Stray Dog Menace

“Barking dogs seldom bite”- albeit a popular proverb, the Chennai dogs hardly seem to be aware of it!!

My father usually takes walks very early in the morning to avoid the scorching heat of the Chennai summer. Today morning while he was walking in one of the streets, a few dogs ganged up and ambushed. Startled and baffled, my father fell down, providing an easy access to the dogs to come closer. The dog’s teeth pierced through his pants and then his leg. Even while the people around were trying to shoo the dog away, the provoked dogs didn’t easily budge. Eventually as more people gathered, the relentless dogs were driven away. 

The treatment for dog bites is not as much an ordeal today as it was earlier- summing up to a five injections including the tetanus toxoid, though it goes on for about a month. To our irony, most of pharmacies had a stockpile of the rabies vaccine, but there was a paucity of the TT injections. Are dog bites more common than the cases requiring TT, seriously? One of the popular comic scenes in a tamil movie, shows how gullible people (like comedian Vadivelu) are made to have dog bites and duped by people in collusion with the doctors. One wonders if multinational pharma companies are breeding and rearing stray dogs. In reality, these companies are exploiting the rampant dog menace to loot money by their ever soaring prices of the rabies vaccines. 

Of late, the population of stray dogs has exploded in the neighbouring areas. Two decades ago, the dogs were caught by the municipality vans and then killed to control the dog births. This aroused serious ructions by the members of Prevention of Cruelty on Animals owing to ethical concerns. The shooting ritual was discontinued, which then followed a treatment to render them sterile and non-reproducible through the Animal Birth Control (ABC) program. Deaths and injuries caused by dog bites are commonplace today, including the infants being brutally eaten up by the stray dogs. The cases are just shut up by providing a meager compensation to the families for the deaths. 

Today my father was a victim, tomorrow it could be any one of us! Finding a solution requires concerted and persistent efforts by all the residents in an area.  First of all, civic body has to implement serious measures to sterilize and immunize all the stray dogs. Secondly, the ABC program should also provide shelter to the stray dogs and not release them in the residential localities after the treatment, as they pose a grave threat to people to even walk on the streets freely. 

A clarion call for the people residing in such areas to stay dog(ged) and not dodge from their responsibilities and cooperation in tackling the life threatening dog menace!

              Kya aapke tooth paste mein Nicotine hai?

The glistening smile on your face may fade off when I tell you the tooth paste you use to shine your teeth can potentially discolour and decay your teeth or could even prove fatal on a long run!

Recent studies by scientists at Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research (DIPSAR) have revealed the use of significant content of nicotine in some of the leading brands of tooth pastes in India. I was appalled reading the reports of the same in The Journal of Toxicology detailing the statistics of tobacco related oral cancers in India, the use being based on ludicrous myths about tobacco. Though nicotine has some established therapeutic values in low doses, I don’t need to elaborate on the harmful effects of nicotine (ranging from addiction to respiratory & cardio problems), which clearly outweighs its benefits.

Out of the twenty four brands subjected to testing, some brands- Colgate Herbal, Himalaya, Neem paste, Neem Tulsi, Dabur Red, Sensoform and Vicco , were found to contain nicotine, in a quantity equivalent to  five-eight cigarettes. Of late, the awareness of high fluoride content in some famous brands of toothpastes (> permissible 1000ppm) which is as good as consuming poison, has fortunately welcomed the non-flouridated toothpastes like Meswak in the markets.

I can only sympathise with the sorry state of affairs in India where healthcare companies are minting money by fostering such brands adulterated with nicotine. Although the companies are gainsaying the same, the published results authenticate the claims. Its a wakeup call for the regulatory authorities in India and its about time they implement rigid prototcols for quality control of products meant for mass consumption.

The question is - what can we, as individuals do? Its as simple as this- Create awareness among people about it, so that people shun such products and go for other genuine brands. So, Keep smiling- with strong teeth and fresh breath! :-) 

You can find the details of the article published by DIPSAR at Journal of Toxicology, Volume 2012, Article ID 237506, 11 pages, doi:10.1155/2012/237506 (available without subscription).

India: The Dustbin for Deadly Banned Drugs

“Medicines giveth, medicines taketh away”. The second half of the saying might seem a bit exaggerated, but there is a certain amount of truth in it. As much as medicines have proven to be a boon to us, they are just a small misstep away from becoming a curse, even if consumed with a valid prescription. 

