When nations work together, hope prevails and collective solutions can be found

“When nations work together, hope prevails and collective solutions can be found”, says UN chief. From conflict and economic downturn to disease and climate change, global problems require “more than ever” a strengthening of international cooperation, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told world leaders at the Paris Peace Forum on Sunday, commemorating 100 years since the end of the First World War.

AHA looks beyond heart disease and stroke to improve overall health and well-being globally. As heart disease and stroke continue to claim more lives worldwide than all other causes, the American Heart Association (AHA) is boldly growing beyond borders and its core business to advance health and well-being across the globe. It’s all part of the Association’s new mission: To be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. “We are creating an Emerging Strategies and Ventures group to start stand-alone ventures in areas such as precision medicine, data as an asset, health technology, drug discovery, venture capital investing and brain health and healthy aging”, said Chief Executive Officer Nancy Brown.

Every bite of burger boosts harmful greenhouse gases. Even though meat production is known to be a major contributor to climate change and environmental destruction, worldwide demand for meat continues to rise, said UN environment agency, UNEP, in a statement released on Thursday.

According to the World Economic Forum, the beef and dairy industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the world’s biggest oil companies, with the combined emissions of the top meat and dairy companies exceeding those of highly industrialized nations such as Germany or the UK. Despite this fact, the global meat industry continues to grow, with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicting a 76% in global meat consumption by 2050: more meat will be eaten than ever before in our history… (UN)

Cardiac arrest survival higher in states with required high school CPR training. Required CPR education in high school may lead to higher bystander CPR and cardiac arrest survival rates, according to preliminary research to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium 2018. Analysis of data from more than 109,668 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests patients revealed that 41.3% of people who suffered cardiac arrest outside of a hospital received bystander CPR before emergency medical services arrived, compared to 36.1% in states without CPR education laws enacted.

A position statement on management of individuals with patellofemoral pain by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association recommends a multimodal plan of care, which should include gluteal- and quadriceps-strengthening exercises, patient education and activity modification. Referral for surgical intervention should be considered only if the patient presents with either evident lateral patellar compression or patellar instability and has failed to improve despite exhaustive rehabilitation attempts (Journal of Athletic Training, Sept. 2018).

Parents shouldn’t worry if their infant doesn’t sleep through the night by 6-12 months of age, says a new study reported online Nov. 12, 2018 in the journal Pediatrics. As per the authors, a large percentage of developmentally normal, healthy babies don’t reach that milestone by 6 months of age, or even a year old. Sleeping through the night was defined as either 6 or 8 hours of sleep without waking up.

Smokers with peripheral artery disease (PAD) would do well to quit smoking, but many doctors may not be giving them enough support to do it, suggests a study titled “Underutilization of evidence‐based smoking cessation support strategies despite high smoking addiction burden in peripheral artery disease specialty care: Insights from the International PORTRAIT Registry” published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The researchers examined data on 1,272 patients in Australia, the Netherlands and the U.S. with new or worsening PAD symptoms. Overall, one third of patients were current smokers, but fewer than one in five were referred to smoking cessation counseling and just one in 10 were prescribed a medication to help them quit… (Medscape)

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