Remain young & escape from death!
We know that prevention of eye disease is better than cure. The bulk of eye diseases
is age related; cataract being the number one eye disease directly related to
ageing process. The incidence of cataract and the
number of surgeries done for cataract
are increasing every day because the life expectancy is increasing and the indications for cataract surgeries are
modified to suit the modern life style. The aggressive style of tackling
cataract has created a situation where almost everybody will be going to the grave
with two intra ocular lens in their eyes, like the ancient Romans going to the
grave with two coins kept on their eyes
for the boat man. The management of cataract has been revolutionized from a
refined Indian couching to blade less refractive phaco surgery with
accommodative intraocular lens.
Generally we doctors and health
professionals work hard to eliminate
diseases and if possible eradicate them from the surface of globe. We have eradicated
small pox , polio etc and reduced the incidence of the killer diseases like plague, rabies, cholera,
diphtheria, typhoid etc. As far as age related diseases are concerned all our
attempts for good health care have increased
life expectancy. The final result is the increase in diseases like cataract,
diabetic retinopathy, age related macular degeneration, osteoporosis , adult cancers etc. This is a paradox in health
care. Along with longevity , age related
diseases also increase. We consider increased life expectancy as a good health
parameter showing the progress of that country. A higher life expectancy in a country means, the population is more progressed and the country is more
developed. In other words, a country having the higher incidence of age related
diseases is considered as a more
progressed state! Kerala is one such state in India now, progressed in health parameters with higher incidence of age related diseases! We
go on increasing our life expectancy at any cost. We believe that the higher the life expectancy or longer we
live, the better we are. We often wish
people long life. Nobody says how long. There is no optimum life expectancy.
Imagine a life expectancy of thousand years as envisaged by Mr. Aubrey de Grey.
Even if we transplant and replace many organs the brain transplant shall be
difficult. Same is true about visual pathways. The quality of life in this extended
old age shall be often poor with dementia and degeneration of nerves tissue. Even
with a life expectancy of below hundred years we are going to get an
Alzheimer’s epidemic. Do we have an alternative to this extension of old age and
resultant growth of age related diseases including eye diseases? As far as the
major age related disease (cataract)
responsible for avoidable blindness is concerned we can prevent blindness
perhaps by removing the cataracts before they produce blindness. (We know that in olden days usually cataract surgery was
done to cure blindness, but now- a- days
often it is done for prevention of blindness.) But this is not possible in the case of
diseases like age related macular degeneration. Appropriate nutritional support
with anti oxidant agents and avoidance of use of tobacco and other toxic
substances to some extend prevent the
occurrence of age related macular degeneration. But those who have the genetic
predisposition the disease do develop when age advances. Similarly now- a- days our diabetic patients are living longer than their predecessors of last
century because of better
facilities for sugar control. We know that the diabetic age is an important
risk factor for diabetic blindness. We should remember that even if the eyes
are functioning reasonably well, if the occipital cortex and visual pathways
are not working well due to age related problems, the elderly person cannot
see. The sure and certain remedy for these types of diseases is avoidance of
the occurrence of old age itself. As it stands today the simple, certain and easy
option for achieving it is to die
before the old age diseases start appearing! But this is not acceptable. Do we
have any other option to prevent the epidemic of senile dementia and growing
number of other geriatric diseases including blindness?
Infant mortality rate is another important health
parameter to assess the health and prosperity of a nation. All developed
nations have low infant mortality rate. The lower the infant mortality rate the
better that country is. When the infant mortality rate is reduced, we shall see
that many premature children with multiple congenital anomalies are
surviving. Many children with serious congenital heart & brain diseases
survive because of excellent neonatology care. The hospitals compete to improve
and upgrade the NICU to level four and
are capable of even doing major surgery on these feeble infants for congenital
heart disease etc. Their neonatal care facility is really advanced and a child
born after 23 or 24 weeks of gestation with multiple developmental anomalies
and organ defects can survive often with complications, at a huge expense involving lot of skilled
manpower and sophisticated machines.
With such advanced facilities soon we can reach a zero infant mortality rate!
Nobody says how much is the optimum
infant mortality rate. Let us see what happens if the infant mortality rate is
zero. We will have many unhealthy, physically handicapped, mentally retarded and incurably deaf & blind children.
Kerala is also moving in this direction with rapidly reducing infant mortality
rate. Perhaps soon our blind schools authorities will start demanding good capitation fee for admission! Our infant
mortality rate is reducing day by day. Do we really need a very low infant mortality rate with high number of
invalid subnormal blind children ? How are we going to prevent multiple
congenital anomalies in children ? Even
with early detection and treatment of ROP many children with severe form of the
disease remain severely visually
handicapped. The easy solution is to allow the severely unhealthy infant to die. Many countries are
making legislation for euthanasia not only in
the elderly patients but also among young children & infants. But is it
ethically acceptable ? Do we have an alternative option to have good healthy
children and young population.
