Thanks to present day rat race and cut throat competition, psychlogical disorders have part of our daily living. Distrust, uncertainty and petty worries are here to stay courtsey the competitive streak that runs through entire gamut of home, neighbour, office, business and personal relationships.
So complicated has become the modern day living that struggle to survive leaves little space to ponder over what is right and what is wrong. Some thinkers believe that the feeling of desperation comes from ego concerns. Path to material progress these days is so difficult and thorny that to keep treading on it man may resorts even to immoral ways when confronted with difficulties. Official power, status, and an arrogant assessment of self, impels a person to persue his ambition most brazenly. This is what we see on surface, with a cursory look around. How can we overcome this scenario? In an ambiance of declining moral and human values, even an innocuous poser as this may hurt our ego.
Come, let’s have a closer look at what’s happening around us. Today every struggler who is desperate and can’t make it, has just one lurking suspicion; how come people less talented than we are rolling in luxuries? And there he is, working honestly, and to the best of his abilities, and still unable to meet his basic requirements. When in prime of youth, he swears to fight evil and to change cherished norms of society for a better world. But, then, gradually he tires out. His dreams and hope dash down, like leaves off a tree in autumn. And starts looking at society subjectively.
So, what was earlier an ace idealism, a clarian call for revolution, a resolve to change all things for better, a dogged determination, now changes to a helpless moan. Some thinkers prefer to see this syndrome as a lack of dialogue with the contemporary social conscience. Some others believe it’s their hurt ego wailing behind veil of their so-called crushed-rebellion. Even the memories of their bygone youthful ardour turn painful. Surprisingly he still believes his views and ideals were sacrosant. It’s only to his fate that he pins blame, which, according to his now bruised perception, rewards only those who are arrogant and do nothing.
As our society progress upfront, it gets more complicated in formation. Work opportunities come down as also resources of income and material wealth. This makes man harangued. This holds true not only for a layman but also for the educated and elite cultured people of society. This creamy layer too gets meeker by the day and finally succumbs to cosy compromise. This inconsistency, to an extent, is common to all human beings, albeit it connotes bowing to defeat. Fear of trailing behind in rush of life so demoralises a man that he finds himself phoned into a cul de sac of self pity and distorted perception. A broken resolve, tired imagination, sorrow and suffocation; these become his defining parameters. Whatever be the situation, he seeks solace in compromise.
Can this pathos be prevented? According to some, the way out of this problem should mean more than just religion, meditation, and spiritual awakening. Because whereas these better known remedies do temporarily soothe your nerves, they don’t change your core identity, your core conscience. Ergo, problems remain as they are because hopes and aspirations are scarce met, and no tangible solution appears in sight. Could suppression of desires be a plausible solution to this? Probably not! What then? Probably a deep introspection is called for. One, in which we taken cognisance of the sufferings of thousand and lakhs of those who aren’t as fortunate as we ourselves are. They are in situations far worse than ours, poor them! Some one has said : ‘I forgot my own deficiency of a pair of shoes when I saw one such man who lacked a pair legs itself.’ This adage can give a new philosophy, a sanguine logic, a dawn of contentment. Introspections of such nature as this can change the flow of life in a positive direction, and inferiority complex can be kept at bay.
Nevertheless, irrespective of our cerebral preparedness and logical orientation, the moment we face inimical circumstances, our emotions take better of us making us go weak in the knee at crucial juncture.
And that’s what we really are, notwithstanding our erudition at relationships, reflections and analysis of anything that matters. Not only that, we even seem to forecast future. No wonder every Tom, Dick and Harry around us seems to suggest what is right, what is important, what is apt and and which policy matter is suitable and sacrosanct.
But even sentience has a measure of it. Often it is the score of others that we are mere apt to read. Sitting on judgement, we scarce fail to indicate what ought to be done, and how a particular problem need to be addressed. We owe, so to say, expert advisors. But like a weather forecast gone wrong, psychoanalysis and statistical jugglary often fail in practical life.
On a positive note, there is no such stage in life where you are absolutely content or absolutely crest fallen. May be this happens in stories and folk lores. But on ground realities it never happens that a chunk of time period is all bad, or all good. Albeit hopes and despairs alternate, making us tick under all circumstances.
Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harward University has tried to explain flush of human emotions and impact of good and bad news on human mind, with two quintessential examples. In first example, a man gets a message on phone that he is lucky recepient of a token prize. In second, a man informs his friend that he is fired from job. Now of losing your bread and butter can be horrowing. For a moment one may feel trapped in a blind suffocating tunnel, desperate to find a way out. However, avers Dr. Gilbert, a bad news doesn’t elicit an sos response, nor a good one makes a person feel on seventh heaven.
Dr. Gilbert cites many examples from daily life occurences to supoort his contention. As in preceeding two examples, excitement of a jackpot winner too lacks for a few seconds only—and thereafter it is back-to-basics. Happiness that stays for long, as a matter of fact, comes from emotions of an altogether different kind. Gaity that comes as a thunderbolt, passes of as quickly as it comes. Behavioural experts concede that it’s a bit difficult to realise that permanent happiness flows from mature relationships, practical wisdom and faith in perennial laws of nature. A lottery, a raise, or an award can’t elevate euphoria for long. A lasting cheer comes from feeling good, easy and being level headed in face of odds.
Emotional upsurges, by their very nature, are potent biochemical reaction in parlance of human mind, trigerred by good or bad life experiences. This upsurge is transitory. When it recedes, giving way to other benign thoughts, a resurge of it on second thought doesn’t carry its earstwhile impact. With time, tempers cool and emotions level off. Most people, thankfully, remain content and poised most of the time, and only temporarily stirred in sanguine situations—only to bounce back to their cheerful self soon after. Thomas Brown, the 17th Century writer famously said : “Of all living beings, I am the most content and happiest of the lot. I have the wherewithal to change adversity into prospertiy, and sorrows into happiness. Neither the spell of good fortune, nor of bad times can alter my positive state of mind. Such a favourable state of mind, doubtless, is within reach of an overage person.
All sorrows and disappointments related to one’s personal life are insignificant since one overcomes them in a matter of few day’s time. Such resurrection is nothing but man’s innate potential to surmount odds.”
Be it the arena of science, literature or public life, there have been countless such men in all eras of time, who turned the tide of odds to their very own advantage. They are of the kind who are neither overwhelmed by their success nor sulk in a remote corner when down and out.
Mental tension, loneliness, desperation, feeling of void and being cut off from environment, feeling ill at ease and dejected for no rhym or reason; all these are tell tale symptoms of depression or stress—the second most rampant of human diseases worldwide over.
A release from World Health Organisation, recently, holds that second to heart diseases, depression is next major global malady. When it persists for long, it renders a man loner and isolated. So sanguine is this seperation that none is allowed shares his space—not even his family members.
A German magazine on psychology has gone to the extent of calling ‘depression’ a national illness. What with more than 40% of denizens falling in the ambit of its viscious onslaught. And yet, ironically, people aren’t ever aware of it, let alone seek treatment for it.
One of the many reasons behind this global scourage of depression is a sense of insecurity which though invisible, is highly contageous. This insecurity, though abstract, in being felt everywhere, be it office, neighbourhood, professional pursuits, or in fiscal parlance. Another interesting hypothesis hovers around explosion of information which is too much for the modern man to grasp on assimilate. This glut of untapable knowledge taxes human sensibilities. Add to this the dilemma that world doesn’t move to our tunes, and we ourselves find it hard to follow worldly norms. And what you get is sum up in a broken, belligerent and diranged person who is thoroughly shaken from head to toe.
Smoking is dangerous
Statutary warning ‘Cigarette smoking is injurious to health’ notwithstanding, the number of smokers is increasing by the day. According to a World Health Organisation report global annual consumption of cigarettes is more than 60 thousand million. Infact cigarette smoking is not only a matter of personal choice, rather, of late, it is becoming a status symbol as well. And that explains why 65 to 85% of world’s tobacco produce is consumed in shape of branded cigarettes.
However another shocking revelation is this that since last couple of years a sharp rise is recorded in number of fair sex smokers. It’s noteworthy that vis a vis their men folks, women are more vulnerable to harmful effects of nicotene because of their peculiar female body physiology.
Today, statistically speaking, every ten seconds one smoker is dying of tobacco related diseases on a global canvas.
