- 4 hours ago
If you ever thought that you have not smoked loads of cigarettes or consumed tobacco in various forms for a prolonged period of time, and you are safe from cancer, just think again. A worrying trend has emerged in Delhi, as the deadly ailment has gripped even people who have never smoked a cigarette or consumed tobacco. Hear from a non-smoking cancer patient and how their life has changed. Watch more on Health 360.
Category
ЁЯЧЮ
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of Helpy 60.
00:03On the show this week, the controversy around actor Sonali Bainray's claim about naturopathy helping in with her cancer.
00:13Also, we will tell you about the uranium breast milk scare in Bihar that actually quite wasn't.
00:20On the show, the link between screen use and infertility is your addiction to screens costing you your intimacy
00:29and hence having a deep impact on infertility.
00:33We'll also be getting you up to speed with the pollution situation in Delhi and CR region
00:38and an interview, a special interview with a 35-year-old young woman who never smoked a cigarette in her life
00:47but has developed lung cancer, stage 4 lung cancer living in Delhi.
00:52Yes, that's what air pollution is doing to all of us at much more up ahead on the show.
00:58I'm Sneha Murdani, this is Helpy 60.
01:02We'll see.
01:02We'll see.
01:03We'll see.
01:03We'll see.
01:37Directly or indirectly, screen time addiction is costing us our intimacy and as a result of it, infertility.
01:49There are many other ways in which screen time and use of gadgets is affecting us adversely as far as fertility is concerned.
01:57This report explores.
01:58So does this happen to you even before you realized you ended up spending what?
02:10Just about two hours on your phone and you actually picked up your phone for some work and that work doesn't even end up getting done.
02:19Sometimes we spend so much time on our phones, sometimes even on the phones and the laptop, another gadget at the same time.
02:28We don't even realize that when 15 minutes becomes 30 and 30 becomes one hour and sometimes more than one hour, even two hours.
02:36Well, this is a classic sign of screen addiction.
02:41Of course, your vision is getting impacted.
02:44Sometimes your eyes are almost popping out.
02:46They're so tired.
02:48But this isn't just about your vision and your eyesight and your attentiveness.
02:53Your social life has also taken a hit.
02:56Your family realizes that you're more close to your gadgets than you are to your family members.
03:01And in all of this comes the question of your relationship with your spouse, with your partner.
03:09And that's the reason why experts are now pointing towards a direction that screen addiction is now getting linked to infertility.
03:19It's affecting our intimacy and causing many other problems as well linked to fertility.
03:25Here's how.
03:26In today's digital world, our screens have become constant companions.
03:35Blue light disrupts melatonin, which throws off your hormonal balance and menstrual cycles.
03:41Late night scrolling leads to sleep debt, disturbing the pituitary gland that governs ovulation and sperm health.
03:48Stress from overstimulation keeps your mind off intimacy.
03:52It will be the last thing really on your mind.
03:56Sitting too long restricts pelvic blood flow.
03:59Blue light from the screen, it suppresses the hormone called melatonin, which is important for regularization of the sleep patterns.
04:07And if the sleep patterns are disturbed, the reproductive hormones are also disturbed.
04:13Moreover, what happens is this also affects the kickardial rhythm of the hormones.
04:18And moreover, this causes increase in the stress hormones and this causes imbalance in the hormones like estrogen and progesterone, which are important for fertility.
04:31More screen time naturally means less physical activity.
04:35This creates a cycle that can lead to weight gain, insulin resistance, metabolic issues, hormonal imbalances.
04:42What happens when we keep the laptop in the laps, it increases the warmth and the sperm production is hampered because of that.
04:51Similarly, when we keep phone in the pocket, what happens is the temperature also increases.
04:57Because the men's reproductive organs are very close to the phone.
05:02They are very close to the electronic device.
05:05So, this is what techno interference looks like.
05:07You are constantly distracted using your headphones or either you are on your phone, checking your notifications all the time, not paying attention to what your partner is saying.
