A JOURNEY CALLED LIFE

Ask IRA your questions about HIV/AIDS at https://yes4me.net/IRA now. Did you know there are 2.01 million people still in India who live with HIV, or that there are about 80,000 people who get infected every year? Not to mention the overall stigma & prejudice associated with the condition which marginalizes the infected and the lack of information that perpetuates all of these.  Bad news, indeed. Good news, however, is that HIV is preventable, manageable and a lot of it is just to do with providing people the right information with sensitivity and tact at the right time! Introducing IRA. IRA is a conversational platform where people can seek answers to their pressing HIV/AIDS queries. She was created to help people gain information about HIV and motivate people to manage HIV responsibly. She is friendly and chatty and wants the world to be free of HIV. IRA will be available on the yes4me website. Anyone with an internet connection can access IRA which m...

 Let me start by declaring that I am not a MasterChef. My wife will vouch for that! But I am a sporadic cook who loves to whip up something on and off. Having said that let me tell you that although I rarely cook, I cook well! Also I try to cook healthy. My cooking teacher is of course my wife. So today I plan to share with you a favorite recipe of me as well as my family. Oats almond cake. It's a great accompaniment with both tea or coffee. It's not only very healthily delicious but also  rich in iron. My ideal morning: A cup of coffee with slices of Oats Almonds Cake, newspaper and a travel book! Speaking of Iron rich food, it's indeed sad to see the level of Iron deficiency anaemia in India. Being a surgeon, I am daily ordering for extra units of blood during surgery. Indian women hardly ever have their Haemoglobin levels above 12mg  Also the economic strata of the people seldom plays any role in Iron deficiency. Females of well off families too are found to ...

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not just the absence of disease. This definition has been given by WHO, so no questions are raised. I bet maximum of you thought that health is just being disease free. But its so not true. In order to be called and felt healthy, you need to be at peace in all dimensions. Man has had a love hate relationship with being healthy. In the stone age when there were no pollution or lifestyle diseases, man used to die of infectious diseases. And now with medical science reaching newer heights everyday, men are dying from cancers and other lifestyle diseases (for which science has yet to find answers for) What we are missing is that we need to strive constantly to keep ourselves healthy. Because prevention is better than cure and of course, Health is Wealth. You won’t be truly able to decipher the importance of the second phrase unless you or some close family member of yours has been really sick. So t...

I have two absolutely different lives. One is performing surgeries at my hospital and the complete different side is attending product launches and venting my heart out through my blog. Since healthcare is 90% of my life, I am constantly bombarded with questions related to health in rest of my 10% time. Some of them are patients, some are family members and friends and the rest are fellow bloggers. One of the questions that has been doing the rounds for quite a while is how to snack healthy? With our super busy lifestyles, its very difficult to resist junk food. In the midst of meetings or running errands back to back, its imperative to munch on a packet of chips or order a plate of instant noodles. After all we do need calories to keep ourselves ticking. But what we forget is that we are doing long term damages to our body in turn. Increase in cholesterol levels, blood glucose levels as well as lethargy which in turn gives birth to a bunch of lifestyle disorders. There has to ...

Dine in a filmy style Soya Chaap in a metal Angeethi  This Friday I had lunch in a filmy cafe called Lights, Camera Action in Rajoiuri Garden. The restaurant absolutely lived up to its name! The restaurant is in B K Dutta Market which is at a walking distance from the Rajouri Metro station which is a big bonus.  Its a total filmy cafe and you would be transported to the world of movies as soon as you enter! There are movie posters all over the place with food twists. The waiters wear orange Tees which have quirky messages written at the back. The menu is shaped in the from of a clapperboard. Music is loud and peppy. Sangria.. Chilli Bonda Grilled fish...not for me though, I am a veggie Well stocked bar.. Delightful way to serve eggs! A filmy Bar.. Veg Biriyani and Paneer Butter Masala.. Food: I am a vegetarian. I started with Soya Chaap which was juicy and tender. They were served in a metal angeethi. Then had Chilli...

The life span of an average human is more than 70 years. The life span in general has increased. I mean if you look 100 years back, it used be a lot less. An epidemic used to struck a village and the entire community would be wiped out. However we also have seen our grand parents and even great grandparents to have really long lives. They owe this long life to their healthy lifestyle. Waking up on time, rigorous physical exercise, clean eating, etc etc. However these two aspects are contradictory. Today life span has increased due to advancement in medical science. On the contrary, unhealthy lifestyle has thrown us into the mouth of diseases. Wish I could breathe this fresh air back home in Delhi! We are living in a garbage bin..literally. I mean we are breathing polluted air, drinking hard water, eating pesticide laden fruits and spending our leisure hours in front of the television or eating junk. While some of these are in our hands like we can avoid sitting on the couch ...

If you thought that exercise is only for the overweight then you are grossly wrong! We all need exercise irrespective of age, gender and weight. Exercise keeps our heart pumping strong, keeps off diseases at bay, brings glow to our skin and keeps us happy (endorphins)! So regular exercise is must. All set to take a dive in the pool... We have a fair idea about the benefits of exercise but we are unable to incorporate it into our regime however. Yes we all are prey to this epidemic called busy lives. As I am typing this, I realise that I should be rather exercising than staring at the laptop. We all are trying to extract time for working out but are unable to do so. So here I come up with few, easy lifestyle changes that are good enough to called as substitutes for exercising. Always use the stairs. Ditch the elevator. Park your car farthest from your office. Walk from there. Try mopping the floors of your home everyday. Don't use a mop or wiper, sit and mop....

Do you know which is the largest organ of our body? Any guesses? Well its the skin! Usually we associate skin care with women only. There are thousands of skin products in the market for them. We men tend to ignore our skin. But don't you think that the largest organ of our body needs pampering irrespective of genders? When you travel a lot, your skin is bound to suffer... Since skin is the most exposed organ of our body with the maximum surface area, it bears all the brunt. Hence if not taken proper care, there would be repercussions! You survive young age but skin would start showing signs of distress as soon as you cross your thirties! So here I am with a few quick tips for skincare which are very simple to follow; as we men don't like spending unnecessary time getting ready. 1. Firstly watch what you put in your mouth. Whatever you eat or drink shows on your skin. Avoid  greasy and junk food, too much alcohol and processed foods. 2. Drink lots of water (...

When I crib about my unhealthy lifestyle and start talking about initiating a healthy life, people just assume that I am pretending. For common people, doctors have the most healthy lifestyle. But the reality is exactly the opposite. Though we may preach about good habits all the time, we are the last ones to practice. Blame it on our hectic and inhuman schedules, we are more prone to hypertension (owing to stress), varicose veins (long standing hours for surgeons), centripetal obesity (long sitting hours in physicians), infectious diseases like tuberculosis and the list is endless. Some of them are part and parcel of our jobs while ailments like hypertension can be kept at bay by adopting some modifications in my lifestyle. On the ocassion of World Heart Day, I pledge to introduce some tweeks in my busy schedule that will help me to lead a healthier life. These changes are not only for me, my readers too should try to adopt them if they are already not leading a healthy l...