‘Over 20 percent of the total deaths from COPD, across the globe, occur in India. Yet there is lack of awareness. There are limited medications available to treat such a disorder,’ Nangia said. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), COPD is an under-diagnosed, life-threatening lung disease and a chronic obstruction of lung airflow that interferes with normal breathing and is not fully reversible. Smoking remains one of the most important causes of the disease. Joining hands with Fortis Hospital, Breathe Easy India, an NGO, will get in touch with the patients suffering from chronic lung disease like COPD, chronic asthma and pulmonary fibrosis for spreading awareness.

‘We are starting a awareness programme, initially we will enrol patients who suffer from chronic lung disease. We anticipate to organise monthly meeting and create a network of respiratory patient support group, where they get advice from experts and get educated about the disease,’ Aanchal Bhatia, of Breathe Easy said.

Source: IANS

 ‘The prevalence of NCDs (non-communicable diseases) such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancers is increasing. High blood pressure is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease; in 2008, 24 percent of all deaths in India was from cardiovascular diseases,’ he said. Major risk factors include unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco intake, and harmful use of alcohol, he said, adding awareness would be created about the need for a healthy lifestyle.

 The theme of World Health Day 2013 is hypertension or high blood pressure, and Desiraju said this would be a focus area in the national programme. Listing the steps taken by the government for early detection of diabetes and blood pressure, he said: ‘Under the NPCDCS (National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Cancer), about 1.76 crore people aged 30 years and above have been screened for diabetes and hypertension, out of which 7.22 percent were suspected of having diabetes and 6.59 percent hypertension.’

Nata Menabde, WHO representative to India, said: ‘High blood pressure affects one in three adults worldwide and leads to more than nine million deaths globally every year. Many people do not even know they suffer from high blood pressure.’ She stressed the need for action at the community level for prevention and control of this silent killer. Menabde said that in many countries, including India, the out-of-pocket expenditure incurred on NCDs is high, contributing to the impoverishment of households and hitting the poor the worst, as these are chronic conditions requiring long-term and often expensive treatment.

Source: IANS

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors 2010 study details the causes of deaths and disability across various age groups for 187 countries. Sri Lanka and China are the neighbours that are heading the list in most parameters followed by Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal and it’s usually India and Pakistan that occupy the last spot.

Read: What ails India’s healthcare system

The nature of the beast has changed though and while in 1990 the top killers in India were diarrhoeal diseases, in 2010 it’s ischemic heart disease. The second leading cause of death is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) which has been a killer for the last two decades. Stroke comes third and diarrhoeal diseases and tuberculosis round up the top five. Ischemic heart disease is actually the number one killer all over the developed world while in poorer countries the common killers were respiratory disorders, malaria and HIV.

Read: Drug-resistant TB – why you should be worried

Suicide and road accidents

 In the 15-49 age group, suicide and TB were the biggest threats for South Asia while in China it was road accidents instead of suicide. The situation is very different in Africa though where HIV/AIDS is the biggest killer for the 15-49 age group. In India, road injury is the leading cause of death in the 15-49 demographic for men while for women it’s suicide.

Under-five mortality

Among children under five the biggest killer is preterm birth complications which have replaced diarrhoeal diseases from 1990.

Developed world problems?

 Interestingly, the biggest risk factors for Indians were dietary risks, high blood pressure, indoor air pollution and tobacco smoking. A poor diet consisting of high fat foods is causing immense damage. The unhealthy commodities industries – packaged food, alcohol, non-alcoholic soft drinks, fast foods and others – have permeated all urban areas. More and more people are falling ill in what is supposed to be the healthiest period of their life and it’s because of the choices they are making. Junk food, soft drink consumption, alcohol, tobacco and a sedentary lifestyle are all coming together to create a dangerous cocktail where more and more people are vulnerable to lifestyle disorders like diabetes and heart disease. 

Read: Food, beverage industry responsible for rise in lifestyle disorders?

A similar trend holds true for deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), another smoking-related condition, the New England Journal of Medicine reports. In this case, the risk of death rose from four times greater than it was for never-smokers in the 1960s to 22.5 times, according to the Daily Mail.

Women smokers today start their habit earlier than they did generations ago, and until recently smoked more cigarettes per day. Tobacco use among women peaked in the 1980s, having a health impact that was felt many years later. The study involved more than 2.2 million men and women aged 55 and older and included data spanning the period from 1959 to 2010. 

