5 things men can do for good health

Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal

New Delhi, November 21, 2018:

Men’s health checklist: 5 things men can do for good health (WHO)

1. Have regular check-ups: Even if you feel healthy, regular health checks (such as blood pressure, blood sugar levels, prostate checks) are essential to catch any problems early and stay in good health. Mental health is just as important, and seeking help for mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, can be critical.
2. Reduce alcohol use: The harmful use of alcohol killed nearly 3 million people in 2016; 75% of whom were men. Drinking too much, or too often, increases your immediate risk of injury, road crashes and violence, as well as causing longer-term effects like liver damage, cancer and heart disease. Harmful use of alcohol can also affect your mental health and has a negative impact on your family and the people around you.
3. Quit smoking: Tobacco use causes cancer, lung disease, heart disease and stroke, killing more than 7 million people every year. It also causes impotence. Quitting smoking is one of the best actions you can take for your health – within 12 weeks, your lung function increases, within a year your risk of heart disease is already half that of a smoker’s.
4. Eat better: Eating a healthy diet helps prevent diabetes and many other diseases. Try to eat more fruit, vegetables, legumes (e.g. lentils), nuts and whole grains. Limit the amount of salt to 1 teaspoon per day, sugar to less than 5% of total energy intake and saturated fats to less than 10% of your energy intake.
5. Be more active: 1 in 4 people are not active enough. Adults should do at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. Physical activity helps you maintain a healthy weight, reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer and can help beat depression too.

CDC establishes AFM Task Force: On Monday, CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D., announced the establishment of an Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) Task Force to aid in the ongoing investigation to define the cause of, and improve treatment and outcomes for, patients with AFM. The AFM Task Force will bring together experts from a variety of scientific, medical, and public health disciplines to help solve this critical public health issue. The Task Force will convene under CDC’s Office of Infectious Diseases’ Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC), and will make key recommendations to the BSC to inform and strengthen CDC’s response to this urgent public health concern. It will be coordinated by the Office of the Director and is scheduled to submit its first report at the BSC’s December 6, 2018, public meeting in Atlanta.

Where malaria is hitting hardest: In 2017, approximately 70% of all malaria cases (151 million) and deaths (274 000) were concentrated in 11 countries: 10 in Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania) and India. There were 3.5 million more malaria cases reported in these 10 African countries in 2017 compared to the previous year, while India, however, showed progress in reducing its disease burden… (WHO)

Ending inequality means ending ‘global pandemic’ of violence against women

Until women and girls can live free of fear, violence and insecurity, the world cannot pride itself on being fair and equal, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, marked annually on 25th November.

During interviews about opioid overdoses in public restrooms, New York City service industry workers said they supported the idea of supervised injection facilities because such facilities might reduce injection drug use in their workplaces. Public restrooms are a popular location for injection drug use, so employees of coffee shops, fast-food restaurants and diners often find themselves acting as first-responders to a drug overdose … (International Journal of Drug Policy, online October 22, 2018).

EMA supports macimorelin for diagnosis of adult growth hormone deficiency in EU: The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued a positive opinion on an orally available ghrelin agonist macimorelin (Macimorelin, Aeterna Zentaris) to be used in the diagnosis of patients with adult growth hormone deficiency. Macimorelin is a peptide mimetic and will be available as 60-mg granules for oral solution… (Medscape)

Study recommends surveillance for liver cancer in older patients with hepatitis B: Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) should continue in patients older than 50 years, even after they have undergone 5 years of therapy for chronic hepatitis B, according to an analysis of the PAGE-B cohort presented Nov. 12, 2018 at The Liver Meeting 2018: American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in San Francisco.

Modulation of gut microbiome may alleviate immunotherapy-associated colitis: Researchers have reported the first case series of immune checkpoint inhibitors-associated colitis successfully treated with fecal microbiota transplantation, with reconstitution of the gut microbiome and a relative increase in the proportion of regulatory T-cells within the colonic mucosa in the journal Nature Medicine, online November 12, 2018.

Video to watch: TEDx Video: Doctor-patient relationship www.youtube(dot)com/ watch?v=i9ml1vKK2DQ

Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect CMAAO
President Heart Care Foundation of India