Rational Prescription of Drugs

MTNL Perfect Health Mela 5th October 2009 New Delhi: Doctors should prescribe drugs rationally, said Dr. K.K. Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India while launching a special drive at the ongoing Perfect Health Mela being organized by Heart Care Foundation of India jointly with Health Department, Delhi Government from 3rd to 12th October, 2009 at NDMC Grounds, Laxmibai Nagar, New Delhi. The mela will continue till 12th October. Rational use of drug involve the identification of the correct medicine, giving in adequate dose and for the adequate period of time. Both underdose and overdose can cause drug resistance and cause serious side effects. Irrational use of drugs by quacks alone is the cause for over 1/3 death in the country which can be prevented.


Laughter is the best medicine

Laughter is the best medicine said Ashok Chakradhar, noted Kavi and the special guest of the day. He said that laughter is like yoga and produces endorphins in the body which have the same benefits as that of meditation and Yoga.

Typhoid Vaccination

Typhoid vaccination should be taken by health awareness workers, college and school children as the current typhoid is going through multi drug resistance. Typhoid vaccination needs to be taken once in three years.

Deworming every three months

Dr. Naresh Chawla, President, DMA said that everybody should be dewormed once in six months. One deworming tablet can kill all the worms of the body.

Health Tambola

The health tambola, an innovative game designed by Dr. K K Aggarwal has become a popular mode of creating health awareness in the ongoing MTNL Perfect Health Mela.

Giving the details, Dr. Aggarwal said that instead of talking about numbers it talks about a health message hidden behind the message.

For example instead of saying number three, one says “time to have your blood sugar checkup done, once in three years, number 3”.

Instead of saying one fat lady one says, “The weight of prostate in grams-8 grams, Number 8”. Other examples are: Percentage of protein in soya beans-43 Number 43, the length of Larynx in mm-44 Number 44, the average age of menopause is-45 Number 45, total pair of spinal nerves in a human body is 31 – Number 31, the length of small intestine in meters is 6 metres – Number 6.

Food Adulteration

Dr. Aggarwal cautioned the people against food adulteration in black pepper (kali mirch), saunf and udad ki daal. Black pepper may be coated with mineral oil, cloves (laung) with volatile oils and udad ki daal with artificial colours. The on-going Mela is giving practical demonstrations about the common adulteration practices.

Giving the details, Dr. Aggarwal said that mineral oil-coated black pepper gives kerosene like smell.  Coated black peppers can cause cancer in the long run.  The adulterated exhausted cloves when put in water will float on the surface.

Dr. Aggarwal further said that adulterated pulses with artificial colours would make the water coloured when these pulses are mixed with water and shaken in a test tube.

Testing of starch as adulterant is also easy.  Boil small quantity of sample with some water, cool and add a few drops of iodine solution.  Formation of blue colour indicates presence of starch.  Starch is also added to chhena and paneer in this season.  Chalk powder can often be added in sugar, which can cause stomach disorder.  The test is very simple when this sugar is added to a glass of water the chalk will settle down at the bottom.  Washing soda is added in pithi sugar, which can cause skin disease and damage to respiratory tract.  When a few drop of hydrochloric acid is added to the sample, adulterated one will cause effervescence.

Anmol held

A festival for children with special need was held at the Mela venue. Over 350 children handicap in certain aspects participated in various competitions. Presiding over the function Dr. Aggarwal said that every child who is handicap in one aspect has extra potential in other aspect.

Heritage – Inter Classical Dance School Competition
One of the main highlights of the Mela was ‘LIC Heritage’, an inter classical dance school competition where Bharatnatyam and Kathak competitions were organised. First prize for Bharatnatyam Junior Solo was bagged by Sonali Sharma, second prize was shared by Rashi Chaudhary and Dikshita Venkatesh. The third prize was shared by Ramya Kannan and V. Praharhini. Consolation prize went to Astha Chauhan and Muskan. Shruti Gangadharan got the first prize in Bharatnatyam Senior Solo competition. The second prize went to Rajni Seshadri and the third prize to Deepa Narayanan. Shilpi Saini and Sapna Anil Atavar got the consolation prize. National Bal Bhawan got the first prize in Bharatnatyam Group competition and the second and third prizes were bagged by Nritya Bharti. The competition was judged by eminent Bharatnatyam dancers Jayalakshmi Eshwar, Rashmi Aggarwal and dancer-duo Nalini Kamalini.