Sunday, September 29, 2013

The 5th ‘Dil Ka Darbar’ inaugurated


Inaugurating the day-long ‘Dil Ka Darbar’ organized by Heart Care Foundation of India in association with Department of AYUSH, Government of India, Health Department, Government of Delhi, MTNL, Central Bank of India and LIC, Dr. Ambrish Mithal, Chairman, Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes at Medanta, the Medicity said that women suffer more from diabetes as compared to men.  Therefore, women’s health should not be ignored. He further said that 85% of Indians are Vitamin D deficient and should take Vitamin D supplement and spend more time in sunlight.  Vegetarians in India should consume Vitamin B12 as their deficiency can cause multiple symptoms, he added. 

In his message Mr. S.Y. Quraishi, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India said that the best way to prevent heart disease is to exercise.  One can start with 1000 steps a day with an aim of walking 10000 steps every day.  This increment in steps can be gradual. 

Delivery the key note address, Padma Shri and Dr BC Roy National Awardee, Dr KK Aggarwal, President, Heart Care Foundation of India said that it is possible to reverse heart disease.  He said the first blood pressure check should be done at 4 years of age and the first lipid profile test in high risk patients should be done at age 7. 

An adult without risk factor if he or she can walk two kilometers and climb two flights of stairs or enjoy a sexual life without any discomfort or heaviness in the chest needs no further investigation.  He said the earliest test to know about heart disease is the thickness of the neck (carotid) artery wall. 

In a group statement, Sr. Cardiologists of the city, Dr. H.K. Chopra, President (Elect), Cardiological Society of India, Dr. Sumita Mishra, Pediatric Cardiologist said that sore throat and joint pain in children should not be ignored, especially if the sore throat is not associated with cough or sneezing as it can bite the heart and damage the valves, a condition called rheumatic heart disease. 

Doctors from other pathies, which included Dr. B.N. Sinha, Dr. Vishal Tripathi, Dr. Shashi Bala, Dr. Mini Mehta, Dr. Poonam Chiblani, Dr. Nirmaljeet Singh, Dr. S.N. Yadav, Dr. R.K. Tuli said that prevention of heart disease comes under the domain of all the pathies and one should come out with a protocol, which is common to all pathies. 

About HCFI: The only National Not for profit NGO, on whose mega community health education events, Govt. of India has released two National commemorative stamps and one cancellation stamp, and who has conducted one to one training on" Hands only CPR" of 63400 people since 1st November 2012.

The CPR 10 Mantra is – "within 10 minutes of death, earlier the better; at least for the next 10 minutes, longer the better; compress the centre of the chest of the dead person continuously and effectively with a speed of 10×10 i.e. 100 per minute."




Friday, September 27, 2013

What is the importance of silence?

The true silence is the silence between the thoughts and represents the true self, consciousness or the soul. It is a web of energized information ready to take all provided there is a right intent. The process of achieving silence is what meditation is.

Observing silence is another way of getting benefits of meditation. Many yogis in the past have recommended and observed silence now and then. Mahatma Gandhi used to spend one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace and happiness. On all such days he communicated with others only by writing on paper.

Hindu principles also talk about a correlation between mauna (silence) and shanti (harmony). Mauna Ekadashi is a ritual followed traditionally in our country. On this day the person is not supposed to speak at all and observes complete silence all through the day and night. It gives immense peace to the mind and strength to the body. In Jainism this ritual has a lot of importance. Nimith was a great saint in Jainism who long ago asked all Jains to observe this vrata. Some people recommend that on every ekadashi one should observe silence if not the whole day but for few hours in a day.

Deepak Chopra in his book 7 Laws of Spiritual Success talks in great detail about the importance of observing silence in day today life. He recommends everyone should observe silence for 20 minutes everyday. Silence helps redirecting our imagination towards self from the outer atmosphere. Even Swami Sivananda in his teachings recommends observation of mauna daily for 2 hours. For ekadashi, take milk and fruits every day, study one chapter of Bhagwad Gita daily, do regular charity and donate one-tenth of your income in the welfare of the society.
Ekadashi is the 11th day of Hindu lunar fortnight. It is the day of celebration occurring twice a month, meant for meditation and increasing soul consciousness. Vinoba Bhave was a great sage of our country who is known for his Bhoodaan movement. He was a great advocator and practical preacher of mauna vrata.

