heart matters: public awareness initiative

heart matters: public awareness initiative

public awareness initiative

i have undertaken a model to implement in my practise .
as a cardiac surgeon i have come to recognise the deficiencies that are looming large over the cardiac field.
the patients are least informed of their health .
life style awareness is a distant dream
that is the reason why the compliance of patient to surgery or any form of treatment is less.
the patient today is happy by just knowing that the treatment will be carried out through a small puncture hole on his arm but he is not aware of the time duration the procedure will last him and he goes for repeat procedure again in a short span of time.
also the drugs which patient will be taken after the surgery are not communicated to him most of the time.
i have undertaken this task of developing the public awareness initiative for patients undergoing the common procedures for heart and the complications associated with it.

KARMA

karma .
the ability to do work and not expect any reward in return. you accept the work as an offering to the almighty ,as well as accept the result as a prasad in return from the GOD. whatever work we do if we do if it is not result oriented we are less likely to experience the stress associated with the work.because we are not expecting a result out of that work.the person then is called a karma yogi.
we should strive to become a karma yogi.
the deeds which are done should be beneficial to the society at large . it happened that a robber was attending a sage who was preaching about karma. the robber said to the sage that is robbing also a karma?
the sage replied yes it is a karma. but repeatedly doing that will make him realise that it is not a good karma.it doesnot benefit a human being or the society in which he lives.

exercises:sympathetic and parasympathetic systems

exercises which form an integral part of modern life.lack of it is evident in our society now a days .the other extreme also creeps up to show its face of wrong practise.so exercise or no ,what is important.definately exercise should always be there but that exercise itself is the cause of stress than that could be deterimental to heart. so which are the exercises which can be bad.the strenous exercises put some individuals to stress their limits to the extreme and we find some sports men falling off on ground while playing.does this mean that the sports men are not well build.or is it that exercise or more exercise has a role to play in causing his coronary to go into shut down .we need to find solutions to this events and make a consensus regarding the corellation of stress to causing heart attack. man has sympathetic and para sympathetic nervous system. under control is the sympathetic drive while the para sympathetic are not under our control.while we can definitely indulge in activities that bring about parasympathetic drive. the fear and flight reaction releases the sympathetic tone to set into motion and causies the individual to get up and fly ,consequently getting away from danger zone.any activity that causes this sympathetic drive to persist for long in a person can be deterimental to his heart.it is like catching a glass of milk and standing.catching the glass for 5 minutes would not cause any thing butlonger the man keeps holding the glass ,his arm becomes numb and finally it will start to pain. similarly with stress ,one need to let go of the constant stress and become silent or non moving. the parasympathetic drive are slow repetitive motions of the body which are perceived as dready and boring.the slow walking and other activities that enhance parasympathetic activity.it becomes beneficial to the heart and mind.long walks on the country side are the source of bore dom for many but the solace it gives to mind and body simultaneously is very good . the answer to our question earlier on if we know which patients or sportsmen will have a heart attack and which do not is still under investigation and there is no test at present available to help differentiate that.studies only tell about strenous physical activity and sedentary life style. anew paradigm of thought will be required to look into the matter i suppose.

drlastbencher

"the man on last bench 'stand up 'and answer the question!"

i have been fortunate to have always shared the golden benches at the back in my school and college days.

the day used to be routine for me when dr deshmukh come in the class room and gave me a bashing for no reason at all. i used to get spanking almost every day. from a docile young lad i was transformed into a unforgiving young man with a vision in my eyes and and a dream to succeed and to prove to myself that i can be a contestant for the coveted post of monitor too. i became a monitor in class 9th and stood third in first semester.everyone was suprised. the gentle manipulation by thosar sir and with determination i slowly climbed the ladder and was ready for the story that was written for me to play in this world. sharing last bench was a blessing in disguise as the so called rowdy group used to listen to me as their champion and would always push me for any undertaking for the class. this gave me renewed courage and i catapulted ahead and fulfilled my dream of visiting as many towns as possible through NCC.

minimally invasive cardiac surgery

minimally invasive cardiac surgery is the recent break through in the approach to solving problems of heart.the operation is the same but the approach is different. we no longer have to cut the bone from the midline and leave a big scar in the process which can be distressing as traumatic for the patient.the minimally invasive cardiac suirgery is the cosmetic ,smaller scar and with precision. all the surgical procedures right from mitral valve repair,mitral valve replacement ,aortic valve repair,aortic valve replacement and cabg and atrial septum defect closure,tricuspid valve closure can be approach through this incision alone.patient selection play s a vital role for making the use of this technique possible.this new technique can be used in redo cases also with some wonderful results.there have been schools of thought about the incidence of post operative pain relief for this typre of surgery but given the latest medications available and also the smaller incisions have led to this technique being taken up in a big way.minimally invasive cardiac surgery is the future.

heart attack

coronary artery bypass grafting is the term used by medical fraternity. heart attack is a condition where in the blood supply to heart muscle gets diminished due to any reason ,then the muscle experiences dificiency in form of chest pain.when the heart muscle cannot get adequate blood supply it tends to wrench also called as massive heart attack or myocardial infarction.some patients do overcome that deficiency of blood and carry on their routine life within limit .they will learn to stop where the chest pain starts,thereby maintaining the deficient blood supply . if the exertion is beyond a certain stage where in heart muscle cannot meet deficincient supply then heart attack ensues . patient who has learnt to overcome his limited heart muscle develops collateral blood ,if he carries on and if the blood supply is still met,though inadequately. few patients are not so lucky enough to develop the collaterals and they need to be taken for a procedure either stenting or bypass grafting.if the blockages are too much to be handled in single setting of stenting then it is advisable to under go surgeons knife.if there are one or two blockages which can be easily over come by a stent then it can wait for a future operation and undergo stenting instead.the choice to decide whether to under go stenting or bypass surgery rests with the patient ,and he can consider the option of taking opinion of at least two cardiologists or one cardiologist and a cardiac surgeon. this is not the situation always and if it is acute emergency then cardiologist can take decision to subject the patient for emergency stenting or also called as angioplasty.such episodes are few .