Modern lifestyle - cause for all ills

Vedda Chief Wannila Aththo tells Int’l Medical Congress in Colombo:

Sri Lanka’s Vedda Community Chief Uruwarige Wannila Aththo told the World Congress of Integrated Medicines at their 46th annual conference held at the BMICH in Colombo on Friday last week “You have invited me to speak on our traditional system of medicines may be to see what you can get from us to meet your medical problems most of which are rooted in the modern lifestyle that you have adopted to live in.

We Veddas are living with nature in the natural environment and our medical systems are nature based and traditional. I don’t think you can follow us in toto; but my advice for you is to stop destroying the natural environment in planning your development work.

I don’t see any benefit for human life in destroying nature gifted trees, plants and flowers and replacing them with industry made artificial trees, plants and flowers which you are doing now.

My advice for you is to get the people to curtail destroying the environment in planning development as much as possible. That’s the best for human health and health of the world as well.

He thanked Dr. Githanjana Mendis Chairman Medicine Alternative and the Open International University for Complementary Medicine, and Director General of Sports Medicine Ministry of Sports Sri Lanka, for inviting him to the Congress as a special honoured guest and for getting him to speak at the Congress. He spoke in the vedda native language and it was translated into Sinhala and English.

God gifted wonder plant Gymnema

Chewing few fresh leaves of Gymnema per day

Glucose care herbal leaves that may block the sugar absorption. It helps in weight and diet control, particularly for over-weight people, sugar cravers and people who concerned about blood sugar. This plant is called Masbedda in Sri Lanka.

Practical vses:

The benefits of Gymnema Sylvestre are twofold:

By suppressing the taste of sweet food, the desire to eat them is also suppressed. Picture a luscious looking large piece of chocolate candy, which you know despite the tempting look, is not sweet.

Why bother to eat it? It is important to remember that this effect of Gymnema Sylvestre will last for only one to two hours. If you are using the herb to break the sugar habit, then it would be wise to take some Gymnema Sylvestre before social events or other times when you might be tempted to dive into the tray of sweets.

Gymnema Sylvestre significantly reduces the metabolic effects of sugar by preventing the intestines from absorbing the sugar molecules during the process of digestion. Because there is a change in the absorption of sugar, there is a consequent change in the blood sugar level.

Health World Magazine – USA

Methanol (Methyl alcohol) poisoning

Dr. D. P. Atukorale

Methanol which is also called wood spirit is widely used in the production of formaldehyde, and is also used to denature alcohol. It is used in antifreeze solutions, paints, duplicating fluids, paint removers and varnishes and as a solvent.

From time to time we hear of deaths and blindness in those who survive after consuming kasippu containing methanol is significant concentrations. A few days ago the news media reported a number of deaths and permanent blindness in some of those who survived after consuming kasippu containing methanol, ingestion of as little as 10 ml of methanol can cause permanent blindness and 30 ml of methanol is potentially fatal in majority of those who consume methanol. Toxicity also can occur due to inhalation or absorption of methanol from the skin.

Methylated spirits consist of five per cent methanol and 95 per cent ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and contrary to popular opinion toxicity of methylated spirit is mainly due to the presence of ethanol.

Mechanism of Toxicity

In humans, methanol is metabolised by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase and catalase enzyme systems, to formaldehyde and formic acid and the patients get acidosis due to concentration of formate. Depression of liver enzyme systems inhibit glucose production by the liver (gluconeogensis) and lactate so produced make the acidosis worse. It is not certain whether the blindness is due to local formation of formaldehyde in the retina of the eye or due to damage to the optic nerve of the eye as a result of enzymes activity by the formate. Methanol also interferes with the utilisation of vitamin A in the eye.

The patients who come to the hospital may present to the doctor with mild and transient inebriation and drowsiness when methanol is ingested alone. After a latent period of 8 to 36 hrs nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, headache, dizziness and coma supervene. Blurred vision and diminished visual activity may occur and the pupils of the eyes get dilated in people who get permanent blindness.

In severe cases metabolic acidosis accompanied by high blood sugar occurs. A blood methanol level greater than 500 mg/L confirm serious methanol poisoning.

If the patient is brought to the hospital in the first two hours of the poisoning, doctors give gastric lavage. If the patient arrives at the hospital after two hours with acidosis these patients acidosis can be corrected by giving bicarbonate.

Correction of the blood pressure is important and it is advisable to keep the patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Early cases are treated with alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol) but, giving alcohol is useless if the patient arrives late.

If the patient comes after about four hours it is not a wise move to give ethanol as, acidosis may get worse. If the patient comes in the first two hours, physicians usually gives about 50 gm of ethanol in the form of arrack or whisky or gin and this should be followed by an infusion of 10 to 12 gm of ethanol.

As stated earlier, ideally all patients with methanol poisoning should be managed in an intensive care unit where serum ethanol and methanol levels can be estimated from time to time. In patients who have ingested large amounts of methanol dialysis (haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis) should be done, two to three hourly so that toxicity to optic nerve can be prevented.

I reliably understand that the Excise Department is planning to introduce new regulations to dilute the methanol before issuing to the market as a safeguard against it being used for illicit manufacture of kasippu.

