HEADACHE FROM HELL

You consult a doc. but he is of no help as all his diagnoses- general weakness, lack of sleep, sinusitis & stress- didn’t seem right. Because despite all your efforts to combat the etiology, “your head still hurts” & perhaps “you’re tired of getting headaches”.

             Most of us who have gone through this have later learnt that they are the victims of MIGRAINE.

            

             Migraine has been around for a long time. The Greek physician Hippocrates was familiar with its symptoms. So was the ayurved guru Sushruta. Centuries later, Galen noted the migraine’s one-sided head pains & called it Hemicrania, from which comes today’s name.           

            

             One accepted theory states that migraine is primarily a brain disorder due to changes in serotonin levels (stored in hypothalamus) which cause cranial blood vessels to dilate & contract, causing the pain.

            

             During a migraine attack, the sufferer becomes very sensitive to sound & light. Before it sets in, some also experience an “aura”, most commonly as visual hallucinations. The aura can last about 20 minutes to an hour, producing vivid flashes, jagged stars, dazzling mosaic patterns & may also cause a blind spot known as SCOTOMA. These visual effects can be terrifying. “My vision grew patchy & I couldn’t see parts of my colleagues.” as said by a magraineur.

            

             An interesting facet of this is “MELLONTOPHOBIA”--- fear of losing ones job, which indeed haunts many magraineurs.

            

             It is prudent that the sufferer keep a detailed diary of each attack to help identify & guard against the TRIGGER FACTORS. Most attacks are due to a combination of triggers such as lack of food; or occasionally due to specific foods- chocolate, dairy products, alcohol, monosodium glutamate; hormonal changes, stress, altered sleeping patterns etc.

            

             Treatment by simple over-the-counter drugs --- aspirin, paracetamol may prevent an anticipated attack. But finding the correct treatment is not always an easy task. “It may take time for the doc. to find out what works best for you. And once it’s found, you get a new lease on life.” The anti-migraine drug, “Sumatriptan” is very effective, with the same chemical base as serotonin. It seems to reduce the painful swelling in the cranial blood vessels. But it may cause chest pain, dizziness & drowsiness for a short while.

Various other remedies like one being extract of plant feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) has prevented attacks or lessened their severity. Brisk walking, swimming or jogging may help by releasing endorphins, which have pain-relieving properties. Also homeopathic remedies, acupuncture & yoga are being employed. Since no method works for everybody, the best approach is “a combination of medication & non-pharmacological treatments.”

            

             Not withstanding all these modalities of treatment, one has to adjust to the “restrictions of life” as a “magraineur”. And despite it costing & affecting the lives of myriad individuals, migraine is not taken seriously.

“Most people still feel it’s just a fashionable term for a headache!”

Principles of Happy Living

Principle One: Nothing in the world exists for itself

When we look around we find that rivers don't drink their own water, trees do not eat their own fruits. The chair we sit on, the bed we sleep on, the hours we live in, in fact, nothing exists for itself. The heat and light of the mighty sun, the bounties of mother earth, the treasures of the ocean, nothing is meant for its own use. Human beings take in oxygen from air and exhale carbon dioxide, which is inhaled by plants. One finds inter-connectedness and inter-dependence everywhere.

Serve others and in the process, you will get served. Just as the rivers, trees and elements of nature have been sustaining and serving humanity since eternity, we also must learn to serve each other. When we give selflessly, even if we do not expect any return, we are destined to reap the reward of such an action because the law of karma stipulates that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Principle Two : You can't actually own anything; you can just use it

A little reflection will reveal the fallacy of the common belief that we can own material objects of this world. The sense of ownership, which people have on possessing, legal titles only gives illusory satisfaction. When the 'owner' leaves the body then all proof of ownership becomes worthless. The possessions that were owned by the former person are then used by others. Hence, ownership of everything, including the physical body, which we call 'mine', is an illusion. Everything that we use can never be owned but only be best used as a trustee.

The concept of ownership results in the vice of attachment. People become possessive about objects and relationships trying to control and manipulate them for their selfish needs. It becomes and obsession for some and then the very things or people whom they try to secure for happiness become a bondage and hurt both the 'owner' and the 'owned' object or person. Moreover, attachment leads to the fear of loss and consequently, sufferings. Actually, we can merely use our possessions and resources according to our entitlement as per the Law of Karma. The false notion of ownership also leads to the vice of greed and wrongful actions to acquire more and more.

