Words: Dr Chaithra S RAO Monsoons are a good time for botanical pursuits. That beauty of knowing the unknown was experienced by this writer — during my Monsoon field visits, while accompanying my late uncle, Venkatram Daithota, a folk practitioner, who was a botanist-herbalist by passion. He would often quote the Sanskrit verse, Naasti moolam
Chinmaya NARASIMIAH responds to ThinkWellness360 questionnaire: Your view on beauty? I think beauty is one of the most polarising, also blinkered, topics since the beginning of time. It has gained enormous, albeit skewed, traction — for all the wrong reasons — especially in our troubled times. There is, perhaps, a supposed, also cock-eyed, standard set
Dr Sherlyn Elizabeth PAUL responds to ThinkWellness360 questionnaire Why and how did you think of becoming a doctor? It is, to use a cliché, stating the obvious. My mother is a nurse by profession in one of India’s premier institutions — All India Institute of Medical Sciences [AIIMS], New Delhi. I had had the good
Words: Dr Narayan C DESHPANDE There are some disorders that you can’t freely discuss with your loved ones, friends and others, unlike a sinus infection. One such annoyance is anal fissure — a small tear in the thin, moist tissue that lines the anus. The condition often triggers bleeding and mild-to-moderate pain. And, once the
Words: Dr Ambika P NAYAK Monsoon is just round the corner. Ah, that rain song, again — which most of us enjoy, although not all of us would love to get drenched during a downpour. The rains bring nature’s melodies to the fore, water the parched earth, light up our essence of romanticism, with old
Words: Team THINKWELLNESS360 It’s often said, as also realistically, that technology makes some of the same promises as religion. Pledges like security, link with others, a handhold in history, and so on. The point also is: just as surely as its ‘favours’ accumulate, there may be a point where it can also fall ‘asleep.’ You
Words: Dr Deborah OLENEV Hypericum perforatum [St John’s wort] is one of my ‘favourite’ homeopathic remedies, because when you need it, it doesn’t disappoint you. When you have had that unfortunate mishap, of let’s say shutting your finger in the car door, for example, or dropping a brick on your foot, you know that you
Words: Paribha VASHIST Many infectious, or contagious, diseases have emanated for long, but their scale and spread have been relatively localised. It was possible to effectively handle such epidemics because of the availability of medicines and vaccines. However, the newest tempest, coronavirus [COVID-19], presents a novel challenge altogether. It was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation [WHO];
Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR Most parents resort to using superlatives at the proverbial drop of a hat. “You’re great. The next Albert Einstein, ‘King’ Pele, Margaret Atwood, or Bill Gates,” as the case maybe. Or, it could just be the reverse, something parents often indulge in — to save time. Like helping your kid get
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN You’ve heard of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol. Just as there is good and bad cholesterol, there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ oestrogens. Bad oestrogens are responsible for the promotion of tumours; they are found in high proportions in synthetic oestrogen used in birth control pills, or prescribed for the ‘treatment’ of menopause.
