Y'dig?

Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital , Bombay Hospital , Saifee Hospital , Tata Memorial etc. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

The following message given by him, I feel makes a lot of sense and is important for all to know

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt)… H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water.. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population. Neti pots and sinus rinse kits are available at the drug store and relatively inexpensive….under $15.

5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

Swine flu

The worst epidemic in history in the USA was the 1918 flu epidemic, which killed 675,000 people. The swine flu scare probably won’t kill that many, which, by the way, is just about the same number that die every year of cancer and car accidents combined.

And this total compares with 255,000 Americans killed in the whole of the Second World War.

(Sources: USA Today reports that in 2004 there were 553,888 cancer deaths in the USA. that’s 1517 people every day. Most of these deaths are avoidable if we only ate good, wholesome food and not the ghastly lethal junk sold in the average food store. According to http://www.car-accidents.com/ in 2005, there were 115 people killed every day in car accidents in the USA – that’s 41,975 in a year, the population of a small town.)

http://www.ydig.us/wp-content/uploads/images/roaddeath.jpg

Do we care about the carnage caused by cancer and road accidents, both totally preventable ? Not a lot. Why not? Because none of this is news, these 600,000 deaths a year are daily events. Of course we care if one of our own family in one of the statistics, but otherwise, we mostly don’t.

But we do get scared about ‘flesh eating bacteria’ of ‘West Nile Virus’ – even though there are very few fatalities, but these along with Swine flu make the national news.

So we care because the news media want us to buy what they are selling, which is news, not facts, not reality.

You might ask the question why is it, that the cancer deaths don’t result in news as to which items artificially added to our diet causes such cancers, and why they are added and by whom? Any one of these would make a nice news story, human interest and all that. Let’s take a look at the nice house and family that the people who cause such misery and suffering enjoy for themselves. But not a bit of it. Why not? I don’t know, is it because the firms that produce this lethal slop have advertising dollars to spend? Is it because prolonging shelf-life at the expense of human life, adds to the corporate bottom line at the expense of families deprived of their mothers and fathers? Is it because no one ever went broke giving the uniformed what they say they want?

But one thing’s for sure, we’ll be reading and watching a lot of stuff on Swine flu in the coming weeks and nothing at all on cancer and road deaths.

P.S. Had a picture of a cancerous mouth up on this posting, but took it off as it’s offputting, but no worse that what your imagination can envisage.