Principle Three: Mere possession of material objects does not lead to happiness

It is a fact that physical or material objects can be a source of both happiness and suffering. Take for example our body. It can give us joy and happiness and also suffering, sometimes unbearable sufferings, when afflicted by some painful disease or disorder. If accumulation of money or material objects could bring happiness, then rich people with more of these things should have been proportionately happier than their less fortunate brethren. However, if we look at it deeper, the suffering of the millionaire in this case results from his desires of possessing more rather than from the diseased body.

Principle Four: Fortune and happiness depend on accumulated good karma.

Fortune is created by one's own karma. As you sow, so shall you reap. Anything or relationship in this physical world - be it your house, relation, status or health - could become the source of great joy and happiness and also of sorrow and grief, depending on the accumulated stock of good or bad karma. That's why this world is called 'karma kshetra'. One's actions decide the extent to which one enjoys life. A person's entitlement to happiness is based on how good one's actions have been.

Principle Five: Matter is a good servant but a bad master

In order to have the right relationship between the soul and matter, it is important to realize that matter can be a good servant but can never be a good master. When the soui become? a slave to raat.er. it experiences sorrow and when it exercises control over matter as a master, it experiences joy. True happiness and peace therefore come from within. When we learn to use our mind in the right way we will automatically be able to use matter for creating happiness for others and ourselves.

Dr. D. A. Biswas

Prof. & HOD

Dept. of Physiology

J.N. Medical College,

Sawangi(Meghe), Wardha

Meet The Marco Polo of Neuroscience - 

Dr. V. S. Ramachandran 

Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran, the great Indian Neuroscientist, is best known for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and psychophysics. He is the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, and is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Neurosciences Graduate Program at the University of California, San Diego.

Ramachandran is best known for his experiments in behavioral neurology which, despite their apparent simplicity, have generated many new ideas about the workings of the brain. He has been called "The Marco Polo of neuroscience" by Richard Dawkins, a British neurobiologist and "the modern Paul Broca" by Dr. Eric Kandel, an american neuropsychiatrist and Nobel laurate in Medicine. In 1997 Newsweek magazine named him a member of "The Century Club", one of the "hundred most prominent people to watch" in the 21st century, and in 2011 Time listed him as one of "the most influential people in the world" on the "Time 100" list.

Childhood and Career

Born in 1951 in Tamil Nadu, he is the son of Vilayanur Subramanian, an Indian diplomat. As a young man he attended schools in Madras, Bangkok and England and pursued many scientific interests, including conchology. Like many children, when Ramachandran was a young boy, he collected seashells and fossils. Unlike most children, however, he sent his findings to the American Museum of Natural History, often unearthing rarities that were of interest to the museum. He retains an abiding love of palaeontology. Two years ago, he received his most enduring honour: a dinosaur - Minotaurasaurus ramachandrani - was named after him.

Ramachandran obtained an M.B.B.S. from Stanley Medical College in Madras, India. While he was only 20 years of age and in the 2nd year of undergraduation,in 1971, he conducted an experiment to examine how the brain merges the two slightly different images seen by each eye. He wrote a paper on his findings and sent it to "Nature” the world's most prestigious scientific journal, and it was published unrevised. He subsequently obtained a Ph.D. from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego in 1983, and has been a full professor there since 1998.

Ramachandran has studied neurological syndromes to investigate neural mechanisms underlying human mental function. He is best known for his work on neurological syndromes such as phantom limbs, body integrity identity disorder, the invention of the mirror box, and his work on synesthesia. More recently his work has focused on the theoretical implications of mirror neurons and the cause of autism. He has published over 180 papers in worlds prestigious scientific journals. Twenty of these have appeared in Nature, and others have appeared in Science, Nature Neuroscience, Perception and Vision Research. Ramachandran is a member of the editorial board of Medical Hypotheses and has published 15 articles in the same.

Honours and Accolades 

••Visiting fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford (1998-1999).

•Visiting professor at Stanford University in 2005.

•He has received honorary doctorates from Connecticut College (2001) and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (2004).

•Ramachandran received the annual Ramon y Cajal award (2004) from the International Neuropsychiatry Society.

•The Ariens-Kappers medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences for his contributions to Neuroscience (1999).

•He shared the 2005 Henry Dale Prize with Michael Brady of Oxford.

•In 2007, the President of India conferred on him the second highest civilian award and honorific title in India, the Padma Bhushan.

•In 2008, he was listed as number 50 in the Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll.