Men and women who smoked in the current decade were almost equally more at risk than non-smokers of suffering lung cancer, COPD, heart disease and strokes, the research showed. For reasons still not understood, lung cancer rates among men plateaued in the 1980s while the risk of death from COPD in the male population continued to increase. The findings strongly confirm the claim that ‘if women smoke like men, they will die like men,’ says the researchers. Quitting smoking at any age dramatically reduces death rates from all major diseases caused by smoking, the study found.

Paradoxically, there could be a link between higher death rates and the rise in popularity of milder ‘light’ cigarettes, according to study author Michael Thun from the American Cancer Society. He said: ‘The steep increase in risk among female smokers has continued for decades after the serious health risks from smoking were well established, and despite the fact that women predominantly smoked cigarette brands marketed as lower in tar and nicotine.’

A new study says that college education and moderate alcohol intake is linked to lower chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk. COPD is one of the most common lung diseases, having two forms; chronic bronchitis, which involves a long-term cough with mucus, and emphysema, which involves destruction of the lungs over time. Most COPD patients have a combination of both conditions. Its leading cause is smoking.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Oakland, California, followed 126,019 people who supplied baseline data from 1978-1985 through 2008 with analyses of hospitalisations attributed to COPD (emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or chronic airway obstruction), according to a Kaiser Permanente statement.

Although cigarette smoking, increasing age, and history of respiratory disease/symptoms were powerful predictors of COPD, results also showed that Asian Americans (versus whites) and college graduates (versus no college students) were at a moderately lower risk for COPD, as were persons reporting one to two drinks daily (versus lifelong abstainers).

This study was presented during CHEST 2012, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, being held Oct 20-25, in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Source: IANS

This drug, primarily used for patients suffering from COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) has been found to be affective in asthmatics as well. The government promises that the drug could be available at the NHS soon.  A statistic shows that five million Britons suffer from asthma, with 250,000 diagnosed with a severe form. On average, three patients die each day during an attack. The disease is usually treated with a steroid inhaler or tablets, which can have serious side effects including skin thinning, weight gain and osteoporosis. Neil Churchill, of charity Asthma UK, said: ‘People with asthma are anxious about what steroids are doing to them, particularly if they have to  take them long term. Having another tool will be useful.’And researcher Dr Richard Russell, a lung specialist at Wexham Park Hospital in Berkshire, said the drug could be a ‘new weapon in our armoury.’

“The air we breathe isn’t exactly clean, and we take in many dangerous elements with every breath,” explained Michael Rubinstein, study co-author. “We need a mechanism to remove all the junk we breathe in, and the way it’s done is with a very sticky gel called mucus that catches these particles and removes them with the help of tiny cilia, (hairlike projections),” said Rubinstein. “The cilia are constantly beating, even while we sleep,” he said.  “In a coordinated fashion, they push mucus containing foreign objects out of the lungs, and we either swallow it or spit it out. These cilia even beat for a few hours after we die.  “If they stopped, we’d be flooded with mucus that provides a fertile breeding ground for bacteria,” added Rubinstein.

Source: IANS

Thackeray was supposed to undergo the endoscopy test by a team of doctors led by Nageshwar Reddy, an interventional gastroenterologist from Hyderabad. Thackeray was admitted to Lilavati Hospital July 24, a day after his son and Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray returned home after undergoing angioplasty.

The Shiv Sena chief was admitted to hospital after he complained of breathlessness and acute constipation. He was kept in the ICU for two days and shifted to a special room where he was under constant observation.

Source: IANS

 Nageshwar Reddy from Hyderabad and Dr Aniruddha Y Phadke will check on Thackeray and advice further medical steps. Padma Shri awardee Dr Reddy is among the top gastroenterologists in the country. The octogenarian, who suffers a heart condition, was previously admitted to the hospital in May. Thackeray’s son Uddhav was recently hospitalised and underwent an angiography. 

Picture source: ebharat.in  

The Sena honcho is all set undergo an endoscopic procedure on Friday and will have to be stay in the hospital for a few more days. He had earlier complained of breathlessness and acute constipation. Recently, his son Uddhav was admitted there as well and underwent an angioplasty last Friday.