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Blood should circulate – Donate Blood!

blood-donation

We only understand the importance of blood donation when someone close to us is in need of it. A few days back my cousin contacted me to know the availability of blood for her friend’s father who met with an accident. Unfortunately, we lost him due to excess blood loss. We know of this incident because it’s a dear friend’s father but, on a daily basis there are so many such cases where there is loss of death due to non-availability of blood.

Statistics show that roughly every year in India there are 234 million major operations, 63 million trauma-induced surgeries, 31 million cancer-related procedures and 10 million pregnancy related complications which require blood transfusions.

Apart from these there are also disorders like sickle cell anemia, thalassemia and hemophilia that require repeated blood transfusions.

One of the main reasons for lack of blood is, many people are skeptical about blood donation. They have fears of contracting infections during blood donation, fear of the needle or feeling weak after blood donation. Human body approximately has 4.7-5.5 L of blood, out of it only 350/ 450 ml of blood is withdrawn during blood donation drives and it takes only a day or two to replenish the fluid volume in the body and three months for the regeneration of red cells to donate more blood.

There is no substitute for human blood. Blood cannot be manufactured – it can only come from
volunteer donors like you and me. One blood donation can save 3 lives. But, unfortunately only 1 % of volunteer donors come forward to donate blood and majority of the blood donation comes from replacement donors.

Blood Donation Camp

Replacement donors are friends and relatives of a patient who donate blood as replacement for the blood given to the patient.

At times, these replacement donors (friends and relatives) are more likely to harm the recipients by hiding or overlooking the many don’ts of donation.

Though voluntary self-referral to donate without citing reasons is widely accepted, replacement donors rarely adhere to it either to hide their high-risk behavior or due to pressure to meet the immediate demand for certain units of blood. As a result, the prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C is much higher among family donors when compared to voluntary donors, according to a 2012 study published in the Asian Journal of Transfusion Science.

Donation of safe blood can be achieved only when replacement donors are replaced by healthy volunteer donors to meet ‘over 95 per cent of blood requirement’. This can be done through increased awareness, providing appropriate facilities for people to donate blood, and improved donor retention.

While donating blood always be truthful about your health status!

Do not donate blood if you have any of these conditions

  • Cold / fever in the past 1 week.
  • Under treatment with antibiotics or any other medication.
  • Cardiac problems, hypertension, epilepsy, diabetes (on insulin therapy), history of cancer, chronic kidney or liver disease, bleeding tendencies, venereal disease etc.
  • Major surgery in the last 6 months.
  • Vaccination in the last 24 hours.
  • Miscarriage in the last 6 months or have been pregnant / lactating in the last one year.
  • Had fainting attacks during last donation.
  • Have regularly received treatment with blood products.
  • Shared a needle to inject drugs/ have history of drug addiction.
  • Had sexual relations with different partners or with a high risk individual.
  • Tested positive for antibodies to HIV.
  • If you are Underweight ( below 50 KGs)

Pregnancy and Menstrual Cycle

  • Females should not donate blood during pregnancy and lactation.
  • Females should not donate blood if they are having heavy menstrual flow or menstrual cramps.

Do donate blood if…

  • You are between age group of 18-60 years.
  • Weight is 50 kgs or more.
  • Hemoglobin is 12.5 gm% minimum.
  • Last blood donation was 3 months earlier.
  • You are healthy and have not suffered from malaria, typhoid or other transmissible disease in the recent past.

It’s time that we take up the responsibility to do voluntary blood donation. Donate Blood without waiting for a call.

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You are as ‘Old’ as your Prostate

Untitled-1Mr Rebello, sitting in front of me recalled his plight of waking up 2-3 times every night to void urine instead of only once as before. Initially, he assumed it was due to winter but, when the problem persisted in summer as well, he blamed it on his poorly controlled diabetes. He was 65 yrs of age when he began to experience this. He didn’t bother visiting his physician since he had made peace with his high blood sugars as he had no control over his eating habits.

How he wished he hadn’t assumed and instead consulted his physician. After 2 yrs he moved to another city and didn’t feel up to the task of finding a new physician to follow up with. Five years down the line, after his 70th birthday, he began experiencing lower back pain which he again concluded was due to ageing. Only when the pain became persistent and unbearable, he met an Orthopedic who after examination and X-rays diagnosed him with a collapsed vertebral fracture. He was crestfallen when the cause of his vertebral fracture was pinned down to ‘PROSTATE CANCER’.

Going back to the time when Mr Rebello was 65 yrs old, he overlooked the fact that the frequency of urination was normal during the day. Had high sugar been the cause, the issue would have bothered him during the day as well. Actually, this was the first symptom that his prostate gland was enlarged. Undiagnosed and untreated over 5 yrs the non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate had turned cancerous and spread to his backbone.

