had been treating patients in various hospitals including one of Asia's most renowned hospitals in India. Will he be the head of the "Department of TANTRIC MEDICINE in the AIIMS" !!! Expanding "EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE" into "INTEGRATED MEDICINE" !!!
Is this RIGHT or WRONG ? Read about the "pseudoscientific" things mentioned in my writing : https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/our-handwriting.html
COVID VACCINES -- lifesaving or life-threatening ?
Read about them in the LINK below. Click on
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2020/02/over-healthcare.html
COVID QUESTIONS -- Is it all RIGHT what was done during the COVID pandemic ?
Read about it in my article titled "COVID QUESTIONS" in the LINK below. Click on
AMERICA’s BHATTACHARYA & Kennedy Jr.
Physician and economist Jayanta ‘Jay’ Bhattacharya is nominated by the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s chief agency for medical research. Secondly, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will head the Department of Health and Human Services. The two health picks by Trump are unconventional, with both appointees having expressed opinions on health policy and medicine which are out of the mainstream realm. Dr. Bhattacharya promoted a movement against ‘lockdowns’ and advocated for allowing COVID to spread among young healthy people so that they may develop ‘natural herd immunity’, during the COVID pandemic. Right or wrong ? The medical chief of the US at that time, Dr. Anthony Fauci, termed all this as “total nonsense.”
AMERICA -- "The Land of the Free"
The LAND of the FREE While the medical head of that land said so, the administrative head ventilated about the freedom. They are at loggerheads. 'Uncle Sam' assured that the citizens will have the freedom to choose between 'mask' or 'no mask', in 'the land of the free'. Wisdom and science of the POTUS !!! 
FATTY HAPPY MAN
Obesity is a major public health problem worldwide which could not be brought down in spite of a tremendous build up of knowledge and its application. The monumental growth of the remedies to lose weight is a testimony to their failure.
Recently, injectable weight-reducing anti-diabetic drugs, costing around 1,000 US dollars per injection, were introduced for use in non-diabetics also for reduction of weight. The injections may have to be taken every week for indefinite periods of time. The 'obesity drugs' market is expected to cross $100 billion in the next decade ! They would definitely reduce the weight in the pocket !!! What's WRONG ? And what's RIGHT ?
The buzz around the expensive injectable weight-reducing anti-diabetic drugs has got louder with the announcement that TIRZEPATIDE (Mounjaro) and SEMAGLUTIDE (WEGOVY) injections will be available in the Indian market by 2025 / 26. Tirzepatide may be priced at Rs 20,000 per one dose of the weekly injection.
It makes good business sense for the 'pharma-medical' industry to amplify the buzz as India has eight crores of obese people, including one crore in the age group of 5 to 19 years. And also because India is the 'Diabetes Capital' of the world, having more than 20 crores of diabetics. Let alone the prohibitive cost of the injections, would it be WRONG to think that they also won't stand the test of time ? In the US, around 60% of the patients stopped taking these injections after taking for one year (Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy').
Apart from these 'type2 diabetes medicines(GLP-1 receptor antagonists)', there are some other drugs known to reduce excessive body weight -- Benzphetamine, Bupropion, Naltrexone, Liraglutide, Oristat, Phendimetrazine, Phentermine, Topiramate, etc. Obesity is a very complex phenomenon, and most of the non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical measures didn't stand the test of time.
OBESITY and DIABETES go hand in hand. Read about diabetes in my 'scribbling' titled "DIABETES" in the link : https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/diabetes_29.html
The 'FATTY HAPPY MAN' is the one who sells all these drugs and laughs all the way to the bank !!!
FATTY LEAN MAN !!!
High fat means high cholesterol; high cholesterol means high heart attack rates. Right or wrong ? Lean body means low fat; low fat means no heart attacks. Right or wrong ?
FATTY LEAN PERSON !!! How can a lean-looking person be fatty ? In recent years, it is found that some of the people who look normal are loaded with a lot of fat inside their chests and abdomens which makes them vulnerable to metabolic diseases. We used to assess the fat content of a person by just looking at him / her. Then came the 'Body Mass Index (BMI)' as a standard to estimate the fattiness (mass) of the body (calculated by dividing the weight in kilograms by the height in metres squared -- for a weight of 70 kg and a height of 170 cm, the BMI would be 24.22 (less than 18.5 is considered as underweight, 18.5 to 24.9 is normal, then up to 29.9 is overweight, then up to 34.9 is obesity class I, then up to 39.9 is obesity class II, then over 40 is obesity class III). It should be noted that body fatness (which is generally equated to bad cholesterol levels) is just one of the various factors that determine the overall health. In fact, certain amount of cholesterol is necessary for maintaining good health. Maintenance of normal body functions is a highly complex one which involves trillions of cells functioning in sync. One disruption may lead to a cascading effect of a disaster.
