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| Saturday, January 14, 2012 |
| Dr.Dorai 1992 to 1998 Batch, letters to the editor
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From http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/article2799258.ece
A 50-year-old woman was brought in a state of septic shock to the hospital where I worked. An emergency surgery was performed and everyone was shocked to find a ripe coconut in her uterus. Enquiries revealed that the patient suffered from uterine prolapse and was treated by a quack in Kanyakumari. The coconut had held the uterus in position for some time but eventually created a life-threatening sepsis.
Similarly, using irritants like alum for treating piles and fistula; making a burn injury on the forearm with a heated coin for viral hepatitis; and pouring fish oil in the nose for bronchial asthma are some of the tricks of quacks. They exploit the ignorance of the common man. The switch from holistic to ‘evidence-based medicine' by allopathic doctors — confirming diagnoses after costly investigations to save themselves from legal action — has made health care costlier, which is the main reason for quacks flourishing.
P. Durai,
TirunelveliLabels: 1992to1998_Batch, Media
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posted by Bruno @ 5:23 PM   |
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Hai Nellai Medicos,
I am DR.J.A.Jayalal Hon-secretary of IMA TAMILNADU STATE greets you all on the behalf of state IMA.
For the forthcoming TAMILNADU MEDICAL COUNCIL ELECTION , IMA&TNGDA has formed ateam to contest it, consisting of.,
1.Dr.K.Prakasam IMA State president
2.DR.J.A.Jayalal IMA State Secretary
3.Dr.M.S.Ashraf IMA past National vice President
4.Dr.T.Sadagopan IMA Immed.Past State President
5.Dr.L.P.Thangavel IMA State President Elect
6.DR.Senthil TNGDA State President
7.Dr.Balakrishnan TNGDA State Secretary
Dr.Balakrishnan is also Nellai Medico.
You all will be getting the Ballots by MAY Last week.
Kindly fill it and send with your Identity card. Kindly keep in touch with us. We will be contacting you all.
Dr.J.A.JAYALAL.
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Hai Nellai Medicos,
I am DR.J.A.Jayalal Hon-secretary of IMA TAMILNADU STATE greets you all on the behalf of state IMA.
For the forthcoming TAMILNADU MEDICAL COUNCIL ELECTION , IMA&TNGDA has formed ateam to contest it, consisting of.,
1.Dr.K.Prakasam IMA State president
2.DR.J.A.Jayalal IMA State Secretary
3.Dr.M.S.Ashraf IMA past National vice President
4.Dr.T.Sadagopan IMA Immed.Past State President
5.Dr.L.P.Thangavel IMA State President Elect
6.DR.Senthil TNGDA State President
7.Dr.Balakrishnan TNGDA State Secretary
Dr.Balakrishnan is also Nellai Medico.
You all will be getting the Ballots by MAY Last week.
Kindly fill it and send with your Identity card. Kindly keep in touch with us. We will be contacting you all.
Dr.J.A.JAYALAL.
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| Sunday, September 25, 2011 |
| A doctor? nay, a saviour
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From http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article2482366.ece
Medical teachers of yesteryear enjoyed a demigod status among students not merely for teaching skills but also for their inspiring personality. Clinical acumen, knowledge, experience, ethics, and demeanour in various proportions contributed to the charisma of the doyens. But the ability to inspire, an attribute of a good teacher, is not happening regularly these days. Hence, the intention to emulate has taken a beating. The concept of mentor and apprentice is not natural anymore and has to be enforced in a curriculum. I could not believe when I was told that Chief Minister Kamaraj, who came to the Government General Hospital, Madras (now Chennai), to meet Dr. Rathinavel Subramanian, waited until after he finished his class. Such stories are not only inspiring but epitomise the values of dignity and humility in great men.
A plethora of teachers
I was fortunate to be blessed with a plethora of inspiring teachers. I graduated from the Tirunelveli Medical College in Tamil Nadu in the late 1980s and we had a teacher Dr. Venugopal, fondly called by everyone VG. He must have inspired an entire generation of doctors who graduated from TVMC in the 1980s and 1990s. Dedication to the profession was so natural to him that he empathised with his patients.
