Secondhand Chemotherapy

Hummingbird came across this interesting video from Natural News TV.

What is secondhand chemotherapy? Why are pharmacists, nurses, doctors and veterinarians who regularly come into contact with toxic chemotherapy chemicals now getting cancer? Watch the video and find out the answers with Mike Adams, the Health Ranger!

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Eating out... and going to hospital..!

Indians are chomping on more and more pizzas — but the success story is a subplot in the growth of the eating-out-of-home story, says Business Line (A topping performance, Business Line, Brand Line, August 19, 2010).

A big bite..!

A few interesting pieces of information came out of this article:

According to the Food Franchising Report 2009, Indians consumed 3.5 million pizzas each month in 2008 as compared to 1.5 million in 2001.  Americans polish off at least 100 acres of pizzas a day (that's 350 slices of pizza per second), while over 90 per cent of Britons eat pizza at least once a week. About 466 million pizzas were sold in Briton last year.  The Food Franchising Report 2009 notes that 30 per cent of working singles eat out at least once a month, with a majority spending at least Rs 101-150 per outing. Urban Indians now have a meal out of home six times a month compared to 2.7 times in 2003.  The report says the retail food sector in India is likely to grow to $150 billion by 2025 from $70 billion in 2008.  The projections are that the size of the world food industry will be $400 billion in 2025 — clearly Indian mouths would be a big contributor to the global pie.

Thus, from a lending / investment perspective, restaurants appear to be interesting opportunities.  Unlike industrial units, such food outlets, tend to get food items on credit and sell on cash, thus almost not requiring working capital.  With food habits changing across the country and eating out becoming more and more an entrenched habit, food outlets are bound to increase in number as also do more business in future.  Any outlet that is run on hygienic lines with a reasonalble pricing policy, would attract enough customers and can become safe bets for lending by banks and for investment by VCs.

While eating out has become more entrenched today than what it was even 10 or 5 years ago, what is causing worry is the contribution of junk food to the health issues confronting the masses today.  The stress levels are quite high and even young suffer from heart attacks.  Life style diseases are emerging as silent killers.  The high cost of quality healthcare has made it almost unaffordable to a very large segment of the society and is a matter of deep concern with no solution in sight.  While government hospitals remain a clear 'no' for the middle class population, not everyone in the country especially from the unorganised sector and the rural masses have access to mediclaim facility or quality healthcare in their areas.

It is in this context, the news that Glocal Healthcare will build 2,000 hospitals across India in five years, appeared interesting to me (Source:  New venture seeks to start low-cost rural hospital chain, Mint, August 19, 2010).

Will Sri Damodaran & his team succeed where the Indian Governments have failed?

Mint says that this healthcare venture could potentially redefine India’s private healthcare business in terms of cost and pricing.  With former civil servants behind the show, let's hope they plug the gaps in the health care delivery mechanism that is obvious today.  What is interesting is that this ambitious 'low-cost' health care venture is being funded by venture capital firms and not by the government.  Maybe this is another case of tapping the bottom of the pyramid for making money.  

Even as I wish this venture all the success, I hope that Government would contribute something to such projects either as a grant or interest free long term loan so that borrowings are kept at reasonable levels and the final healthcare cost for the rural masses remain at an affordable level.

Do Cell Phones Cause Brain Tumors?

I came across a few interesting articles on the health related issues which come up due to use of mobile phones.  I had posted them in my facebook page on July 5th, 2010.

Do Cell Phones Cause Brain Tumors 

Is My Cell Phone Dangerous? | Environmental Working Group

Cell Phone Safety List 

Get a Safer Phone | Environmental Working Group

While the health related issues due to constant use of mobile phones have not been proven (atleast to the scientific community), somehow I am uncomfortable using my mobile for many months now.  Often I get pain in the ears + a burning sensation.   Nowadays I try to use more of landline, which doesn't cause this type of trouble.  I don't know if it is a problem due to my instrument (alone) or it is a general problem faced by many users.  Somehow the old charm of using a mobile is gone.  I find e-mails coming at late nights - thus even sleep is disturbed.  Sometimes, if I happen to read them then the sleep for the night is gone... as I start thinking about how to attend to the mail the next morning.  I think it was much better 10 years back when office work ended within office itself. 

How Bad Are iPods for Your Hearing?

Today, iPods (or) products similar to iPods are quite common. But will this lead to hearing loss? Does listening to loud music through headphones lead to long-term hearing loss? Brian Fligor, director of diagnostic audiology at Children's Hospital Boston, explains how much damage your headphone habit might cause — and how to mitigate your risk, in this interesting article in Time (July 28, 2008). Some highlights from the article -

"... I don't want to single out iPods. Any personal listening device out there has the potential to be used in a way that will cause hearing loss. We've conducted studies of a few MP3 players and found very similar results across the MP3 manufacturers.

Some in-the-ear earphones are capable of providing higher sound levels than some over-the-ear earphones. That said, studies we've done on behavior show that the type of earphones has almost nothing to do with the level at which people set their headphones. It's all dictated by the level of background noise in their listening environment.

When we put people in different listening environments, like flying in an airplane — we used noise we'd recorded while flying on a Boeing 757 commercial flight, and we simulated that environment in our lab — 80% of people listened at levels that would eventually put their hearing at risk. On the subway system here in Boston, the ambient noise levels are very comparable to the level on an airplane, although it sounds very different.

The noise is sufficiently high that it induces people to listen to their headphones at excessively loud volume. But in order to listen as loud as you want, you need to be careful about how long you're listening.