Mauna means silence and vrata means vow hence mauna vrata means a vow of silence. Mauna was practiced by saints to end enmity and recoup their enmity. Prolonged silence as the form of silence is observed by the rishi munis involved for prolonged periods of silence. Silence is a source of all that exists. Silence is where consciousness dwells. There is no religious tradition which does not talk about silence. It breaks the outward communication and forces a dialogue towards inner communication. This is one reason why all prayers, meditation and worship or any other practice whether we attune our mind to the spiritual consciousness within are done in silence.  After the death of a person it is a practice to observe silence for two minutes. The immediate benefit is that it saves a tremendous amount of energy.


Silence is cessation of both sensory and mental activity. It is like having a still mind and listening to the inner mind. Behind this screen of our internal dialogue is the silence of spirit. Meditation is the combination of observing silence and the art of observation.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Spiritual prescriptions - Formulas to Improve the Soul Profile

Sattchittaananda: The soul characteristics, (Absolute Existence -Absolute Knowledge)
Satt means ‘truth or knowingness’
Chitta means ‘conscious based’
Ananda means ‘bliss or inner happiness’

The soul in Vedic description is described as Sattchittaananda. People in touch with their soul speak the truth, take consciousness-based decisions and experience inner happiness. 

The great rishis of India have described a formula of how to be in touch with your soul and get inner happiness. The formula is based on three questions to be asked to yourself before performing any action

1.         Is it the truth?
2.         Is it consciousness based?
3.         Will it give happiness?

If the answer to all three is ‘yes’, go ahead. In other words, if the answer to any of the three is “no”, do not perform that action.

Later on, many dharma groups modified this formula for their own use.

1.         Buddha’s Law of Action summarizes these questions as:
·        Is it the truth?
·        Is it necessary?
·        Will it bring happiness to me?
·        Will it bring happiness to others?

If the answer to any of the questions is, no, then do not do that action.

2.         Buddha’s Law of Speech summarizes the questions as:
·        Is it the truth?
·        Is it necessary?
·        Is it kind?

If the answer to any of the question is ‘no’, then do not speak.

3.    The Rotary four-way test comprises of:
·        Is it the truth?
·        Is it fair to all concerned?
·        Will it build goodwill and better friendship?
·        Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

If the answer to any of the answer is ‘no’, then do not perform that deed.

4. Formula of three H: Head, Heart and Hand:
            Before doing any action ask your head for the choices. Then listen to the heart to give you the best consciousness-based advice and finally order the hand to do the action.

5. The formula Satyam Shivam Sundaram is based again on three questions: Is it the truth; is it God (consciousness-based); and is it going to build my inner beauty (happiness). 


6. ‘May I help you?’ is another formula given in Srimad Bhagwat where once you agree to help, you end up with truth, tapa of hard work, purity of mind and daan or charity.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Heart disease is the most common cause of death and disability in urban women

Important differences between women and men in the presentation of heart disease make it more difficult to establish a diagnosis in women, said Padma Shri and Dr. B.C. Roy National Awardee, Dr. KK Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India. He was addressing a press conference as a curtain raiser to the 5th Dil Ka Darbar to be held on Sunday, 29th September. The event is being organized by the Heart Care Foundation of India at Constitution Club of India in association with Ayush, Department of Health, Government of NCT Delhi, LIC, MTNL, Central Bank of India and GAIL.

Special Guests of Honour were Padma Shri & Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee Yogeshwar Dutt, a Bronze Medalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the  60kg Freestyle wrestling, Dronacharya Awardee Yashbir Singh (Wrestling coach) and Arjuna Awardee Dharmendra Dalal, a Bronze Medalist in in 120 Kg Greco-Roman style wrestling at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Dr KK Aggarwal said:
1.    Women generally present 10 years later than men and with greater risk   factor burden.
2.    Women are less likely than men to have typical angina.
3.    Women in the emergency department with new onset of chest pain are approached and diagnosed less aggressively than man.
4.  Women are more likely to present initially with chest pain than a more clearly defined event such as heart attack.
5. Symptoms of heart attack in women differ from those in men.
6.  Many cases of heart attack in women are unrecognized.
7.  In women, treadmill exercise has a higher false positive rate.
8.  Small vessel disease is more common in women than in men.
9.  Established risk factors in women are: Presence of history of heart blockages; age over 55 years; high LDL (bad) or low HDL (good) cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease or family history of heart disease. 
10.  Risk factors, which are more potent in women than in men are: Smoking is associated  with 50% of all coronary events in women; diabetes confers more prognostic information in women than in men.