I myself was a beneficiary of his empathy when I suffered from severe aphthous ulceration. Though a relatively minor ailment, the care he gave was amazing. The pleasure derived from healing others is enviable and incomparable. We have seen him giving money to very poor patients. The gesture was very natural and infectious. Such undocumented charity is essential for humanity to retain its sanity.
Once VG was heading a team of interns for a medical camp at a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camp. Minor ailments were treated and patients needing admission referred to the medical college hospital. The last patient was a child suffering from acute gastroenteritis (diarrhoea). As an intern was about to prescribe oral rehydration solution, VG came on the scene. He quickly noticed the Bitot's spots in the eyes (vitamin A deficiency) of the child. Immediately, he told us that the child needed hospitalisation and vitamin A injection as otherwise the child would lose vision due to keratomalacia.
In normal circumstances, the mother would have been advised to take the child to hospital for admission. But VG himself took the child and the mother with us in the hospital van in spite of lack of space. On our way back, we stopped for snacks and as expected, VG paid for our gastronomical indulgence. I was moved, when I saw VG buying some biscuit packets for the mother and the child in the van. When we reached the hospital VG caught hold of me and instructed me to take personal responsibility of admitting the child. He gave me money to buy vitamin A injection from the pharmacy and ensured that I myself gave the injection without fail. He anticipated non-availability of the drug in the hospital and hence asked me to buy from the pharmacy. Such a passionate and dedicated approach to patient care was awesome and is not to be seen these days.
I understand VG has superannuated and is now rendering service in a rural hospital. He has not been decorated with any award but any TVMC alumnus will vouch for the unsung hero, our mentor.
(The writer is Professor & Head, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, SRMC&RI, Porur, Chennai. His email id is: drsshankar@gmail.com)
Labels: Hindu, Media, Staff
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| posted by Bruno @ 10:10 AM |
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| Sunday, March 27, 2011 |
| Phonetics and phone tricks... doctor's dilemma
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DR. G. RAMANUJAM
From : http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article1574365.ece
“Statutory warning: Getting prescriptions over phone is injurious to health.”
A phone call can become an acid test for one's language skill. Even though my wife doesn't rate my linguistic skills highly, I was thinking so. The first thing she does on receiving my romantic messages is to correct them. Of course, no man is hero to his wife.
Once, a school teacher received his wife's suicide note. It said, “As there is no love between you and me, I am going to commit suicide.” He immediately responded: “You should have written you and I, and not you and me. Me should be used as an object.”
Coming back to phone calls, so many times we are in a situation, having to spell some words on the phone. Be it our address, email ID, or website, spelling matters much.
Once I went through the ordeal of answering the customer centre of a bank. The honey-tongued girl asked me to spell almost every word. When I mentioned my degree as M.D, she asked for the spelling. When it comes to alpha-numerals like PAN, the confusion never ends. There is always the confusion whether it is zero or the letter O.
Just like for Radia-friendly politicians, a telephone conversation might become a nightmare for both the doctor and the patient.
Medical terms are neither tongue friendly nor telephone friendly. Many times, my relatives or friends would read a scan or laboratory report on the phone. Out of curiosity, they would spell every printed word, right from the scan centre's name to the reporting doctor's name. Of course, there would be terms like salphingo-oophoritis in between. By the time they finish reading, my hair would have grown two more inches. Nowadays, I ask them to e-mail them. Phone calls can never become a better alternative to personal appearances.
But there are things worse than this. As a doctor, I sometimes have to spell the names of drugs on the phone. I always discourage this practice. Of course, there is no remuneration for a phone consultation. It so happens that the drug that I have prescribed might not be available in the pharmacy and I could not be seen in person. Usually I ask the person to hand over the phone to a nearby pharmacist or doctor. Sometimes, you have no option other than spelling the names.
You cannot simply spell a drug name like “ASPRIN” and get away with it. The person at the other end usually wants to be very sure and immediately asks “A for?” or “P for?” It is only then I start experiencing word-finding difficulty. I have difficulty with at least 25 alphabets.