March 29^th night, an hour before I was supposed to travel overnight with my family to Mysore, my brother Anjan started nose bleeding profusely.  Though a common occurrence, it turned us all frantic as the blood was just oozing non-stop.

We made him sit upright and tilt his head back, and kept the ice cubes on the bridge of the nose to clot the bleeding. I then found that it is advised to lean forward, pinch the nose and breathe through the mouth, which in our case unfortunately only aggravated the bleeding. We immediately called our family doctor who prescribed a coagulant as a precautionary medication for the journey. In spite of the medication, the bleeding continued intermittently accompanying his sneezes.

The next morning at Mysore, he was taken to the ENT, who fixed some sticks and cotton into his nostril for a day to stop the bleeding so that he could clear and examine his nostrils to identify the cause, if any. Apparently on interrogation, the doctor found Anjan had consumed Vicks Action 500 which he hypothesized could have worsened the bleeding (caused due to heat).

I then googled to know more about it, and found Vicks action 500 is a banned drug, but still sold in India! There are other drugs like D’Cold which are banned yet advertised in our country. The list of other such drugs can be found here.http://www.caclubindia.com/forum/b-a-n-n-e-d-medicines-in-i-n-d-i-a-beware--115602.asp

Having done my masters in pharmacy, I knew that drugs go through various phases of clinical trials to be assessed for the efficacy and toxicity and also followed up for the same after marketing. But it is now that I found that both Vicks action 500 and D’Cold were banned globally after post marketing surveillance. This is because they both contain Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) which causes elevation in blood pressure, which commonly leads to nose bleeds, and it also enhances the risk of haemorrhagic strokes. Now they have introduced Vicks action 500 extra (devoid of PPA), which has passed through the stringent regulatory guidelines. Surprisingly, most of us, irrespective of our fields are oblivious of it. Experience teaches us better lessons than the books do- that’s my personal experience!

So what has this experience taught me? I’ve only read during my bachelor’s that even for physicians themselves, it is never advisable to self prescribe medicines! People consume different brands of paracetamol whenever they have even a slight headache, not knowing it chronically leads to severe liver damage. Never self-prescribe drugs. Also, whenever a doctor prescribes a drug, we should not blindly trust the doctor and take the efforts to know what drugs we are consuming, and the potential side effects it could have.

Better Safe than Sorry! 

From Distressed to De-stressed : My Experience With Art of Living..

 The earliest memories of my bonding with Art of Living (AOL) dates back to 2001 when I did the ART excel course in Ahmedabad, I vaguely remember what I learnt and practiced at that point in my life...

During my bachelors in 2006, I was re-introduced to it by my cousin, Ramya, who now happens to be a full time AOL teacher. Since I had not met her since a long time, I decided to meet up with her at the Bangalore AOL Ashram. All I remember from then was it was one of the most beautiful new year eve celebrations of my life.. I then decided to do the YES + to experience the magic with Kavi didi. I enjoyed the course to the fullest, and also practiced whatever I learnt very religiously everyday, even when I didn't realize how it benefitted. It was just the faith in Guruji - I kept doing the kriya and pranayam. 

Unlike most of my friends who did the course with me went on for the advanced course soon after, I was one among the few who didn't do it, until now- a huge gap of 5 years! As they say- Better late than never! The factor that drove me to do it now was my state of mind.. I was super stressed out for the past 3 months due to my PhD admissions and my hunt for jobs. I took the opportunity to go do the advanced course with a desire to relax and get destressed. 

The reporting was on Wednesday (21^st March) - I engaged myself in some seva activities and explored the ashram and attended the satsang in the evening. The course was scheduled from Thurs to Sunday- I used to leave my room every morning at 5:30 and get back only by 11 in the night. I have never been so busy of late and thoroughly enjoyed being so. There was no time absolutely to get stressed with negative thoughts. The course included advanced yoga and meditation sessions, seva and satsang in the evening.. all in silence..

