31 May, 2013

Three litres of cola a day enough to kill you!

A 30-year-old Briton died after he drank three litres of cola every day, causing his lungs to swell to four times the normal weight. His mother said the man ‘drank absolutely excessively since he was 10 years old’. According to the Daily Mail, Paul Inman of Haworth, West Yorkshire, would go out to buy the drink up to three times a day, and would also drink glasses of water to quench his thirst, the Bradford hearing was told. But the huge quantities of cola drinks caused his lungs to swell to four times the normal weight, and the man died in his sleep.

Inman was found dead in his bedroom by a care worker, who was checking on him one morning in March 2012. Detectives investigated the sudden death but found no suspicious circumstances. Inman never stayed still and care staff had to keep his cigarettes so he would not smoke 20 an hour. When he was 17, Inman was diagnosed with schizophrenia but when his case was reviewed in 2008, doctors diagnosed that he suffered from Asperger Syndrome – a form of autism.

A post-mortem examination found that Inman’s lungs were three to four times the weight they should have been, pathologist Deirdre Mckenna said. She ruled out the cause of that being epilepsy and a heart attack and put it down instead to his excessive drinking. He was already known to have had low sodium levels because of the volume of fluids that he drank. His mother said after hearing the doctor’s report: ‘I’ve said all this time the cause of it was he drank excessively, absolutely excessively. He had done since he was 10 years old. We used to say he had a self-destruct button.’ The inquest recorded a verdict that Inman died of natural causes.

Source: http://health.india.com

31.05.2013

Financial scheme for heart patients in Bengal

Heart patients in West Bengal can go for advanced treatments at an affordable cost, courtesy a unique financial scheme that was launched in the Kolkata on Wednesday. Kolkata’s Belle Vue Clinic has partnered with India Medtronic to extend its scheme of equated monthly installment (EMI) under the Healthy Heart For All (HHFA) initiative. ‘We have started the EMI scheme for cardiac patients as the major problem in India is affordability,’ said Munish Sehegal, business model innovator of India Medtronic.

Over three million deaths result due to heart diseases in India and the mortality rate goes up due to affordability and unawareness. HHFA provides loan assistance at easy instalments for implants, pacemakers, stents, implantable cardiovert defibrillators and triple chambers pacemakers. The scheme benefits patients covered under health Insurance and also patients who have no health insurance or cannot get easy loans. According to estimates, cardiac ailments claim 17.3 million lives all over the world annually.

Heart disease or cardiovascular disease refers to a group of diseases that involve the heart and/ or blood vessels. Some of the more common ones are coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke and peripheral arterial disease. While susceptibility to heart diseases increases with age, gender, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, stress there are many things we can do to improve our cardiovascular health. A low fat, high fibre diet with fruits and veggies, quitting smoking and giving up alcohol coupled with increased physical activity and less stress can go a long way in improving cardiovascular health.  

Source: http://health.india.com

31.05.2013

To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve

James Allen