Health

Every year, Diwali is a festival that is widely celebrated across India. Known to as the "Festival of Lights", it brings joy and togetherness but not without its fair share of smoke and noise pollution, which only gets worse for people who are already suffering from related diseases. In the days following the celebrations, many individuals, particularly between 35-65 years, experience a surge in respiratory problems. Exposure to smoke, dust, and particulate matter from fireworks, combined with seasonal pollution, can exacerbate underlying conditions and lead to new illnesses.  Experts urge people to be aware of warning signs and seek timely medical care to avoid serious complications. Diwali is indeed exciting, but many people can experience respiratory issues that can be a matter of con...

The awareness around stuttering in India is growing every day but there are still many misconceptions around it that adults have to deal with on a daily basis. However, there is a lot that can be done to help those people who live with it, especially when they are growing up as children. Every year, October 22 is observed as International Stuttering Awareness Day or International Stammering Awareness Day, to raise awareness about the speech challenge, that is known to affect one percent of the world’s population. While it is seen across ages, it starts early as a child for many, and with Children’s Day around the corner as it is celebrated in India on November 14, there is still a lot more to be done to create awareness about it. What is stuttering? For the uninitiated, stuttering, also k...

In a story that redefines resilience and medical triumph, a 37-year-old woman Lallianpuii from Aizawl in Mizoram, has achieved the extraordinary, she conceived naturally twice, first in 2023 and again in 2025, after undergoing two kidney transplants, in Kolkata.  Lallianpuii was first diagnosed with chronic kidney disease over a decade ago and underwent her first kidney transplant in 2012. After developing graft rejection, she required a second transplant in 2020. Despite the physical and emotional challenges of lifelong immunosuppressive therapy, she defied all odds by conceiving naturally twice. During her first pregnancy in 2023, Lallianpuii gave birth to a healthy baby girl after a carefully monitored journey that drew admiration from her medical team. Just two years later, in 2025, ...

A new study has highlighted a sharp rise in metabolic and lifestyle-related risk factors among professionals aged 30 to 40.  The findings show that obesity, abnormal lipid levels, and early glucose irregularities are becoming common in this age group, indicating that lifestyle diseases are setting in earlier than expected. The insights, by by Indian digital healthcare company Medibuddy, drawn from data analysed for 14,192 individuals aged 30–40 years, revealed that 59 years were obese and 19 years were overweight, reflecting a high body mass index (BMI) burden.  Dyslipidaemia was also common, with 38 per cent showing borderline or high triglycerides, 30 per cent recording borderline or high total cholesterol, and 45 per cent displaying low HDL (good cholesterol).  Glycaemic analysis sh...

Delhi was ranked the sixth most polluted city in the country in October, behind neighbouring Ghaziabad and Noida, according to a study. Dharuhera in Haryana was ranked as the most polluted city in October, with a monthly average PM2.5 concentration of 123 g/m³, according to the Monthly Air Quality Snapshot released by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on Tuesday. It provided a comprehensive analysis of India`s air quality based on continuous ambient air quality monitoring station (CAAQMS) data. The findings revealed a sharp deterioration in air quality across the country, with worsening conditions concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), particularly the National Capital Region (NCR), an official statement said. Delhi ranked sixth with an average concentratio...

Doctors in Chennai have successfully treated a 58-year-old woman suffering from severe kidney disease (on dialysis), liver problems, and advanced heart disease, using India’s first indigenously developed Mitral Clip device—MyClip. This marks a major milestone in making advanced cardiac care accessible and affordable in India. For three years, the patient struggled with severe breathlessness, swollen feet, and extreme fatigue, unable to carry out daily activities. She was diagnosed with severe Mitral Regurgitation (MR)—a heart valve condition where blood leaks backward in the heart, causing worsening symptoms and heart failure risk. Traditional treatment options like open-heart surgery or heart transplant were too risky and were not taken under consideration due to her age and other heal...

The first clinical trial is getting underway to see if transplanting pig kidneys into people might really save lives. United Therapeutics, a producer of gene-edited pig kidneys, announced on Monday that the study`s initial transplant was performed successfully at NYU Langone Health. It`s the latest step in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. A second US company, eGenesis, is preparing to begin its own pig kidney clinical trial in the coming months. These are the first known clinical trials of what is called xenotransplantation in the world. To protect the study participant`s identity, researchers aren`t releasing information about when the NYU surgery was performed or further patient information. NYU`s Dr Robert Montgomery, who led the transplant team, told The Associated Press...

Doctors in Kolkata gave a 59-year-old man a new lease of life after he underwent a highly complex CTO-angioplasty using IVUS guidance. The treatment was conducted under the supervision of Dr Norihiro Kobayashi, a renowned Interventional Cardiologist from Yokohama City Hospital in Japan, at Manipal Hospital Broadway.  The man was admitted under Dr Arijit Ghosh, HOD – Interventional Cardiologist, at the hospital with complaints of chest pain on exertion. Coronary angiography revealed a critical blockage in the left coronary artery and a 100 per cent blockage in the right coronary artery, a condition known as Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO). CTOs develop gradually over several years and are among the most difficult coronary blockages to treat. Due to the dense and hardened nature of the bloc...

Children born to mothers who had Covid-19 while pregnant may be at a high risk of suffering from developmental disorders, including speech delays, autism, and motor disorders, by the time they turn three years old, according to new research.  Researchers from the Mass General Brigham in the US explained that these may be due to immune activation during pregnancy, which disrupts normal foetal brain development. “These findings highlight that Covid-19, like many other infections in pregnancy, may pose risks not only to the mother, but to foetal brain development,” said Andrea Edlow, Maternal-Foetal Medicine specialist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Mass General Brigham. The findings, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, are based on an analysis of 18,124 ...

Pathogens were found in 11.1 per cent of the 4.5 lakh patients tested by the network of labs under the Indian Council of Medical Research as part of efforts to identify viral infections of public health significance. The top five pathogens detected were Influenza A in acute respiratory infection (ARI)/ severe acute respiratory infections (SARI cases), dengue virus among acute fever and haemorrhagic fever cases, Hepatitis A in jaundice cases, Norovirus in among acute diarrheal disease (ADD) outbreaks and Herpes simplex virus (HSV) in Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) cases. The spread of infectious diseases rose from 10.7 per cent in the first quarter to 11.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2025, according to the report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) According to the ...