Worst Radiation in Your Home: Its ill Effects on Human Health and Prevention!!
I was drawn to go back to my roots of having studied electronics and communication engineering after seeing the video Dr. Suman S Karanth published recently on myths related to cancer. What took my attention was the word “radiation” that she mentioned and I began to read and research on everyday radiation risks we face. The video is worth watching and here is the link to watch it, if you haven’t done so already.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157099267159492&id=743044491&sfnsn=scwspmo&vh=e
I am going to quote a lot from the article I have read and believe to be useful for all of us. This is also for all those people who do not have the time or patience to read an article or watch a video with technology terms or simply for people who do not understand the terminologies used in it.
Going to put things very simply and bluntly. Here’s what the articles and videos say.
The biggest threats we have in our everyday lives is the exposure to radio frequency, elecromagnetic, non-ionizing radiations.
1. WiFi
Internet has become so cheap, thanks to service providers in India that WiFi is now available for free in all homes, schools, colleges, restaurants and hotels whether you need it or not. Shockingly it is one of the largest and longest radiation exposure we have everyday.
Children, embryos less than 100 days inside the womb of pregnant women and infants are at high risk of genetic damage.
Here’s what you can do at home to reduce the radiation exposure:
- switch off WiFi router when not in use.
- hard wire the internet cables around the house and plug in all the devices using internet.
- use Wi-Fi router protection guards available in stores.
2. Cell phone and Bluetooth radiation
Though it has made rounds in the internet for long now saying the radiation from cell phones can be linked to development of tumors, a lot of us have actually paid less attention to it. Many articles and published work from doctors across the world can be found on this topic and you are free to research it as per your convenience.
Here’s what they suggest:
- switch to simples corded headset instead of Bluetooth earpieces.
- keep the cell phones on speaker and a foot away while attending calls.
- a normal corded handset is better than using a cell phone for calling.
3. CFL bulbs
All CFL bulb manufacturers advertise their products attracting customers with a promise of reducing the electricity bill consumption on the use of CFL bulbs. What they do not say is the health hazard associated with it.
Here is the alternative:
- halogen incandescent light bulbs
4. Baby monitors
Though they are not commonly used in India, I thought this is worth a mention as the radiations emitted by baby monitors have been mentioned in a couple of articles as a reason for infant cot deaths.
Though baby monitors may not be completely unavoidable in certain circumstances, it may be wise to invest on baby monitor protection cases available in online stores or going for a walk and eco-mode low radiation emitting models.
If you noticed the trend, in most cases it urges us to go back many generations when cells phones and smart devices were unavailable. Go back to wiring cables, go back to corded phones. Technology may have advanced many folds and many areas like internet of things, artificial intelligence and so on may be the trend but so has the number of cases in the healthcare sector. Insomnia, uneasiness, palpitations, headaches, tumors, cancers and so on.
All we urge our readers is, be aware of the electronic devices that you use in your everyday life and work towards achieving safe ways of using gadgets.
The article I referred to is accessible in the link below
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One surgeon says you need an operation. Another says you don’t. Here’s why that happens!!
In 2002, when Tim Copeland was just 12 years old, he started having seizures and difficulty speaking. His physician in San Diego couldn’t figure out what the problem was. When Copeland eventually went to see a neurosurgeon in Escondido, California, he was diagnosed with cerebral cavernous malformation, a disorder of the blood vessels that causes them to leak into the brain.
The surgeon told Copeland that his brain was inoperable and the best option was radiation therapy to slow the bleeding.
But Copeland’s mother wanted a Second Opinion. So the family flew to Rochester, Minnesota, to seek advice from a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic.
The Mayo doctor recommended surgery as soon as possible to cut the problematic lesion out of Copeland’s brain.
Within weeks, the boy was on an operating table. Now 26, and a research associate at University of California San Francisco, he hasn’t had a seizure since.
After the operation, the neurosurgeon told Copeland the uptick in symptoms was due to an increase in the severity and frequency of the hemorrhage in his brain.
