Why 10 million Indian women secretly undergo abortions every year

Why 10 million Indian women secretly undergo abortions every year In 2008, Arti Chauhan (name changed to protect identity), mother of a 12-year-old girl, a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year old girl, became aware that two pills— mifepristone and misoprostol, taken with a day’s gap between them—could induce an abortion, a procedure she considered when she got pregnant when her boy was just a year old. Chauhan, 28, wife of a daily wager employed in a fabrication workshop in Mt Abu in southwest Rajasthan’s Sirohi district, did not want another…

Respiratory distress up, many land in ICU

Respiratory distress up, many land in ICU (Photo credit: AFP) With Delhi witnessing the worst air pollution of the season, hospital emergencies have witnessed a sudden increase in patients suffering from respiratory distress in the past few days. Many of them have even landed in the ICU. “We have eight ICU beds. All of them are occupied and the OPDs are also flooded with patients with breathing difficulty or those suffering from aggravation of underlying illness,” said Dr J C Suri, professor and head, department of pulmonary medicine at Safdarjung…

Health Weekly Roundup: Diwali air over north India world’s worst, air pollution behind 1 in 10 under-5 deaths, new breast cancer cases to rise to 3.2 mn a year by 2030

This week was filled with important medical discoveries, researches and health news. To ensure that you don’t miss any, we bring you a weekly roundup. Here is this week’s aggregation of the latest news stories on health, fitness and diet. Delhi chokes on worst Nov smog in many years The air quality index for 4 pm on November 2 was 432, in the “severe” category, while the index on October 31 (post Diwali) was 445. At 14 times the safe limit, Ggn breathes fire Concentration of PM 2.5 touched the…

How to Shield Your Children From Air Pollution

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 an annual average of 153 micrograms 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…

Peanut Butter Redux: More on Food Allergies

This week, we revisit the enthusiastically debated Oct. 2 column about food allergies in the workplace. To recap: After a peanut-allergic letter writer (LW) asked a colleague to stop bringing peanut butter sandwiches to work, someone deliberately smeared peanut butter on the LW’s desk, causing an allergic reaction. The boss dismissed the LW’s complaint and said the LW shouldn’t be able to dictate what co-workers eat. Many commenters argued that employees with severe food allergies are exclusively responsible for protecting themselves at work. The Americans With Disabilities Act, however, says…

Why Health Care Eats More of Your Paycheck Every Year

Millions of Americans are finding out this month that the price of their health insurance is going up next year — as it did this year, last year, and most of the years before that. And it’s not just that the price is going up, it’s that it goes up faster than wages and inflation, eating away at our ability to pay for other things we want (beer, televisions, vacations) or need (rent, heat, food). Does it have to be this way? Why does health care grow so much faster…