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10 Things About Being a Reader That I Never Told A Soul!

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 10, 2023 15

If you are a book worm you already know this. If you want your kids to be readers, you must read this.If you want to read more yourself, you have to read it, bookmark it, save it on your desktop, and revise it weekly.

My journey with books started early. I was a precocious reader and my choice of some books,needed monitoring . That’s something I can see looking back. But overall those books helped me cure my bad habits, learn to choose carefully and become a doctor. Reading also helped me become a self-employed doctor and now a writer, blogger, podcaster, and creative content creator in multiple media formats.

Almost everything I did and still do, starts with reading.Books and articles, newspapers, scientific papers, and magazines. If it’s something I would like to know more about, I will read about it. An interestingly written piece means, I will remember what it was about and if I learned something new from it.

*Reading helps me learn anything I want to.If it’s something worth doing there’s probably a book about it.*

10 Things About Being a Reader That I Never Told A Soul!

On a dinner table discussion last week amongst peers and friends I heard someone lamenting about how kids no longer read story books. That habit, if possible needs to start early and parents can be the best example setter in this regard. Let your kids see you read. That goes a long way in making them realize that reading,is also for pleasure and not just for studying.

Reading helps me learn anything I want to. If it’s something worth doing there’s probably a book about it.
Reading helps me learn how to make sense of the world better.
I learned about past mistakes other people made and tips to avoid repeating them.
I learned about self-help and self-improvement.
I learned to focus on one word at a time and that’s the root of concentration.
Reading can help me master a subject and become an expert.
Reading helped me learn to empathize.
Reading lets me dream.
Reading is my way of finding calm in the middle of chaos.
Reading helped me find myself when I thought I was lost .

Writing this with the BlogchatterAtoZ friend and the Ultimate Blog Challenge friends

Read about Me Being a Happy Doctor and the lessons I learned.

Being A Happy Doctor:17 Things I Wish I Knew 17 years back

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 9, 2023 12

Being a happy Doctor is never by accident.It needs daily mindset reset.Its essential for doctors to practice “happy” ,just as it’s important to stay healthy.Until we keep our wellbeing a daily practice,our daily professional practice will take it’s toll on our health.

Your heart must be filled with happiness, mind with peace and in good health physically to truly do your best.Sometimes it’s easy ,sometimes excruciatingly difficult, but if it’s the path you have chosen, I am sure you will do it well.Sharing the things that help me to blog on, from a happy space while trying to be a happy doctor.

*Being a Happy Doctor :17 Things I Wish I Knew 17 Years Back*

Being a Healthy Doctor:17 Things I Wish I Knew 17 years back

It’s not about you.
It’s a privilege to serve.
It’s important to work on the self as well as helping others. We can do a better job when we are healthy and happy first.
Health starts inside.
You become what you eat (almost)
Environmental health includes human nature, inanimate objects, air, water, sunlight, heat, humidity,overcrowding-everything.
Food nurtures. Eat real food, grown locally.
No addiction is a good addiction. Alcohol is not helpful in any amount.
Studying to be better and learn new things never stops and that’s a good thing.
Talk about playing more as a part of physical fitness. That will help modern society beat stress and works for us too.
Nature therapy is great for everyone. Having plants in your clinic is a nice mood booster and plant friends always make doctor visits more fun.
Communication is key to helping better. Most problems start with a lack of or poor quality of communication.
Documentation of communication is as important(if not more) as communication.
Continue being brave.
Good Health is not optional it’s mandatory.
Your mental health is crucial for you to give your best. Don’t forget to take care.
Documenting your journey as a healthcare worker is an interesting way to take care of your mind and keep records of your journey .Start a Blog.

DGHS banned alcohol at all CMEs and Medical conferences. It’s high time. Addictions or even social drinking helps no one and as healthcare professionals, it makes no sense to put a hepatotoxic, ototoxic substance in your body. As medical doctors, we need to walk the talk.

It’s no use trying to explain things to vested interests and health insurance agents. They have their own agendas. Until third parties stop trying to dictate what’s good for the patient’s health, it’s going to be difficult. Both the patient and the doctor have an interest in the patient getting better. Word-of-mouth referral is still the best referral.

Writing this with the BlogchatterAtoZ friend and the Ultimate Blog Challenge friends.