“I was very lucky that my mom had a bad feeling about my diagnosis,” Copeland added.
Copeland’s story is probably a familiar one. Many Americans get radically diverging opinions from surgeons on the question of whether to operate. These contradictory viewpoints can be a source of great stress and confusion, leaving patients unsure about what to do in what are often life-or-death situations.
There’s plenty of guidance out there for surgeons, so why is this so common?
A new study, published in the Annals of Surgery, tried to get to the bottom of that question. The authors found it all seems to come down to how different surgeons perceive risk — a reminder of how terrible humans are at risk perception, even highly skilled surgeons.
For the research, led by Greg Sacks, a surgical resident at the University of California Los Angeles, a national sample of more than 750 surgeons was presented with four detailed clinical vignettes, asking the doctors to judge the risks and benefits of both operating and not operating in cases that could go either way.
When faced with identical scenarios, the surgeons came up with vastly different estimates for the potential harms and advantages of surgery or nonsurgical management of the disease.
In three of the four cases, surgeons were nearly split on the decision of whether to cut. One vignette, for example, involved the question of an appendicitis on an otherwise healthy 19-year-old with fevers and pain in her right lower abdomen. Here, 49 percent of respondents suggested surgery while 51 percent recommended against it.
In another vignette — involving a 68-year-old patient with a blockage in the small bowel — there was more agreement: 84 percent thought surgery was a good idea. Still, 15 percent of the doctors thought the harms of the surgery outweighed the benefits, once again displaying the variability in surgical decision-making.
This variation seemed to come down to surgeons’ perceptions of risks and benefits, the researchers wrote: “Surgeons were less likely to operate as their perceptions of operative risk increased and their perceptions of nonoperative benefit increased.”
And those risk perceptions were very predictive of whether or not a surgeon would recommend an operation: “Surgeons were more likely to operate as their perceptions of operative benefit increased and their perceptions of nonoperative risk increased.”
But the surgeons differed by as much as 0 to 100 percent when it came to estimating the risks of a surgery, such as the chances a patient might experience a serious complication.
“The truth is that most of the surgeons in their sample are quite experienced, and yet have wildly different assessments of risks and benefits among similar patients,” said Ashish Jha, a Harvard professor of health policy.
Jha, whose research focuses on improving the quality of health care, called the findings “disturbing” and “enormously important.” They should remind us, he said, of how difficult it is for people to evaluate risk, how bad we all are at it, and “how even surgeons are not able to escape these deeply human deficiencies.”
Another implication of this research, Sacks said, is that individual surgeons may be communicating very different risks and benefits to their patients when talking about a potential operation.
Patients need more accurate information about the risks and benefits of surgery
This new research should also remind us of how varied individual surgeons’ advice can be — and that we need to develop better tools to reduce that variation.
One possibility is using a risk calculator, like this one developed by the American College of Surgeons: It takes high-quality data from millions of patients around the country who have had similar operations and uses variables — such as how sick a patient is and the patient’s age — to come up with estimates on the risks of surgery.
In another study, Sacks found that surgeons who used the tool made more accurate predictions and were less varied in their judgments compared with those who didn’t rely on data. In the end, however, the tool didn’t change their decision on whether to operate.
“Although the size of the effect of the risk calculator is modest,” Jha said, “it reminds us that surgeons are trying their best based on limited information — their own experience.”
Tools that provide data like the risk calculator — can help doctors make better choices, or, at the very least, better inform patients of risks and benefits.
“It’s clear we need to develop more resources like this to be additional input beyond personal experience for surgical decision-making,” Jha said.
Copeland, who had the brain surgery that saved his life, would like to do just that. His experience led him to pursue a PhD in epidemiology, and he wants to figure out how to bring decision support systems and evidence-based medicine into consultations with surgeons.
“[These can] supersede the personal biases and subjectivity of physicians,” he explained. “They’re highly skilled at interpreting and practicing medicine — but that leaves a lot of room for error. We can’t expect them to be encyclopedias.”