For some letters I use to think hard as if I were Samuel Johnson but only to remain clueless. Words with a silent first letter cause confusion like when I say “K for knight or T for tsunami.” Due to a lack of words, I sometimes give many phonetically funny statements like “B for bee” (a spelling bee question?) or “Q for queue.” Once a person asked, “W for what, sir?” I had to reply, “Yes! W for What!”
The final blow came one day. While I was spelling the name of a drug, I was searching for a word starting with the letter N. Neptune.. Nebula ..Nest.. not even ‘Nothing' came to mind. Suddenly, I said N for Nayanthara! The caller was an old religious man. I didn't know what he thought of me. But he never turned to me again. Maybe, he expected a Narayana from me or probably he is a Trisha fan!
In psychiatry, we use a test called ‘FAS' to test verbal fluency. It tests how many words a person can tell in one minute starting with these letters (F, A and S). I never dare to attempt it on myself.
With the advent of the mobile phone, now I have the option of sending an SMS. But, at times, I find my daughter's alphabet book handy. Never forget your basics!
(The writer's email is: ramsych@sify.com)Labels: 1993to1999_Batch, Author, Media, MSM_Articles, Ramanujam
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| posted by புருனோ Bruno @ 10:43 AM |
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| When doctor's prescription becomes injurious to health!
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DR. G. RAMANUJAM
From : http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article1574291.ece
In many of the celebrity writer Dan Brown's novels, the famous Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon would be summoned to decode a symbol, the meaning of which only he can unearth on earth. But he too will meet his Waterloo deciphering some of the doctors' prescriptions.
Why do doctors pre-scribble? Handwriting itself is on the verge of extinction. But we find that most of the prescriptions are handwritten if not hand-scribbled. A prescription usually has two parts. The first part contains some notes about the disease and the patient .Next come the names of drugs per se.
Doctors usually like to keep some facts about the patient secret even though the latter fully deserves to and, invariably, is curious to know them. Of course, the doctor and the patient never tell each other the whole truth.
Once I worked under a doctor a decade ago. He used to write something like EO or AOO in his prescriptions. Even after referring to many international medical journals, I was not able to decode them. So I dared to ask him and came to know that the secret code stands for his fees. Alphabets represent numbers and thus EO becomes Rs. 50 and AOO, Rs. 100.
Many times doctors write something mystically to mask their limitations. I have heard patients saying that they suffer from a serious disease called NYD fever or NYD chest pain while, in fact, NYD stands for Not Yet Diagnosed!
Regarding drugs, essentially they have to be written in capital letters and any ambiguity can create serious problems. Unfortunately, some write in such a way that only a particular pharmacist, usually attached to the same hospital, can understand the drug names pre-scribbled. Probably, the doctor might have a noble ambition of getting his name included in the Forbes list of billionaires.
Some are too busy to spend time on writing legibly. But that cannot be taken as an excuse when it causes damage to a patient's health. But some are habitual poor in handwriting and they can better switch to typewriting or hire a ghost writer. Once, a pharmacist, failing to understand the name of a particular drug, substituted it with another drug. On cross-checking with the doctor, the patient was informed that it was not the name of a drug but was his own.
All doctors might have the experience of being woken up in their sleep and scribbling something in a trance-like state. Such somnambulistic errors may cause the danger of sending the patient to unwakable sleep.
A study by The Royal College of General Practitioners found that 3-5 per cent of doctors' prescriptions contain errors mostly harmless (grade D) but sometimes lethal (grade A). Stringent guidelines have been laid down but they need to be followed more vigilantly.
Interestingly, a doctor wrote a romantic letter to his lady love. It was the pre-email era and hence was handwritten. The poor girl could not identify even a single word. But she was very clever that she went to a pharmacist and got the letter read though at the expense of their privacy.