Financial Independence & Education for Women :International Womens Day Celebration Malda Women Doctors Association

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 6, 2023 4

International Women’s Day Celebration for Malda Women Doctors Association,occurred to celebrate women leaders and achievers helping Malda town grow. Guessing what women of today and tomorrow want is never easy.But one thing we all seem to have in common.A burning desire to do our own thing and support our own dreams, raise our families, and grow with our communities.

For this, we organized an essay writing contest at two of Maldas famous Girl’s Schools on the topic

Importance of Education and Financial Independence for Women

Ayushi Majumdar from CC Girls School ,Malda came first.

We wanted it to be an event to remember and the Honorable Chairman of the English Bazar Municipality Advocate Mr.Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury graced the occasion along with Dr.Tapas Chakraborty (President IMA Malda) to lend support to our voice.

Who were Felicitated?

Amongst those felicitated were Madam CMOH Dr.Papri Nayak
Head Mistress Barlow Girls High School: Ms. Dipasree Majumdar
Head Mistress C.C Girls High School Ms.Moumita Pramanik
Nursing Superintendent Malda Medical College: Ms. Rupali Choudhary
Sister Incharge: Ms. Anima Roy
Nursing Officer: Ms. Minati Sikdar

We wanted to listen to what the girl of today thought about being a woman of tomorrow. The event was organized and hosted by the Women Doctors Association of Malda under the leadership of Dr.Chitra De, Dr.Arpita Chakraborty and Dr.Sushmita Sarkar. Amongst the many discussion that happened on that day an important point was the untold stories of our women grass root health workers.ANM’s , ASHA and Anganwadi.

There are many ways of standing up and doing our part for the community. The best one is to do what you do best, sincerely, with what you have and where you are. If we can all do that with all our hearts, I am sure the world will become even more beautiful.

*The Malda Women Doctors Association International Women’s Day Celebration*

The event was covered by the local press and was a resounding success. The last event conducted by the Women Doctors Association was the free Health Care Camp at Usha Martin School Malda with a focus on Mental health.Coming up next on April 8th 2023 is a Basic Life Support training conducted by AMRI Dhakuria ,Kolkata in association with Women Doctor’s Association.

My daughter wrote a poem for the occasion and doodled for me.

Writing this with the BlogchatterAtoZ friend and the Ultimate Blog Challenge friends 0

Home Decor Solutions in Kolkata: Elegant Interiors

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 5, 2023 6

Some of the most difficult things in life involve deciding where to live. Most of the time you start living where you work or close to it. While the home decor is always fascinating, I always liked calm soothing spaces with bursts of color which are cozy, don’t require high maintenance, and are not excruciating on the pocket. You also need people to distill what you want, to what you need in that space. They listen and don’t bulldoze you.

Here’s a sneak peek into the home getting ready to welcome our family.

Elegant Interiors Kolkata is a home decor shop/solution/store under one roof. Mr.Sandip Roy and his team with Mr.Nitai(designer )and Mr. Ranjit(Project manager), helped us get our home together while we lived outstation. We have been in talks since 2020 when the pandemic delayed everything. Luckily we could get started in 2022 finally. The best thing about them is they provide home decor services for clients from all over India and the world. Depending on requirements they send videos and pictures and Whatsapp to share project progress with clients. That’s very helpful as it’s not easy to visit the site every other day if you are out of the station. Even if you want to choose every single thing for your first home, sometimes that’s impossible. I found that out early on. That’s why you need a trustworthy interior decorating partner who has survived the ups and downs of the economy.

We faced a few hiccups on the false ceiling work with POP was double trouble and the design was scraped twice and radically simplified. The curtain rods were all of the wrong designs and wrong location.

The mandir canopy front was an asymmetrical design which took away its charm. Other than these minor hiccups all looks well. The final finishing touches are being given. They have a 30 years guarantee of service and quality and that’s something I will update you about. We booked our home in 2014 and got it in 2018/2019. I wrote about budgeting for a home. While having a roof over the head is one thing, planning real estate investing is another. I did the second one only after the first was paid for. I will share more updates from the home front as things unfold in the next few months. It’s a good time and a crazy busy time too.

The handover is awaited and then we have one year of free support and replacement and lifetime service available for a charge.I am happy to pay for quality. So this blog post will have updates and offshoots depending on what happens next.

It was a problem getting things started for various reasons including financial. Taking time going slow, and feeling the space helps. The storage stuff I wanted inbuilt and the furniture I wanted to see and feel before buying. That’s why we only ordered the bed custom-made for our home, the rest we wanted to buy bespoke or from furniture shops.

What other options did we consider?