05:16You are emotionally absolutely lost and absent from the situation, from the present situation that you are in.
05:23That really affects your relationship and, of course, your intimacy.
05:28Apart from that, there is also another link that has been drawn as far as infertility and screen addiction is concerned.
05:37Isn't it, Cyrus?
05:39Well, that's absolutely right, Sneha.
05:40Keeping your laptop on your lap like this can affect sperm count and there are studies to support that.
05:47Now, think of sperm production like a fine-tuned factory.
05:50It operates at its best in cooler temperatures.
05:54Now, if the scrotal temperature goes up by even 2 to 3 degrees, it can affect your sperm count and motility.
06:00Which is where I always recommend that you keep some sort of a cushion beneath the laptop like this or you can even replace it with a cooling pad.
06:09And that can keep things a bit easier.
06:17Cyrus, stop.
06:19Don't put your phone in your pocket.
06:20It's pretty much the same thing, isn't it?
06:22There is some evidence that if you're putting your phone in your pocket, then it is going to impact your sperm quality.
06:28And this data has been peer-reviewed.
06:31So, therapy is safe than sorry, isn't it?
06:33Put your phone anywhere else, but while your front pocket or sometimes even your back phone.
06:38Well, you're absolutely right, Sneha.
06:39There are studies by Calcutta University and also the Institute for Reproductive Medicine that say that keeping your smartphones in your front pocket can also increase the chances of impotence and infertility.
06:51Which is why I always recommend to keep them away just to be safe.
06:55A month-plus of horrible air in Delhi and the national capital region.
07:00Now, grab stage 3 curbs have been revoked because of slight improvement in the air quality in this region.
07:07With this, the 50% work-from-home system mandated for offices has been discontinued.
07:13Hybrid mode of classes being followed by schools has also been revoked.
07:17The Commission for Air Quality Management, CAQM, the Central Pollution Control Watchdog, has already tightened emergency pollution control measures by revising the graded action plan just a few days ago.
07:30But the fact of the matter right now is that doctors in unison are saying that, listen, this isn't just about a problem in the winter months.
07:38And also, this isn't just about asthma or some breathing difficulty during this time.
07:45Every organ, every cell is getting affected.
07:47Also, cases of lung cancer are increasing in Delhi in the younger population.
07:54I'm being joined right now by Urvashi Prasad.
07:56She's worked in the area of public health.
07:59She's young and just a few years ago, Urvashi was also diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
08:08Urvashi, you know, I want to ask you, when you were diagnosed with lung cancer, you have told that you never really smoked.
08:15So what happened here?
08:16What did the doctors tell you?
08:18Yeah, I was always a very fit person and with a very healthy lifestyle and also did not have any symptoms as such until, you know, they came on pretty suddenly.
08:32And actually, they were all related to my liver, not to the lung because, you know, by then the cancer had spread.
08:40So after an initial sort of misdiagnosis, when all the tests were done and the confirmatory genetic tests were also done, that is when they diagnosed me with stage 4 ALK positive lung cancer.
08:57As far as your case is concerned, you're obviously linking it to air pollution.
09:01Your doctors have done the same.
09:03That's right.
09:04Cancer is always, you know, you can say there can be different factors, but air pollution in this particular case has been identified as a very, very important trigger.
09:17Urvashi, you've also worked extensively in the area of public health.
09:20You know, tell us a little about what your thoughts are as far as the current situation is concerned.
09:25Yeah, that might be in the short term, but in the longer term, which is, of course, different for all of us.
09:33It could be one year, two years, five years or 10 years.
09:37Every organ in the body is certainly being affected in some way or the other, whether it is causing early onset dementia in people or raising blood sugar levels or triggering arthritis or then, of course, cancers or various kinds.
09:54It might not happen immediately and that is why people often don't see it as a problem, which is that important.
