THE TRUTH ABOUT: Icmr - Caught on Camera

What Radiation From Repeated CT Scans Adds Up To Over a Lifetime

Most patients walk out of a CT scan without a second thought. The images are clear, the diagnosis is faster, and the machine looks nothing like the hulking X-ray units of an earlier era. What stays behind, invisibly, is a dose of ionising radiation that can be fifty to several…

Times Life · Oct 24

7 Questions to Ask Before Agreeing to Any Scan in an Indian Hospital

The order comes at the end of a consultation, almost as an afterthought. "We'll need a CT" or "let's get an MRI done", and the patient is already being handed a slip before they have processed what it means. In Indian hospitals, public and private alike, imaging is frequently the…

Times Life · Oct 24

Medication Overuse Headache: How Painkillers Cause More Pain

The Painkiller That Becomes the ProblemMost people who develop medication overuse headache do not realise they have it. They have a headache, they take a tablet, the headache goes, and they go on with their day. Then the headache comes back a little sooner than last time. The tablet works…

Times Life · Oct 19

Kuttu vs Singhara vs Wheat Atta: Which Flour Spikes Blood Sugar Less

Why Flour Choice Affects Blood Sugar at AllWheat atta raises blood sugar through starch, specifically, how quickly its starch breaks down into glucose in the small intestine. The speed of that breakdown is what the glycaemic index measures. A flour with a lower GI releases glucose more slowly, producing a…

Times Life · Oct 1

Before Ayushman Bharat, families sold their homes to afford treatment: J P Nadda

Union Health Minister J P Nadda said on Friday that the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has transformed India's healthcare. He said the scheme covered over 60 crore beneficiaries, becoming the world's largest health assurance programme. The scheme has over 5.6 lakh health facilities and around 11 lakh…

The Economic Times · Sep 25

Before giving cough syrup to your child, check the bottle: Sale still continues despite advisory for kids under 4; check what changes are being planned

India's drug regulatory authority is evaluating the introduction of new warning labels for cough syrups. These proposed labels will prominently display red warnings alongside visuals of older children. This is intended to curb the usage of these medications in children younger than four years old. Such a proposal comes in…

The Economic Times · Sep 21

Scrub Typhus Goes Undiagnosed for Weeks: Symptoms, Fever Patterns, and What to Track

What Scrub Typhus Actually IsOrientia tsutsugamushi, the bacterium behind scrub typhus, travels on the larval stage of trombiculid mites, chiggers, that live in tall grass, scrubland, and forest edges across India's northeastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha. The mite bites, feeds for a few hours, and leaves.…

Times Life · Sep 16

What Construction Dust Does to Your Lungs and Why Cloth Masks Fail Indian Workers

The particle that never leavesNot all dust is equal. The dust raised by a jackhammer breaking concrete, a grinder cutting sandstone, or a drill boring through brick contains crystalline silica, particles that measure between 0.5 and 10 microns. At that size, they do not get caught in the nose or…

Times Life · Sep 14

Why Indians Pay for Full-Body Scans and Skip the Cancer Screening Tests That Actually Work

The Scan That Finds Everything Except What Will Kill YouWalk into any corporate diagnostic centre in Mumbai, Bengaluru, or Delhi and you will find a "Full Body Scan" package priced between ₹8,000 and ₹40,000. It typically includes a whole-body CT or PET-CT, a battery of blood panels, and a chest…

Times Life · Sep 10

What Your Annual Blood Panel Misses After 50: Inflammation, Hormones, Thyroid and More

What the Standard Panel Actually TestsThe routine blood panel most Indian adults receive once a year checks a short list: complete blood count, fasting glucose, lipid profile, liver enzymes, kidney function, and sometimes thyroid-stimulating hormone. That covers acute infection, anaemia, gross organ damage, and surface-level cholesterol. It was designed to…

Times Life · Sep 9