There are many ways of taking care of a patient, and prescribing legibly is certainly one of them. Luckily, I just have to e-mail this article, instead of writing!Labels: 1993to1999_Batch, Author, Media, MSM_Articles, Ramanujam
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| posted by புருனோ Bruno @ 10:42 AM |
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well said sir... Now doctor,s in country side don,t write diagnosis.. straight away to prescription which even fellow doctors find difficult to decode
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| Sunday, January 02, 2011 |
| Epidemic musicitis - Dr.G.Ramanujam in Hindu 02 Jan 2011
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From http://www.hindu.com/op/2011/01/02/stories/2011010250011200.htm
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 02, 2011
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Epidemic musicitis DR. G. RAMANUJAM
 New Delhi was recently the epicentre of a crisis involving NDM-1 bacteria. In Chennai too, there is a seasonal serious infection that is grossly under-diagnosed. It is caused by a resistant bacterium, Musicobacter, which has two species Musicobacter Carnatica — which is more common — and M.Hindustania. The infection peaks in winter, especially December and January. Though it is epidemic in Chennai, sporadic cases can be found in other cities or countries. It is probably the only bacterium that spreads through ears. The affected individuals show the following symptoms and signs: Selective amnesia: The person forgets exactly the name of the raga in which the singer sings and recollects a list of related albeit wrong ragas (Rathipathi priya or Rashtra pathi priya?). Sometimes, long-term memory will be hyper-active. He may say “I heard GNB singing this in 1948 at Academy on a Sunday evening when it was raining heavily.” Violent epileptic-fits like movements: These include shaky movements of the head associated with uttering of words like “ Sabash! Besh Besh!” even though the concert has not yet started and the sound system person is checking the mikes. Sometimes violent, jerky, highly irregular movements of hands collide with each other and also on one's (sometimes the next person's) own lap. These movements are erroneously called talams. Acalculia (difficulty in calculating): The above said movements are sometimes associated with chaotic counting of fingers or even toes! It may occur even during an Aalapana. There is always a perfect mismatch between their counting and the singer's. Voracious appetite: The affected individuals have voracious appetite. They visit the canteens soon after a varnam (usual opening number) is sung. Not visiting the canteen during the thani avarthanam (solo percussion) is considered a sin. Hypersomnia (Increased sleep): They are found sleeping with a snore that perfectly synchronises with the shruthi box's ‘SA Pa SA'. This is commonly seen in morning lecture demonstrations like ‘Simmendhra madhyamam and its Sisters'. Hearing disturbances: The infected people have severe hearing disturbances. On hearing a music they may ask, “Is it Seshagopalan?” while, in fact, the tape may be a violin recording. Praecox performances: The individuals develop intense belief of delusional proportion that their offspring is a prodigy. On hearing them sing ‘Ba ba black sheep,' they immediately identify an M.S. lying dormant inside. They arrange for praecox (premature) performances of their children, sometimes known as Arangettram. Podio philia: This denotes the intense craving for occupying the podium. This is common among the chief guests who invariably talks at length about the singer to the extent that the audience may not at all get a chance to hear him sing. Sometimes the podiophilic chief guest sings a few lines to show his knowledge or even make a few choreographic steps in a dance concert. Hyper logia: This refers to increased speech or loquacity. The persons talk uninhibitedly, over a wide variety of subjects like CAG, CWG, and ECG, especially when the singer is at his peak. Treatment: As the disease is self-limiting it settles by mid January only to recur next year. Since the severity is inversely related to music knowledge improving good music appreciation is the best prevention. Annex: One symptom that has not been mentioned is Hypergraphia or increased writing wherein everybody (including psychiatrists) becomes a music critic and starts writing about music and concerts. ( The writer's email id is: ramsych@sify.com)
Labels: 1993to1999_Batch, Author, Media, MSM_Articles, Ramanujam
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| posted by புருனோ Bruno @ 6:57 PM |
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| Sunday, November 21, 2010 |
| For a doctor, everything is in a name - Dr.Ramanugam (1993 -1999 Batch) Article in Hindu
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From http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article902026.ece
