Search Results for: health

Art Science and Learning about STEAM

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 25, 2021 4

Tangi said goodbye in July 2021. It was a wonderful creative app and it gave me a gift for life.I started painting and drawing because of Tangi. It was like a window opened in my soul.

When you keep all the doors and windows closed and the air conditioner is on, you are comfortable. But when you go out in the fresh air you know it’s different. You breathe better, you feel better and you glow.

So what exactly is STEAM education?

STEAM is integrative learning using Science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics to helps students learn.In STEM, the A was missing.That’s the glow education misses, when we seperate learning into rigid lines.

A friend Leha on Instagram today talked about the art of living . How creative life is our way of living beautifully. Art feeds the soul. Today I am a CANVA champion. It wouldn’t have been possible if Tangi and the friends on Tangi didn’t give me this confidence.

My creative life is dedicated to my daughter and all my Tangi friends who taught me how to create art and live life with art in it.

As a doctor, I had no inkling of any artistic inclination after fourth grade. Even now I suffer from imposter syndrome every time I write, publish or paint . But I keep doing it anyway.

If I want my daughter to live a life full of science and arts and not pick and choose, maybe I could walk the path before her. That’s the best part about STEAM education. It talks about incorporating Arts in education.

Arts are visual and very intuitive. While words are more learned. If there’s a way to have less competition between learning in these two media, the world would open up.

Encouraging curiosity and learning means accepting there are different ways to learn. Ancient texts show a lot of graphics in their language. It was visual and unlike what we write today. So what changed?

Why were arts and science made to feel like they were opposite sides of the coin when they together make up learning?

Have you ever thought about this?

Chronic Kidney Disease(CKD):What Can You Do in India?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 24, 2021 5

What happens when the kidneys don’t work well? Many things, including Renal failure and uremia, both of which are life-threatening.

Few know about kidney health. Yet, we all have a pair of kidneys that do their work silently. Urine helps to clear the toxins from your body, and it’s the kidneys that do this essential work of filtration.

But what is Chronic kidney disease?

Chronic kidney disease is continuing kidney damage causing abnormal renal structure and progressive functional deterioration of the kidneys lasting at least three months to several years.

The numbers:

Worldwide 850 million people live with chronic kidney disease. (source)

A survey by ASSOCHAM and TARI showed kidney diseases to be the eighth most common non-communicable disease in India. Though exact data is unavailable, in India, 40-60% of cases of chronic kidney disease are due to hypertension and diabetes.

The Good news: Kidney diseases have effective treatment. Early diagnosis is essential.

In 2021 the slogan for World Kidney day was “Living Well With Kidney Disease”.

In case you already have kidney disease, what can you do?

Follow up with your nephrologist regularly.
Do the tests they recommend on time.
Don’t stop eating healthy food, exercise,” focus on” mental health, and sleep. They help prevent the risk factors of Hypertension, Diabetes, and Cardiac problems in the long run. Slowing the underlying cause goes a long way to effectively manage CKD.
Join an authentic Chronic Kidney disease support group. Having a support group helps you find information related to your choices and also monetary. Knowing about the best places to get treated, transplants, and funding available from the government or NGOs make the journey easier. The community support helps too.
You can Check the Government Medical Colleges in your city for access to affordable Dialysis options.The Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme helps with Dialysis for the needy.
Get dialysis done on time when you need it.

How Serious is Chronic Kidney Disease?

Kidney diseases are silent and are often identified late.
Screening of at-risk populations at least once a year will help detect kidney disease early.
It has high prolonged health care costs and affects the quality of life.
Diagnosis and follow-up require urine tests and blood tests.
Timely diagnosis helps in effective treatment and can prevent complications.
It presents late and often doesn’t go away.
Preventing Hypertension and Diabetes enables you to protect your kidneys.

Note: Prevention is the best policy.

Common Risk factors for Chronic Renal disease (CKD)are :

Hypertension
Diabetes Mellitus
Cardiac diseases
Obesity
Poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis
History of sexually transmitted infection or injection drug use: Hepatitis B or C, HIV infection
Urinary tract infection, obstruction, or stone
Autoimmune disease (e.g., cryoglobulinemia, systemic lupus erythematosus)
Men and women are equally affected by genetic causes of kidney disease. Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, Autosomal recessive Polycystic Kidney disease, Alport syndrome are genetic causes of CKD.
Certain drugs
Vesico Ureteric Reflux
Prolonged urinary obstruction due to kidney stones, prostate, cancer.