BMI, WC, WHR, WHtR, BRI, BCA
For about half-a-century, BMI alone has been recommended as the measure to characterise obesity-related morbidity and risk of death due to cardio-metabolic health complications such as type 2 diabetes, high bad cholesterol and cardio-vascular diseases. In recent years, it has come to the knowledge that BMI alone can't give an idea of the fat inside the body (visceral fat), and that a simple measurement of "Waist Circumference (WC)" gives a better assessment.
Until recently, a person, apparently looking physically normal with normal BMI, normal height and weight, normal lifestyle and doing normal work was considered not to have a risk associated with excessive weight, bad cholesterol and fat such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, etc. as he was supposed not to have excessive fat. Today, it's supposed to be a WRONG assumption, as he may be having a lot of VISCERAL FAT inside his chest and abdomen which can't be assessed by BMI test.
A person of “normal” weight and “normal” BMI may have a lot of VISCERAL FAT (of large organs inside the body), around the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, etc. !!! And they are at the risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease and ‘metabolic syndrome’.
The RIGHT assumption now is that measurement of "Waist Circumference" gives an assessment and correlation better than BMI of the risk of 'visceral fat load' and the attendant metabolic and cardio-vascular diseases. As such, a set of new measurements to quantify the VISCERAL FAT are coming into vogue which are recommended to be used in addition to BMI.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-019-0310-7 (Waist Circumference as a Vital Sign in Clinical Practice : a Consensus Statement from the IAS and ICCR Working Group on Visceral Obesity)
‘Waist Circumference (WC)’ measurement at the level of umbilicus may give an idea of visceral fat deposition better than the BMI (below 90 cm / 35.4 inches for men and below 80 cm / 31.4 inches for women is normal). The 'Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR)' parameter (below 0.9 for men and below 0.85, and more than 1 is linked to increased risk of heart disease) may be a better option. These two tests, as indicators of good health, require just a measuring tape to do. A couple of other similar tests may give more information -- 'Body Roundness Index (BRI)' to assess abdominal fat content (below 4.5 is normal, above 6.91 is high); 'Body Composition Analysis (BCA)' test gives the percentage of fat (10 to 30 % is normal) , bone and muscle in the body. These two tests can be done by simple machines. Will all this be a WRONG assessment of the risk after sometime !!!
"The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), International Diabetes Federation (IDF), and American Heart Institute (AHI) consider only waist measurement. The NHLBI and AHI define a healthy waist size as: 35 inches or less for women. 40 inches or less for men.19 Jul 2024 " Can these measurements be RIGHT for Indians ?
"WAIST to HEIGHT Ratio (WHtR) : In general, having a WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE of less than half of the HEIGHT of an individual is healthy. This may be taken as a 'VITAL SIGN' in clinical practice.
"WHtR of 0.4 to 0.49 is healthy; 0.5 to 0.59 indicates increased risk; 0.6 or more means high risk. This measurement may be made as a routine check-up for the patients, or even by people at home to know their 'fat status'. It requires only a measuring tape." -- T. Rama Prasad
INDIAN POTBELLY
South Asians, particularly Indians, tend to accumulate excessive visceral fat. It may start while still in the wombs of malnourished Indian mothers. Excess fat gets deposited, especially in the liver and pancreas. Fat metabolism seems to play as important a role as carbohydrate metabolism. Excess fat in the liver leads to insulin resistance. A fat-loaded pancreas produces less insulin. Curiously, some babies born in India are found to be small in size though they have more fat than a normal proportion --- "Thin Fat Indian Child." When they grow up, they may become TOFIs (Thin Outside and Fat Inside) !!! Some attribute the "Thin-fatty phenomenon" to a "Thrifty Gene" evolved during famines in the past, to build up reserves in the form of visceral fat. If it is genetic, is it modifiable ?
One may say, citing the mythological figures in the epics, that potbelly is a racial characteristic and that efforts to melt it would be an exercise in futility. RIGHT or WRONG ? "Potbelly sculptures' have been associated with FAT GOD of Mesoamerican mythology. Mahabali, Buddha, Kubera, Ganesha and others are visualised as potbellied deities.
FOOD
As food is inseparably associated with body fat, you may be interested to go through : https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/food-exercise-and-sleep_25.html which is just a click away.
Ironically, nowadays, we are fed with a lot of 'scientific' evidence in favour of bad foods through sponsored (? ‘paid’) research. Not a day passes without the report of a scientific study making us think that the unreal is proved to be real, and the real is proved to be unreal ! With the advent of the Internet, WhatsApp, and social media sites, a lot of unauthentic information is spread. Industry takes advantage of this. Media also give distorted impressions to sensationalise study reports.
