I had a fascinating conversation. A thirty-year-old complained of fatigue. The reason was low blood sugar, he told me. He ate each time he felt fatigued to compensate. At six feet tall, he initially weighed 145 pounds. Otherwise fit, eating caused weight gain. How many of you have done the
I have been reading a fascinating book on data in the medical world and how it is doctored. Doctoring Data by Malcolm Kendrik, in case anyone wants to read it. One of the concepts he introduced to me was the concept of absolute and relative risk. Both of these concepts
A lot of you wrote back to ask me just how exactly the body gets stronger when you push a little but push hard in my previous article. So allow me to explain how the various hormones produced by your body make you stronger. When you experience stress, in this
I had a fascinating conversation with a close friend yesterday. Her father's health had taken a turn for the worse. He was finding it hard to walk or breathe. His energy had dropped. He wanted to sleep or lie down all day. We fixed the energy and the
Generally speaking, I prefer preventive care delivered naturally with naturally available resources. But every once in a while, you come across a modern invention that makes our lives better. Rehabilitation robots. Injuries and ageing can both affect our ability to use our body. Hands and legs in particular. So imagine
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a condition where the muscles of the heart are thickened for no obvious reason. Why do you get hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and what can you do about it? Your heart is made up of muscles known as cardiac muscles. These muscles work in a pumping action to send
War is never good, no matter which side you are on. But sometimes, wars lead to positive outcomes. Today, we will discuss one such outcome. In World War I, soldiers were coming back from the frontlines with disfigured faces. Not cuts and nicks. Entire jaws broken, teeth broken, and sometimes
Each time you lift your finger to do something, there is a cascade of events that take place to allow you to do so. Let us try and understand the neurobiology of each action taken by you. Dopamine is an excitory chemical. An excitory chemical allows your brain to send
Schemas in your mind are like the index cards in a library. They help you make sense of the data that you are receiving on an everyday basis. Schemas will then help you categorise, prioritise, and decide what the appropriate behaviour might be. Think of a child going to her
Oxidative stress refers to an imbalance in the body between free radicals and antioxidants. Oxidative stress results in cellular damage, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular death, and ageing. So what are the biomarkers of oxidative stress? When lipids break down in your body in the presence of oxygen, they produce malondialdehyde
Sunlight is the source of all the energy in the world. Sunlight is used by plants to produce chlorophyll. Plants are eaten by animals and us and used as energy. But can sunlight also help reduce your blood pressure? Most people tend to avoid the sun. Our reasons vary, from
I don't know about you, but most people I know seem to have forgotten COVID-19. Unfortunately, its effects are lingering. Not just are swathes of people getting Covid-19, but the vaccine we took seems to have had a negative effect as well. I have been reluctant to write