Ancient roman's healthcare

The Romans became practised at draining marshes to rid areas of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Julius Caesar drained the Codetan Swamp and planted a forest in its place.

The Romans paid especial attention to the Healthcare of their soldiers as without these soldiers, the Roman Empire could collapse. Great emphasis was placed on soldiers having access to clean water and being able to keep fit. Commanders ordered their junior officers not to set up a camp too near a swamp and the drinking of swamp water was especially discouraged. Soldiers were moved around as it was believed that if they stayed too long in one place, they would start to suffer from the illnesses that might have existed in that area.

Clean water was very important to the Romans.Cities, towns and forts were built near springs. However, as Roman cities and towns grew, they needed to bring in water from further afield. As the population grew, so did the need for clean water. Trying to shift large volumes of water underground in pipes was not possible as lead pipes would be too weak and bronze pipes would be too expensive. The Romans could not make cast iron pipes as the techniques for doing this were not known to them. If water could not be brought via pipes, the Romans decided to bring it overland in what were conduits. When the water got to the city, it was fed off into smaller bronze or ceramic pipes. To get the water to flow at an even (and slow) pace, conduits were built on a slight slope. Valleys were crossed by using aqueducts. One of the most famous of these is the Pont du Gard aqueduct at Nimes in southern France. Where possible, the Romans did take water through tunnels but the hills needed to be relatively small for this to be successful.

The Romans were great believers in a healthy mind equalling a healthy body. There was a belief that if you kept fit, you would be more able to combat an illness. Rather than spend money on a doctor, many Romans spent money on keeping fit.

The Romans did believe that illnesses had a natural cause and that bad health could be caused by bad water and sewage. Hence their desire to improve the public health system in the Roman Empire so that everyone in their empire benefited. – not just the rich. Those who worked for the Romans needed good health as did their soldiers. In this sense, the Romans were the first civilisation to introduce a programme of public healthcare for everyone regardless of wealth.

Roman cities, villas and forts were built in what were considered healthy places.

Heart Disease

The term heart disease actually applies to a number of illnesses that affect the circulatory system, which consists of heart and blood vessels. It is intended to deal here only with the condition commonly called "Heart Attack" and the factors, which lead to such condition.

Heart attack is the popular term for sudden pain in chest with breathing difficulty arising out of certain heart conditions. Heart attacks can be suddenly fatal, but the great majority- an estimated 85 percent are not. The patient recovers under proper treatment and goes on to live many useful years.

Like all muscles and organs of the body, the heart also needs nourishment and food which it gets thorough its own arterial system. The arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle, may lead to impairment of its function. The sudden narrowing of the artery may result in the sudden stoppage of blood supply to the heart muscle. Such attacks of narrowing of arteries are called angina. If the damage takes place it is called infarction.

Infarction can also occur because of a blood clot, big enough to interfere with blood supply, is formed in the coronary artery. This formation of blood clot is called trombosis and the clot itself is known a thrombus. The term coronary heart disease is usually applied to diseases of the heart secondary to defective or interrupted supply of blood to the heart muscles through the coronary arteries.

Besides the sudden narrowing of coronary arteries such as in anginal attacks or thrombosis the blood supply to heart muscle could also be impaired by certain long term and (chronic) conditions like arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis.

Arteriosclerosis is a condition when certain arteries (may be all) start losing their elasticity and their walls, due to some unknown factors, become thickened and hardened. When this happens. Blood pressure inside the arteries tends to become high and which in its wake puts more stress and strain on heart.

Recent researches in connection with heart diseases have demonstrated a high correlation between fats in the diet, cholesterol level and atherosclerosis. Cholesterol is fat like substance found in animal fats, oils and some tissues of the human body.

Heart Attack Signs
It has been said by healthcare specialists earlier that any disturbance in the supply of blood to heart muscle leads to its functional impairment. There are also other heart attack symptoms which need to be observed on time to take required measures for heart attack prevention.

It will be useful to discuss for healthcare that symptoms of heart attacks, which may lead to disturbances in the supply of blood to heart muscles. Certain conditions increase the strains on the heart. Among these are lack of rest, over exertion or prolonged hard labor which create an excessive body demand for oxygen that the heart, muscle must supply through pumping more blood. If the blood vessels are inelastic on account of arteriosclerosis fibrous thickening or narrowing of passage (atherosclerosis) additional work on the part of the heart will be needed to push blood through these vessels. Other indirect factors that may result in causing disturbance in blood supply are indigestion of food, anger and other emotional excitements.