•Ramachandran has presented numerous plenary lectures around the world including the Decade of the Brain lecture at the 25th annual (Silver Jubilee) meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (1995), the Jonas Salk Memorial lecture at the Salk Institute, and the Rabindranath Tagore lecture at the Center for the foundations of science in New Delhi.

•In 2003 he gave the annual BBC Reith Lectures.

•More recently, in 2007 he delivered a public lecture to the Royal Society in London and gave the 2010 IAS Distinguished Lecture at the University of Bristol's Institute of Advanced Studies, dedicated to the memory of his longtime friend and collaborator, Richard Gregory.

Books by Ramachandran

•Phantoms in the Brain : Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, coauthor Sandra Blakeslee.

•The Encyclopedia of the Human Brain (editor-in-chief)

•The Emerging Mind.

•A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers.

•The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human.

An often-quoted description, Richard Dawkins, a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author once wrote: "Ramachandran is a latterday Marco Polo, journeying the Silk Road of science to strange and exotic Cathays of the mind.". With his simple, creative and innovative ideas, V.S. Ramachandran is changing how our brains think about our minds.

SIR, WE SALUTE YOU.

Dr. Sourya Acharya

Professor,

Dept. Of Medicine

Dr. Samarth Shukla,

Associate Professor,

Dept. Of Pathology

Break toh Banta Hai..!!

Just recall the last time you had an argument with your roomies.. Mustn't have been long back..

Or how about a husky thrashing from the professor for being late in the clinic & yet not being allowed in the class.. Ought to be a daily scenario..

Or when you've reached the deadline for all your assignments which are yet to be started..

Well don’t know about you, but talking of myself, these mere crappy things get on my nerves very often, piling up the sky-scraping level of STRESS; which is in the air..!! It's everywhere..!! Stress is an ignorant state which believes that everything is an emergency. It's as if your body is constantly shouting, “Do something!”, & your brain is shouting back, “I don't know what to do..!!” :o

Given a chance to curb down such dreadful events who would not wish to scrub 'em off their roots. Why leave behind anything that annoys you??

But then it ain't possible to start hitting every other person you meet 'cause you find 'em annoying!

So, let's find a sane way out.. How about wrecking the sole sequel of this entire hassle?

~ Take off with simple plans. Try & simplify your life. The biggest etiology behind stress is rotten organization of stuff with time.  Perhaps there is nothing new with my “Gyaan” on time management, but for an instance give it a thought, have you ever maintained your to-do list on daily grounds & encountered such extremely stressing situations? Well it's quite absurd if it so happens! Just try & make your schedule more manageable.

~ Music is my personal say. You can't ever imagine what impact it is going to confer upon your being. A colossal collection of songs, out of which be it a track of any genre, any of Atif's chants or Rahman's sagas.. Justin Beiber or Lady Gaga..!!  Imagine putting on your headphones, with eyes closed & mind shutting out the entire world.. Even before you realize, the palliative voice & the tranquilizing tune will unfurl its aura & extend its vibes & then you won't be able to resist your feet from tapping to the tempo of the song.. And once you get all engrossed in the rhythm divine, do you think you'll still pick on your STRESS rather than something so fine??

~ No matter how much you try to repulse from Nature for your worldly gains, you gotta come back to RECHARGE..!! So enjoy the outdoors, explore nature. Sometimes only a long walk, be it solo or in a bunch, gives you so much to think of that you tend to pardon all the bugs that your life has to offer. It leaves you lively & abandoned to start afresh..

And as they say, “Maana ki life bahot busy hai, par kabhi kabhi Break Banta Hai..!!” Toh break lo, kya pata zindagi aapko kuch haseen dikha de..!

~ Cry hard..!! There's nothing exclusively feminine about it. It’s absolutely ok to cry if you feel like. Even if that's when you're watching an over-the-top romantic comedy. 'Cause it's the purest emotion one can have, crying heartily can be as “kuchh bhi” as a hearty laugh & as appeasing as a warm clinch..!!

~ Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths. Don't get so exhausted so as to miss out the most crucial things of your life, the ones which are your best-loved.. Creativity, Adventure or Community..  Instigate a craving for 1 of these..

~ Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet, so Sleep often, 'cause the committee of sleep works well to resolve all sorts of problems..

~ Stop from daily routine, chill out & Eat..  Its better to gain those few extra calories which can be burned up in time rather than getting burned up in stress..