What are the preferred screening tests for CKD?How is CKD diagnosed?

Serum Creatinine
Spot urine albumin/creatinine ratio from an early morning urine sample.

What are the diagnostic indicators for CKD?

Persistently elevated Creatinine and albuminuria.These also have prognostic significance,

Other indicators include; altered acid-base balance :

Altered serum electrolytes
Abnormal Renal imaging finding
Urinary sediments
Altered glomerular filtration rate

What can you do to prevent Chronic Kidney disease?

Preventing causative risk factors can go a long way in preventing chronic kidney disease.
Genetic screening to rule out more such risks in a subsequent pregnancy is crucial if a child has kidney disease.
Eat healthy, exercise, sleep.
Drink water
Monitor your blood pressure and blood sugar.
If you have any risk factors or a family history of kidney disease, talk to your doctor about it and get screened.
Smoking and other addictions increase the risk.

Take care of your Kidneys today for a healthy tomorrow.

Do You Know About My Books?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 23, 2021 3

Paul told us to share what I sell. Professionally I earn as a Doctor. You can read all about my work-life story here. But today, I am sharing what I sell.

I have a whole selection of nonfiction and fiction books on Kindle unlimited for your reading pleasure. The best part about writing is sharing stories. I hope my daughter will read these books and my blog one day and learn what I forget to tell her.

Sharing stories help me get all the stuff from inside my head onto the paper. A friend told me-
” Amrita, I think it’s all the chattering you miss living in Malda that comes out as stories.”

Oh well, that’s the reason behind why most writers write. It’s a good thing my laptop doesn’t get tired with all the incessant tapping away at the keyboard .Now blogging arrived in my life in 2014. But writing books was never on my list.

In 2017, with Blogchatter A to Z, I wrote Fruits for life: Nutrition Secrets Your Doctor Won’t Tell .I was hooked and there was no going back. If you like to read books about Health, Wellness, Blogging or even mystery, check out my Amazon Author page .

It’s a fun journey writing about topics and stories I am passionate about.
But in 2020, the CORONA pandemic made me take a creative writing course, and I wrote my first mystery fiction.
I enjoyed the process so much that it’s now three books in that series and another children’s action-adventure series.
There’s really no end to having fun being a writer. All this made me happy even amid the crazy pandemic. Something else happened too.

My daughter wrote her first adventure book and illustrated it too
It’s doing well and got very nice reviews.
This is like our pandemic project, and unlike the real world, the digital world shows a lot of stoicism. Digital is here to stay, and starting a digital self-publishing journey was life-changing.

Noncommunicable Diseases in India :What You Can Do Today (Podcast)

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 19, 2021 5

I am in a unique position. A Doctor who writes and paints. I enjoy the pleasures and perils of both sides of my life.

But it definitely surprises me that I have managed to write since 2014. I am indeed still writing.I am also still a Doctor.These two professions have no retirement.

Thats the best part. But there are perils.

Seth Godin talks about making things better by making better things. Thats the reason I pop in on the podcast to talk about all things which matter.

One of our teachers talked about wanting to leave the world while still working. His passion for teaching and taking care of patients was inspiring. He was 78 in 2013, and last I know, he is still keeping up with the excellent work.

But while Doctors’ experience and practice get better with advancing age, the stress takes its toll on the health. As Healthcare professionals, we often fail to follow the basic tenets of good health.

Timely healthy food ,exercise and sleep.

Of all three, sleep and exercise are most easily skipped, and the untimely death of healthcare professionals is a danger sign.In todays podcast I talk about the rising tide of NCDs in India

I attended a webinar by ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) where they talked about a report prepared by Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI). This was India’s largest primary healthcare survey covering 233672 people in 21 states. The survey was analyzing the rising cases of chronic non-communicable diseases in the country. India’s non-communicable disease burden is growing alarmingly, with the average age for onset falling sharply.

Please use a head phone while listening. The recording volume was set to low and now its done! The learning curve is tough and I will definitely be re-recording.

Important points:

Prevalence of NCDs in India:116 per 1000 population

Hypertension, Digestive Diseases, Diabetes are the top three prevalent NCDs. Others include respiratory diseases, neurological disorders, heart diseases, kidney disorders, and cancer. This is in the order of prevalence.

Environment factors are one of the most significant causes of NCDs. This is followed by an inactive lifestyle and poor diet.