10:04But surely all of us are being fed this poison and it might be a slow poison, but we're all taking it in and it will have consequences.
10:13If not today, then down the line at some point.
10:17Dr. Arvind Kumar, Chairperson of the Institute of Chest Surgery, Midamtha is now joining us.
10:23Thank you for your time.
10:24You know, talk to us about the profile of lung cancer patients and how that really has changed in Delhi over the last few years, sir.
10:31So, 30 years back, 90% of the patients were smokers.
10:37They were men and they were in their 50s and 60s.
10:42So, it was known as a disease of elderly smoker men.
10:49Okay.
10:49And when I look at my current data, I find a smoker, non-smoker difference to be 50-50, which means half of my patients today.
11:01Are so-called non-smokers.
11:04I find the men-women ratio also to be about 60-40, which means as opposed to rarely women.
11:12Today, 40% of the patients are women.
11:16It's a huge demographic change, which I have observed in a short span of 30 years.
11:22And the direct link doctor is air pollution.
11:24I attribute it conclusively because if you look at the composition of the cigarette smoke and you look at the composition of the polluted air, you find that the cancer-causing agents are common to both.
11:42What would your word of caution really be?
11:45And what would be your word of advice to those people who feel, A, that air pollution is a seasonal problem, happens only in winters, which again is not true.
11:54And also that it's going to be causing some inconvenience, but never really affect every cell and every organ of the body.
12:00What do you have to tell those people, sir?
12:02Neha, this is all myth.
12:05Air pollution is a serious health crisis facing most of the country.
12:12Almost 98% of the surface area is affected.
12:16To say that it is a Delhi-centric or North-centric problem is wrong.
12:21To say that it is only October, November, December month's problem is wrong.
12:26We have it across the year.
12:28Only thing is, in these three months, the optical quality of the air goes so bad that it becomes visible to all.
12:37But pollution is present throughout the year.
12:41Recently, popular actor from the 90s, Sonali Benvi, spoke about her cancer journey.
12:46She was diagnosed in the year 2018 and underwent conventional treatment and is out of this disease.
12:52However, she has now spoken about the role of autophagy and naturopathy in helping her come out of cancer.
13:02Medical Twitter has been up in arms, saying that these claims made by Sonali Benvi are rather misleading.
13:10What really is the truth behind what Sonali Benvi said?
13:14What is autophagy?
13:15What is naturopathy?
13:17We explore.
13:22In 2016, almost a decade ago, Dr. Yoshinori Osumi won a Nobel Prize in Autophagy,
13:33a fundamental process in cells that scientists believe can be harnessed to fight cancer and dementia.
13:41A decade later, autophagy is a hot topic of debate.
13:45The reason, popular actor from the 90s, Sonali Benvi has partly credited autophagy and naturopathy to her cancer recovery.
13:55Actress, Sonali Benvi has spoken about autophagy.
14:03So, what is autophagy is that once I have taken the standard cancer treatment, like I have taken chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and then a lot of times there is a huge percentage that the cancer still comes back.
14:18So, what she is talking about is that she is using control of autophagy to prevent the cancer recurrence.
14:28The actor was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer in 2018 and used conventional cancer treatments, receiving treatment in New York.
14:38But this post where she credited naturopathy and autophagy as a big part of her healing has triggered a fierce debate online.
14:50So, what really is autophagy?
14:53It means self-eating.
14:54That really is the literal meaning.
14:57This is the body's internal recycling program.
15:00When the amount of nutrients in the body is low, it breaks down the damaged cell parts.
15:06Thus, it recycles the waste and transforms it into usable energy for rebuilding healthier cells.
15:14So, overeating ruins it.
15:16It slows autophagy and fasting then helps.
15:19This process is also linked to lower inflammation, slower aging and protection against neurodegenerative diseases.
15:27Metabolic decline and cancer build-up.
15:31Scrap cell components are captured and the useful parts are stripped out to generate energy or build new cells.
