Health Precautions before travel to India

By N Rao Thotakura, M.D.

It is indeed exciting to visit India especially with your little ones to visit relatives and have fun. While you may be busy getting travel documents in order and complete shopping to take gifts or for your personal needs, please do not put off health preparations for you and your loved ones.

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Posted by ks on 07/01/10 at 12:01 AM
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Health Care Reform Bill - What It Means To Us

By Amit Chakrabarty, MD
May 1, 2010

If you haven’t mastered the details on all 2,309 pages of the health care reform bill signed by President Obama, there’s nothing wrong with you—even experts are having a hard time getting a grip on all the details. So we’ve done the work for you. If you’re going to take away just five things from the new legislation, here they are in a nutshell for you:

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Posted by ks on 05/02/10 at 11:06 PM
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Is it Possible to Prevent a Heart Attack?

Your Heart Matters!

Dr. Srinivas Vengala will take questions from our readers in this column for July 1 edition. Please send your questions to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Our knowledge of heart disease, its causes and prevention, has dramatically improved in the last 20 years. Unfortunately the incidence is increasing in the younger population, while prevalence continues to be high in higher age groups.

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Posted by ks on 05/01/10 at 12:04 AM
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How Sleep Can Affect Your Health – For Good or For Bad

By Dr. Narayan Krishnamurthy, MD

Information provided by Dr. Narayan Krishnamurthy, Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Specialist; Tuscaloosa Lung & Sleep Consultants (Tel: 205-345-2255) and Medical Director of the DCH Sleep Lab. Dr. Krishnamurthy is a Fellow of the College of Chest Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) and a Fellow of the American college of Physicians. He is a Diplomate of American Board of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow of the American Association of Sleep Medicine.

Adequate sleep every night hasn’t always been considered a necessary part of enjoying good health. Today, sleep deprivation is considered a major factor in many medical and psychosocial problems and can play a major role in serious industrial and motor vehicle accidents.

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Posted by ks on 05/01/10 at 12:03 AM
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Articles for MD Perspective section

Please send articles for this section to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Posted by ks on 05/01/10 at 12:01 AM
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Why Asian Indians are more prone to developing coronary artery disease than other groups?

By Navin Nanda, M.D.

Professor of Medicine and Director, Heart Station/Echocardiography Laboratories, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama. Although Dr. Navin Nanda is internationally famous as an expert and innovator in echocardiography, he has also done pioneering studies in coronary artery disease in Asian Indians right from the time he was a Medical Resident at Seth G.S. Medical College and King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India.  He is the Founding President of the American Association of Cardiologists of Indian Origin and Past President of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.  He is currently the President of the International Society of Cardiovascular Ultrasound.

* Two facts stand out:
1) The incidence of coronary artery disease in Asian Indians is 2 to 5 times higher at all ages than Whites, African-Americans, Hispanics and other Asians.
2) It is 5 to 10 times higher in those younger than 40 years.  This is not new.  For example, my MD thesis from Bombay University prepared 44 years ago in 1966 was on heart attacks in patients under the age of 40 years.

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Posted by ks on 03/01/10 at 12:15 AM
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Osteoporosis

By Prameela Goli, M.D; F.A.C.R.

Practicing Rheumatologist in Birmingham, AL, Specializing in Treatment of Arthritis, with Special Interest in Osteoporosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Lupus. Phone: (205) 877-2552

ABOUT OSTEOPOROSIS

Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones have lost minerals, especially calcium, making them weaker, brittle, and susceptible to fractures (broken bones).  Any bone in the body can be affected by osteoporosis, but the most common places where fractures occur are the back (spine), hips, and wrists.  Each year osteoporosis causes an estimated 1.5 million fractures.  Fractures may also reduce a person’s ability to lead an active life.  It is estimated that 1 out of every 2 women over the age of 50 will be affected by osteoporosis in her remaining lifetime.

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Posted by ks on 01/07/10 at 05:47 AM
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The Open Secret Of Weight Loss: Calories In & Calories Out

By PJ Prakash, Ph.D.

Dr. PJ Prakash holds a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from the University of Rhode Island (U.S.A.) and a Post-Doctorate in Human Nutritional Biochemistry from the Tufts Medical School, Boston (U.S.A.). He previously worked as a nutrition scientist at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston where he published several research papers in prestigious nutrition journals. Currently, he is a nutrition consultant and personal weight loss coach ( http://www.healthysouthasians.com) and also a freelance writer in the field of human nutrition.

Extra body weight is being perceived as an epidemic in the United States. The latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that 30 percent of U.S. adults 20 years of age and older - over 60 million people - are obese. About 60-65 percent people in the U.S. alone are overweight. This increase is not limited to adults. The percentage of young people who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980. Among children and teens aged 6-19 years, 16 percent (over 9 million young people) are considered overweight.

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Posted by ks on 10/30/09 at 06:58 PM
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Diabetes Mellitus

By Prakash Kansal,
MBBS, FRCPE, FACP, FACC (Retired Faculty, University of Alabama at Birmingham)

This article is going to discuss Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) only.

It is estimated that approximately 18 million people have DM in USA.

Definition:
Diabetes Mellitus (DM) means high blood glucose (sugar). Fasting (after 8 hour without food) blood glucose (FBG) of 126 mg/dl (100ml) or over or random blood glucose of 200 or over (times 2) with symptoms (described below) is indicative of diabetes. 

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Posted by ks on 08/31/09 at 04:40 AM
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Significance Of Protein Intake In Weight Loss

By PJ Prakash, Ph.D.

Dr. PJ Prakash holds a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from the University of Rhode Island (U.S.A.) and a Post-Doctorate in Human Nutritional Biochemistry from the Tufts Medical School, Boston (U.S.A.). He previously worked as a nutrition scientist at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston where he published several research papers in prestigious nutrition journals. Currently, he is a nutrition consultant and personal weight loss coach (www.healthysouthasians.com) and also a freelance writer in the field of human nutrition.

Obesity has been increasing with an unprecedented rate in the United States and the rest of the world. There are approximately 65% overweight people in the U.S. and about 33% are clinically obese. This trend is also rising among children and teens. Due to the other health issues related with excess body weight, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardio-vascular diseases, obesity is perceived as an epidemic.

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Posted by ks on 06/20/09 at 11:22 PM
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