Let’s try to make sense about what the prostate gland is, its enlargement and when does it translate into cancer.

The Prostate Gland: Location in the body and function.

The image below shows the location of the prostate gland in the body which is present only in males. It is located below the urinary bladder. The prostate secretes the fluid that nourishes and protects sperms. During ejaculation, the prostate squeezes this fluid into the urethra, and it’s expelled with sperms as semen. In the prostatic cells, the male sex hormone testosterone gets converted to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which causes the cells to grow resulting in an increase in its size.

Normally, the prostate gland is approximately the size of a walnut. As the size increases with age (which can start as early as 40 yrs) it starts to obstruct the urine outflow as shown in the image.

prostrate cancer-image 1

 

Symptoms of Prostatic enlargement:

  • A weak or slow urinary stream.
  • A feeling of incomplete bladder emptying.
  • Difficulty starting urination.
  • Frequent urination.
  • The urgency to urinate.
  • Getting up frequently at night to urinate.
  • A urinary stream that starts and stops.
  • Straining to urinate.

Medically enlarged prostate which is not cancerous is called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).

As the gland keeps getting enlarged, there are mutations in the DNA of its cells causing it to grow uncontrolled and abnormally resulting in cancer.

The saving grace in this entire process is that prostatic enlargement can be diagnosed early and controlled thereby preventing cancer.

DIAGNOSTIC MODALITIES:

  1. Sonography of the prostate gland is advised once a man turns 50 yrs to establish if enlargement has started. If there is a family history of prostate cancer then it should be done as early as 40 yrs.
  2. A blood test called Prostate Specific Antigen(PSA) should be done. Very high values are suggestive of cancer whereas in the enlargement phase the values remain < 4 units.

If you are facing any of the above symptoms, you must visit a Urologist who will diagnose and prescribe medication for the same. Incase medicines are not effective, one might have to opt for surgery.

In Mr Rebello’s case, since cancer had already developed, radiotherapy was first given to shrink the size of the prostate, post which surgery was performed to remove the cancerous gland. Cancer which had spread to his backbone was controlled by a combination of chemo and hormonal therapy.

Risk Factors for prostatic enlargement and cancer:

Age – prevalence increases markedly with age. The gland grows at a rate of 2 – 2.5 % annually in older men.

Genetics – 50% men undergoing surgery for BPH < 60 yrs of age have inheritable form of the disease.

PREVENTION:

Apart from timely diagnosis and treatment, being physically active, controlling Diabetes and weight are known to reduce enlargement of the gland. Diet rich in antioxidants and vitamins is also beneficial in prevention along with avoiding red meat.

Image credit – prostate.net

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What I considered a huge hardship, fitness has now become part of life for me

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He has struggled since childhood, adolescent years and now as a young adult with excess weight issues. He was always ridiculed for being overweight. There was not a single day that he did not spend feeling bad about being on the heavier side. He tried everything on this planet and kept yo-yo to shed those extra kilos but nothing worked.  Finally, some correct advice from his personal coach to eat right and workout correctly has helped him shed 7 kilos within a month and totally 18 kgs. Let’s hear Nilesh’s story in his own words. 

I have been overweight my entire life. I started out as a chubby baby, who grew into an overweight child and by the time I graduated High school I was starting my adulthood as morbidly obese. And as I moved from my 18 to early 20s, I had crossed a landmark of 100 kgs. Things become critical when people started knowing you by the”extra pounds” you have. And that is what actually I was as a person. And, let me tell you that feeling was really depressing.

Post this realisation, my weight went up and down for years as I went on one fad diet after another. I would try a new diet for a week or two, would try every other gym that opened up in the vicinity but if I did not get the quick fix that was promised to me I would quit, go on a month long binge, and gain everything back.

It wasn’t until I realised that quick fixes and magic gyms don’t work for me and questioned myself would I able to lose those weight that had been holding me down all my life. I realized (thanks to the million advice you get when you have those extra pounds) that if I had to put down “this portion of body”(the splurged fat, the cellulite’s and my dear pot belly) that was originally not part of me, I had to make changes to my lifestyle- the way I eat, drink, sleep and exercise.

My first task was to set a goal for myself and needed someone to monitor that so that I don’t cheat. While I was still evaluating what is to be done, my boss introduced me to GOQII. At the first instance, it was just a device that would keep track but, I took it as it was providing me with all features that I was looking for- A target setter and someone who could monitor.

And believe me, it has been a life-changing decision for me. I chose Trishala Chopra as my coach as her profile said she dealt with all the problems that I was going through currently. And, it worked a miracle. She kept me well motivated to complete my physical training goals and also supported my diet well by introducing small changes but, effective changes to my diet.