Some or all are risk factors we face every day. With time it takes its toll. Prevention is the best cure. You need to take it into your own hands. But some of it requires government intervention.

For example, environmental factor like air pollution is not easy to tackle at the individual level. Women and children get exposed to indoor air pollution when they use biomass for cooking fuel. We can do our part. But to make a real impact, Government needs to look into it. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is making an impact on indoor air pollution. Still, for outdoor air pollution, we need a plan of action.

For end-of-life passenger and commercial vehicles, the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) in Ahmedabad will be set up by Tata motors. The Government of India wants to reduce the polluting effect of older vehicles and indemnify car scrapping if the conditions are fulfilled. That definitely could work.

Stress is another risk factor and one of the most difficult parameters to measure. But we all face it. Stress can be a problem for multiple reasons.

In this podcast I talk about :

In this podcast I talk about the age group which is most affected by Noncommunicable diseases

About the more common NCDs in men and women.

Cognitive symptoms of stress

Behavioral indicators of stress

Physical symptoms of stress

How stress lowers immunity and is a silent killer .

Read about Air pollution-A non-controllable risk factor for NCDs in India

But what can you do to prevent NCDs ?

Eat healthy.

Avoid junk food, low intake of fruits and vegetables, too much dairy, and addictions. Sleep eight hours a day. Exercise 40 minutes per day moderate level of activity. Walking at the rate of 4 kilometers per hour for 40 minutes is recommended. But the point is to include it in your daily routine. Not just occasionally.

Do something which helps you lower stress. It may be a hobby, meditation, gardening. Whatever it is, you need to find that out and do it.

Living healthy is not a choice but a necessity now. Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite channel or subscribe to the blog .That way you will always stay updated.

Permission To Create and Finding Flow

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 17, 2021 3

Paul told us to write about it, and I can only tell you what works for me. I am going through a podcasting and video block since forever. I still enjoy doing it when I do, but with everything in life, this is going through changes since 2020.

But without boring you with all the details, I will answer questions that people ask me. How do You? Manage to do it all. I don’t. Yes, I said it. I don’t do it all. At least not at the same time. It doesn’t happen in continuity.

It doesn’t happen consistently, even though I keep on trying to be consistent. But I persist.
It’s my own Creative Life Everest. Before 2020 I thought being a doctor is my left-brained work and writing was so right-brained. But during the lockdown, I realized our brain doesn’t like to work with partitions. It likes to do stuff together. It’s an artificial divide that we suffer from. A perception of what’s right and what’s left. No one would be a complete human without a whole brain. So unless you are having a functional MRI done to assess what’s being used for which work or play, for you, we simply don’t know. But we can can some idea from scientifc research .But not the exact pathway which is helping you do ,what you do .

I digress. Sorry for the medical jargon. But what you learn and what you do happen to intermingle. Improve your brain. It’s not just IQ but Brain health. The more inter-neuronal connections you have, the better it is.

It’s your way of surviving the chaos of living. Life rarely goes according to the entire plan. So keeping a swerving margin is crucial. How well you pivot is behind how well you live. I sometimes don’t manage at all. I just read a book and think in the background. What is making me happy now? Will that work 10 years down the line. Why should we try to live and work better?

I am a big supporter of Digital health and Digital Education. It can help us make massive strides. But behind everything, we need a human touch. That’s why when you have writers block go back to nature.

Think about the last time you forget what you were doing while doing it? That’s your clue to finding flow. If you are to enjoy doing something, it needs to have flow. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. You just need to keep writing to get over a writing block. If you don’t feel inspired, you need to do some other creative thing that is effortless.

Write for the fun of it. Paint for the fun of it. When I read Living colors I understood this.

Ignore editing and publishing for now. Just write. Go out for a walk. Ask yourself, “what’s the most difficult part of writing?” It could be too much research into how to write. It could be too much obsession about the correct grammar. It could be fear of ridicule about how to do things right. It could be fear of SEO and lack of the proper keyword. Whatever it is, writing needs a story and an inner urge. You need to write because you want to.

Publishing, on the other hand, is a whole different thing! Don’t let the fear of judgments stop you from charting your own path. If the Pandemic has taught us one thing, that’s the flexibility of the human spirit. You can do this. Just start with the first 100 words. Do it in your diary, phone, laptop. Just keep practicing, and once you start writing in free flow, the publishing part will get easier. We are all born with permission to create.

