Health Wealth

In conversation with Dr Monica Mahajan, medical director of Max Multi speciality hospital Panchsheel Park and director of internal medicine at Max Healthcare Every year teaches us something new—about the world around us, about our own selves. Health information is all around us and the disease outbreaks and lifestyle trends (read: oatzempic diets and charcoal water) of 2024 have no doubt left us w...

Do you ever find moments when your life seems to be nothing more than a series of deadlines, presentations, attendance sheets, performance reviews, and that ever-favourite HR term—‘feedback forms’? Has work-related stress increased in the 21st century, or have we simply become obsessed with a problem and abandoned the path to finding solutions? And why do the busiest days at work have to fall on b...

What is leprosy, and why does it still affect so many lives in modern India? In the latest episode of Health Wealth, we are joined by Dr Ashok Agarwal, public health specialist and Managing Trustee of NLR India Foundation. Leprosy is a bacterial infection that mainly affects the skin and nerves. While it is entirely curable, stigma and misinformation continue to isolate those affected. Why do such...

Have you ever consciously had less water in the hope that you wouldn’t have to use public toilets? Are you one of those who has tried just about every toilet hygiene product in the market—from pee sticks to pee sprays to portable jet sprays? This episode might just be the answer to all your urinary disease woes. Dr Deepak Ragoori, Senior Consultant Urologist & Facility Director, Asian Institut...

Is autism a disease or a disorder, or neither? What determines which part of the spectrum a child will be on? And does pollution cause neuro-developmental disorders? While medical science is yet to determine the exact cause of autism, recent research is helping doctors understand better the many factors that can lead to changes in the brain of an infant. This episode explains the causes and nature...

In this episode, we delve into the often-overlooked world of health insurance, with a special focus on how younger generations, or Gen Z, approach it. Many young adults, especially those with employer-provided plans, fail to fully understand their policies, which can lead to the underutilisation of valuable benefits. In conversation with Tarun Mathur, Co-founder and CBO of PolicyBazaar.com, we exp...

Does it sometimes feel like finding simple, clean food at a restaurant is a rarity? Menus are bursting with garnishes, flavours and innovation. Perfect for your next reel. But hardly any of it would be considered healthy and, at times, not even tasty. In the name of fusion and fashion, food made outside of our home kitchens comes loaded with fat, sugar, salt and unnecessary starches. The coating o...

We all probably know someone who is living with type 2 diabetes, whether it's a family member, a friend, or a co-worker. The incidences of this complex lifestyle condition in India have increased rapidly, making our country the diabetes capital of the world today. Diabetes is more than simply staying away from cakes and puddings. Managing it effectively every day, particularly during festivals or...

To breastfeed or not? All mammals, humans included, breastfeed. But with medical advancements and alluring alternatives, breastfeeding has now become an option for many. Fuelling this choice is misinformation, shaming, anxiety and poor nutrition. Often, mothers give up breastfeeding because they either do not know any better, are suffering from health issues and lack of support to address them or...

Do you sometimes wonder—how exactly does my body shed fat? The internet is buzzing with weight loss diets and trends with a new one added every other week. High fibre, high fat, high protein, low carb, low sugar, gut cleanses—every diet puts forth a food group that will hopefully leave you satiated and ready for the festive season. But the truth is, none of it truly matters. One could be on a diet...

What makes Indians unique? A lot of thoughts would pop up--our hospitality, culinary and cultural diversity, perhaps even how we manage to snake through heavy traffic. But the last thing one would think of is Indian faeces as a symbol of our uniqueness. Interestingly, however, that might well be true. Research has found an average Indian excretes more faeces than those in developed nations. There...

Does old age have to mean a life of light food, loneliness and physiotherapy? Instead of being our ‘twilight’ years, can it not be just another phase of life (albeit one with less hair and wobbly knees)? A dementia village in Netherlands, The Hogeweyk, found that when seniors are encouraged to have an active lifestyle—going to shops, watching movies, cooking and dancing with friends—their health i...

How do you think people put on weight? By overeating, right? But what causes that overeating and why is it that despite all the endless studies and articles on the bad effects of obesity, losing weight for so many remains as difficult as ever? The truth is we have no social support structure for fat people to lean upon. Once you hit a certain number on the weighing scale, an ugly reality descends...