Prevention in Women
For all Women
·        Moderate intensity physical activity for at least 30 minutes and for 60 to 90 minutes for weight management on most days of the week.
·        Avoidance and cessation of cigarette smoking and passive smoking
·        Keep waist circumference less than 35 inches.
·        Take a heart-friendly diet.
·        Presence of high triglyceride levels.  One should add Omega 3 fatty acids to diet.
·        Control cholesterol level, high blood pressure and diabetes.
·        Women who smoke should avoid oral contraceptive pills.
·        Aspirin 80 mg in more than 65 years of age should be added
·        Treat underlying depression.

 Women at high risk
·  Aspirin 75 to 150 mg, as prevention
·  Control of blood pressure.
·  No use of anti oxidant vitamin supplement.
·  No use of folic acid support.
·  No Hormone Replacement Therapy.
·  Lowering of LDL cholesterol of less than 80.


Co-addressing the Press Conference, Mr GP Sinha GM (Mktg) MTNL said that the best gift we can give to our wives, mothers and sisters is an annual heart check up.  Dr NK Yadav, MHO, South Delhi, Medical Corporation; Dr. PK Sharma, MOH, NDMC; Dr NV Kamat, Director, Health Services, Delhi; and Sr representatives from Central Bank of India in a joint statement said that our concern in women should shift from breast cancer to heart awareness as the lifestyle adopted to prevent heart disease would also prevent breast cancer.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Shradhs in Hindu Mythology

Shradhs are observed by every family in Indian Hindu culture to seek forgiveness from the deceased person and ancestors for their unfulfilled known or unknown desires.

Traditionally, people observe shradh either on the day of Amavasya every month or on the day of death anniversary of the deceased person or persons or during Shradh days observed in Chaturmas coinciding with the Hindi Tithi or the date on which the deceased died. Shradhs are observed till Mahashradh is observed, which is usually at a place near Ganga in Gaya, Pushkar, Haridwar etc.

In mythology, mind is linked with ocean, river or water. Most Mahashradhs are held near sacred water as it requires the process of purification of the mind away from home so that one can relax and not only take one holy bath but also take an internal bath  of meditation and self-confession.  Medically, Shradh is a type of an attachment disorder or guilt disorder where either you are attached to the thoughts of the diseased person which keep on disturbing in the day to day life and during dreams or you have a guilt that you have not been able to fulfill some of the desires of the diseased persons and that guilt keeps reminding you all the time in your day to day activity or in the dreams.

Shradh is a way or a reminder to you or your consciousness to fulfill and complete the incomplete jobs and finish up all the pending works. Sometimes doing this job may take time and that is the reason why Mahashradhs are done once or twice in a lifetime for a particular diseased person.

Whenever an auspicious ritual or ceremony is held, we also seek blessings from our ancestors. For example, before marriage, it is a ritual to do pooja of ancestors and take their blessings, which only means that we want to get rid of in our mind the self confession and seek forgiveness from our ancestors that please don’t disturb our mind or in emotions at this juncture of our function and we are aware of the pending work which you asked us to do in future.
Typically, a Shradh ceremony involves self confession and pooja of black sesame seeds or consuming black sesame seeds. Black sesame seeds in Ayurveda are known for their quality of absorbing negative energies both external and internal. Once the pending job is over and in the mind of the family or the person all the assigned works are finished, then they usually go to one of the pilgrimages for Mahashradh, which is like a Mahapind Daan. Remember people usually say – Ab to mera pind chhod do, which means please stop coming in my dreams and reminding me of my pending works.


Shradhs are also for unknown unfulfilled desires of our ancestors. When I say unknown desires, it means the desires which are unknown to the present family but maybe were known to the past family. This can only be understood by computer module where my soul is my internet server and spirit has the God as cloud internet. Both my internal server and cloud servers will have a social networking page of mine and will also have my page even if my physical body dies. Similarly, all the social pages of my ancestors will be present in the cloud internet. So, unfulfilled desires will always be posted there. People of my family or those who know me can get connected to that page and know that there were some unfulfilled desires which are yet to be fulfilled by my family and that keeps coming to us in the form of message from our friends that you are suffering due to unfulfilled desires which they might have read from that particular page and that is the reason why there is always a forgiveness seeking exercise during Shradh for those known and unknown unfulfilled desires of our ancestors.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Science Of Power

Power is the ability to influence others to get a work done the way you want it.

