28, June 2014

Urgent need to rehabilitate drug addicts: President Pranab Mukherjee

There is an urgent need to provide community-based services for the identification, counselling and de-addiction of drug addicts along with their after-care and rehabilitation, President Prabnab Mukherjee said Thursday. At an award ceremony here to recognise outstanding services in the field of prevention of alcohol and substance abuse, Mukherjee said alcoholism and drug abuse were psycho-social-medical problems requiring a holistic approach. ‘The aim of the comprehensive treatment programme should not merely be to get the addicted individuals off alcohol or drugs. Focused attention on making the addicts productive members of the society by making them drug-free, crime-free and gainfully employed is what is required,’ he said.

The president said the importance of skill-building and vocational training of drug-dependent people for their social and economic reintegration cannot be over-emphasised. The stress should be on mobilisation of community resources and greater community participation. ‘Law enforcement agencies should be sensitised to the needs of victims of substance abuse to enable them to be rehabilitated and reintegrated in the society,’ he said. ‘Generating continuous and sustained awareness through innovative methods about the harmful effects of drug abuse also assumes critical importance,’ he added.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

28.06.2014

A happy marriage leads to a healthy heart!

How happy you are in your marriage affects your heart in more ways than previously thought as researchers have found that unhappy marital interaction is linked to thicker carotid arteries and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. ‘Growing evidence suggests that the quality and patterns of one’s social relationships may be linked with a variety of health outcomes, including heart disease,’ said Thomas Kamarck, professor of psychology at University of Pittsburgh in the US.  

‘The contribution of this study is in showing that these sorts of links may be observed even during the earliest stages of plaque development (in the carotid artery),’ Kamarck added. Those in unhappy marital interactions may have an 8.5 percent greater risk of suffering heart attack or stroke than those with a surfeit of good feelings, the findings showed. The study included 281 healthy, employed, middle-aged adults who were married or living with a partner in a marital-like relationship. Their interactions were monitored hourly over the course of four days, with the partners rating their interactions as positive or negative. Carotid artery thickness was also measured. Those partners reporting more negative interactions were found to have thicker carotids. The study appeared in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

28.06.2014

Expression of the face could be seen by everyone but depression of heart could be understood by the best one