Online Medicine

You may wonder why it is that you crave sugary, cookie, cakey foods, especially when you’re trying to lose weight.  Here’s why…when we don’t get enough sleep our bodies want energy, so we crave foods that give us quick energy, and then within an hour or two our energy plummets.  Often when people diet they deprive themselves from eating and this too causes your body to desire quick energy, and that’s when you crave the high fat, high calorie carbs.  So the solution?? 1. Get enough sleep.  When you get enough rest your body will be less likely to crave quick energy.  2. Don’t Deprive Yourself of Food.  We need food for fuel or energy.  When you’re trying to lose weight, listen to your body, and feed it when it’s hungry…just chose wisely!  Chose healthy foods that will fuel your body!  Reach for whole grain breads and pastas, nuts (especially almonds), low fat cheese (such as mozerella), and plenty of veggies and fruit.

Interested in learning more?  Email me at info@fitbysara.com for a free 20 min. coaching consultation!

NEW DELHI: Hospitals in the capital should display the cost of treatment for the patients to see and decide whether it is affordable to them, the Delhi Consumer Commission has observed.

Concerned over the spurt in consumer complaints accusing the hospitals of keeping them in dark about the expenses, the Commission has also asked the medical facilities to give a minimum estimate of treatment at the time of admission.

"The basic expenses for every disease and its treatment should have been displayed outside for the information of each and every patient so that he may at the time of admission know whether he has the capacity to get the treatment in such a hospital or nursing home or not," it said.

Noting the pamphlets often published by the hospitals served no purpose as far as a consumer's knowledge regarding the possible treatmet cost was concerned, the Commission's President Justice J D Kapoor said that in such cases, they may be asked to compensate for their "unfair trade practice".

"At the time of admission, at least minimum estimate has to be given to the patient in order to see whether he would like to get the treatment from the said hospital or not," the Commission noted in a recent decision.

In no way a patient should be put on treatment without being informed as to the minimum expenses to be incurred as any poor person, if put in ICU for long, would definitely suffer mental agony and physical discomfort if he does not know as to how much amount he has to shell out, it noted.

The Commission while observing that the hospitals put out the treatment cost, asked Shanti Mukund Hospital in East Delhi here to pay Rs 25,000 to Nathu Ram Bansal, who was treated for asthma but was not given an estimate of the medical expenses at the time of his admission.

According to the patient, he was never informed about the cost he had to incur on his treatment and the hospital had subsequently raised a hefty bill of over Rs one lakh.

Allowing the appeal of Bansal, a resident of Shahdara here, the Commission said that the hospital was liable to pay for its deficiency in service in not informing the charges of the treatment to him

KOLKATA: Hooked on Chinese cuisine? Make sure your favourite dish isn't killing you slowly. An increasing number of people here are falling prey to stomach cancer induced by carcinogenic monosodium glutamate (ajinomoto) -- a common ingredient in Chinese food.

A study conducted by the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Cancer Research Institute has concluded that the substance -- declared unsafe for consumption by WHO in 2004 -- is still rampantly used and consumed in the city. NSCBCRI carried out the study on 134 patients admitted in its hospital with stomach cancer this year.

A retrospective history of the patients revealed many of them were addicted to Chinese food. "Nearly half of those with stomach, rectal and colon cancer were regular consumers of Chinese food, mostly from middle--rung or low--end restaurants, which hardly conform to health safety standards. Tests showed that most had ulcers, which can be linked to mono--sodium glutamate," said NSCBCRI medical director Ashish Mukhopadhyay.

"Around 6% of our patients had various forms of stomach cancer. A surprisingly high percentage regularly had Chinese food. Even though we haven’t had any trial with the substance, it can easily be concluded that ajinomoto is a factor," he added.

Senior city medics agreed with the conclusion. "It is widely used despite warnings, and since awareness is low, people don’t bother to find out if the food is safe. I have had scores of patients who are victims of mono--sodium glutamate. If diagnosed late, stomach cancer is obviously fatal," said oncologist Subir Ganguly.

FARIDABAD: Haryana Health Minister Kartar Devi has appreciated the gesture of US based NRI for getting a multi-speciallity hospital set up at village Banchari in this district and has assured him of cooperation of the State Government in the smooth functioning of the hospital.