I would also strongly recommend that people invest in better earphones that block out background noise. Some of the research we did studied earphones that completely seal up the ear canal. These are passive sound-isolating earphones, as opposed to the ones that are active noise cancelers that block out some of the noise.

As far as I can tell, both would allow people to listen to their headphones at their chosen level — and more likely at a lower volume than if they were using the stock earbuds...."

Warning: Habits May Be Good for You

I read an interesting article by CHARLES DUHIGG in NY Times about how companies had perfected the art of creating automatic behaviors — habits — among consumers. These habits have helped companies earn billions of dollars when customers eat snacks, apply lotions and wipe counters almost without thinking, often in response to a carefully designed set of daily cues.

While those were the old days when companies made products which satisfied the need of the customer, we are today in a modern world, where corporates indulge in scientific study designed to create new habits which will help in selling their new products. While this article per se is about how it can be used to improve the public health, I am very skeptical about the altruistic nature of modern day corporates.

Some highlights from the article -

• Many of the products we use every day — chewing gums, skin moisturizers, disinfecting wipes, air fresheners, water purifiers, health snacks, antiperspirants, colognes, teeth whiteners, fabric softeners, vitamins — are results of manufactured habits. A century ago, few people regularly brushed their teeth multiple times a day. Today, because of canny advertising and public health campaigns, many Americans habitually give their pearly whites a cavity-preventing scrub twice a day, often with Colgate, Crest or one of the other brands advertising that no morning is complete without a minty-fresh mouth.
• A few decades ago, many people didn’t drink water outside of a meal. Then beverage companies started bottling the production of far-off springs, and now office workers unthinkingly sip bottled water all day long. Chewing gum, once bought primarily by adolescent boys, is now featured in commercials as a breath freshener and teeth cleanser for use after a meal. Skin moisturizers — which are effective even if applied at high noon — are advertised as part of morning beauty rituals, slipped in between hair brushing and putting on makeup.
• Not everyone is comfortable with the arrangements. Some critics complain that public health professionals are becoming too cozy with companies ultimately focused on their bottom lines. Others worry that these advertising techniques may be manipulative.
• “OUR products succeed when they become part of daily or weekly patterns,” said Carol Berning, a consumer psychologist who recently retired from Procter & Gamble, the company that sold $76 billion of Tide, Crest and other products last year. “Creating positive habits is a huge part of improving our consumers’ lives, and it’s essential to making new products commercially viable.” Through experiments and observation, social scientists like Dr. Berning have learned that there is power in tying certain behaviors to habitual cues through relentless advertising. “For most of our history, we’ve sold newer and better products for habits that already existed,” said Dr. Berning, the P.& G. psychologist. “But about a decade ago, we realized we needed to create new products. So we began thinking about how to create habits for products that had never existed before.”
  
• Academics were also beginning to focus on habit formation. Researchers like Wendy Wood at Duke University and Brian Wansink at Cornell were examining how often smokers quit while vacationing and how much people eat when their plates are deceptively large or small.
• Those and other studies revealed that as much as 45 percent of what we do every day is habitual — that is, performed almost without thinking in the same location or at the same time each day, usually because of subtle cues.
• For example, the urge to check e-mail or to grab a cookie is likely a habit with a specific prompt. Researchers found that most cues fall into four broad categories: a specific location or time of day, a certain series of actions, particular moods, or the company of specific people. The e-mail urge, for instance, probably occurs after you’ve finished reading a document or completed a certain kind of task. The cookie grab probably occurs when you’re walking out of the cafeteria, or feeling sluggish or blue.
• Our capacity to develop such habits is an invaluable evolutionary advantage. But when they run amok, things can become tricky.
• “Habits are formed when the memory associates specific actions with specific places or moods,” said Dr. Wood, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. “If you regularly eat chips while sitting on the couch, after a while, seeing the couch will automatically prompt you to reach for the Doritos. These associations are sometimes so strong that you have to replace the couch with a wooden chair for a diet to succeed.”

How Does Your Waist Measure Up?

Is there a link between the size of waist and health? Yes, says this interesting article in New York Times. Some highlights from the article -

Studies suggest that health risks begin to increase when a woman’s waist reaches 31.5 inches, and her risk jumps substantially once her waist expands to 35 inches or more. For a man, risk starts to climb at 37 inches, but it becomes a bigger worry once his waist reaches or exceeds 40 inches. Last month, The International Journal of Obesity suggested that, particularly for young people, the waist-to-height ratio might be a better indicator of overall health risks. Put simply, your waist should be less than half your height.

Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer

What started as a status symbol in India has slowly transformed into a necessity for all. I am talking about the cell phone. It has reached a stage where even vegetable vendors, auto rickshaw drivers, school children,... you name a segment and you will find them using the mobile phones. India, has become a market with lowest tariffs and this has helped in growing the market by leaps and bounds. But it has its side effects too, as this New York Times articles points out.

What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t, asks TARA PARKER-POPE in this interesting article in New York Times. The article says that three prominent neurosurgeons had told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. Again, the American Journal of Epidemiology had published data from Israel finding a 58 percent higher risk of parotid gland tumors among heavy cellphone users. Also last year, a Swedish analysis of 16 studies in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed a doubling of risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma after 10 years of heavy cellphone use. The real concern, some doctors say, is not older cellphone users, who began using phones as adults, but children who are beginning to use phones today and face a lifetime of exposure.

Better to be safe, rather than feel sorry later. Its time that India too conducts some study to find if there are linkages between cell usage and ill health. Pending that it can atleast conduct an educational campaign using the mass media to suggest alternate (or) better and safe ways of using cell phones.