Oxford Textbook of Medicine

Myths and facts about your heart

Dr. C. Sivathasan

An old Josephian who is now a world renowned Cardiologist Dr. C. Sivathasan working in the Vascular Surgical Centre in Mount Elizebeth Hospital, Singapore who is on a short visit to his mother country Sri Lanka will talk to you on the above topic on Friday November 28 at 5 p.m. at St. Joseph’s College, Bonjean Hall.

In his talk, which is organised by the Parkway Health International Patient Assistant Centre in Colombo, Dr. Sivathasan will advice you on heart disease preventive measures.

Masbedde future medicinal export earner - Director Europe Flora

Masbedde which has now been medically accepted to be one of the best traditional herbal medicinal plants for diabetes could easily be developed to become a good foreign exchange earner for the country, as it grows well in Sri Lanka, says Europe Flora Institute of Horticulture Managing Director D. S. R. Andradi in a release to the Healthwatch.

He says:

D. S. R. Andradi

India has a history of about 2000 years with regard to the usage of Gymnema Sylvestre for treatment of diabetes. There is written evidence since 1920 to prove the Hypoglycaemic activity (ability to reduce blood glucose level) of Gymnema Sylvestre in supporting the maintenance of blood glucose levels.

It had been a common practice in the past by the Indian folk to use Gymnema Sylvestre as a prime treatment for diabetes. Powdered and dried leaves of Gymnema Sylvestre can be used as a tea drink before meals. It is of dual importance to diabetic patients.

A diabetic patient will lose the feeling of taste for an hour or two once taken into body. During this period the patient will be compelled to refrain from taking sweetmeat as the tastelessness closely associated with the mind will not allow him to take it.

When a patient wants to avoid the consumption of harmful food, he is compelled to take Gymnema Sylvestre beforehand. A patient can also have Gymnema Sylvestre before attending a function, where sweetmeat will be served. Thus a patient is benefited and he will have self-control and refrain from harmful food.

The other beneficial factor for diabetic patients is the reaction towards blood glucose level. Absorption of blood glucose is prevented during the digestive process enabling the patient to control the blood glucose level.

The main objective is to cultivate and propagate this valuable environment friendly herbal plant on a large scale and prevent destruction and disappearance from its natural habitat. We have been deprived of many precious herbs due to irregular deforestation for agricultural purposes.

Steps should be taken to create awareness and importance of this valuable herbal plant, which could help thousands of diabetic patients in the world. The other objective is to conserve this herbal plant effectively and produce sufficient qualities for export market by way of successful plantation.

At present Gymnema Sylvestre is being cultivated in a herbal farm located at Kongahawela in Matale District on a 10-acre land. Propagation by means of seeds obtainable from matured plants is done in a nursery at Aluthgama. Plants removed from the nursery are dispatched safely to Herbal Farm for replanting. Great care has to be taken for soil preparation.

Organic fertilisers are used with regular watering. This is being done by a trained staff, who monitor the growth and existence of these plants. The well-grown leaves plucked from the mother plant are dried and powdered for packing in small bags to be used as a tea drink.

Large waist almost doubles premature death risk: study

Having a large waistline can almost double your risk of dying prematurely even if your body mass index is within the “normal” range, according to a new study of over 350,000 people across Europe, published Wednesday in the U. S. magazine New England Journal of Medicine.

The study provides strong evidence that storing excess fat around the waist poses a significant health risk, even in people not considered to be overweight or obese. It suggests that doctors should measure a patient’s waistline and their hips as well as their body mass index as part of standard health checks, according to the researchers, from Imperial College London, the German Institute of Human Nutrition, and other research institutions across Europe.

Comparing subjects with the same body mass index, the risk of premature death increased in a linear fashion as the waist circumference increased. The risk of premature death was around double for subjects with a larger waist (more than 120 cm for men and more than 100 cm for women) compared to subjects with a smaller waist (less than 80 cm for men and less than 65 cm for women). Body mass index is commonly used to assess if a person is of “normal” weight.

Each 5 cm increase in waist circumference increased the mortality risk by 17 percent in men and 13 percent in women, according to the study.

An increased risk of mortality may be particularly related to storing fat around the waistline because fatty tissue in this area secretes cytokines, hormones and metabolically active compounds that can contribute to the development of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases and cancers, suggest the authors.

Tobias Pischon, the lead author of the paper, said “The most important result of our study is the finding that not just being overweight, but also the distribution of body fat, affects the risk of premature death of each individual.”

Washington, Xinhua
 

Laughter the best medicine

Pictured here (from left) is Dr. Thilakaratne and D. Preethi Wijegunawardena in a dance item and Dr. J.B. Peiris and Dr. Dennis J. Aloysius in another dance item. They were dancing to the music of “Mama Mia & Dancing Queen”.

Doctors’ Wives Association at their 23rd Anniversary celebrations held last weekend at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo got some of their doctor husbands to dance to their tune in a laughter evoking skit where they took part in women’s attire with the audience bursting out in laughter which made the doctors comment it as one of the best doses in laughter medicines given by the Doctors’ Wives Association led by Chrissy Aloysius.