These changes were implemented in a manner that didn’t stress me to remove extra time from my daily schedule but, were made part of my lifestyle. In a month’s time of being a part of the GOQii ecosystem, I lost close to 7 kgs. My Coach has been flawless in her approach and the knowledge she shares with me. The best part is that I have made small changes in my lifestyle that has led to tremendous improvement. In measurable terms, I have gone two sizes smaller (from an XXL to L size) on all my clothing. This is a great achievement for me. Also, Weight has gone down by over 15kgs. Diabetes is in check. The best part about all of this is that from being a person who hardly walked a few hundred steps a few months ago, recently completed a half marathon. I had very low step counts may be 500-600 before GOQii and now I do a daily step count of over 15,000 steps.

My coach has been instrumental in guiding me every day with regard to the dos and don’ts towards leading a healthy life.

I feel much lighter and energetic now. And, fitness has become part of life than what it was earlier- a huge hardship.

What does Coach Trishala Nitesh Chopra have to say about Player Nilesh Maurya?

Nilesh was highly obese when he was assigned to me. He was close to 117 kgs. He had been an overweight person all his life. His lifestyle was sedentary and workout was negligible. He used to participate in food challenges and had the capacity to eat so many large pizzas, it was not easy for me to change his food habits.

The first thing I planned was to get him to move his body. Walk was the first thing he started and the best thing about him was his willingness to do things. When he started, he was a bit lazy which required me to poke him to doing his activities. I monitored every single activity and motivated him to just reach an everyday target.

Then the eating habits were changed, reduced the excess carbohydrate contents in his diet and he started losing weight with little changes here and there and here he is today from 117 kgs to 99 kgs. His sheer dedication and hard work have made him achieve this! More kgs to go…this is just the beginning . 

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10 health care tips for a shift worker

vegi-protein

Shift workers as we know them are people who work through the night. But, ideally, it is not so. Anyone who works outside a steady 9 to 5 schedule is considered a shift worker. Working in shifts has become more prevalent in the last few years thanks to the numerous BPOs that have started across the country. Anyone working in shift goes through serious psychological and physiological changes that give rise to health issues

Working in a shift can have a serious impact both in the short and long term. Short term symptoms are equivalent to symptoms faced by individuals who have had a long flight, or a late night at work these include Gastrointestinal symptoms like upset stomach, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and heartburn, Increased risk of injuries and accidents, Insomnia, decreased the quality of life and general feeling of being unwell.

Long-term effects are much serious and these include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. A Japanese study found that shift workers — specifically, those who worked 16-hour shifts — had a 50% higher incidence of diabetes than those who work during the day for normal hours.Metabolic syndrome is a combination of high blood pressure, high blood sugar, obesity, and unhealthy cholesterol levels. These lead to diabetes, heart attacks, and stroke. Apart from these individuals working in shifts are prone to obesity, mood swings and depression and serious gastrointestinal problems. 

Here are 10 healthcare tips for individuals working in shifts:

  • Take an hour or so to relax after work, whether it is day or nighttime. Relaxing music or a warm bath will help.
  • Eat meals at the same time each day seven days a week. This schedule helps maintain the body’s clock.
  • Eat high protein foods (egg whites, peanut butter on crackers, roasted nuts etc) to keep you alert. If you simply must eat some sweets, which tend to make you sleepy, do so at the END of your shift.
  • Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages before bedtime. Although the sedative effect helps you fall asleep, it tends to wear off in 2 – 3 hours and causes disturbed sleep in the latter half of the night.
  • Avoid coffee, tea, colas, and other caffeine drinks, which interfere with sleep. During a coffee break, drink orange juice and walk around. Physical activity promotes wakefulness.
  • Avoid going to bed on an empty stomach. If you don’t feel like eating much, try a glass of milk or dairy products, which promote sleep.Keep the temperature in your bedroom cool, not cold.
  • Darken bedroom or wear comfortable eyeshades. Eyes are sensitive to light even when the lids are closed, preventing you from falling asleep or getting consolidated sleep.
  • Block out daytime noises, which can disturb deep restful sleep. Use comfortable sponge ear plugs or “white noise” electrical devices such as fans, air conditioners, or a quiet tape.
  • Exercise, at least, every other day AFTER sleep. Daytime sleepers should avoid early morning exercise, which can promote wakefulness during the day.
  • Beware of certain medication. Avoid prolonged use of sleeping pills and other sedatives, which interfere with normal sleep patterns. Beware of cold and allergy medications which have sleep-related side effects. Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) has a stimulating effect and antihistamines (Dristan) can cause drowsiness.

Follow these tips and bring a permanent shift in your lifestyle. Get healthy and fit.

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]