        

Read, write, draw, paint, watch movies, talk to a venting friend, stroll around in the terrace, play with kids, or experiment with any of your nutty thoughts. Also, needless to say, Yoga & Meditation sorta stuff is second to none if you can implement, but 'cause I could never give it a shot, I consider it to be an Ideal Prophylactic Measure which ofcourse is challenging. So go for it if you feel you've attained the acme of STRESS, but if you fail at it, don’t worry it's perfectly normal..!!

      

And as Baba Ranchhod-das Shyamaldas Chanchad would say, that merely saying “Aal Iss Well” doesn't solve the problem, but gives you the strength to face that problem head-on. Likewise don't let your mind bully your body into believing that it must carry the burden of its worries.

Give your stress wings & let it fly away..!!

So boys and girls, these were a few tips which I thought we all could use when we are disheartened and dispirited. Just remember, nothing in this world is big enough to pull us down, once we’ve made up our minds. So keep fighting and keep conquering … !

Don’t blow your top …

Getting angry too easily is unhealthy. It increases stress levels and negatively impacts your relationships with family and friends.

All of us get angry occasionally; we yell, we swear, we may even punch a wall in extreme situations. But if you lose your temper frequently, perhaps you have a short fuse. Recognizing an anger management problem is a giant step in controlling it. Understanding Anger

When judging other people, it's easy to attribute their short fuse to their character, personality or upbringing. Looking at ourselves, however, we see that despite family history, circumstances of birth or life experiences, anger is simply a learned behavior that can be un-learned. You can take action against your anger issues and become healthier and happier in the process. Here are some tips that might help.

Recognize Your "Hot Buttons“

Ask 10 people what makes them really angry and you'll get different answers. For some, it's entirely situational: being stuck in traffic, facing long lineups at the checkout. Other people's stupidity is a trigger for some —the fast food employee who ignores your request to hold the mustard. Others are irritated by people with belligerent, in-your-face attitudes. What sets you off? It's important to assess your own"hot buttons" and recognize what triggers your anger.

Understand Your Reactions

Once you know what makes you angry, try to analyze why. Your frustration at " traffic delays may actually be disappointment with yourself for leaving late or annoyance at having to run that errand. The best advice on dealing with anger — and on handling interpersonal relationships in general — is that you cannot control other people's actions, You can only control your own.

Eliminate Risks

There's a major difference between being passionate about some things and snapping at everything. If you're under pressure at home or work, steer clear of situations or people that might push you to the brink. Drinking may also contribute to the problem and cause an inappropriate reaction.

Try to eliminate the types of problems that might put you at risk of an over- the-top reaction.

Get A Grip

Try to be objective. When you find yourself tensing up and angry words and actions seem imminent, refocus on the big picture.

Unless you really enjoy being a control freak, lighten up on your expectations about how other people should behave. If someone cuts you off in traffic or does some other idiotic thing that makes you really angry, let it go.

Ask yourself if it's really worth getting worked up over; chances are that it's not.


Exercise

Be active, go to the gym, play some sports — do anything that increases your physical activity and oxygen intake. It will lower your stress and reduce the risk of irrational rage.

Take A Break

Give yourself a few minutes to calm down and de-stress. Like the old saying goes: "when angry, count to 10; when very angry, count to 100." Breathe. Laugh'. Take a walk. Listen to music. Concentrate on your action plan for an upcoming work assignment.

Focus on what you need to buy for your next home improvement project or plan where you want to spend your next vacation. Take A Chill Pill

The next time you find yourself getting worked up over something, understand what's behind your anger. Gain perspective, distance yourself and be objective.

Even if you have a short fuse, you can teach yourself how to extinguish it and even learn how to avoid igniting it. Maintain control of your angry reactions and you'll reduce your stress and improve your health and well-being.

Communicate

If you continually try to overlook behavior and actions that irritate you, your frustration level will build up over time and you may find yourself blowing your top at a seemingly inconsequential comment or situation. Talk with your partner, friend or colleague before the problems or issues push you to the limit.

Share your frustrations, as calmly and rationally as you can, with your "go-to guy" (that best buddy who'll listen and not judge)

Be Flexible

Allow yourself more time to do things; leave earlier for the airport or the office, and avoid scheduling things too close together. Create a "Plan B" for situations that might not work out the way you expect.

Be Patient

Put yourself in the other person's shoes. You cannot know the circumstances that preceded your encounter with the obnoxious

flight attendant and you don't know why the phone company rep was doing such a perfect imitation of Freddy Krueger. Take the high road, be a gentleman and try to be patient.