If status quo remains what it is today, day is not far when these 10 seconds will shrink to 4 and 5 seconds. Obsivously, one smoker dying every 4 to 5 seconds is a pointer to harrowing time is store for mankind.
Doctors warn that habit of smoking in women, apart from causing cancer of lungs, can cause breast cancer as well. Also, lactating mothers can pass on their nicotene levels to their suckling babies making them prone to recurrent bouts of fever and respiratory diseases.
Gals who take to smoking early in life loose out on their reproductive repertoire, and become highly susceptible to metabolic disorders like diabetes. Dates of past 40 years reveal that the number of women smoker in developed countries has gone up from 2 to 93%. The scenario, obviously, is catastrophic. It has also come to light that smoking defiles feminity cosmatically as well since nicotene effects body skin adversly.
Amongst the developed countries, India top the list of women smokers. In tobacco production too, India is one of the leading nation. Bidi, the leaf wrapped tobacco sticks, are quite popular with denizens of Indian sub-continent. Barring urban women, rest of the women folks in India, especially the ruralites in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have a weakness for bidis. In good old days women in Indian villages used to smoke pipe. With passage of times this changed in favour of bidi smoking. Back then, beetel chewing was favourite pass time of ladies in elite households. Even today Muslim ladies are avid paan-eaters. But popularity of pipe smoking among women, as of now, is almost zero. Cigarettes and myriad chewing spices now occupy centre stage, and traditional ways of tobacco use are now passes.
That apart, extension of eduction regarding illeffects of nicotene has also been instrumental in weaning women folks away from smoking. At the same time newly married gals have rejected smoking as an old fashtioned fad. Fiscal constraints and societal pressures too have contributed to anti-smoking drive. Rural women even today follow age-old rules of probity and wouldn’t be as flamboyant as their menfolks. If at all they must smoke, they wouldn’t do it in presence of their husbands. All such factors have worked in tandem to bring down the spectre of smoking in rural households in a span of last one decade.
On the flip-side there are a slew of urban females holding cigarette in one hand, and a glass of whisky in another. No more faminine physically and mentally as compared to rural belles, these urbanites are cerebral shadows of western culture. Chasing glamour and ad world glitz, these pseudo intellectuals are leading a mechanical existence. Going to clubs and parties is their forte, and wine and nicotene—their status symbol.
Trying to outdo men in professional arena, these women have wrecked themselvess with smoke and high drinks. Verily, these symbols of motherhood have themselve to blame for their pathetic predicament. Another research work has revealed that whereas 40% of women on earth are direct victims of smoke sting, the remaining 60% are indirect victims on account of this husbands being active smokers. Chances of cancerous diseases are 3 times more significant for passive smoker females, as compared to those women whose husbands are non-smokers. In such a scenario, habit of smoking, for whatever reason is diabolical in a country like India where 60% of people live below poverty line and struggle had to make both ends meet. In a world where women, the proginator of human kind, is doomed to die in poverty and deprivation, the better of urbanite ladies too wouldn’t be safe for long in there A.C. chamber.
Does your back bother you
We often get to hear about chronic or seering backache. On surface, it seems, this one problem is common to all. There is hardly any soul who may not have suffered it.
What causes backache?
Backache, according to Doctors, arises on account of four flaws of living—1.Improper life style, 2.Incorrect posture while sitting or standing, 3.Lifting heavy weight amboyantly, 4. Exposure to cold. Apart from these major causes, backhache may be triggered even by an excess of mental tension. Reason being that when mind is agitated, more of blood gets diverted to brain and less of blood gets to flow in the region of back muscles. This makes the muscles back taut and painful.
Women generally experience backache when they step into their thirties and fourties. Reason being that 80% of women in our society attend to domestic chores on their own.
How to get rid of backache?
If backache persists, it becomes a nasty problem. And being our own physician in the early stages of a disease, is almost our second nature. Accordingly we pop in pain-killers as a matter of habit. In the long last however, medicines fail and the malady gets aggravated.
Even as medical surgeons claim that this ailment is amenable to surgical intervention, according to global statistic 80% of such surgeries end up in failures.
