Why modern medicine?

Health care was born when humans evolved. It has also evolved with human evolution. Many of us do not realize that we are evolving day by day and as the process is so slow and subtle it is difficult for us to realize. But evolution of health care is visible. Some ancient systems are still in vogue with limited utility as modern system happens to be inadequate for certain diseases and disorders. Some of the ancient Indian systems like Ayurveda are useful to fill the gaps for the time being because they have developed through trial and error and we don't have treatment in modern medicine. The major problem in these is that they use extractions/ decoction /concoctions of one or more plants and other substances. These or so complex that you cannot elucidate the individual chemical components . We cannot understand the nature of the active compound and we don't even know whether it is one or more chemical that brings the desired result. Sometimes, it's believed to be a synergistic effect. But the problem is, if something goes wrong or there is some allergic or unwanted reaction, we would not know the antidote. After all, allergy is very specific and personal to an individual. Further, we need to establish the scientific basis and through specific and valid clinical trials prove the efficacy of the treatment for universal application and acceptance. Some treatment systems use heavy metals and toxic components which they claim safety out of faith in the past. We don't know whether different methods of toxicity testing including long term bioaccumulation using preclinical trials were established. Among the so called alternate systems the most puzzling is Homeopathy. The very basis or foundation of this is unscientific and unacceptable to me. I fail to get convinced with the concept that greater the dilution more will be the potency or efficacy. People with faith in this system fail to realize that it is their faith that cures them and others like them and not the substance in their "medicine". For people of this type, I would like to give some personal examples. When I was in school, one day the younger brother of my classmate who was three years old, had swallowed the entire contents of a small cylindrical bottle in which the round small sugar balls ( containing homeopathy medicine of high potency) meant for his father was kept. The family upon realization of this, got panicked and rushed him to the clinic of the reputed Homeopathy doctor in my town those days, who coolly told the scared parents, that no problem, no harm would be done as the medicine will not affect those who don't have the complaint and would act only on those who suffer. Are you not stunned by this statement? This resulted in my stand that the cure claimed by so many including my wife with homeopathic treatment, is nothing but placebo effect or faith cure. Another proof  for my belief in faith cure was again my experience with my last son when he was a child about thirty years ago. He used frequently get sick with fever. I used to give him some medicines and he will not recover. Then I used to take him to our family doctor and he will prescribe the very same medicine after discussing with me. He will get cured immediately. Further, it has been proved that many of the illnesses are psychosomatic in nature. Except Infectious, genetic and some physiological diseases, most of the physiological problems are psychosomatic. We normally think that only depression and the consequent illnesses are psychosomatic. But several others are also psychosomatic and I have several instances personally known to me. You should not misunderstand that such illnesses are imaginary and not real. The illnesses are real but only the cause is psychological. For example, long back, it was established by a scientific study that if you hypnotize a person and tell the person is having food and depending on the type of food the person is told, the stomach started secreting acid and all other enzymes needed to digest the food are released in the gastrointestinal tract. So, psychosomatic origin of the illness and placebo effect are difficult to discover and make people to accept. My view is that there should be a serious effort to create as much scientific evidence as possible for effective and proven treatments in traditional medicine by following established procedures in modern medicine.

Is there a right to kill ?

I am tempted to again get into the confusing and controversial concept of rights. The right to live does not automatically confer the right to die because birth and death are not part of one's rights. You cannot be born when, how and where you wish and this should be applied equally to death as well. But, the stretch between birth and death namely life that is, the way of living is somehow considered your right. You cannot be dictated as to how you should live. Therefore, the right to live with dignity or otherwise cannot be stretched to include a right to live or die. I am also of the opinion that a “living will" which is quite legal for your property, is not acceptable for euthanasia. Writing a will is legal for the wealth acquired by you but not to end your life which is not acquired by you and hence not your right! That is why suicide is not legal. . When suicide for a specific reason by an individual is not permitted how can we have death penalty? A judge is also a human and is therefore likely to err in judgement. How can the judgement of a death sentence be accepted which cannot be reverted after execution? Any punishment is often said to deter the punished from repeating the crime. If he is hanged to death how can it be a deterrent to him? I have never heard of a death sentence deterring others from committing that crime. Even accidents which kill people, fail in a country like India to deter people from driving without obeying rules. A harsh life imprisonment if fully implemented may deter some people. Same arguments of right to death have been raised for euthanasia and it has so far not been permitted in many countries including those which punish criminals with death sentences. But those who have seen the sufferings of terminally ill patients, who have no chance of recovery, will definitely agree to euthanasia.  If at all, a law for euthanasia is to be enacted, the most important class should be that the individual to be euthanized is above the prevalent maximum age of over 10% of the population. It may vary. Now, it can be fixed as eighty years in countries like India. Just as the government fixed frequently the prevailing market value of several things like land, an expert committee could decide on this from time to time and passive euthanasia may be permissible for those above this age subject to conditions. Let us not pass a law for euthanasia without thorough analysis on different counts. I ventured writing this because recently I read about this in the editorial column of a reputed Indian Newspaper.