Meetings , where the intellectuals, social activists , doctors and public health leaders assemble and
actively discus current issues in health management are good venues to evolve solutions to these peculiar problems
arising out of development of better
health parameters, an agony of progress. The vision of the vision 20/20 group of health professionals
and associates to eradicate avoidable blindness is great. The poor countries
have one type of problem which can be solved with money and education. But the
problems of the rich countries with better health parameters are more difficult to solve. Blindness can be
avoided by eliminating the birth and survival
of the blind child ! Blindness can be also avoided by reducing the
‘abnormally’ high life expectancy! Should we have an unhealthy population with
good health parameters ? Should we have healthy population with not so good
health parameters? Should we have a healthy population and good health parameters? What is the optimum life expectancy and what
is the optimum infant mortality to
prevent blindness and other physical and mental
disabilities? There is a group of blindness related to prolonged life expectancy and zero
infant mortality rate. How do we avoid this type of blindness?
We know that as time passes on, changes
are inevitable . You and I have changed, and our thoughts have changed. Our
right and wrong have changed. Our style of surgery and management of diseases
have changed. Diagnostic techniques
and protocols in disease management have
changed. We have changed one living person’s blood with another living person’s
blood, we have changed a living person’s cornea with a dead person’s cornea,
and we have even changed a living
person’s diseased heart , with a brain
dead person’s beating healthy heart. Yet we need many more things to be
changed. What we need today is to
correct the paradoxes in life expectancy and infant mortality rates and changes in birth and death. The process
of birth and death in humans have
remained constant for such a long time that they need change. Many people think
that nobody can change birth and death. People are in fact scared to think
about change in birth and death because of the great influence of the religions
sponsoring the imaginary souls to heaven after death and inducing souls to the
new born infants heart before the
children are born. More than fifty
percentage of population believe that after death they can send their souls to
heaven through the religious route. In this situation do you think birth and death can be changed
without objections from religion? I do not ignore the fact that we have changed the natural birth by doing
caesarian section and temporarily saved people from molecular death by reviving
cardiac death patients. But we need some change beyond this for the people to
live long with good quality of life.Retaining the old we can build a new method for by passing death. As you all know "the secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old,but on building the new"
When we fix very high goals which
are difficult to achieve, often
‘out of the box’ thoughts evolve, because conventional methods cannot achieve
such goals. Solutions to many health problems
are complex and not as easy as treating
a bacterial infection or nutritional deficiency. Genetic manipulation is the
latest treatment methodology evolving in
health care domain and is being tried successfully in solving many recalcitrant
health problems. There are several health problems still unsolved. When we find
the solution is difficult the best method is to try again and again with
different routes to reach the desired destination or solution. A pessimistic
view that it cannot be solved is not acceptable and is a retrograde step in the
progress of humanity. Many of our achievements in health science have evolved
over a period of time because of the repeated attempts of intelligent
committed persons. If you can enjoy
science fiction and are receptive to out
- of - the - box thinking there is an E.
book for you ; named “ Eye doctor out of the box” ISBN:
9781301878284. In this book you may find unusual and unconventional answers to
some of the questions raised.The Immortality series consists of Eye doctor out of the box and Why cancer? You may find a theoretical solution to the
geriatric problem in these books . The books can be easily accessed through https://www.smashwords.com/books/view and can be downloaded to your PC or smart phone in a format of your
choice.
Please just do not close your eyes when you face giant
difficult problems like epidemic
of Alzheimer’s disease & growing number of children with multiple
congenital defects. Once these things happens we can perhaps derive satisfaction and relief in getting consoled by priests highlighting the old religious beliefs & faith. But we should realize
that however difficult the problems are to solve , real solutions to
the problems are much better than the consolation following the
miserable outcome due to the
present mode of procreation by birth and death. I feel that the time for the idea of asexual reproduction for humans has come.
“Whatever
the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve” ( Napoleon Hill.)
*Published
in the souvenir of vision 20/20 conference 2014 Angamaly.
 |
| Aborted sexual reproduction! |
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About the book - Eye Doctor Out Of The Box.
Life time achievement award from All India Ophthalmological Society. (A.I.O.S.) 2015
Bewitching B.H.U. ISBN 9781370165988 -- An educational pilgrimage to Varanasi.
Ponnada from Cardinal Mar George Alenchery , I.J.O. editors ,& celebrations of 50 years of publication of I.J.O.
IMMORTALITY? Unfolding the mysteries of life and cancer! (Immortality hides in cancer!)
TACOPSIA Oration 2012- Untold experience ,the failure stories
The interview published in KSOS News letter.
Ponnada from L.F.Hospital to Dr.Ittyerah Tholath
Eye doctor out of the box in the pool, K.J.O. book review. & Alexander memorial oration 2002.
WHY CANCER? ISBN:9781370190973; Lateral thoughts on cancer & reproduction.
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