If you forget the patient's name, it is often taken as lack of concern for him. Doctors are often expected to have a good memory. They memorise umpteen Greek and Latin terms like ‘pneumohydropericardium.' A doctor has to remember the names of at least 100 scientists given to the syndromes they discovered. They may range from names as easy as Down's tongue-twisters like the Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome. Many scientists worked throughout their lifetime to describe syndromes which were named after them. With due respect to them, let us just see the lighter side of it. Names haunt a medical student throughout. No day will dusk without a question about a named syndrome. Sometimes, your knowledge is measured in direct proportion to the number of names you know. Sometimes, the same person might have invented more than one disease. So the answer depends on whether you are appearing for the obstetrics or orthopaedics exam. It goes to the extent that a student wishes that he were born two or three centuries before so that only a few names needed to be remembered just like a history student's wish to have been born a millennium earlier! To rub salt into the wound, almost all names are completely alien to our tongues, which are familiar to Ramaswamys and Subramaniams. There exist unique ways of pronouncing those names. (We even pronounce Shakespeare as ‘Jagapriyar' in an Indological way). I have heard 11 varieties of pronouncing the ‘Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser' syndrome. The student patriotically wishes that the Indians discover more syndromes to take revenge on foreigners. Now coming to dysnomia, it is a difficulty in recollecting names (especially of persons and objects) or frankly forgetting names. Doctor's dysnomia does not stop with the student days. When he starts practice, a doctor has to remember the names of his patients. You can make a grave mistake in diagnosing a patient's disease or probing his heart on the right side with a stethoscope. But if you forget the patient's name it is often taken as lack of concern for him. During the golden period of family physicians, doctors remembered not only patients' names but also their complete psycho-social milieu. Patients felt completely reassured when they were greeted with something like, “Hello, Raju! How is your fever”? But now not everybody expects his name to be remembered! Thanks to the era of specialists, patients are often seen as files with reports and prescriptions. There is an old aphorism: ‘Don't treat the lab report! Treat the patient!' I feel guilty whenever I am not able to remember a patient's name. But I have few tricks to cover myself up. If he has brought old prescriptions or reports, then the problem is over. But if he is unarmed, then I become clueless. I usually guess a few names which are invariably misnomers. When I stumble at Mr. or Mrs., many of them volunteer with their names, of course, some with a small tangible disappointment. It is with tele-conversation that I stumble the most. People may just say their name and take my memory for granted. (There is a famous Tamil poem by Nakulan about a name that goes like neither I asked which Ramachandran he is nor did he say it). When the matter becomes so serious that it may jeopardise his health I usually admit that I do not recognise him. But there are many whom I remember clearly and, invariably, they are the ones who introduce themselves every time in detail. Probably one more vignette to Murphy's laws! Sometimes they did not want me, a psychiatrist, to remember their names so as to avoid my calling them in a crowded mall. Juliet might have said “What is in a name?” But, to some at least, it matters. So I have resolved to do two things. Try still harder to remember names; and not to name any syndrome discovered by me Ramanujam's syndrome. (The writer is a consultant psychiatrist. His email is: ramsych@sify.com) Labels: 1993to1999_Batch, Author, Media, MSM_Articles, Ramanujam
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| posted by புருனோ Bruno @ 7:51 AM |
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Interesting article!
Nowadays, its little bit easy as I ask the nurse to bring the file into the consultation room before the patient comes in. In case of rounds,if I don't remember the patient's name,I always ask the nurse whose is standing by the side (she is the scape goat,if she doesn't remember either)
Another interesting and important issue is, referring the pharmaceutical books for accurate dose and side effects of the medications. In India, if a doctor refers a book in front of a patient, imagine what would happen! But, in Western countries, if a doctor refers a book infront of a patient, he or she will take that as an extra care thinking that the doctor is very careful to avoid unnecessary problems. See the difference in the attitude of people!
