Heart attack or Heartburn: How You Can Find Out

With heart diseases being one of the major causes of death in India, it is perhaps not surprising that most people presume any pain in the chest area to be an attack. As a result, in a large number of cases a patient is rushed to the hospital, only to find that it is a mere heartburn. To prevent the panic following a presumed attack, the victim and the people around him must exhibit the capacity to use the resources at their disposal and differentiate between the two. According to…

Turning Back the Clock 1 Hour Takes a Serious Toll on Your Mental Health

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Daylight saving time should be a permanent, year-round phenomenon. Rather than turning back our clocks this weekend to extend our pre-election suffering by yet another hour, we should simply leave the hour hand where it is and pledge to never fiddle with it again. The social and public health benefits would be enormous. The fall transition to standard time is linked to an increase in crime that costs the country billions of dollars annually. Transitions into and out of daylight saving…

Delhi Air Pollution: How to Shield Your Children Delhi Smog

Numbers don’t affect us. World Health Organisation conducted a survey a few months back and concluded that Delhi is the most polluted city in the world. Delhi air recorded alarming levels of the most dangerous small particulates, known as PM 2.5s, per cubic metre. This should have made us sit up and take notice. It didn’t. Recent reports showed that Beijing and Delhi were neck to neck in air pollution levels and an emergency-like situation was declared in Beijing. Back in India, we let that pass too. The Delhi Government…

Polluted Smog Covers Pakistani City of Lahore

Heavy smog loaded with pollutants has covered several urban and rural areas in eastern Pakistan, prompting breathing problems, and causing more than 20 deaths in traffic accidents caused by poor visibility on highways, officials and a senior meteorologist said. Several cities in Punjab province, including the provincial capital Lahore, have been engulfed in haze since earlier this week. Meteorologist Mohammad Hanid told The Associated Press that the smog is “very unusual and it contains toxic air.” He said the smog has caused irritation in residents’ eyes and an increase in…

Washington State Polio-Like Cases Linked to Rare Syndrome

Eight of nine children hospitalized in Washington state for a polio-like illness have a rare syndrome that causes varying degrees of limb weakness, state health officials confirmed on Friday. The eight cases from five counties in the state were determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be acute flaccid myelitis, also known as AFM, which affects the nervous system and specifically the spinal cord. A ninth child who died this week at Seattle Children’s Hospital, a 6-year-old boy from Bellingham, was found not to have the syndrome…

Delhi is the most polluted, but other metros aren’t getting better

Delhi is the most polluted, but other metros aren’t getting better MUMBAI Mumbai’s a coastal city isn’t always able to counter the pollutants in the air. On several days in the year, air quality drops into the poor category , and experts say more monitoring and data is needed to ensure it doesn’t go the Delhi way. Not all existing monitoring stations are able to give us the right picture because they don’t meet the required standards. Having access to data and using it to take precautionary measures is important,”…