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R HEART U O Y S E H C T H AT T O U Y L I A D G IN AN INSPIR Vol. 1 No. 37 Pages 16 PUNE, THURSDAY MAY 31, 2012 Rs.4 WEATHER Sunrise .....................05:57 Sunset ......................19:07 Moonrise .................13:55 Moonset ..................02:04 Temperature Min ...........................23 0c Max ...........................36 0c
TO WORK AS A UNIFIED FORCE
BE LOUD, BE HEARD
A WINDOW TO GUJARAT
City-based NGO Sarhad aims to bridge Indo-Pak divide >> P4
Budding RJ Tejas Menon’s candid confessions >> P7
Take a tour of the wonderful state >> P15
The anti-smoking crusade of the government is indeed strong as its main campaign line is `Tobacco is eating your baby alive.’ Since 2011, celebrity singer Shaan (left) is the ambassador of this campaign, Why take a chance, he says, just quit!
Strong anti-smoking On the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day today, Life 365 features the recent shifts in the government’s anti-smoking stance, and what one can expect ahead
SAMARTH GOYAL
warnings
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moking’s a vice, and thankfully, there are no counterarguments here. From warnings in schools from parents and loved ones, everyone makes it a point to tell you smoking is injurious to health. Thanks to the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP), the Ministry of
HEALTH MATTERS Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in association with the World Lung Foundation (WLF), launched a mass media campaign titled ‘Tobacco is eating your baby alive’. The imagery graphically shows that children exposed to
tobacco smoke suffer from diseases, including respiratory infections, ear infection and asthma.
Shift in advertising stance Research done by WLF revealed that television ads made in high-income countries that graphically communicate the serious harms of tobacco use, with only minor adaptations, were likely to be effective in low- to middleincome countries. Taking cue from the developments, tobacco companies have now wisely ‘de-glamorised’ cigarette ads. The rockstar jumping out of an airplane and saving a falling girl, then endorsing cigarettes has now been replaced by the rather gory-looking advertisements of how cigarettes are harmful.
Celebrate World No Tobacco Day z Ask your family and friends to support your decision to quit z Set a quit date. Decide what day you will extinguish your cigarettes forever. The best day is today z Talk with your doctor about quitting z Begin an exercise programme. Exercise is simply incompatible with smoking z Do some deep breathing each day for 3 to 5 minutes z Find another smoker who is trying to quit, and help each other with positive words and by lending an ear when quitting becomes difficult z Find something to hold in your hand and mouth, to replace cigarettes z Write yourself an inspirational song or poem about quitting, cigarettes, and what it means to you to quit. Read it daily While one advertisement shows a human windpipe oozing out tar when pressed, others scream hoarse with images of injured lungs, insides of the mouth, depicting
the disastrous damage smoking causes inside the human body. While some ads talk about the various cancerous diseases like lung and mouth
cancer, wind pipe, abdominal cancer, etc., some point out the damage done to the liver and even kidneys, how smoking can damage certain vital functioning organs of the body. To warn women of the hazards of smoking while they’re pregnant, some advertisements depict carrying mothers deliver deformed babies. Foetal abnormalities are stressed upon to further drive home that active and passive smoking can cause. It’s a standard practice in most foreign countries for cigarette boxes to carry graphic photos, warning the end user of the health hazards. A law of such stature was made in India in February 2007, but the government has since deferred its implementation six times. >> Continued on page 5
Show your tongue; know your health The researchers of University of Missouri have developed software to analyse an image of the tongue — a Chinese system of diagnosis NETWORK LIFE 365
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or 5,000 years, the Chinese have used a system of medicine based on the flow and balance of positive and negative energies in the body. In this system, the appearance of the tongue is one of the mediums used to classify the overall physical status of the body, or zheng. Now, the University of Missouri researchers have developed computer software that combines the ancient practices
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and modern medicine by providing an automated system for analysing images of the tongue. An effective pre-emptive tool “Knowing your zheng classification can serve as a pre-screening tool and help with preventive medicine,” said Dong Xu, chair of MU's computer science department in the College of Engineering and study co-author. “Our software helps bridge Eastern and Western medicine, since
Life 365 is more than just a daily that packages `life’ in its 16 pages. It is a platform to understand your city better in terms of the good work silently being done by hundreds of good samaritans. Their stories of
The methodology z For the study, 263 gastritis patients and 48 healthy volunteers had their tongues analysed. The gastritis patients were classified by whether they showed infection by a certain bacteria, known as Helicobacter pylori. In addition, most of the gastritis patients had been previously classified with either hot or cold zheng.
how they lend an extending hand could propel you to contribute your bit to the society. In this progressive city of Pune, the desire to the serve the society is very strong, as we learnt from interaction with citizens.
an imbalance in zheng could serve as a warning for a need to see a doctor. Within a year, our ultimate goal is to create an application for smartphones that will allow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the status of their zheng.”
Blowing hot-n-cold The software analyses images based on the tongue's colour and coating to distinguish between tongues showing signs of “hot” or “cold” zheng. Shades of red and yellow are
Do you know of a person, a group of persons, an institute, an initiative or an activity that would inspire people or promote the larger social good? Are you one of them? Life 365 offers itself as your
associated with hot zheng, whereas a white coating on the tongue is a sign of cold zheng. “Hot and cold zheng doesn't refer directly to body temperature,” said Xu, who is also on the faculty of the Bond Life Sciences Center. “Rather, it refers to a suite of symptoms associated with the state of the body as a whole.” For example, a person with cold zheng may feel chills and coolness in the limbs and show a pale flushing of face. >> Continued on page 5
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