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//. In India, if a doctor refers a book in front of a patient, imagine what would happen! //
:) :)
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| Quit smoking, for heaven's sake - Dr.Dorai 1992 to 1998 Batch Article in Hindu
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From http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article902024.ece
A 60-year-old man gets admitted to the intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital with complaints of fever and breathlessness for two days. He is diagnosed as a case of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) with respiratory failure, just hours before he knocks at the doors of death. Though he had troublesome respiratory symptoms for many years, and has been moving around consulting more than half-a-dozen doctors, none has made a precise diagnosis of COPD. Had the diagnosis been made earlier, it would have been possible to prolong his life, if not saving him permanently from the icy hands of death.
This is just one example. The bitter truth is that a large number of COPD cases (of course, a few other respiratory diseases too) go undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or under-diagnosed and get undertreated/mistreated in our country or rather throughout the globe, leading to permanent complications and poor quality of life thereafter. A simple test called spirometry would make a precise diagnosis of COPD.
According to the World Health Organisation's global estimates, 210 million people have COPD. The rate of morbidity and mortality from COPD will increase over the next 20 years and make COPD the third leading cause of death (currently the fourth) and the fifth leading cause of disability.
I do not underestimate the potential of the Indian medical fraternity, but the slackness with which it deals with respiratory care needs to be modified. This slackness has been utilised, rather misused, by the self-advertising and recently the legally insulated quacks (in the medical field) and the crude and brutal treatment administered by them has added to the burden of respiratory handicaps.
So what is this COPD? A condition where your airway loses its elasticity and becomes rigid, i.e., your airways which are like rubber tubes turn into plastic tubes.
As a result, there is airflow limitation in and out of the lungs, thereby compromising oxygen supply to the whole body. As a result, the person becomes breathless, coughs up, expectorates troubling himself and his loved ones for years before he dies a painful death.
Tobacco smoking is the main culprit behind the cruel damage. However, smoke from other sources has also been implicated but to a lesser extent. An exponential increase in cigarette smoking in the Indian subcontinent has alarmingly increased the prevalence of COPD.
With global warming, the risk of premature death among chronic respiratory patients is up to six times higher than in the rest of the population.
Hence, much has to be done to chase out this social evil. A mere pictorial warning on tobacco products will not help. Healthier lifestyles should be inculcated and reinforced as the kid grows.
Beware: if you kiss a cigarette, it reciprocates by biting your lungs. So those who smoke quit it today, and those who do not never ever think of starting it. Remember, “Lighting up a cigarette would darken your life permanently.” The theme for world COPD day ‘2010-The Year of the Lung: Measure your lung health-Ask your doctor about a simple breathing test called spirometry.'
(The writer is post-graduate student in Thoracic Medicine, Thanjavur Medical College, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. His email id is: drpdorai@yahoo.com)Labels: 1992to1998_Batch, Author, Dorai, Media, MSM_Articles
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| posted by புருனோ Bruno @ 7:49 AM |
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| Saturday, August 07, 2010 |
| It’s the birthright of your baby !!
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by Dr.P.Dorai (1992 to 1998 Batch) at http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article558112.ece
Let's convince our young mothers that no mammal in the animal kingdom denies its kid breast milk.
Scenario 1: An air-conditioned consultation room with cozy interiors in a metropolitan city. Enters a young mother clad in an ultra modern dress. The consultant paediatrician examines her baby and asks her whether she breastfeeds her exclusively. She chuckles and names a popular brand of infant milk substitute. Will someone please explain how these brands become popular when The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes prevents any form of advertising? Her purse outweighs the doctor's advice and she walks out coolly just to make another ceremonial visit some time later.
Scenario 2: A semi-ventilated room with naked furniture and a bellowing fan in a rural area. A woman in dirty linen, embracing poverty as her religion visits her doctor. Here too, the same question is asked put up indeed with a tinge of nativity. The reply is almost the same, except that the latter utters it with a different accent and pronunciation.
The above instances are not rare phenomena, but rather a common observation in our diverse economic and social setup. In either case, the mother is neither guilty nor heavy-hearted to divulge that she couldn't or doesn't breastfeed her baby.
