Former Castle Street Hospital Head:

Dr. L.A.W. Sirisena commends medical crossword

Former Head of Castle Street Maternity Hospital Dr. L.A.W. Sirisena on Monday commended Healthwatch medical crossword feature as a very effective health education programme.

He credited Daily News for this programme, which is the first of its kind in a daily newspaper here, where the crossword feature has been used for health education in a gainful way, both financially and knowledgewise for the Daily News reading public.

Dr. Sirisena was speaking at the Nestle Healthcare Nutrition sponsored Healthwatch Medical Crossword Draw No. 32 held at the A. Baur’s auditorium at Jethawana Road, Colombo. He was one of the special invitees at the event.

Speaking further he said there are many simple things we can do to improve society by thinking realistically, as it has been done by the media personnel handling the healthwatch by introducing the medical crossword, which has now become very popular, which is evidenced by the fact that there are even doctors and lawyers who are now sending entries to this crossword.

In fact at today’s draw No. 32, the first consolation prize has been won by a leading company chairman. Joe Aloysius (Chairman Tuckers Autodrome) These persons, he was sure were not taking part in this competition to win cash and consolation prizes that are offered as such but to gain in the free health prize that all who read absorbingly the medical articles in the Healthwatch and take part in the crossword competition gain freely.

Dr. Sirisena also mentioned the new innovative approach for greater family bonding and family unity he introduced at the Castle Street hospital, when he was its director by allowing husbands to be with their wives at delivery in the room. He said this had impressed the couples so much that he had been able to organise an Association for them called Mapiya Kepakatu Association.

He said he was glad to mention that the Minister of Health and Nutrition Nimal Siripala de Silva had also been so impressed with this new family bonding innovation at delivery, that he was planning to introduce it to all government maternity hospitals. He thanked Daily News the Healthwatch staff, its Medical Advisory Panel the crossword sponsors Nestle Healthcare Nutrition for bringing out a useful health education page.

Mahanama Dodampegama Director A. Baur & Co. chief invitee at the event, thanked the Daily News for inviting for the event. Sales Manager Baur & Co. Yogendra Kumar was also invited for the event, and drew the winning entries with the other invitees. Madu Siriwardena proposed the vote of thanks. The prizes were won by the following

Doctors accept difference :

Between generic and branded drugs

Majority of the doctors present at a recently held medical debate on generic and branded drugs prescribing by doctors felt that there is a difference between the two in effectiveness.

The debate was held as part of the SLMA (Sri Lanka Medical Association) annual sessions held in Colombo.

According to a report on this debate carried in the SLMA April News Sheet, sixty nine (69) per cent of the doctors present by a coupon vote had expressed this difference in these two forms of drugs.

In the voting coupon the doctors were asked the questions;

Q:- Do you believe there is any difference between using branded or generic drugs on your patients. The voting was 69 per cent yes, 19 percent no, and 12 per cent not sure.

Q: Are Drug companies influencing doctors in prescribing branded drugs? The answer was;

Yes there are :- 77 per cent

No, They are not:- 19 per cent

Don’t know, whether they are:- 4 per cent

Q: If you were the patient, how would you like the doctor to prescribe? Leave it entirely to the doctor’s chose :- 37 per cent

Generic drugs only :-

11 per cent

Branded drugs only :-

7 per cent

To the question

Q: Should newspapers stop highlighting this issue any further?

No they should not :- 51 percent

yes they should :- 49 percent

To the question

Q: Do you think the SLMA should play a bigger role in this issue?

Yes they should :-

69 per cent

No they shouldn’t:-

4 per cent

At the end of the account the SLMA says “Although the sample does not allow us to generalise on the findings, these results indicate that there are wide and varied opinions among the medical fraternity regarding this controversial topic.

“Snapshots” of eyes could serve as early warning of diabetes

A new vision screening device, already shown to give an early warning of eye disease, could give doctors and patients a head start on treating diabetes and its vision complications, a new study by U.S. researchers shows.

The instrument, invented by scientists at University of Michigan, captures images of the eye to detect metabolic stress and tissue damage that occur before the first symptoms of diabetes are evident.

For people with diabetes — diagnosed or not — the new device could offer potentially significant advantages over blood glucose testing, the “gold standard” for diabetes detection.