Have you ever fallen for the baby schema effect? It happens when human beings see cute baby animals—like a tiny bunny with fluffy ears and wide eyes. And you instantly feel like going, ‘Awww’. This isn’t because you particularly adore a creature that eats carrots and breeds as though the world would run out of rabbits if it didn’t produce enough offspring. But you feel a rush of gentle affection a...

Doesn’t it feel great when you can fit into a size 12 dress again and the weighing scale assures you that your Body Mass Index is now perfect? But body fat is not always what is visible. You can poke your stomach and feel very little of that flabby softness which we associate with a Santa-claus-belly, but that does not mean there is no fat there. Various studies estimate that roughly 10% of human...

Sometimes, it is difficult to resist the allure of comfort. Who doesn't want to sink their heads into a giant fluffy pillow after a long day? And how do you remember to sit up straight when there are seven hours of your favourite murder mystery soap left to watch? The mind has so much to focus on that the spine is easily forgotten. And as long as there is no muscle pain, it should be fine, right?...

Who doesn’t love a good bargain? There is a particular kind of thrill that only finding a 50% sale on that pair of shoes you wanted can give. But if I offered you an iPhone 16 Pro for Rs 20,000, would you take it without thinking, "What’s the catch?” We all have different price scales for different items. For some products, we readily accept that the price can only be so low before alarm bells sta...

What do you imagine a psychiatric hospital looks like? Do images of the Joker locked up in Gotham City Asylum or people strapped to beds screaming in Hitchcockian horror pop into your head? Most people carry a less-than-pleasant idea of residential mental healthcare. These are places relegated purely for the treatment of ‘mad’ people. These are certainly not places to go to for insomnia, work stre...

Do you remember what the world was like before the smallpox vaccine? This one miniscule creature was responsible for the deaths of around 500 million people in the last 100 years, wiping out entire societies as it spread around the world. Now, its cousin—Mpox—is doing the rounds. However, unlike a century ago, viral outbreaks are no longer geographically separate for long lengths of time. It will...

What do doctors think when they meet their 30th patient of the day? Can coffee and the Hippocratic Oath really be enough to fuel 36 hours of duty? And do they remember their first loss against death? In the aftermath of the rape and murder of a young doctor at a hospital in Kolkata, the streets are flooded with equally horrifying stories of violence from all categories of healthcare workers. On th...

We wish for many things in life—the safety of our loved ones, headphone wires that can stay untangled forever, financial stability, a prescription that does not say ‘chemotherapy,’ and more. Several doctors and researchers have found that the side effects of chemotherapy, a popular treatment for cancerous growth, give patients anxiety and stress. But is chemotherapy still that treatment which leav...

Some bits of medical science can be endlessly frustrating (read: medicine bottles with seals that refuse to open). Some bits are plain boring (does anyone really follow advice from ten-ways-to-great-health listicles?). And then there are some bits which are utterly fascinating, perhaps even borderline eccentric—like AI-powered enemas with automatic pressure control, growing human cells in petri di...

Are you googling ‘side effects’ of your medicine even before you’ve left the doctor’s office? But did you know that every chemical (laboratory-made or naturally occurring) taken into our bodies can have a series of effects? We hope some of these effects will cure diseases or disorders of the body and mind. So when you pop a Paracetamol into your mouth, you know it will reduce your fever. It might...

Have you ever had a headache, nosebleed or suddenly become anxious doing something you’ve done a million times before? Or has recovery from illness begun to feel more tiring, more prolonged than you remember? Sure, we have the usual suspect to blame for it—lifestyle. But is it possible that climate change is a hidden accomplice? There is growing evidence to point out that hotter summers, colder wi...

If you get a fever during the monsoon season, do you start to wonder if it is Dengue, Zika, Nipah, or Chikungunya? Does a niggle in your throat have you googling symptoms for bird flu and swine flu? And how do you keep despair at bay when you hear that it isn’t just viruses becoming smarter but also insects carrying these infections? Dr Sushila Kataria, head of the internal medicine department at...