Several freelancers.Checked out the Home Town and Livspace.Both do a lot of advertising. But the reviews about poor support and quality made me worried. With independent contractors, there would be a lot of micro-managing which we simply didn’t have the mind space to handle. We wanted someone to manage it all, maintain quality and send us regular updates. Nothing works like word-of-mouth advertising and I knew three people who had contracted Elegant Interiors for their home decor in Kolkata. Two of them had no complaints. The third one had a minor complaint about the quality of curtain rods and even that was taken care of.

A few more things we are winding up

1. Furniture

We had two shops in mind. Fab India and Dugar. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit Dugar’s main shop in Topsia. Sunday closed and we only had that weekend) and ended up in Fab India Home Solutions. More about that in the next post.

2. Furnishings

3. Lighting solutions

4. Art and decor pieces.

5 . Green friends

6. Appliances: These are the ones I absolutely must have around

This is a post written with friends from BlogchatterAtoZ and the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Carrageenan The Thing You Don’t Need in Your Ice Cream

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 4, 2023 12

My daughter loves her ice cream.But fortunately frozen desserts don’t work for her.Any thing with vegetable oil in it (chocolate,ice cream etc) may cause problems for her. This we found out the hard way.

When Summer comes you can’t stop the ice cream cravings.I love ice cream.But it comes with its own share of troubles.Besides the calories,sugar and artificialcolours ,commercial ice cream items has thickener added to it .That thickener causes the ice cream to stay solid even in less than perfect conditions.

But luckily for us Amul India went to court and got the right definition for ice cream and frozen dessert properly explained.

My daughter can gulp down Amul ice cream with no trouble at all.But we strictly ration ice cream trips because even our favorite brand of commercial ice cream contains ingredients which we may not want inside us.Today I am going to talk about one such food additives. It’s a thickener .

What’s the name of this thickener?

It’s called Carrageenan.If you didn’t know it’s a common chemical agent .Carrageenan,is made from red seaweed, is added to make the cold ice cream creamy.It’s mostly used in dairy products but may also be added to sauces ,jellies,jams etc. Stabilizer 407 or E407 is its name.

3 Ingredients Easy Home Made Ice Cream

As I promised ,for the three ingredients home made ice cream you need

1.Amul cream:Doesn’t list Carrageenan as an ingredient.

2.Honey or jaggery

3.Flavour of your choice.I used Almond butter,vanilla extract and chocolate shavings .

Whip them all together using an automatic hand blender or a manual one.I whipped the cream for 20 minutes.Then froze it .

Freeze for 30 minutes covered.Whip again
Freeze overnight and eat it .I poured it in small disposeable paper cups (ones you use for the office coffee ) and needless to say it was a hit.

3 Ingredients Easy Home Made Ice Cream

Why is Carrageenan bad?

It decreases the cellular integrity of the gut wall and changes the permeability changes of the gut.That can make your gut have many problems .Carrageenan is a class of food additives which is classified as a GRAS or generally recognized as safe for human consumption.But many studies over the years since 1980 s have found them linked to gastrointestinal problems,inflammations and allergies.The problem is,they are hidden under cover of regular ingredient and are hard to spot.

Carrageenan changes the intestinal microflora.This destroys the mucosal barrier causing leaky junctions between cells. They make the gut wall leak large molecules including proteins,triggering immune response.Carrageenan also directly activate our body’s inflammatory cells .This leads to colitis and inflammatory bowel disease

Which food commonly contain Carrageenan?

Since Carrageenan is a GRAS or generally recognized as safe for human consumption,it’s use and presence in food products is never advertised or given prominence. But the ingredient list on the product packaging will mention E407.Be a smart consumer and check the product information label carefully before buying.

Nut and soy milks,
protein shakes and powders
Pre-made packaged chocolate milk,cold coffee
Frozen yogurt
Popsicles,
Frozen pre-cooked prepared meals
Most ice cream
infant formula.
Cottage cheese
Creamers
Vegan cheeses
Nondairy desserts
Meat products
Jams,Jellies,Jelly lozenge
Ready made puddings,custards ,custard powder
Ready made cakes and cake mixes
Sauces
Some pet foods
Even Toothpaste

This list is not complete and occasional ice cream or Carrageenan containing product will hardly cause trouble.But if you have a sensitive gut and suffer sudden bouts of bowel trouble ,you would definitely want to check what you are eating.Its common practice to talk about gluten sensitivity,lactose intolerance but few check the hidden ingredients.