We have seen evolution in the way power works. There was an era when Brahmins ruled using the power of knowledge, then came an era of Kshatriya who ruled using the physical power. This was followed by an era of Vaishyas ruling the world with the power of money and a time will come when Shudras will rule with the power of their work.

In one of his lectures, Deepak Jain from Kellogg’s said that the world has seen eras of physical power, economical power and the time has come that it will now be ruled by the power of human resources.

Former Governor of Mizoram A R Kohli, in one of his talks, said that there are four types of powers which govern the universe and these are – physical power, economical power, the power of the chair (ego) and the power of the human resource which is based on consciousness.

Everyone has these four inherent powers. The physical power is based on fear, tamas and rajas. The economical and the power of chair are linked to one’s ego and rajas. It is the power of human resource which is linked to the soul, consciousness and Satva.

The physical power is at the level of body, economic power is at the level of mind, the power of chair is at the level of intellect and ego and the power of human resources is at the level of soul. It is the power of human resource which is based on Dharma and is universally accepted by all religions.
As per Mahabharata, the powers are the power of human resource (righteousness or Yudhishthir), power to remained focused (Arjun), power to fight injustice (Bheem), power to help others (Sahdev) and power to remain neutral during any adversity (Nakul).

In Vedic sciences, these powers are also defined as Ichhashakti (the power of desires to be with the consciousness), Kriyashakti (the power to do selfless work), gyanshakti (the power to learn about consciousness), chit shakti (the power to take conscious based decisions) and anand shakti (the power for inner happiness).


The power of human resources talks about cultivating relationships. It is not based on the principles of survival of the fittest which is an animal behavior. The power of human resource believes in training and developing everyone to survive and become the fittest of the fit.

Monday, September 16, 2013

What is the difference between smile, hug and laugh.

Smile is a sign of joy while hug is a sign of love. Laughter on the other hand is a sign of inner happiness. None of them are at the level of mind or intellect. All come from within the heart.

They are only the gradations of your expressions of your happiness.

It is said you are incomplete in your dress if you are not wearing smile on your face.

Hug comes next, and laughter the last.

Laughter is like an internal jogging and has benefits like that of doing meditation.

But be careful we must know when not to laugh. The most difficult is to laugh at ourselves.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Why Do People Suffer


1. As per Garud Puran and Hindu mythology, one of the reasons for suffering is the debts of your past birth. Your purpose of life is to face sufferings to pay these debts.

2. The second reason is your present deeds till today starting from birth. If your sum total of bad deeds is more than good deeds, they get added to your previous birth’s debts.

3. The third reason for suffering is in the form of struggle which you undertake to attain future success. Some people do not call it as suffering.

4. The last reason for suffering is that some people acquire yogic powers to take on the sufferings of others. The classical examples are Shirdi Sai Baba and Jesus Christ who were known to cure others by adding their suffering to their own account. If you see most of the Gods or holy people had suffered in their last time, be it Jesus Christ, Krishna, Buddha or Sai Baba.

Only Rishi Munis can remain alive and die at will even after they have paid for all their debts.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Dil Ka Darbar to be held on 29th September


Heart Care Foundation of India will be organizing a unique Dil Ka Darbar to earmark the World Heart Day on Sunday, 29th September, 2013 at the Constitution Club of India Auditorium from 8am to 4pm. The Darbar will be a non-stop interaction between top cardiologists and cardiac surgeons of the city and heart patients, nurses and family physicians.

Addressing a press conference here, Padma Shri & Dr. BC Roy National Awardee, Dr. KK Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India said that the very fact that in our mythological era, there is no mention of heart attack among the kings, it corroborates that heart disease is a recent phenomenon and a preventable lifestyle disorder.

Co-addressing the press conference, Dr. Smita Mishra, Sr. Pediatric Cardiologist said that heart disease amongst children is equally preventable.

Others who spoke on the occasion were Sh Deepak Chanduka, General Manager (Mkt.), MTNL Corporate OfficeDr. N V Kamath, and Dr. K S Baghotia from DHS and Sr. representatives from Central Bank of India.

Sore throat and join pains in children should not be ignored. An angry-looking throat in patients of cough should be immediately treated with an antibiotic to prevent rheumatic heart disease. If a child is diagnosed to have red angry looking throat, he or she should be referred to a pediatric cardiologist for opinion.