There are some early heart attack symptoms, which may be important to watch for. Their appearance calls for a visit to the doctor for a check up. The heart attack symptoms are:

• Dizzy spell or fainting fits
• Discomfort following meals, especially if long continued.
• Shortness of breath, after slight exertion.
• Fatigue with out otherwise explained origin.
• Pain or tightness in the chest a common sign of coronary insufficiency is usually constrictive in nature and is located behind the chest bone with radiation into the arms or a sense of numbness or a severe pain in the center of the chest
• Palpitation

These symptoms of heart attack should be observed minuetly and should be taken care of as and when required.

Cancer Treatment in India Attracting Patients from Overseas

Medical advancement in cancer treatment in India has developed to such an extent that it has attracted over a million patients in past few years. The success rates of high end cancer surgeries in select Indian hospitals are far better than the success rates of the same surgeries in other parts of the globe.

Most cancer surgeons in Indian hospitals are certified and have more than a decade of experience. Also the medical staff is well trained professionally. The doctors and cancer surgeons in India at these hospitals are adept in dealing with most complicated cases. The advanced and cutting edge medical facilities available at Cervical cancer surgery hospitals in India makes them a reliable global destination for patients who are seeking a suitable and less cost option for recovery from Cervical cancer.

Head and neck reconstruction after cancer surgery. Breast and nipple reconstruction after cancer surgery. Skull base cancer surgery and reconstruction.

Indian wins US cash grant for cancer treatment device

Cytotron, a therapeutic device to treat cancer , has been awarded a cash grant of a quarter million dollars by the US government.

The device known as Cytotron, developed by Indian scientist Dr Rajah Vijay Kumar, received the funding under the US Government’s Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project, which targets activities to treat cancer and improve drug targeting and delivery.

The device helps a protein called p53 to kill the potential cancer-causing cells at the right time and no side effects has been found in conventional treatments for cancer.

“Cancer is like a terrorist. Earlier , they were normal cells, which go haywire. All cells are programmed to die after some period . And when this doesn’t happen , we call it Cancer,” Dr Rajah Vijay Kumar, chief scientific officer at Scalene Cybernetics, an Indian Technology company, said.

Mr Kumar said that Cytotron can not only treat cancer, but also has the potential to treat diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. “Currently, there is no stand alone, whole body, multi-organ suitable therapeutic device in the market,” he said.

The device is also registered with ClinicalTrials.gov for a clinical trial of multiple Sclerosis. The clinical trials for Cancer and Osteoarthritis have been successfully completed at the Centre for Advanced Research and Development (CARD), the research and development wing of Scalene Cybernetics.

“The commercialisation potential of this technology which I have got patented runs into millions of dollars in markets such as the Europe and America,” said Mr Kumar, who started to work on Cytotron in 1987, but had to slow down due to lack of resources.

Kidney racketeers made a fool-proof case

The kidney racketeers who got a transplant operation done in a city hospital apparently presented a fool-proof case to the hospital authorisation committee.

TOI had disclosed on Sunday how an unrelated donor had given his kidney to a Delhi-based patient for Rs 2 lakh and operation was performed in city.

The racketeers presented the donor as brother of the patient while in reality he was a criminal. They even got "an English-speaking woman" to pose as donor's wife. These people were interviewed on video and passed muster with the committee.

Still, the disclosure of the racket has rattled the medical fraternity of the city--specially nephrologists and urologists--who say the episode would be a setback to kidney transplant programme in city.

One section of practitioners feels for no fault of theirs the doctors who did the transplant in Nagpur have been linked to the racket. Another section does not rule out the possibilities of involvement of hospital administration and doctors.

Dr Raju Deshmukh, director of Suretech Hospital where the transplant was done, says he and his hospital were cheated by Sunil Deshmukh, its former hospital administration officer and one of the accused.

Food majors go for image makeover to stay healthy

This may not be walking the talk, but food companies, including McDonald’s, KFC, Nestle, Hindustan Unilever, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are increasing the use of social and health-related messages in their advertising and packaging.

Facing heightened pressure from weight gain and anti-obesity campaigns, health activists and nutritionists for selling products that aid weight gain, these companies are trying hard to create a healthy image.