Uncertainty looms large over most of the practices related to food, exercise and sleep. Information available to the public is mostly pseudoscientific, while science is still struggling to come to conclusions. There is science and a lot of nonsense too in this field. Hundreds of recommendations come to the people from hundreds of sources, citing scientific literature, ancient scriptures and anecdotes. Individuals seriously start following them. But, the initial enthusiasm fizzles out like the gas bubbles in a soda water bottle, as the suggestions are impracticable or ineffective in the long run. During the half-a-century after 1970, the enormously increased psychological stress in education and work had radically changed the lifestyle of people across all ages, making many of them lose their mental balance.
Industry takes advantage of all this and fills the glitzy malls and food courts with a bewildering range of alluring packs of processed, semi-processed and ultra-processed food (full of hazardous colouring, flavouring and preserving chemicals) with labels assuring of a myriad of imaginary benefits !
There is a lot of money and cheating in the business of the so-called ‘scientifically designed’ slimming diet preparations. People raved about the “Detox Diet”; swore by the wonders of the “Atkins’ Diet”; and embraced “Paleo”/ “Paleo Vegan” diet for shedding excessive fat. Nome are sustainably effective.
And, it has become a fashion to blame everything on JUNK FOOD and DIGITAL SCREENS !!! And, food and body fat are part of the Diabetes problem. You may read my 'Scribbling' on DIABETES at : https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/diabetes_29.html
The Corona Conundrum
“Doctor, is the lockdown good or bad for us ?,” asked my patient Vinodini. I said, “both good and bad, like the Schrodinger’s cat which is both alive and dead.” The Nobel Laureate Erwin Schrodinger devised the famous ‘thought experiment’ of putting a cat and some lethal things inside a box to see whether the cat would be alive or dead in order to prove a point in quantum physics. Until one opens the box, the cat is supposed to be both alive and dead ! The same is the case with the lockdowns.
Is the “LOCKDOWN MEDICINE” too toxic ?
Go to : http://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/lockdown-medicine.html
LOCKDOWNS -- Right or Wrong ???
HEART ATTACK -- risk assessment
When somebody dies suddenly and unexpectedly, generally, the cause is mentioned as ‘heart attack’. For a very long time, high cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, stress, bad lifestyle, heredity, etcetera have been considered as the likely factors for assessing the risk of heart attacks. However, many who were predicted to be at high risk lived a normal life, and some with a low risk profile died of heart attacks even at a young age. Hence, recently two simple imaging techniques have been developed to assess the risk better -- 1. 'Coronary Calcium Scoring' (CT scan measurement of calcium buildup in heart blood vessels); 2. 'Ultrasound Plaque Imaging' of the blood vessels in the neck and groin (measuring cholesterol deposits in the blood vessels). It remains to be seen if these two new assessments improve our predictions.
COVID QUESTIONS
The rest of the subjects will be posted later.
The following is a list of some of my 'scribblings'. To open them, click on any of the titles. -- T. Rama Prasad
Blog Archive
· ▼ 2017 (115)
o ▼ March (1)
o ▼ April (112)
§ OREIKLE
§ Science and Nonsense about COVID
§ WORLD CANCER DAY ..February 4, 2017
§ GRADUATION DAY -- 2018, Perundurai Medical Col...
§ "AHIMSA"
§ OMICRON
§ QUOTES
§ POLLUTION, Disease and Deepaavali
§ DOCTORS' HANDWRITING MATTERS
§ To live in INDIA or ABROAD ?
§ KMCH
§ FISHES
§ SUNDAY LUNCH ... Dec 3, 2017
§ BAHUBALI
§ DIABETES
§ MY ART
§ CANCER
§ DOGS
§ GOD-MEN
§ CODUP
§ LOCKDOWN MEDICINE -- too toxic ?
§ YOGA
§ HCQ, IVERMECTIN, CORONAVIRUS and FRAUDS
§ SWINE FLU -- A (H1 N1) influenza
§ PERUNDURAI MEDICAL COLLEGE & SANATORIUM campus
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and PLANTS
§ GIRL CHILD : GOLDEN CHILD ; WOMEN POWER
§ ALLERGY, ASTHMA, COPD and ILD
§ RAPE
§ MARKETING TRICKS & INNOVATIONS
§ MODERN MEDICINE -- the Good, the Bad and th...
§ RAJYALAKSHMI & International Women's Day 2024
§ SHIVA, KRISHNA, Ramanuja & Ramanujan
§ OUR LOVE STORY & good old days
o ▼ May (2)
· ▼ 2019 (1)
o ▼ January (1)
· ▼ 2020 (3)
o ▼ February (1)
o ▼ April (1)
§ RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and RADIOGRAM
o ▼ June (1)
§ CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)
· ▼ 2022 (1)
o ▼ October (1)
· ▼ 2023 (17)
o ▼ January (15)
§ TUBERCULOSIS -- drug-resistant
§ HEART
§ INDIAN IMMUNITY, BCG and COVID
§ WOW !!!
§ COVID vaccines -- Safe or Unsafe ?
o ▼ August (1)
§ RAMAYAAN
o ▼ October (1)
· ▼ 2024 (1)
o ▼ May (1)
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