28 December, 2012

‘Cardiac centres should be located every 40 kilometres’

Cardiac care centres should be located within 30 to 40 kms of every citizen for timely action in case of emergencies, a leading cardiac surgeon said on Thursday. ‘After a heart attack, there is a golden period of two hours within which, if proper action is taken, then the heart patient can be saved. Otherwise there is a possibility of permanent damage to the heart muscle. And therefore everybody should have access to a cardiac care centre situated within 30 to 40 kms,’ Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, managing director of Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) Hospitals, said at a media conference here.

Raghuvanshi, who announced NH Group’s partnership with Westbank Hospital to open a comprehensive cardiac care unit at its hospital in the neighbouring Howrah district, said it was a ‘first step’ in making cardiac facilities accessible at the district level.‘This is a first step that will enable people from the districts to get the best of care in a cost effective manner. We will provide the infrastructure to ensure the cardiac unit becomes a state-of-the-art facility,’ said Raghuvanshi. According to him, the cost of operations will go down as more number of people can avail of premier facilities. ‘There will be a steady fall in the cost as the number of people getting operations done go up,’ said Raghuvanshi.

Source: http://health.india.com

28.12.2012

Being alone as hazardous to health as smoking 15 cigarettes every day

The effect of loneliness on health is equal to that of obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day, say experts.

They said being alone could hasten dementia and increase the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, the Sun reported.

Research revealed that half of all people aged 75 or over live alone and at least one in ten of the ten million over-65s in Britain is badly affected by solitude.

Five million elderly, half of that number, said television is their main companion and more than half a million, 600,000, admitted that they leave their house less than once a week.

Recent research by WRVS, a charity helping older people, identified nearly 400,000 elderly people who say they have children who are too busy to see them.

And the further away from their elderly parents the children live, the worse the situation becomes.

The WRVS research showed that for ten per cent of parents over 75, their nearest child lives more than an hours drive away.

And of those, almost half are visited only once every two to six months

Though Christmas is supposed to be a time for friends and family, many older people will spend it alone, said WRVS chief executive David McCullough.

The charity urge everyone to think for older people in the community who may be spending the festive period alone and invite them to join you to celebrate the Christmas.

Source: www.dnaindia.com

28.12.2012

Failure is not the worst thing in the world -- the very worst is not to try