The device takes a specialised photograph of the eye and is non- invasive, taking about five minutes to test both eyes.

In the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, scientists Victor Elner and Howard Petty report on the potential of the new instrument to screen for diabetes and determine its severity.

If further testing confirms the results to date, the new instrument may be useful for screening people who are at risk of diabetes but haven’t been diagnosed.

“Our objective in performing this study was to determine whether we could detect abnormal metabolism in the retina of patients who might otherwise remain undiagnosed based on clinical examination alone,” says Elner.

Metabolic stress, and therefore disease, can be detected by measuring the intensity of cellular fluorescence in retinal tissue. In a previous study, they reported that high levels of flavoprotein autofluorescence (FA) act as a reliable indicator of eye disease.

In this new study, they measured the FA levels of 21 individuals who had diabetes and compared the results to age- matched healthy controls.

They found that FA activity was significantly higher for those with diabetes, regardless of severity, compared to those who did not have the disease.

Given the increasing prevalence of diabetes, the FA device holds the potential to help address a leading and growing public health concern, said the authors.

Xinhua

Lighten up with yoga

Yoga can reduce stress and build muscle. Now researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle say it may even help you lose weight by helping you eat less. Lead author Dr Alan R Kristal studied 15,500 people aged 53 to 57, who reported on their exercise and weight history from their 20s onwards.

Normal-weight volunteers who practised yoga regularly (at least 30 minutes once a week for four or more years) gained 1.5 kilograms less than non-yogis over ten years.

Overweight people lost over two kilograms, and those who didn’t do any yoga gained over six kilograms.

“Yoga makes you more aware of your body,” says Kristal. “So when you’ve eaten enough, you’re sensitive to feeling full, and this makes it easier to stop.” Beginners should look for a class that teaches the fundamentals before rushing through tougher moves.

Mesmerising news for IBS sufferers

Doctors have long acknowledged that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is extremely tricky to treat. Caused by abnormal contractions in the colon, symptoms (including abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhoea and constipation), can be debilitating over a lifetime.

Anti-spasmodic medications can help, but recent research at the University of Manchester suggests that hypnotherapy may provide a more effective, drug-free alternative.

During 12 one-hour sessions over two years, 250 patients were taught how to gain control of their gut activity.

With a 70 per cent success rate (which was higher among women than men), the therapy helped all symptoms, unlike drugs, which reduce only a few.

Courtesy RD Health

Decisions without emotions

Don’t fall prey to your feelings when weighing up health issues, says health expert Norman Swan Most of us like to think we can make rational decisions about important issues like our health. But psychologists at Princeton University in New Jersey have found that feelings often sway our thinking.

Here is a test they developed that shows how irrational responses to our feelings can affect important decisions.

Imaging a deadly virus is going to hit your country. Scientists reckon that 600 people will die unless something is done. You’re in-charge and your advisers give you some options. Option One is a strategy that will save 200 lives. Option Two has a one-third chance of saving everyone and a two-third chance of saving no-one. Which do you choose?

The research shows that most people would choose Option One. We prefer the certainty of saving 200 lives against the uncertainty of Option Two. Actually the statistics are the same, but when a question is worded in this way we tend to choose certainty over uncertainty. What does this do in practice? If anything sounds scary, logic often flies out of the window.

Controversy over tainted blood supplies? Donors-bizarrely - stay away even though the risk is squarely with recipients.

Add to this the “dread and outrage” psychologists say we feel in response to small risks we’re unable to control; synthetic chemicals, mobile phone towers, genetically modified foods and pharamaceuticals all push this button.

Studies also show that we under-estimate our chances of dying from natural causes such as heart disease and cancer, and over-estimate the risk from man-made causes like pesticide contamination.

Hence some people ignore obviously unhealthy behaviour such as of overeating because we wrongly think chemicals will get us first. So for health’s sake get a grip on your emotions and be critical of how people present information - they may be scaring the sense out of you.

Courtesy RD Hezk

Ninety year old V.D. specialist dies

We are sorry to record the death of Rtd V.D. Specialist Dr. W.L. Fernando who contributed articles to this page on his speciality last week. He was 90 years and father of Sri Lanka’s first Test Cricket captain Bandula Warnapura. Funeral took place on Sunday at the Borella cemetery.