Irrespective of their social background, women are indeed ignorant of the fact that it is the baby's right to be breastfed. Of course, how can we expect our mothers to be aware of their child's right when they are ignorant of their own? (Does someone whisper that the women's reservation bill is in its final phase?)
How callous have we become over the years to deny a child its nature's share. What is more unfortunate, we are not even aware of the fact that we deny our little ones the right they deserve. I fear that the digitalised civilisation is turning nature's gift alien to our kids.
A woman's bosom (usually in a semi-naked pose) is projected by our media gurus to advertise anything from perfume to fabric, from necklace to automobile. What a ruthless, insensible perverted notion is this! Our silence has been taken as approval by these elements. Had any one cared to acknowledge that it is the organ nature has gifted to secrete elixir?
The transformation from home to house, from mother to mummy and from joint family to nuclear family dictated and maintained by the digital revolution has started taking its toll. In fact, I feel we have committed ethical and traditional suicide. Human values and culture are being constantly buried. A vast majority of our population is steeped in ignorance and subsist in ambiguity without being able to identify what is wrong and what is right.
Let us contemplate what best could be done to mitigate the situation. Is it not our duty to cut down the shackles which have tied up the minds of our fellow womenfolk? Are we not duty-bound to instil the importance of breastfeeding to our young mothers?
Is not breast milk the birthright of the baby? Let's convince our young mothers that no mammal in the animal kingdom denies its kid breast milk.
Our civilisation has learned the art of stealing — three-fourths of cow's milk and leaving one-fourth to the calf. Even with this reduced milk, the calf survives. So how healthy would be the kid, if the mother feeds the baby with her breast?
Goddess Parvathi breastfed baby Thirugnana Sambandhar, a Saivite saint of Tamil Nadu, when he cried out of hunger. The all-powerful almighty didn't find any other means to suppress hunger. She gave him her milk.
Let's remember these axiomatic truths:
Breast milk is a unique and precious gift of nature and has no price.
It helps the infant fight infection and diseases.
It is easily assimilated by the baby due to the perfect combination of protein, lactose and fat.
There are health benefits both for the mother and the child.
Breastfed infants are less prone to childhood obesity than others.
Breastfed infants have a higher IQ than those that are not.
Nursing mothers who breastfeed have a lower risk of acquiring premenopausal breast cancer and decreased risk of uterine and ovarian cancer.
Breast-fed infants are closer to their mothers and feel secure with them more than others. There is a special feeling of bonding between them which cannot be valued by any scale.
(The writer is a doctor based in Tirunelveli and his email is: drpdorai@yahoo.com)Labels: 1992to1998_Batch, Author, Dorai, Media, MSM_Articles
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| posted by புருனோ Bruno @ 6:25 PM |
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Discussion Forum: At present this post has 2 comments: |
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well sid sir. a thought provoking column indeed.
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Dear sir,
We really appreciate your advice!
I think advertisement about breast milk should be continously telecast during all the tele serials.And most importantly we have the responsibilty to advise all of our patients whenever we have the opportunity! Do the people know that most of the mothers in Western countries die to breast feed their babies at any cost? All the obstetricians and paediatricians here stongly promote breast feeding. Thank you
Sheik raiz
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Hai Nellai Medicos,
I am DR.J.A.Jayalal Hon-secretary of IMA TAMILNADU STATE greets you all on the behalf of state IMA.
For the forthcoming TAMILNADU MEDICAL COUNCIL ELECTION , IMA&TNGDA has formed ateam to contest it, consisting of.,
1.Dr.K.Prakasam IMA State president
2.DR.J.A.Jayalal IMA State Secretary
3.Dr.M.S.Ashraf IMA past National vice President
4.Dr.T.Sadagopan IMA Immed.Past State President
5.Dr.L.P.Thangavel IMA State President Elect
6.DR.Senthil TNGDA State President
7.Dr.Balakrishnan TNGDA State Secretary
Dr.Balakrishnan is also Nellai Medico.
You all will be getting the Ballots by MAY Last week.
Kindly fill it and send with your Identity card. Kindly keep in touch with us. We will be contacting you all.
Dr.J.A.JAYALAL.