She also said that school health programs should pick up murmurs so that congenital heart diseases can also be detected in time.

About the Darbar, Dr. Aggarwal said over 500 heart patients, nurses and family physicians will interact non-stop with the top cardiologists of the city on subjects related to heart care. The focus of the discussions will be prevention of heart diseases in women and young men. A special discussion will be held on Sex and Heart Diseases.

Practical training will also be given to people on Hands-only Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

Dengue Update
This year the city is in the grip of dengue epidemic and the epidemic this year is a serious one.

 Facts about severe dengue
·      As per the WHO, dengue can be classified as dengue and severe dengue.
·      Severe dengue needs care and prevention of death.
·      Severe dengue is characterized by severe plasma leakage, shock, fluid accumulation with respiratory distress, severe hemorrhage, SGOT and SGPT levels more than 1000, impaired consciousness, severe involvement of heart and other organs.
·      Mild dengue can be with or without warning signals. The warning signals are:
o   Abdominal pain or tenderness
o   Persistent vomiting
o   Clinical fluid accumulation
o   Mucosal bleeding
o   Lethargy
o   Restlessness
o   Increased in PCV with rapid fall in platelet count
o  Liver enlarged more than 2 cm


 Remember the Formula of 20
·      If pulse rate increases by more than 20
·      If upper blood pressure falls by more than 20
·      If the difference between upper and lower blood pressure is less than 20
·      If platelet count is less than 20,000
·      If blood thickens by more than 20% by increase in PCV

 Presence of any of these features indicates need for hospitalization.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gifDengue in patients with heart disease needs special attention. These patients need to be hospitalized and treated.

About HCFI: The only National Not for profit NGO, on whose mega community health education events, Govt. of India has released two National commemorative stamps and one cancellation stamp, and who has conducted one to one training on" Hands only CPR" of 63400 people since 1st November 2012.


The CPR 10 Mantra is – "within 10 minutes of death, earlier the better; at least for the next 10 minutes, longer the better; compress the centre of the chest of the dead person continuously and effectively with a speed of 10×10 i.e. 100 per minute."

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Was Lord Ganesha born of a induced pluripotent stem cell transplant?

Today West claims that they can make human bladder tissue from the human skin cells. But was not lord Ganesha created by Parvati from the dirt of her body? The dirt, from allopathic point of view would equate to the cells of her skin. In today’s terms Ganesha birth can be explained as the origin of a stem cell baby birth in the literature.
 
First identified in the hematopoietic blood system, stem cells are present in many other tissues.  All stem cells are capable of self-renewal and they can differentiate.
 
Self-renewal is the ability to proliferate without the loss of differentiation potential and without undergoing biologic aging. Stem cells can divide symmetrically (in which both daughter cells are either stem cells or differentiated cells) or asymmetrically (yielding both a stem cell and a more differentiated cell)
 
Stem cells can be either totipotent, pluripotent, multipotent, or unipotent. Totipotent cells can produce all cell types (embryonic and extra embryonic placenta). Pluripotent cells can only make cells of the embryo proper. Multipotent cells can only make cells within a given germ layer. Unipotent cells make cells of a single cell type.
 
In 2006 Shinya Yamanaka and colleagues introduced genes expressed in pluripotent cells into mature cells by a process, called reprogramming and induced a pluripotent state in a previously differentiated cell type. These cells are now called induced pluripotent cells (iPS).
iPS technology has revolutionized science today. A keratinocyte derived from the skin can be induced to become a pluripotent stem cell. Also a cell taken from an individual can be induced to become a cell type capable of forming any other cell type. A skin obtained from a patient with a degenerative brain disorder is now used as a drug after getting converted into a pluripotent cell.
Today the recognition that a cell taken from an individual can be induced to become pluripotent (a cell type capable of forming any other cell type in that individual’s body) has provided unprecedented opportunities for regenerative medicine.
Today most easily accessible patient cell types, such as skin fibroblasts or blood cells are being reprogrammed to iPS.
Theoretically therefore it is possible to make any tissue from iPS.  That means the skin cells can make liver, brain, heart or in fact the whole baby.
It looks that this technology claimed by the Western scientists of converting skin cell into iPS cell was available in our Vedic era and the birth of Ganesha by Parvati might have been an example of the first human baby made from the skin iPS.