Words: Dr Narayan C DESHPANDE A 2014 report, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was primarily intended to better inform doctors about obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD]. The report  quoted Dr Jon E Grant, MD, a psychiatrist at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, US, illustrating the case of a nineteen-year-old man who

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR Sickness of the mind, or body, reveals how our systems work — and, why loss of equilibrium often leads to a breakdown. To bring a sense of measure to this component, we’d draw on a wealth of information related to the latest biological, biochemical and medical findings, especially in our age

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR Atopic dermatitis, or eczema, is a common disorder in kids. The word, eczema, comes from the Greek, for ‘to boil, or flow out.’ The expression is, of course, used for a group of skin conditions that show a pattern — with redness, itching, serum-filled blisters, crusting and scaling. Atopic eczema is

Words: Dr Loredana ORTIZ I was having a chat with a close friend, the other day. We were discussing cancer. She asked me what I would do if I had cancer and how I would go about with its treatment. The following is what occurred to me, I hope it proves helpful in educating and

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR Asthma comes from the Greek word, aazein, which means, “to exhale with open mouth; to gasp.” It is this typical feeling in asthma that makes its ‘victims’ run out of breath. Literally. Asthma is a psychosomatic disorder — it is triggered by allergens [allergy-causing substances], dysfunctional relationships and emotional, or psychological,

Words: Dr George GUESS A newspaper item screamed not long ago that New Delhi was literally under the weather as hospitals reported a spurt in viral infections, especially the highly-infectious mononucleosis — also known as the ‘kissing disease’ — which is common in the West. Intermittent rains over a fortnight, as the newspaper report said,

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR Ankylosing spondylitis [AS] refers, or relates, to inflammatory arthritis of the spine and other joints. It also reminds one of the bony pangs of rheumatoid arthritis [RA] — which may sometimes progress to bony ankylosis [stiffening, or fixation, of the joint due to the disease process], along with the formation of

Words: Dr Rachel LEVINE It goes without saying that genital, gonadal and chromosomal variants are neither completely ‘male’ nor ‘female.’ This is primarily because intersex individuals are born with possible anatomical and physiological sexual differences. This also results in different intersex variations. Besides, what used to be a unified classification of hermaphrodite, exploration of gender

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR  All of us have tiny, bristly hair that protect the openings of our nostrils. Their occupation — when we breathe in air — is to sieve dust, pollen, pollutants, and other particles, including germs. Yet, the downside is tiny bits of such particles, and other airborne offenders, slip through the ‘defence,’

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR The puffy enlargement of your thyroid gland is called goitre. It may have a tendency to hamper your swallowing, or breathing, activities. The causes of goitre are sundry. Hormones produced by your thyroid gland regulate your metabolism, including the rate at which you burn calories. The presence. or emergence, of goitre