Tag: COVID

Suicide – Murder in Air: Should air-travellers be worried?

Anil Goyal

Wall Street Journal citing US officials investigating the Eastern China B737-800 crash in March 22 suggests that someone in cockpit gave control inputs which sent the plane into steep dive crashing at remote hill and killing everyone on board. If confirmed by NTSB this would be the third major disaster attributed to pilot suicide- murder. This includes German Wings flight in 2015 that was flown into French hills by co-pilot and Mozambique Airlines flight in Nov 2013. Reoccurrence of such incidents has highlighted the worry of air travellers for the safety. Should they be worried or scared to step into the aircraft for their future travel.

Social Effects SARS-CoV2 – What can we do?

Anil Goyal

In the previous article, last week, we saw how society as a whole has been affected by the pandemic. We also saw who were the most vulnerable and were affected the most. On the other hand, we heard of altruistic efforts by famous personalities like Sonu Sood for assisting in transportation and Gautam Gambhir in providing free food, medicines, oxygen cylinders to Delhiite’s. NGOs like Khalsa aid stepped in with Langars. Thousands of other large and small NGOs also contributed immensely in many, many ways. Individual efforts of the middle class were…

Food and Health Supplements – The GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY

Anil Goyal

The ‘Wellness‘ trend picked up it’s pace with the software boom in this millennium. Studies in the 1990s indicated that the ‘Lifestyle’ diseases like Obesity, Diabetes, Hypertension and atherosclerotic heart diseases (possibly strokes) had taken root. And India would, indeed become the Diabetes capital of the world. In addition, a few scientists were surprised at the younger age of South Asians who died of sudden cardiac arrest, as compared to the rest of the world. ‘Metabolic Syndrome’ was coined for them. The young people who had died were found to have higher body-fat content even though they were apparently not obese. All above factors made the younger working class realise the importance of ‘Preventive health’. Their enthusiasm for exercising was fulfilled by the mushrooming of gyms. The wellness industry from world over converged to India to satiate this hunger. Some even wanted to remain healthy without exercising

Inactivity and Ill Health

Anil Goyal

The ‘Inactivity‘ word appears similar to ‘idleness‘ but is not really so. An out-of-work person may be idle but very active. Similarly, a person who regularly visits a gym or spends an hour or two in the sports field may be highly inactive during the long hours that person is in home or in office.

The intensity of Physical Activity and COVID19

Anil Goyal

Did people who maintained a high level of Physical Activity or PA during the last year and a half, suffer from COVID19 disease? Other way round, did those infected by COVID19 do PA regularly? If yes, at what level of intensity? How do we quantify a PA and how much PA is safe during COVID19? These are the many questions which came up from some of the readers who read the last blog. An attempt is now being made to discuss these issues in as simple terms as possible.

Alcohol Intake and Covid Stress

Anil Goyal

Till COVID19 struck India, alcoholic drinks were easily available except in states under prohibition, Gujarat, and Bihar. Around 36% increase in liquor sales was taking place before the pandemic struck. Alcohol was a drink for unwinding, socializing, and celebrations as also for meeting business associates. Working ladies and girls were also being lured with targeted advertising campaigns. Bars, discotheques, and microbreweries were having a booming business, especially on weekends. Even the ‘ahatas’ country liquor shops were blooming almost everywhere.

Myths, Mysteries and Misunderstandings of Corona Vaccines

Anil Goyal

Vaccine safety is confirmed during the trial stage of vaccine development and it may last 5 to 10 years. Since the present pandemic was causing a large number of deaths, Emergency Usage clause was invoked by the regulating authorities world wide. The Phase III trial was hastened and Phase IV trials were circumvented. And now after commencing mass production, certain extremely rare side effects such as the ‘blood clots’ due to AstraZeneca’s Oxford vaccine (called Covishield) have came to light. This vaccine was given to over 28 million people in UK, of which, 79 developed blood clots and 17 died. The deaths due to vaccine re