News letter 21.05.2011



Greetings,

I often wonder, why a tainted, corrupt minister is called to IIM and Academy for IAS and applauded – unstopped on his desi style?


Important notice : News letter is being posted simultaneously on BPS1955yahoogroup.Kindly join this group for continous flow of information & to enable us to serve you better. Here are the details :

Documents posted at website www.rrewa.org








The hidden Power of Similing

 

Ron Gutman reviews a raft of studies about smiling, and reveals some surprising results. Did you know your smile can be a predictor of how long you`ll live -- and that a simple smile has a measurable effect on your overall well-being? Prepare to flex a few facial muscles as you learn more about this evolutionarily contagious behavior.

 

http://www.rrewa.org/Article/43/The hidden power of smiling.doc

 

Generics for Generation Old

Generics for Generation Old

All of you know that medicines are cheap when bought under their generic name rather than certain brand names. For example, a strip of Ten Crocin (Paracetamol 500 mg tablets) costs RS 10 while non branded plain Paracetamol costs only Rs 2.50 per strip. At times the difference could be even ten times. Though there is huge price difference, there are a couple of issues in using Generic drugs.

First and foremost, most doctors prefer to prescribe only branded drugs of leading big manufacturers.While reliability of quality may be point of concern, mostly it is the bribe the doctor gets that induces him to prescribe brand named drugs. Large companies spend very heavy amounts to promote their products. This is a fact and reported many times through several market studies and surveys.

In view of the cost benefits to the public and patients, the governments of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have made rules that in government hospitals only generics may be prescribed by government doctors. How about private medical practioners? They can not be forced to prescribe only generics, sacrificing their lucrative earnings. We have identified a few family physicians who are senior friendly and they have agreed to re-write the prescription translating brand names to generics thus helping the patients greatly. This kind of circumvention is necessary as our pharmacy regulations insist that scheduled drugs may be dispensed only strictly according to prescription and the pharmacist has no permission to sunbstitute one for the other. Senior citizens organizations should come forward to identify such family physicians in every locality.

Among senior citizens also many entertain the idea that costly medicines are of good quality and cheap medicines are of poor quality. This is not a fact. There may be a few bad manufacturers who may sacrifice quality. Even among generic manufacturers there are many competing firms and a good doctor can identify reputed generic manufacturers easily through his experience. Another way to ease the situation is to request the doctor to give alternatives in the prescription itself.

As Sri Harinarayan Chairman of IRDA pointed out recently, there is nothing preventing senior citizens associations coming together and setting up medical shops to sell generics exclusively. This has already started happening, as such shops in Vijayawada and Guntur have come up. Recently the government of Andhra Pradesh has decided to set up about 170+ medical shops only to sell generics through out AP. The central government's Jan Aushadhi Scheme is an utter flop due to large scale mis-management. Let us hope the state government scheme is run properly and proves useful.With a dynamic and committed bureaucrat like Dr Ramesh (Principal Secretary, Health, AP) at the helm of affairs, this is not impossible.

Courtesy- Blog: kaaranam-ketkadey


 

T'ai Chi Helps Prevent Falls And Improve Mental Health In The Elderly


T'ai chi has particular health benefits for older people, including helping to prevent falls and improving mental wellbeing, reveals a review published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. 

But the Chinese martial art widely practised for its health benefits does not help improve the symptoms of cancer orrheumatoid arthritis and the evidence is contradictory for many other health conditions and symptoms. 

The effectiveness of t'ai chi for a variety of medical conditions and symptoms has been assessed in several studies and reviews, but their findings have been contradictory, so researchers from Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in South Korea and the University of Exeter in the UK decided to compare the conclusions of these reviews to gain a better understanding of the benefits of t'ai chi. 

Thirty five relevant reviews assessing t'ai chi were identified from English, Chinese and Korean databases. They looked at the effectiveness of the technique in a variety of disease areas, including cancer, Parkinson's disease, musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure,osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes. Some reviews also assessed the benefits of t'ai chi for psychological health, balance and fall prevention, muscle strength and flexibility and improving aerobic capacity. 

For several conditions, the findings of the reviews were contradictory. However, there was relatively clear evidence that t'ai chi is effective for fall prevention and improving psychological health and was associated with general health benefits for older people. On the other hand, t'ai chi seemed to be ineffective for the symptomatic treatment of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. The authors conclude: "Our overview showed that t'ai chi, which combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow and gentle movements, may exert exercise-based general benefits for fall prevention and improvement of balance in older people as well as some meditative effects for improving psychological health. We recommend t'ai chi for older people for its various physical and psychological benefits. However, t'ai chi may not effectively treat inflammatory diseases. " 

Source
British Journal of Sports Medicine 

Thanks

Er.S C Maheshwari
Secretary (Railway)
Bharat Pensioners Samaj (Member SCOVA)
Genl. Secy. RREWA
490A/16 Gurudwara Road;Civil Lines .Gurgaon-122001
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