No doubt, surgical operations do give some initial relief. But that doesn’t last long and pain recurs. Ergo people prefer to go for medicial treatment for pain in back muscles and joints of vertebral column.
Drug treatment is indeed curative, but one has to be extremely cautious in their use. Because wrong or excessive medication can give rise to various anciliary problems.
In off shore countries, especially America and Sweden, much research has been carried out on causative and curative aspects of back pain.
We must concede though, that medical facilities in developed countries are better and more accessible than in a developing country like ours. We in India are woefully lacking in resources. And whatever resources are there to tap, they are out of reach for the common man.
Physical exercise is a must
Whereas medicines do their part in relieving back pain, physical exercise too is critically important. To keep backache away, your daily activities ought to be so regulated that you remain fit and fine whole day long. Do get up early in the morning and go out for a walk. Apart from that do other physical exercises suiting to your age. If your’s is a white collar job, avoid easy chair in office. Rather, sit on a chair which keeps your back straight. Sleep on a hard bed. Better still, sleep on floor.
Please remember that if medication becomes indispensable for backache, don’t take pain-killers on your own. Because they have their side-effects and can trigger stomach and intestinal ailments. Hence an expert physician should be consulted, and medicines taken only under his supervision. Albeit fomentation with warn water and sun bath are two procedures which you can do on your own free will anytime anywhere.
Diabetic foot ulcer
This is one of the many dangers which a diabetic patient is exposed to.
According to Dr. K.K. Pandey, the cardithoriaccic and muscular surgeon at Apollo Hospital, diabetic foot ulcers may be caused by illfitting and high heeled footwears. This happens because, explains Dr. Pandey, the inner wall of blood vessels in patient’s foot grow thick (Microangiopathy), inviting plaque formation with deposition of calcium, and fat-globules. Consequently lumen of blood vessels is narrowed down—and flow of blood impeded.
Because of diabetic neuropathy, leg skin goes numb—loosing its sensitivity to external irritants. Ergo, the patient doesn’t take notice of pressure, abraisons and minor injuries sustained in foot region. Consequently the minor injury aggravates into a big wound verily called Diabetic foot ulcer.
Apart from that, diabetic neuropathy also leads to shrinking and weakening of the leg musculature. Obviously therefore, pressure on the foot increases many folds. This also aggravates foot ulcers already existing. Add to this the overall narrowing of blood vessels of leg region and what you have, says Dr. Pandey, is a diabetic foot getting all the more worse—even gangrenous. Any kind of concurrent infection too, is easly picked up, and gets to spread fast in rest of the body.
During the treatment of diabetic ulcer, proper care of wound area, and all precautions to keep it infection free, are extremely important. Hence the wound must be dressed daily taking care to cut off dead and decaying tissues. Blood sugar level should be maintained and pus formation or pooling of it should be checked. Antibiotics and related drugs can help save feet from getting infected. The effected limbs can be screened for health with dopler or simple angiography or with digital substraction angiography.
If blood vessels are found to be extremely weak and obliterated, then an operation like vascular bypass may be called for. But such operations should be undergone only in such hospitals which are equipped with state of art medical facilities.
At times the wound in question deteriorates to level where inspite of all efforts, cure doesn’t appear in sight. In such cases the only viable option then is to severe the infected and gangrenous part and save rest of the body from sure catastrophe.
This life saving surgical intervention is called digital amputation or transmetatarsal amputation. In some cases though, skin grafting and myocutanecous flops may help healing the difficult wound. To avoid contracting diabetic foot ulcer, feet should always be kept clean and dry. A diabetic patient should never walk barefoot.
Not even in the precincts of their own homes should shoes and slippers remain off their foot. It is important that footwears are of appropriate size. Reason, as explained in foregoing, is dulled sensitivity of skin which, when shoes are illfitting, fails to register an injury or irritation in foot-region.
Ladies suffering from diabetes shouldn’t go for designer and fashionable shoes. Their footwear should be cosy and comfortable. In addition they must inspect their feet daily for any likelihood of diabetic foot. Should they spot out any abraison, blister or hardening of skin, they should immediately consult a cardiovascular surgeon. Smoking is a strict ‘No-No’ for diabetic patients, who are also advised to refrain from chewing tobacco and intoxicating drinks.