Devi was speaking at a function organised at village Banchari last night to dedicate the 55-bed multi-speciality hospital to the people of the area. The hospital with facilities for 24-hour intensive care unit and emergency trauma services has been set up by Ohio based NRI Rajesh K Soin in the memory of his father.

Kartar Devi said that it was heartening that the family of the NRI did not forget the motherland and provided a hospital for the people of the area.

Haryana Power Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said that there were very few people who set up hospitals, schools, dharamshalas and temples and name them after their parents to commemorate their memory.

Member parliament, Avtar Singh badhana complimented the Soin family for such an initiative "which would serve the society in a big way and said that the Government would provide all assistance to the family in case they plan to set up a medical college in the area".

Senator of Ohio George Voinovich, who was also present on the occasion, was all praise for the Soin family and said that the hospital would prove a milestone in the area.

Earlier, Rajesh Soin said that this hospital would be expanded as a 200-bed hospital in future. He said that there was a plan to set up a nursing training centre and a medical college in the area. He said that he had set up the hospital not to earn profit but to provide medical services to the people round-th-clock at an economical rate.

The prominent persons who were present at the inauguration of the hospital included a few Congressmen from the US like MIke Turner, Phill Gingrey, Rob Bishop and Steve Pearce.

ANAND: Every night in this quiet western Indian city, 15 pregnant women prepare for sleep in the spacious house they share, ascending the stairs in a procession of ballooned bellies, to bedrooms that become a landscape of soft hills.

A team of maids, cooks and doctors looks after the women, whose pregnancies would be unusual anywhere else but are common here. The young mothers of Anand, a place famous for its milk, are pregnant with the children of infertile couples from around the world.

The small clinic at Kaival Hospital matches infertile couples with local women, cares for the women during pregnancy and delivery, and counsels them afterward. Anand's surrogate mothers, pioneers in the growing field of outsourced pregnancies, have given birth to roughly 40 babies.

More than 50 women in this city are now pregnant with the children of couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond. The women earn more than many would make in 15 years. But the program raises a host of uncomfortable questions that touch on morals and modern science, exploitation and globalization, and that most natural of desires: to have a family.

Dr. Nayna Patel, the woman behind Anand's baby boom, defends her work as meaningful for everyone involved.

``There is this one woman who desperately needs a baby and cannot have her own child without the help of a surrogate. And at the other end there is this woman who badly wants to help her (own) family,'' Patel said. ``If this female wants to help the other one ... why not allow that? ... It's not for any bad cause. They're helping one another to have a new life in this world.''

Experts say commercial surrogacy _ or what has been called ``wombs for rent'' _ is growing in India. While no reliable numbers track such pregnancies nationwide, doctors work with surrogates in virtually every major city. The women are impregnated in-vitro with the egg and sperm of couples unable to conceive on their own.

Commercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002, as it is in many other countries, including the United States. But India is the leader in making it a viable industry rather than a rare fertility treatment. Experts say it could take off for the same reasons outsourcing in other industries has been successful: a wide labor pool working for relatively low rates.

Critics say the couples are exploiting poor women in India _ a country with an alarmingly high maternal death rate _ by hiring them at a cut-rate cost to undergo the hardship, pain and risks of labor.

``It raises the factor of baby farms in developing countries,'' said Dr. John Lantos of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Missouri. ``It comes down to questions of voluntariness and risk.''

Patel's surrogates are aware of the risks because they've watched others go through them. Many of the mothers know one another, or are even related. Three sisters have all borne strangers' children, and their sister-in-law is pregnant with a second surrogate baby. Nearly half the babies have been born to foreign couples while the rest have gone to Indians.

Ritu Sodhi, a furniture importer from Los Angeles who was born in India, spent US$200,000 (euro138,910) trying to get pregnant through in-vitro fertilization, and was considering spending another US$80,000 (euro55,563) to hire a surrogate mother in the United States.

``We were so desperate,'' she said. ``It was emotionally and financially exhausting.''