Burger and fries chain McDonald’s India plans to introduce its global ‘balanced active lifestyles’ programme in the country over the next few quarters and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is evaluating associating with cricket to ‘promote healthy lifestyles’, while world’s largest foods company Nestle’s advertising for its Milkybar white chocolate brand shows mothers urging kids to ‘go out and play’ (with the tagline “dum hai to bahar nikal”).

“Our balanced active lifestyles programme underscores the interplay between eating right and staying active,” said a McDonald’s India (North & East) spokesman.

The restaurant chain has already started providing nutritional information about its food items. The other two aspects of the initiative — offering wider menu choices and promoting physical activity — are being studied for future rollout, he said.

The Indian arms of Unilever, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have their tasks cut out in line with global commitments.
Unilever is working on a global salt reduction strategy covering 22,000 products by 2010-end. The consumer goods giant says it will reduce salt in its products to target a dietary intake of 6 g of salt per day and take it further to 5 g per day by 2015-end.

Beverage and snacks maker PepsiCo says it will remove sugary drinks from schools by 2012 — a move it hopes will spruce up its image as a beverage company that does not aid unhealthy diet habits.

Rival Coca-Cola is working on plans to put nutritional information of product front packs by 2011-end. It’s not easy to buy credibility though.

Last week, for example, beverage and snacks foods major PepsiCo’s plans to pay for blogging on nutrition on science-based blog ScienceBlogs.com were rejected, and within two days of announcement the partnership was called off.

But then, these initiatives may be the only way forward for these firms, as they are facing a backlash not only from nutritionists but are also under the regulator’s lens, in India as well as the rest of the world.

The upcoming integrated food law under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is putting in place a series of mandatory guidelines for companies against promoting ‘unhealthy’ food habits.

The new guidelines will put under scanner claims about ingredients used in foods or ‘health benefits’, foods marketed as substitutes for meals, portion sizes, communication aimed at children and labelling on food packs.

“The authority has restricting and penalising powers for unfair claims made by foods companies. All foods, for example, have to comply with nutritional stipulations and recommended portion sizes,” FSSAI chairperson PI Suvrathan had recently told ET.

According to Unnat Varma, director marketing, KFC, upcoming sports-related associations with the chain will directly promote healthy lifestyles. In many global markets, KFC is a sponsor of NBA and ICC.

“Plans to associate with these sports are under evaluation though a definite timeline has not yet been set. But we have started declaring the nutritional value of products through leaflets across KFC stores — consumers are free to make informed choices,” he said ITC Foods, which prints nutritional labelling on front packs of its Bingo chips, says the move is a key differentiator between packaged branded and unbranded foods. Said ITC Foods division’s GM (marketing & exports) VL Rajesh: “Declaration of detailed nutritional information upfront is the primary medium of interaction with the consumer and we are there.”

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) too has been printing a ‘Healthy Choice’ logo on its Knorr and Bru products. But not all such moves work, as has been the case with PepsiCo’s blogging experiment.

BASF and Monsanto broad alliance of plant biotechnology

BASF SE and Monsanto want to expand their cooperation in biotechnology increase yields of crops and invest in expansion of cooperation in addition, more than 1 billion USD.

The common plant biotechnology pipeline, to be developed on the basis of yielding and stress tolerant crops would be supplemented by wheat, shared the two companies on Wednesday. The Ludwigshafen-basedBASF and Monsanto Mutual Group , based in St. Louis , United States justified the project with the successfully identified genes and the commercial earnings expectations.
BASF and Monsanto have been working together in 2007 on corn , soybeans , cotton and canola. Originally, the joint budget that includes about 1.5 billion USD.

The cooperation between the plant biotechnology company BASF Plant Science and Monsanto to the further particulars that may continue under the original conditions. Each company is working on to independent programs to discover novel genetic characteristics known as traits. These programs are called genes , are processed by the most promising candidates further. The projects are jointly funded in each development and then marketing the products of Monsanto. The net income is 60 % Monsanto and BASF holds a 40 %.

In wheat , the partners will first focus on the development of biotechnological products for the North American and Australian market. The first yielding wheat is expected to come from 2020 to the market. Wheat after maize is as the world’s most important crop, with rising demand.
The first joint product, a drought-tolerant corn will , subject to any outstanding permits are introduced on the market in 2012 .