Archive for ‘Main’

January 30th, 2010

Future of Ipad

by admin
Image:DigitalTrends

Image:DigitalTrends

Now that the hype around Ipad is far from  over in Blogosphere and also in the Media,It needs to be  watched over the following months how  Ipad can impact  our lives.

Many have criticized  Apple,over Ipad as overpriced,under performed toy.But,the point here is that it is just an extension of their  previous technology.Apple Newton was the beginning of the touch screen revolution.I remember using it way back in the early nineties to store address and also as reminders,then Palm took over the era of touch screen personal digital assistant.The beauty of palm device unlike the windows mobile devices was that it was simple,easy to use,robust and had many applications in the market built to run on it.

But,somehow it failed to move on with changing times,then came the era of windows based Personal Digital Assistant,I had to carry two devices -one phone and then another PDA,Then was the era of sleek Ipod which revolutionized the world of music and also the way we store data,physicians used it to store medical data.

Now I had to carry three devices in my pocket-I wished there was one single unit,which performed all these functions.Itouch answered my prayers partly,Itouch was another extension with a Graphical user interface and touch screen-I reduced myself to two devices-Phone and Itouch and prayed for an marriage between the two.

It spawned on Iphone which was taking smart phone to another dimension,The killer in Iphone was not the phone or the smartness but the numerous applications developed to run on it.If you look at the numbers,Blackberry is still the preferred Smartphone-in terms of its robustness-I still love it for emails and messaging.

But,Iphone took smart phone to another dimension with phone,emails,text and off course,numerous applications to play and work around.The numbers are growing in terms of units of Iphone sold worldwide to Blackberry units.

Then came the Netbook,revolution I jumped the bandwagon with ASUS EEEPC-It was small,sleek and performed basic tasks like word processing,blogging, email and also web surfing .I wished that APPLE will come out with  their own NETBOOK,but with touch screen.APPLE answered my wishes with IPAD.

Steve Jobs is  smart he will not stop here,Ipad was just another evolution from Itouch-another form of netbook albeit in style and Apple charm.If new applications are built to run on it like  ebook and also preferably reading of journal articles-it will definitely make a big impact on  medical profession.

I wanted to buy Amazon Kindle for reading ebooks on the move,but with Apple Ipad-I believe it is going to be history. Kindle is not yet enabled for PDF files and also the screen is black and white and it is as expensive as Ipad.

Apple,has learned its lessons from its past mistakes,and also mistakes of its competitors,although now it is claimed to be the largest Mobile device manufacturer in the World and I am sure there will be another tool round the corner in the future.

It is not the device that can make the difference,but applications to run on it.Remember the days of personal computing,it succeeded not because of PC but Windows,and Apple has learned its lesson.

Popularity: 14% [?]

January 21st, 2010

Crisis in Haiti

by admin

The earthquake that rocked Haiti last week has caused unimaginable death and destruction, a reminder to everyone that catastrophes are usually unforeseeable and therefore almost impossible to prepare for such events.

It would have been extraordinarily hard for Haiti to have prepared for restructuring  without a great deal of assistance from the rest of the world.

The earthquake caused major damage to Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area.Amongst the widespread devastation and damage throughout Port-au-Prince and elsewhere were hospitals and medical centers.

Despite the pouring of aid from across the world..There is still a long way for the country to come back to normalcy.

International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.

Visit their website for more information.

Popularity: 8% [?]

July 24th, 2009

Fat ‘R’Us or Health ‘e’ Run with Fresh Air Fund

by admin

Obesity in Children

Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. Both terms mean that a person’s weight is greater than what is considered healthy for his or her height. Children grow at different rates, so it isn’t always easy to know when a child is obese or overweight.

Why is childhood obesity considered a health problem?
Doctors and scientists are concerned about the rise of obesity in children and youth because obesity may lead to the following health problems:

Heart disease, caused by:

  • high cholesterol and/or
  • high blood pressure
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Asthma
  • Sleep apnea
  • Social discrimination

Childhood obesity is associated with various health-related consequences. Obese children and adolescents may experience immediate health consequences and may be at risk for weight-related health problems in adulthood.

Psychosocial Risks
Some consequences of childhood and adolescent overweight are psychosocial. Obese children and adolescents are targets of early and systematic social discrimination.2 The psychological stress of social stigmatization can cause low self-esteem which, in turn, can hinder academic and social functioning, and persist into adulthood.3

Cardiovascular Disease Risks
Obese children and teens have been found to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), including high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and abnormal glucose tolerance. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, almost 60% of overweight children had at least one CVD risk factor while 25 percent of overweight children had two or more CVD risk factors.2

Additional Health Risks
Less common health conditions associated with increased weight include asthma, hepatic steatosis, sleep apnea and Type 2 diabetes.

Asthma is a disease of the lungs in which the airways become blocked or narrowed causing breathing difficulty. Studies have identified an association between childhood overweight and asthma.4, 5
Hepatic steatosis is the fatty degeneration of the liver caused by a high concentration of liver enzymes. Weight reduction causes liver enzymes to normalize.2
Sleep apnea is a less common complication of overweight for children and adolescents. Sleep apnea is a sleep-associated breathing disorder defined as the cessation of breathing during sleep that lasts for at least 10 seconds. Sleep apnea is characterized by loud snoring and labored breathing. During sleep apnea, oxygen levels in the blood can fall dramatically. One study estimated that sleep apnea occurs in about 7% of overweight children.6
Type 2 diabetes is increasingly being reported among children and adolescents who are overweight.7 While diabetes and glucose intolerance, a precursor of diabetes, are common health effects of adult obesity, only in recent years has Type 2 diabetes begun to emerge as a health-related problem among children and adolescents. Onset of diabetes in children and adolescents can result in advanced complications such as CVD and kidney failure.8

References

1 Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, McDowell MA, Tabak CJ, Flegal KM. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999-2004. JAMA 2006;295(13):1549–1555.

2 Dietz W. Health consequences of obesity in youth: Childhood predictors of adult disease.Pediatrics 1998;101:518–525.

3 Swartz MB and Puhl R. Childhood obesity: a societal problem to solve. Obesity Reviews 2003; 4(1):57–71.

4 Rodriguez MA, Winkleby MA, Ahn D, Sundquist J, Kraemer HC. Identification of populations subgroups of children and adolescents with high asthma prevalence: findings from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2002;156:269–275.

5 Luder E, Melnik TA, Dimaio M. Association of being overweight with greater asthma symptoms in inner city black and Hispanic children. J Pediatr 1998;132:699–703.

6 Mallory GB, Fiser DH, Jackson R. Sleep-associated breathing disorders in morbidly obese children and adolescents. J Pediatr 1989;115:892–897.

7 Fagot-Campagna A, Narayan KMV, Imperatore G. Type 2 diabetes in children: exemplifies the growing problem of chronic diseases [Editorial]. BMJ 2001;322:377–378.

8 Must A, Anderson SE. Effects of obesity on morbidity in children and adolescents. Nutr Clin Care2003;6:1;4–11.

Well these are the facts on Childhood obesity,but how do we treat them,Management by Prevention is one of the best cure for childhood obesity and subsequent development of Adult obesity.

How much physical activity do adults need?

To answer this question visit this website.

But if you are keen to do it for real,then pull out your running shoes and run for a cause-New York City Half-Marathon on August 16th 2009 while also helping Fresh Air Fund children?

visit their website for more information-

Popularity: 29% [?]