The forgotten organ and the mighty midgets

The term bacteria or microbes has become very common but often induces in layman's mind a sort fear as if they are the only cause of diseases and that we should keep away from them. First, I would clarify this before proceeding further. It's true that some microbes ( viruses, bacteria and microfungi) do cause some diseases referred as Infectious diseases some of which can be contagious as they spread by contact. We have a number of antimicrobial drugs to treat such diseases. But there are other types of diseases termed physiological and genetic diseases which are not caused by microbes and are often more difficult to treat such as Cancer.
We need to be ever grateful to these mighty midgets or microbes, as we cannot survive in this world without them, while they can without us. Apart from varied uses of microbes in the production of several goods and services, the very space where we live is available to us only because of them, as they keep constantly removing the dead biota (organic matter) from our environment. If only we sterilize our environment, the space available would soon be filled with dead ones.
At this juncture, I would like to point out to some of you that not only we can't afford to keep our environment complete sterile but can not afford to keep any part of our body either outside or inside totally sterile. Every part of our body from head to foot both outside and inside is inhabited by specific populations of microbes which are irreplaceable as they perform specific roles needed for our survival. These are called "Microbiomes" and dependant on the place of occurrence they are variously labelled as Gut Microbiome, Skin Microbiome and so on. In fact, on a healthy, normal human body the number of natural resident microbes far out number the number of cells in the body. The microbial inhabitants of the human organs such as the gut is often referred as the forgotten organ because they perform and are responsible for a variety of essential functions. The microbial signature is often specific helping us to characterize an individual for example the gut Microbiome will tell us about your food habit. At this juncture, it would not be out of place to say that the cattle which eat and digest hay ( dry straw) are able to do so only because of their gut microbiota and not because of their ability to produce the enzymes required for straw digestion.
When I start talking or writing on this topic, I am likely to forget myself and over step the limit of general knowledge and get into technical details. So I force conclude this topic and express my willingness to answer specific queries if any from any of you.

A profession if you can't fit elsewhere.

Let me confess in the beginning itself that my knowledge of the ensuing subject is limited to my country and may seem bizarre to some of you who are not from India. What I am going to say pertains to India and countries alike.
These days, especially in rural and suburban areas, people are not unduly bothered if their offspring or siblings are not interested in studies and are more concerned about their physical development than mental development. They may even tend to be rough and start indulging in unethical practices. Surprisingly,their parents (especially if not quite literate) , rejoice and encourage them as they see a potential in them to become political leaders.
In preindependent India, people were willing to sacrifice what they had, for their commitment and/ or for the love of their leader/ land. They stepped into politics oblivious of consequences and without expectations. I have known quite a few fairly rich business men and landlords who lost everything they had during the Independence struggle. Subsequently, I have seen quite a few political leaders who had held high offices such as Home Minister in the state cabinet for over a decade but were penniless on retirement traveling by public transport and dying in government hospitals. But the moment some people discovered that politics is after all a potential gold mine that could be exploited without any qualification including education or virtues, with just muscle and/ or word power, everything changed. A new profession out of a pastime was carved out and all those with oratorical skills and totally care free attitude in life were attracted to this  like iron filings to a magnet. They became mass leaders and started creating groups of devout denizens arousing and nurturing parochial thoughts. This is paying off till now and those indulging are nonchalant because they are confident of buying anything including justice with money. Once moneyed people for the sake of name and fame joined politics and served the society. Their money was spent. Now, people make easy money with this profession. The saddest part of the story is that initially, when a new breed of corrupt politicians were emerging the officialdom was strict and conscious of values. But gradually, the dexterous, ingenious and cunning political class hit at the weakest nerve of the official machinery and brought it down to their feet. The reason why India is on the wrong side of corrupt countries' list is not only due to the perfect nexus between the two pillars of governance but the casual attitude of the hapless citizens who have started taking things on their strides. I believe we've almost reached a point of no return. Still as a staunch optimist, I expect a miracle.
Some may say corruption is not new and it was prevalent from time immemorial. They say that it existed during British rule. I am sure that only those who are unaware of the type and extent of corruption in existence now would say so. In earlier days it was like the tips that you give in hotels and restaurants that is prevalent with lower rungs in the ladder.