I had gone for nadi pariksha- a non-invasive technique to know the nature of the body by feeling the pulse beat. The doctor felt my pulse and told- “Your prakriti is pitta (fire), you are very sensitive and emotional, and worry too much unnecessarily, also- do you fast very often?” I nodded, she then said “You need to eat properly during fasts and you don’t chew your food well while eating”- I cannot imagine how she could know all that just by feeling the pulse! Time and again, I have been advised by people to chew my food properly before swallowing. Now I have vowed to make a conscious effort to chew the food well. 

We had rigorous yoga sessions early morning with all the aasanas, surya namaskar followed by pranayama and sudarshan kriya. The yoga hurted my spine due to the slip disc I had earlier, but I still managed well.. It was then followed by breakfast and seva session where we all were allotted different departments. I made it a discipline to do the serving seva before every meal I had. I was in the kitchen seva- which included cutting vegetables, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the utensils. The vegetables there were in humungous amounts - 400-500 kgs of every vegetable, feeding 1000-1500 people every meal. The best part is that the people working there are the ones who’ve quit their jobs and have voluntarily come here to do seva- very inspiring! Many of the teachers are IIT, IIM graduates- which makes it more fascinating.

We had intense and deep meditation sessions everyday. While meditating, I used to sometimes feel so sleepy. It was a state where I thought I’m sleeping but still could hear the sounds and instructions by guruji. To my surprise, after relaxing and getting up, I used to be super energized. In spite of the hectic schedule and getting tired, I don’t know where the energy came from for doing seva. In the afternoons, we’ would again have some meditation exercises, and sessions where we’d to sway in the music with eyes closed. One of the days after doing exercises for cleansing our chakras- which was supposed to enhance creativity, we were given crayons and asked to draw whatever we felt like.. It was super fun, to get back to childhood days with crayons..

As instructed, in the evening we used to take nature walks in the ashram alone. It was amazing to breathe fresh air in and mingle with the nature to appreciate its beauty. In the evening we used to rock in the satsangs, with lots of bhajans, dancing and singing. I did not realize how these 5 days flew by. I was just in some dream world, without stress or any tension. 

Undoubtedly, Yoga and Meditation sessions were very beneficial. But doing Seva was the best part of the whole course. Other things, I did for my own self. Doing seva gave me nothing but satisfaction- ultimate satisfaction. We were in silence throughout the course, and still got to know so many people only through smiles and gestures- a lovely process.

After the dinner, we used to go to kitchen for cleaning the vessels, it was unimaginable- the cooking and serving utensils for over 1000 people were so huge that we literally had to get into the vessel and clean it. It was a task in itself, as there were just a few of us, who stayed back till everything was cleaned, mopped the kitchen, which took almost 2 hours. It was so beautiful coordinating the work in silence and still managing it very efficiently- all in high spirits. At the end of the 3^rd day, I knew a lot of people through smiles, but not by their names. There was a guy, maybe in mid-thirties, with who I had developed a great rapport in silence. On the day before we broke the silence, he gifted me- an idol of ganesh ji. I was so touched, I didn’t even know his name, it was just the seva we did together, and the guru we both connected ourselves to.  The next day he just came upto me and said- that’s the spirit of seva and gave a hi-fi ! I was so happy to meet so many people. At the end, we all shared our experiences of the process-- everyone had different and beautiful ones.  

It was one of the most blissful experiences of my life, and I can't wait to do it again. Among the 100 participants in my course, I was one among the few to do the course the first time. Most of the people have done it more than 10 times- twice recommended every year. Some people have done it as many as 38 times.. It was such a beautiful experience to be with yourself, discovering your inner self, knowing people only through smiles. And as I have heard, one gets more refined with each advanced course. I thought I will have a difficult time not communicating, but even after the silence broke, I didn’t feel like talking for a long time- it was so peaceful! I am very grateful to Ramya and my whole family who encouraged me to do the course!

The organization is involved in so many noble activities- conducting programs in prisons, in rural areas, opening 149 free schools all over india- I am so proud to be a part of the organization. To increase the awareness of yoga among common people, “Yogathon” event is happening on 7^th April all over india- wherein everyone will be doing surya namaskar 108 times together. Its happening in all cities, at many centres with almost 25,000 people registered at some cities in same centre. Lots of educational institutions have also registered totalling upto 1 million participants! Get registered and experience the bliss!

So see you all at the Yogathon ! Jai Gurudev!