Source: https://www.vox.com/2016/5/19/11691622/surgery-second-opinion-research-jama
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Second Opinion Leads to Less Invasive Surgery!!
Nineteen years ago, I had a laminectomy, a major spine operation that removes a portion of the vertebral bone. I didn’t have any problems until this past year when I started experiencing intense back pain that would radiate down my legs all the way to my ankles. I tried taking over-the-counter pain relievers and tried exercises I learned in physical therapy, but nothing was helping. On top of that, my job is very physical; I’m often standing or walking for long periods of time which would aggravate the pain.
Eventually, I went to see my primary care physician who put me in contact with the same surgeon who performed my laminectomy. He recommended that I undergo another laminectomy and a discectomy, removal of abnormal disc material that presses on a nerve root or the spinal cord.
I wasn’t too excited when I heard this, so I wanted to have a Second Opinion to make sure my diagnosis was accurate and to confirm that surgery was the best way to proceed. Fortunately, my Ohio Laborers Benefits offers Grand Rounds as a benefit to its employees. It was exactly what I was looking for.
I reached out to Grand Rounds for a Second Opinion and was matched with Dr. Eric Elowitz, a top neurological surgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Elowitz reviewed all of my records and wrote up an opinion on my case that answered every question I had. The opinion explained my condition in great detail. And while it did not change my course of care, the expert did recommend moving forward with a less invasive surgery.
“After reviewing Dave’s records, I felt that if surgery was needed, I would favor just a microdiscectomy. The reason for this is that a laminectomy is a more extensive surgery and was not needed in Dave’s case. A microdiscectomy is a common procedure which can be performed in a minimally invasive fashion. The procedure usually takes about 40 minutes, and patients go home within a few hours,” said Dr. Elowitz.
Overall, while the opinion did not dramatically change my course of care, I was able to move forward with a less invasive procedure based on my Expert Opinion. Just knowing that the procedure I was going to move forward with was appropriate gave me peace of mind.
Source: https://grandrounds.com/patient/successes/
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Taking a Stroll Next to Water Bodies Can Boost Mental Health, Study Finds!!
Mental health concerns are still at an all-time high as countries across the globe continue to battle the effects of the coronavirus.
Psychology experts have offered advice to help keep feelings of anxiety and isolation in check during these stressful times, like continuing to exercise or spend time outdoors.
One new study suggests that short, frequent walks along bodies of water are particularly good for our mental health. The study included 59 adults who were asked to take 20-minute daily walks for two weeks and then rest for 20 minutes a day for the third week. One week the participants walked along a beach in Barcelona and the other week, the route was along city streets.
Before, during and after each activity, researchers measured the participants’ blood pressure and heart rate and used questionnaires to assess their well-being and mood.
“We saw a significant improvement in the participants’ well-being and mood immediately after they went for a walk in the blue space, compared with walking in an urban environment or resting,” said Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, director of urban planning, environment and health initiative at ISGlobal.
The study wasn’t able to discern any particular cardiovascular health benefits. According to the researchers, the reason may be the design of the study which only measured immediate effects instead of long-term exposure.
“Our results show that the psychological benefits of physical activity vary according to the type of environment where it is carried out, and that blue spaces are better than urban spaces in this regard,” said ISGlobal researcher Cristina Vert, the lead author of the study.
Studies on the effects of blue spaces on our health have been limited, but an earlier ISGlobal review of 35 studies found that exposure to blue spaces is beneficial for mental health and promotes physical exercise.
Previous ISGlobal studies also have found many health benefits associated with green spaces including lower risk of obesity, better attention capacities in children and slower physical decline in older adults.
Residential green space in one particular study was associated with a lower risk of psychiatric disorders from adolescence into adulthood. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
“According to the United Nations, 55% of the global population now lives in cities,” Nieuwenhuijsen added. “It is crucial to identify and enhance elements that improve our health – such as blue spaces – so that we can create healthier, more sustainable and more liveable cities.”
In Philadelphia, the health benefits of greening vacant lots have been studied for years, however, little attention has been focused on the blue spaces in the city.