15:38The process is crucial for preventing cancerous growth, warding off infection and by maintaining a healthy metabolism,
15:47it helps protect against conditions like diabetes.
15:51Sonali Vendrei's naturopath had pointed her towards this research.
15:57During her cancer journey, well, it's an important survival mechanism, but not a medical treatment.
16:04Never a standalone.
16:06There is proven research.
16:08We can go on PubMed.
16:09We can go on chat GPT.
16:10We can put up that how our naturopathy can control autophagy.
16:14We'll find a lot of research papers on that.
16:16Using certain natural drugs, naturopathy, if I can prevent a cancer recurrence,
16:21recurrence, which is now being researched and documented in cell line studies.
16:30And if I use Indian traditional medicine to prevent a cancer recurrence,
16:34then we should do more research into it rather than criticizing her or saying that she's wrong.
16:39She's right.
16:40It's just that the more research is needed to find out a proper way so that we can use naturopathy in a very right way so that the cancer recurrence can be prevented.
16:54Autophagy is a double-edged process in cancer biology.
16:58Sometimes, it protects cancer cells, helping them survive stress, including chemotherapy.
17:05Other times, it helps the body eliminate damaged cells before they turn cancerous.
17:11Bendre's post was a personal reflection.
17:15And she later clarified on that as well in an attempt really to douse the fire that was lit online in the line of treatment for cancer that she had received.
17:25Recently, instances of suicides in younger children, as young as eight and nine in Delhi and many other parts of India have shocked us.
17:35The images, the visuals of these incidents are absolutely horrific, begging us to ask the question,
17:43what is going on?
17:44What's happening in the mind of an eight and nine-year-old to take such an extreme step?
17:48We explore with our experts in this report on what schools, parents and children can do collectively to address this silent epidemic in the country.
17:59A distraught father, dealing with the trauma of the suicide of his young child, a class 10 student of a prestigious school in Delhi.
18:23The young boy who took his life and blamed his teachers for his death isn't the lone case of suicide in a young child in the country.
18:32This video of a nine-year-old jumping off a school building will haunt her parents forever.
18:39The Jaipul student's suicide remains shrouded in mystery.
18:43What is clear is that the child sought help from her teachers several times before taking her own life.
18:49Her pleas met with hostility.
18:51It could be for low marks, it could be for being scolded, or it could be fear or the trauma of not living up to expectations.
19:05The suicide notes left behind by these children tell stories that present shivers down your spine, begging this question.
19:13Could they have not been helped?
19:16Wasn't the school counselling them?
19:18Did the parents not know?
19:20Could they not have been stopped?
19:26Mental health experts advise early interventions.
19:29Spotting signs of distress is important.
19:32It's important for parents to remember that children today live with pressure, a lot of pressure that didn't maybe exist in a generation ago.
19:50But nowadays, the child feels that pressure.
19:52So in today's time, they feel constant pressure from academic expectations, constant comparison from others, social reactions in this group.
20:01Non-stop digital exposure is again one of the pressures that they feel a lot.
20:05So when parents understand and acknowledge this, so they know how to respond with empathy, how to respond with care towards the child instead of being frustrated a lot.
20:16Suicides among students has surged 65% in current years in one decade.
20:24A shocking surge between 2013 and 2023.
20:27Data from the National Crime Records Bureau indicates.
20:31According to the latest NCRB data, student suicides in India surged to a record 13,892 cases in 2023, marking a 6.5% increase from 2022.
20:47A worrying 65% rise over one decade.
20:53If a child becomes withdrawn, if they are becoming more unusually, you know, unusually quiet or different from their usual self,
21:00then the parents should gently check in with them instead of pressurizing them more.
21:05Because at times it happens that parents, you know, don't understand what is the child is going through and they pressurize them with one thing or with another.
21:12Earlier this week, there was a report that suggested that uranium was found in the breast milk of lactating women in 40 women in Bihar.
