 Elderly Beware |
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Saturday 4 May 2013:
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Anticholinergics, a commonly prescribed group of drugs, may cause
elderly people to "slow down" in their daily physical activities, said
Padma Shri & Dr. BC Roy National Awardee, Dr. KK Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India & National Vice President Elect IMA.
It has been reported that anti-cholinergic drugs – used to treat acid
reflux, Parkinson's disease and urinary incontinence -- may cause older
people to lose their thinking skills more quickly than those who do not
take the medicines.
Anti-cholinergic drugs act by blocking acetylcholine, a chemical that
enhances communication between nerve cells in the brain, from binding to
its receptors in nerve cells. Older adults taking anticholinergics
become more likely to walk more slowly and to need help in other daily
activities. These results are true even in older adults who have normal
memory and thinking abilities.
For older adults taking a moderately anticholinergic medication, or two
or more mildly anticholinergic medications, their function is similar to
that of someone three to four years older. Common anticholinergic
medicines include blood pressure medication, nifedipine; the stomach
antacid, ranitidine and the incontinence medication, tolterodine.
Cholinesterase inhibitors, a family of drugs used to treat dementia by
increasing levels of acetylcholine include donepezil, galantamine,
rivastigmine and tacrine. About 10 percent of patients may be taking
tolterodine and donepezil together. The two drugs are pharmacological
opposites, which led to the hypothesis that the simultaneous treatment
of dementia and incontinence could lead to reduced effectiveness of one
or both drug.
About HCFI: The only National Not for profit NGO, on whose mega
community health education events, Govt. of India has released two
National commemorative stamps and one cancellation stamp, and who has
conducted one to one training on” Hands only CPR” of 47982 people since 1st November 2012.
The CPR 10 Mantra is – “within 10 minutes of death, earlier the
better; at least for the next 10minutes, longer the better; compress the
centre of the chest of the dead person continuously and effectively
with a speed of 10x10 i.e. 100 per minute.”
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Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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