Have a safe and healthy New Year!

With the New Year round the corner, many of you out there might be hitting the bottle soon. Here are some tips:

Avoid Getting Drunk
*Limit your intake to 2-3 drinks max. Know your limits.
*Snacks with cheese and butter taken immediately before drinking slows down alcohol absorption. But this is not an excuse to drink more!

How to avoid Hangovers
*The sureshot way, of course, is not to drink. Jokes apart, take 2-3 spoons of honey immediately before or after drinking. The fructose present in the honey metabolizes alcohol faster. Lime and tomato juice are other good choices. Consume lots of water, which helps to eliminate the alcohol via urination and also prevents dehydration.
*Drinks like vodka and gin are less likely to cause a hangover.

Don't drive drunk
*Even before the party starts, it is always safe to request a friend who does not drink to drive you home.

So have a hic... Happy, hic...Safe and hic...Healthy New Year Guys!

Stroke and carotid endarterectomy

Build up of plaque in the carotid artery (situated in the neck and supplying blood to the brain)leads to stroke. Either clots, which form on the plaque, or both clots and plaque material may break loose suddenly and travel to the brain causing a stroke.

According to The American Stroke Association, the warning signs of stroke are:

* Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg (especially on one body side).
* Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
* Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
* Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
* Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

Carotid endarterectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the plaque from the carotid arteries. Here's a video on carotid endarterectomy (not recommended for the weak hearted!)

6 Tips for fat loss

1. Have a fat loss goal. Follow it. Relentlessly.

2. Drink lot's of water. Yeah, you heard it right. Water is essential for all normal physiological process in the body. Water accounts for approximately 73% of lean body mass, and drinking at least a gallon of water helps in fat loss.

2. Eat small meals in a day, high in fiber, protein, moderate carbohydrates and low in fat. High fiber diet (vegetables, fruits, whole wheat etc) gives a sense of satiety and reduces appetite.

3. Get a good carido work out at least twice a week (jogging, walking, swimming etc. It should last for at least 20 intense minutes followed by cooling down for 5 mins. One very efficient way is to use the stairs and chose to walk rather than using the car,whenever possible.

4. Do progressive weight training at least thrice a week.

5. Measure your fat with a fat caliper and track your fat loss.

Keratoprosthesis

Keratoprosthesis is basically an artificial cornea. In people with extensively scarred corneas, as in chemical burns, Steven Johnson syndrome or in those patients with failure of multiple keratoplasty (corneal transplant from cadaver) has failed, keratoprosthesis will be helpful. It is basically a special tube extending from inside the eye to the outside and anchored to to the front surface of the cornea. The tube might have a optical disc in the centre.

A keratoprosthesis is usually made of a special plastic material but it can be even fashioned out of the patient's own tooth! Read about Modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (MOOKP)

The Man who mistook his wife for a hat

I happened to read the book by Oliver Sacks titled the same. Oliver sacks is a neurologist. He chronicles interesting cases in the form of stories. In the opening story "The Man who mistook...." he describes a musician and teacher who comes to him for complaints of decreasing vision and failing memory. When he is asked to describe a rose, he describes it as "About 6 inches in length. A convoluted red form with a linear green attachment". When he was shown a glove, he describes it as “ A continuous surface, enfolded on itself. It appears to have 5 outpouchings, if this is the word.” Finally, as he is about to go, he starts looking for his hat. He reaches out, takes hold of his wife’s head, and tries to lift it off, to put it on. He actually mistakes his wife’s head for his hat. The man suffers from a condition called prosopagnosia, or face-blindness, a neurological condition that renders a person incapable of recognizing faces or sometimes other objects. The book is really interesting with other such stories. Read it if you can !