21:21It caused a lot of uproar and scare given that uranium beyond permissible limits can harm all humans, including the infant who is lactating,
21:33who is in fact drinking his or her mother's milk.
21:37But if you delve deeper, you'd understand that this actually was a scare that really wasn't.
21:45What really is uranium?
21:46And is there any reason to worry about as far as this report is concerned?
21:52We explore.
21:54Well, earlier this week, there was fair amount of scare with revelations that there was uranium found in the breast milk of lactating women in Bihar.
22:03Now, an estimated 151 districts in 18 states are reported with groundwater uranium contamination.
22:11About 1.7% of groundwater sources are affected in the state of Bihar is what the study has found.
22:19So how was the study done?
22:2140 lactating women were selected from different districts in Bihar.
22:25It was a random selection.
22:26A small sample size is what experts argue.
22:29The study said uranium exposure to the infants through their mother's breast milk is at a hazardous level.
22:38That was what was said.
22:39The infants are highly vulnerable to potential non-carcinogenic risk in comparison to their mothers due to the real-time uranium elimination from their bodies.
22:49Definitely, we would say as healthcare professionals that it is advisable or it is suggestible that no amount of uranium should be found in the breast milk.
22:58But the amount detected here is not, you know, that high to be alarmed about that.
23:05So what really is uranium?
23:07And how did this uranium find its way to breast milk?
23:10So in Bihar and many other parts of the country also, people still depend on the groundwater.
23:16So if there is contamination of the groundwater with uranium and then mothers drink that, then from the gut through the systemic circulation, it can small amount can enter the breast milk.
23:26Uranium is a natural element which is invariably present in trace amounts in everything.
23:34At some level of uranium in groundwater across the globe, not just in India.
23:39Uranium is a heavy element and does not bind with the tissues of the body.
23:44So any uranium you consume will likely be flushed out in a very short time.
23:50People have to drink highly contaminated water for several years at a stretch to have some impact on their kidneys.
23:58So what does the World Health Organization say about uranium contamination?
24:02The WHO in its 2001 guidance on uranium in drinking water said the human body on average contains about 90 mg of uranium,
24:12which is derived from normal intakes of water, food and air.
24:1566% is found in the skeleton, 60% in the liver, 8% in the kidneys, 10% in other tissues.
24:22The WHO safety limit for the element in question is 6 times higher than the levels detected in Bihar.
24:31This margin provides a robust safety cushion.
24:35Based on the known effects of uranium on the health, adverse effects on the health,
24:40number one is to look for any kidney damage.
24:43So kidney damage can happen with uranium toxicity.
24:46Number two is effects on the bone.
24:49So bone can, growth can be affected and then bone can become weak.
24:54And the third is the effect on the brain.
24:57So brain means mainly we look at the learning ability or learning disability,
25:01their IQ levels, the brain growth and overall development.
25:06There are loopholes in the study as well.
25:08The children were also not monitored to see whether there was an impact on their health.
25:14Well, for starters, the sample size statistically is insignificant, is what experts have said.
25:20Long-term uranium exposure can have very harmful health effects on infants.
25:25But the Bihar study's findings conclude that the actual impact on infant health is likely low
25:31and said women must continue to breastfeed babies, not stop that.
25:35But the bottom line, uranium in breast milk screamed at the headlines.
25:40But there isn't much to worry.
25:42Not for now.
25:43Well, that brings us to the end of this edition of Healthy 60.
25:47You can find this report and much more up on our website.
25:49That's indiatoday.in.
25:51You can download the app as well.
25:53All of our reports go up on our social media handles,
25:55which is Zex or Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and of course YouTube.
26:00You can in fact log on and our hashtag is Healthy 60, Healthy 60 Plus.
26:07Until next week, take very good care of yourself.
26:10I'm the entire team of Healthy 60.
26:12Bye for now.
26:13I'm the entire team of Healthy 60.
Be the first to comment