‘Lose weight – win gold’ campaign
launched in Dubai
In a unique bid to encourage people to pay attention
to their growing waistlines, Dubai authorities have launched a ‘lose weight –
win gold’ campaign.
The drive has been launched, as a sort of contest, in the
wake of overweight and obesity reaching epidemic levels among people in Dubai,
Xinhua news agency reported.
Dubbed ‘Your Weight in Gold’, the initiative was announced
by Dubai Municipality’s Director General Hussain Nasser Lootah in late July to
promote healthy living in this city.
The official promised anyone losing two kilogramme of weight
would get two gram of gold. In addition, three participants, who lost maximum
weight, would get a gold coin worth 20,000 Dirham (about $5,450) through a
lucky draw.
Hundreds of residents have signed up for the health contest.
According to a study, conducted by the United Arab Emirates’
health ministry, almost 19 percent of males and 12 percent of females in the
kingdom are overweight, while nearly 21.5 percent males and 19.5 percent
females have turned obese.
Obesity is a common problem in oil-rich Gulf States where
people increasingly depend on fast-food.
Source: http://health.india.com
22.08.2013
Doctor performs angioplasty in 16
minutes!
It’s time
for Dr Sanjay Rajdev, consultant cardiologist, and the SevenHills hospital,
where he is consultant, to celebrate as they have successfully managed to enter
their names in the Limca Book Of Records for doing an angioplasty on Rajendra
Varma, 46, in a record time of 16 minutes! (Also read: Bioabsorbable stents – the future of angioplasty)
Varma’s
surgery took place sometime in December last year but the confirmation from the
Limca Book Of Records came through last week.
The
international standard for door-to-balloon time in angioplasty is 90 minutes or
less. That’s the time recorded from the moment a patient enters the hospital
until the balloon is inflated and blood flow is restored (the blockage is
removed).
Doctors at
SevenHills managed to complete this process in 16 minutes.
‘Varma was
known to us and the time we took for finishing the formalities for angioplasty
was the least. Mostly the time goes in clearing logistic issues like making the
patient understand the procedure, take his/relatives’ consent and treatment
cost,’ said Dr Rajdev.
Dr Rajdev
said that in Varma’s case logistic issues were averted and the team of doctors
managed to do door-to-balloon in 16 minutes. ‘He came to us with chest pain in
the night. We did an ECG (which checks for problems with the heart’s electrical
activity and is used to distinguish whether the heart attack is the result of a
blockage that needs to be opened as soon as possible)
‘With the
ECG result in hand and after taking some measures, which showed abnormality and
signs that he had a massive attack, a message was sent and our cardiac
catherisation team was mobilised. Then we spoke to Varma who immediately gave
his consent,’ said Dr Rajdev. According to the doctors, one of Varma’s main
arteries had 100 per cent blockage and two stents were used in dissolving the
blockage.
Experts
said that every second counts for patients receiving angioplasty — a lifesaving
procedure followed for the most serious types of heart attacks. ‘There is
growing evidence to show that doctors can shave off ‘door-to-balloon’ time and
lower a patient’s risk of death and lessen serious damage done to the heart
muscle,’ said Dr Ajay Chaurasiya, cardiologist at BYL Nair Hospital.
Right from
the time the first symptoms of heart attack appear to the time he reaches the
hospital is pre-hospitalisation time. Dr Prafulla Kerkar, head of the
cardiology department at KEM hospital said that ‘in India it takes 300 minutes
for a heart attack patient to reach hospital, which is twice the time taken in
western countries.
We need to
cut this pre-hospitalisation delay with more competent centres and increasing
the awareness on heart attacks.’
Source: http://health.india.com
22.08.2013
Speak only if it is an improvement of silence
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