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HEALTH WATCH
A
Stitch In Time
A novel gadget can treat acidity and other disorders
without opening up the stomach
Acidity need no
longer be a nagging worry. Those who enjoy large helpings of spicy food,
drink in excess or smoke heavily have a new way of keeping the condition
under check. Using the smart and slick endoscopy sewing machine (ESM)
surgeons can now stitch damaged valves and prevent stomach acids from
flowing into the gullet and causing a burning sensation. All this without
general anaesthesia or hospitalisation as the process is over in just
20 minutes, enabling a patient to return home the same day and, very soon,
to his normal routine.
 Gastro-oesophagal
reflux disease, commonly referred to as acidity, can produce a severe
burning sensation in the chest, pain in the upper abdomen, difficulty
in swallowing food, regurgitation of food into the mouth, nausea and vomiting.
Sometimes it is also mistaken for a heart attack and is called heartburn.
Earlier it used to be treated by lifelong treatment or surgery. Now, with
the simple ESM technique, the problem can be treated permanently without
drugs or surgery.
In this method, the gastro-surgeon inserts a
10 mm-thick ESM comprising a needle and nylon thread through the patient's
mouth into the oesophagus and creates a pleat to stop acid flow from the
stomach. ESM is also beneficial in treating bleeding ulcers, closing intestinal
holes, removing cancer in early stages and curing disorders of the stomach,
food pipe, intestines and other parts of the alimentary canal without
resorting to conventional surgery.
"The human endeavour to conquer the bowel
has been accomplished," says Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, director, Asian
Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG), Hyderabad. AIG was the first health
centre in Asia to introduce the ESM procedure only months after its launch
in the US. "With ESM, we can now stitch any part of the stomach,
food pipe or intestine without actually opening up the abdomen,"
says Reddy.
Indigenisation of some components has brought
down the cost of an ESM procedure from Rs 1.50 lakh to Rs 8,000. Now the
AIG, in coordination with the medical-equipment makers BARD, US and J.
Mitra, India, plans to train gastrointestinal specialists in the use of
ESM for the whole of Asia. That will ensure patients opting for the procedure
don't spend on travel what they save on medical expenses.
--Amarnath K. Menon
IN SMALL DOSES
 Alzheimer's-the
Vitamin Connection: Once again leafy green vegetables provide
the answer. A study carried out over 30 years in a random survey of 370
people in Sweden has established definite links between low levels of
Vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies and the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
The study was published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy
of Neurology. Vitamin B12 is found in fish, milk and milk products, eggs,
meat and poultry. And spinach, beans, peas, cereals and green vegetables
can meet your folate requirements.
 Smart
Through Music: Music, say scientists, makes a difference to
the brain. At a recent international conference in the US, neurologists
showed that there was a significant difference in the way the brain's
grey matter is arranged in professional musicians trained at an early
age and non-musicians. Brains of 15 male professional musicians and 15
ordinary people of the same age and gender were compared using magnetic
resonance imaging for the study.
 Doubly
Sure: Two together are definitely better than one when it comes
to treatment for chronic headaches. So says a study conducted at Ohio
University, US, which tried determining which treatment was more effective
for headaches-a class of anti-depressants called tricyclics or brief stress
management therapies such as muscle-stretching exercise and relaxation
techniques. More than 200 patients who regularly suffered a dull ache
in the neck and head were treated with either method or both. A combination
of both proved most effective, reducing the pain by half.
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