Then, on the Internet, Sodhi found Patel's clinic. After spending about US$20,000 (euro13,890) _ more than many couples because it took the surrogate mother several cycles to conceive _ Sodhi and her husband are now back home with their 4-month-old baby, Neel. They plan to return to Anand for a second child.

``Even if it cost $1 million (euro690,000), the joy that they had delivered to me is so much more than any money that I have given them,'' said Sodhi. ``They're godsends to deliver something so special.''

Patel's center is believed to be unique in offering one-stop service. Other clinics may request that the couple bring in their own surrogate, often a family member or friend, and some place classified ads. But in Anand the couple just provides the egg and sperm and the clinic does the rest, drawing from a waiting list of tested and ready surrogates.

Young women are flocking to the clinic to sign up for the list. Suman Dodia, a pregnant, baby-faced 26-year-old, said she will buy a house with the US$4,500 (euro3,125) she receives from the British couple whose child she's carrying. It would have taken her 15 years to earn that on her maid's monthly salary of US$25 (euro17).

Dodia's own three children were delivered at home and she said she never visited a doctor during those pregnancies.

``It's very different with medicine,'' Dodia said, resting her hands on her hugely pregnant belly. ``I'm being more careful now than I was with my own pregnancy.''

Patel said she carefully chooses which couples to help and which women to hire as surrogates. She only accepts couples with serious fertility issues, like survivors of uterine cancer. The surrogate mothers have to be between 18 and 45, have at least one child of their own, and be in good medical shape.

Like some fertility reality show, a rotating cast of surrogate mothers live together in a home rented by the clinic and overseen by a former surrogate mother. They receive their children and husbands as visitors during the day, when they're not busy with English or computer classes.

``They feel like my family,'' said Rubina Mandul, 32, the surrogate house's den mother. ``The first 10 days are hard, but then they don't want to go home.''

Mandul, who has two sons of her own, gave birth to a child for an American couple in February. She said she misses the baby, but she stays in touch with the parents over the Internet. A photo of the American couple with the child hangs over the sofa.

``They need a baby more than me,'' she said. The surrogate mothers and the parents sign a contract that promises the couple will cover all medical expenses in addition to the woman's payment, and the surrogate mother will hand over the baby after birth. The couples fly to Anand for the in-vitro fertilization and again for the birth. Most couples end up paying the clinic less than US$10,000 (euro6,945) for the entire procedure, including fertilization, the fee to the mother and medical expenses.

Counseling is a major part of the process and Patel tells the women to think of the pregnancy as ``someone's child comes to stay at your place for nine months.''

Kailas Gheewala, 25, said she doesn't think of the pregnancy as her own.

``The fetus is theirs, so I'm not sad to give it back,'' said Gheewala, who plans to save the US$6,250 (euro4,340) she's earning for her two daughters' education. ``The child will go to the U.S. and lead a better life and I'll be happy.''

Patel said none of the surrogate mothers has had especially difficult births or serious medical problems, but risks are inescapable.

``We have to be very careful,'' she said. ``We overdo all the health investigations. We do not take any chances.''

Health experts expect to see more Indian commercial surrogacy programs in coming years. Dr. Indira Hinduja, a prominent fertility specialist who was behind India's first test-tube baby two decades ago, receives several surrogacy inquiries a month from couples overseas.

``People are accepting it,'' said Hinduja. ``Earlier they used to be ashamed but now they are becoming more broadminded.''

But if commercial surrogacy keeps growing, some fear it could change from a medical necessity for infertile women to a convenience for the rich.

``You can picture the wealthy couples of the West deciding that pregnancy is just not worth the trouble anymore and the whole industry will be farmed out,'' said Lantos.

Or, Lantos said, competition among clinics could lead to compromised safety measures and ``the clinic across the street offers it for 20 percent less and one in Bangladesh undercuts that and pretty soon conditions get bad.''

The industry is not regulated by the government. Health officials have issued nonbinding ethical guidelines and called for legislation to protect the surrogates and the children.

For now, the surrogate mothers in Anand seem as pleased with the arrangement as the new parents.

``I know this isn't mine,'' said Jagrudi Sharma, 34, pointing to her belly. ``But I'm giving happiness to another couple. And it's great for me.''