It’s only when we start thinking we overthink and upset the proverbial creative apple cart. All of us are part of nature. Nature creates every day. You have permission to create. Don’t let your fears hold you back. Also, don’t leave your day job. It’s better to have a hobby outside work than a hobby to make ends meet. Because “Real Artists Don’t Starve“.

So create one day at a time. You can do it.

Writing this for Ultimate Blog Challenge and Blogchatter Half Marathon.

Subscribe to my newsletter ,if you want the story behind the scenes of my Digital life.

Wellness, Writing

Connecting With You

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 16, 2021 7

When Paul Taubman of Ultimate Blog Challenge told us about connecting with my audience in his newsletter, I realize I have rarely done it formally on my blog.

I always liked meeting new people. So blogging was a perfect opportunity to make friends in the blogging world. But I never thought I would make friends all across the globe and not just in India. With the internet growing even more powerful, making connections the world over just got easier.

If you are writing or blogging in any part of the world and on Twitter, remember this.Tag@misra_amrita, and I will try to support your writing.

If you love sharing your life, hobbies, or wisdom in your photos and videos, say hi on Instagram .I would love to connect.You can see my Art Projects here or follow me on Instagram for more of my Right-brained Adventures.

I have myFb page here. If you want to say hi on Pinterest, that’s wonderful too.

But if you want to grow together with your podcast on YouTube channel, that would be perfect.

I assume that everyone who is reading my blog already knows me.

It’s not always comfortable talking about myself, so I have this detailed About me page with my background. Just telling you a little bit about me.

About me and my interests in a nutshell

I am a registered ENT and Head-Neck surgeon with teaching and clinical experience of over ten years.

I have my own Private practice. I am self-employed. You can find me on LinkedIn.

But I also moonlight as a blogger, author since 2014. I started painting in the 2020 lockdown, and that was a sanity saver. I started podcasting in 2018, and I struggle with maintaining a YouTube channel.

I am a passionate gardener and have grown a balcony jungle garden since 2014.Now I am trying to create a weekend space in my ancestral home in the village.I love learning, reading books, researching health, tech, education, and gardening stuff.I am married to a Pediatrician and raising a little girl. My daughter shares my love for books, nature, and gardening.

I have written and published several fiction and nonfiction books. Read all my books for free on Kindle Unlimited.I even illustrated a Children’s Adventure book I wrote last month.My daughter and I have co-written another book,The Library Ghost .I occasionally moonlight as a developmental editor.

I own five goldfish and recently hosted a Dove family on my balcony. Here’s my Balcony garden playlist on Youtube.

I am writing this with Ultimate Blog Challenge and Blogchatter Half Marathon.

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Art Science and Learning about STEAM

So what exactly is STEAM education?

Chronic Kidney Disease(CKD):What Can You Do in India?

But what is Chronic kidney disease?

In case you already have kidney disease, what can you do?

How Serious is Chronic Kidney Disease?

Note: Prevention is the best policy.

Common Risk factors for Chronic Renal disease (CKD)are :

What are the preferred screening tests for CKD?How is CKD diagnosed?

What are the diagnostic indicators for CKD?

What can you do to prevent Chronic Kidney disease?

Do You Know About My Books?

Noncommunicable Diseases in India :What You Can Do Today (Podcast)

Important points:

In this podcast I talk about :

But what can you do to prevent NCDs ?

Permission To Create and Finding Flow

Connecting With You

About me and my interests in a nutshell

Podcasts by Dr.Amrita Basu

Roshan Radhakrishnan

Vishakha Talreja

Search Results for: health

So what exactly is STEAM education?

Sharing is good Karma!

But what is Chronic kidney disease?

In case you already have kidney disease, what can you do?

How Serious is Chronic Kidney Disease?

Note: Prevention is the best policy.

Common Risk factors for Chronic Renal disease (CKD)are :

What are the preferred screening tests for CKD?How is CKD diagnosed?

What are the diagnostic indicators for CKD?

What can you do to prevent Chronic Kidney disease?

Sharing is good Karma!

Sharing is good Karma!

Important points:

In this podcast I talk about :

But what can you do to prevent NCDs ?

Sharing is good Karma!

Sharing is good Karma!

About me and my interests in a nutshell

Sharing is good Karma!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

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Krishna Mishra and the Mysterious Movie Star(#Book 1) by Dr.Amrita Basu|Full Mystery Audiobook

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