The study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health was published in Environmental Research.
Source: https://www.phillyvoice.com/walking-beach-lake-boost-mental-health-new-research/
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Know the Symptoms of Lung Diseases and Consume these Important Nutrients for Better Health
Lung diseases need no introduction considering the air we breathe in. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a condition that damages the lung airways causes an array of symptoms like chest tightness, breathlessness, persistent cough and wheezing. It has become one of the leading causes of mortality in the country.
Lung diseases have certain symptoms that should be taken care of, especially at night. Considering our breathing changes during sleep due to general muscle relaxation increasing airway resistance, it is imperative to recognize the symptoms of possible consequences.Immediate effects of night-time symptoms may include fatigue and low productivity, while the long term consequences may involve lung function changes, increased exacerbation frequency, cognitive effects, depression, impaired quality of life and worsening of cardiovascular diseases. Several studies have suggested that night time-symptoms may be the marker for the emergence of severe condition with more risk for an exacerbation.
Your diet plays an important role in maintaining your health, especially respiratory system. Eat foods that will help strengthen your lungs and prevent any possible diseases. We list down some foods that may help strengthen your respiratory system-
1. Vitamin E
Vitamin E helps create a defense mechanism against injury to human tissues and further help in building a stronger immunity. Vitamin E may include dry fruits like almonds, fish and herbs including oregano, basil, parsley and cloves.
2. Beta-Carotene
Beta carotene is full of antioxidants and plays a key role in controlling inflammation. Foods like green leafy vegetables, pumpkins, spinach, carrots, radish, broccoli and coriander are rich in Beta-carotene.
3. Magnesium Rich Foods
Magnesium helps boost the natural defenses and relaxes your lungs from the excessive pressure. Some of the magnesium rich foods are nuts, seeds, legumes, spinach, yogurt, figs, avocado and figs among others.
4. Vitamin C
Vitamin C is one of the most important antioxidants that have the ability to repair and promote tissue growth. This vitamin is present throughout the body and eradicates the effects of free radicals. Foods like dark leafy vegetables, berries, bell peppers and tomatoes are rich in vitamin C.
Source: http://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/know-the-symptoms-of-lung-diseases-and-consume-these-important-nutrients-for-respiratory-health-1740648
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‘Pen’ to identify cancer in 10 seconds, 150 times faster than existing technology
Scientists have invented a pen-like device that can identify cancerous tissue during surgery and deliver over 96 % accurate results in just 10 seconds. The MasSpec Pen is more than 150 times faster than existing technology.
It is an innovative disposable hand-held instrument that gives surgeons precise diagnostic information about what tissue to cut or preserve, helping improve treatment and reducing chances of cancer relapse.
“If you talk to cancer patients after surgery, one of the first things many will say is – I hope the surgeon got all the cancer out,” said lead researcher Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. “It’s just heartbreaking when that’s not the case. But our technology could vastly improve the odds leading surgeons to really remove every last trace of cancer during surgery,” Eberlin added.
For the study, described in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the team conducted tests on tissues samples, which included both normal and cancerous ones in the breast, lungs, thyroid and ovaries, removed from 253 human cancer patients.
Using the MasSpec Pen, the researchers extracted and analysed the metabolites – small molecules – in the tissues and obtained a molecular fingerprint of the tissue, which was then instantaneously evaluated by software called ‘statistical classifier’. When the MasSpec Pen completes the analysis, the words ‘Normal’ or ‘Cancer’ automatically appears on a computer screen. It requires simply holding the pen against the patient’s tissues, triggering the automated analysis using a foot pedal, and waiting a few seconds for the result.
The pen releases a drop of water onto the tissue, and small molecules migrate into the water. Then the device drives the water sample into an instrument called a mass spectrometer, which detects molecular fingerprints of thousands of molecules. The researchers expect to start testing this new technology during oncologic surgeries in 2018.
Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/health/pen-to-identify-cancer-in-10-seconds-150-times-faster-than-existing-technology/story-mTx0EG2uUZTq3lIkozFJbK.html
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