What is the effect of Carrageenan?

Though Carrageenan is “natural”,it’s effects are not something you would want in your body.These effects include .

Inflammation
Irritable bowel syndrome
Unknown food allergies often occurring randomly
Bloating
Glucose intolerance
Colon cancer

In 2016, the American National Organic Standards Board voted to remove carrageenan from their approved list.

Carrageenan is usually categorized in emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners and gelling agents.

*List of Food Usually Listing Carrageenan/ E 407 as an Ingredient*

Remember that carrageenan-free plant based milks may separate. You just need to shake it well and it should be ,just as good.Carrageenan has no nutritional utility and not having it in your diet is a smart move .Avoiding Carrageenan is as easy as making your own almond milk or skipping products with this additives.I prefer to keep a look out on things which may slip under the radar when it comes to allergies.If it’s not proven safe by people who don’t have a commercial interest, I do the research.After all its a multi million dollar industry and we all know what happens when it’s a question of economics .

Resource list

Food-grade carrageenans and their implications in health and disease

Fang Liu et al. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 2021 Jul.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34146449/

Guo J, Shang X, Chen P, Huang X. How does carrageenan cause colitis? A review. Carbohydr Polym. 2023 Feb 15;302:120374. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.120374. Epub 2022 Nov 21. PMID: 36604052.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36604052/

These American foods are banned in other countries

This Blog post is part of Blogchatter AtoZ and the Ultimate Blog Challenge

Ear Lobe Repair? Don’t do it without reading this!

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on March 25, 2023 1

Ear Lobe Repair? Don’t do it without reading this!

Lobuloplasty or the repair of ear lobule cleft is a common ear surgical procedure. Partial cleft, complete cleft, elongated ear lobule, etc all can be repaired.

What causes Ear lobe cleft? When do you need to repair your ear lobule?

Wearing heavy earrings.
Trauma during possible earring snatching or earring being suddenly pulled

Usually, the cleft is made into a complete cleft, and sections of the margin are de-epithelized, and then sutured or ear hole preserving surgery may be done, depending on the case.

Case Report

With a partial lobule cleft, a woman in her mid-thirties stopped wearing earrings because it was not aesthetic in appearance. The COVID pandemic pushed nonessentials out of the horizon. Plus the social head nodding if it looks bad. But why do you need to do it? You are married and already a mom, why do you need cosmetic procedures? Plus aesthetic procedures happen only in calm times.

After routine lab tests for preoperative assessment lobuloplasty was done under local anesthesia.

What is lobuloplasty ?

The lobuloplasty is the ear lobe repair It is an aesthetic surgery procedure and should be done under strict aseptic conditions by a trained surgeon. Adequate precautions if not taken can result in a deformed lobule and poor end results in the hands of an untrained person.

How to prevent ear piercing from becoming deformed or causing partial or total ear lobule cleft?

Avoid wearing heavy earrings which drag at your ear lobules.

Avoid wearing earrings at night even if it’s moderate weight for a prolonged period because gravity catches up.

Avoid wearing earrings that cause earache and inflammation.

Recurrence of cleft lobule is rare.

How to find the best place for Ear lobe repair solution?

Look for ENT surgeons near your area and visit their clinic to know the cost of ear lobe repair under their care. Routine blood tests will be needed before surgery. Your doctor will also check your blood pressure and take a detailed history of your current and past medical conditions. Always visit a registered doctor for your safety.

Preop pictures

Post-op Day 7 :Suture Removal

Disclaimer

The health-wellness information is shared on this website to improve public awareness about lifestyle diseases, and products, that may help or harm us. This is in no wa⁹y a replacement for professional medical advice. Please always consult your doctor for personalized medical advice.

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10 Things About Being a Reader That I Never Told A Soul!

10 Things About Being a Reader That I Never Told A Soul!

Being A Happy Doctor:17 Things I Wish I Knew 17 years back

Being a Healthy Doctor:17 Things I Wish I Knew 17 years back

Financial Independence & Education for Women :International Womens Day Celebration Malda Women Doctors Association

Who were Felicitated?

Home Decor Solutions in Kolkata: Elegant Interiors

What other options did we consider?

A few more things we are winding up

Carrageenan The Thing You Don’t Need in Your Ice Cream

What’s the name of this thickener?

3 Ingredients Easy Home Made Ice Cream

Why is Carrageenan bad?

Which food commonly contain Carrageenan?