Surya is in jail. Out of nowhere, he gets released. He comes out and asks a sidekick nothing but "why?" Comes an equally curt reply "Deva".
The above scene defines a man who transformed Tamil cinema. Mani Ratnam has been a big influence in every young cinema-goer's life. Crisp dialogues, top-notch camera work, brilliant music, remarkably scripted screenplay-quite easily, he was the third best thing to happen to Tamil cinema after Sridhar and Bharathiraja.
Here are reasons why:
1. The most interesting feature of his movies has been the usage of visuals rather than dialogues to move the plot. A classic example is the scene in "Bombay" where Manisha Koirala gets a letter from Aravindsamy with two train tickets. Other directors would have opted for a voiceover to explain the letter. Mani sensibly leaves it to the audience. He shows the letter with tickets and Manisha is on the way to Bombay in the next shot.
2. Subtle interposition of sensitive issues like Hindu-Muslim conflict, Kashmir terrorism and Srilankan ethnic conflict with intensely personal matters like passionate love, wife searching for her husband and a child longing for her mother is something only Mani can pull off.
3. Biopic is another largely untouched genre explored to perfection by Mani. Be it Varadharaja Mudhaliar or Dhirubhai Ambani, it has been a passionate portrayal onscreen. To compress an entire lifetime into less than 160 minutes is not a cakewalk.
4. Camerawork has been another USP of Mani's movies. Infact, the lighting in "Anjali" achieved cult status. Jokes were circulated on Mani's obsession with darkness. He has collaborated with a galaxy of stars-Santosh Sivan (Capturing Ooty's beauty atop a train in "Chaiyya Chaiyya"), P.C.Sreeram (Choosing different color lenses for the suitable lines in "Pachai nirame"), Rajiv Menon (Those brilliant shots in "Uyire uyire"-"Bombay") and Ravi K Chandran (That hastily paced camera work matching the tone of the initial scenes in "Ayudha Ezhuthu")
5. Mani's biggest achievement in cinema is switching to a nondescript Rahman after getting masterpieces out of Ilayaraja. Mani has mastered the art of bringing the best out of his composers so much that some hardnosed critics say that "music and camerawork are the only pluses in a Mani movie". Compare Rahman's BGM score for "Iruvar" with what he did for "Sakarakatti" so as to conclude that Mani has played an equally pivotal role in the final music output. I am still waiting for Rahman to do another "Thiruda thiruda" in BGM score
6. The screenplays of his are so intense and engaging. The storyline of "Thalapathi" is so simple that had Perarasu handled it, it would not have been released at all. While Selvaraghavan takes an entire movie to establish the metamorphosis of a gangster in "Pudhupettai", Maniratnam takes less than 5 scenes in "Ayudha Ezhuthu" to do the same. "Agni Nakshathiram" still remains the ultimate definition of a "gethu" movie to any youngster in the 80s.Karthik's episode in "Mouna Raagam" remains the breeziest flashback in a Tamil movie.
7. Some of his movies have been message oriented as well. While "Bombay" cries for an end to the Hindu-Muslim conflict, "Ayudha Ezhuthu" was a catcall for youngsters to join politics. While all love flicks ends in a marriage and subham, "Alaipayuthe" beautifully explores the post-marital tensions. While "Nayagan" gives the dangerous message of "If it benefits some, even a murder is justified", Guru extols a not-so-righteous but ambitious man.
8. Mani is one person who has never worried about commercial success. Since all movies are from his own production houses, there is no chance of a Baba-like guilt. Mani is an enviable person who takes movies which he likes. No one else alive in Tamil cinema can fit in that statement.
As "Raavan" gears up for release, (The usual Mani-styled marketing: No talk of the movie till post-production works is complete, frenzied marketing on the eve of release) the usual fever rises. The storyline is quite predictable from the trailers but the expectations do not sag at all because of Brand Mani. Personally, I am not that optimistic about "Raavan" but I am sure that I will see it five times at least. Mani is one of his kind!
COURTESY-behindwoods.com
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Crisis in India: Smoking Expected to Kill 1 Million People Annually by 2010
Smoking kills 900,000 people every year in India, and unless corrective action is taken soon that number will increase to 1 million smoking-related deaths annually by 2010 and beyond, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and conducted by scientists from India, Canada and the UK. For the study, 900 field workers gathered information from a sample of 1.1 million homes in all parts of India.
Highlights of the study include:
Smoking may soon account for 20 percent of all male deaths and 5 percent of all female deaths among Indians between the ages of 30 and 69.
About 61 percent of men who smoke can expect to die between the ages of 30 and 69, compared with only 41 percent of non-smoking men who are similar in other ways.
About 62 percent of women who smoke can expect to die between the ages of 30 and 69, compared to only 38 percent of non-smoking women.
On average, men who smoke bidi—the popular hand-rolled cigarettes that contain about one-quarter as much tobacco as a full-sized cigarette—shorten their lives by about six years. Men who smoke full-sized cigarettes lose about 10 years of life.
Bidi-smoking women shorten their lives by about eight years on average.
Smoking 1-7 bidis a day, for example, raised mortality risks by 25 percent while smoking an equal number of cigarettes daily doubled the risk of death to 50 percent.
The study did not examine the mortality risks of secondhand smoke, which the U.S. Surgeon General has declared a significant health hazard for non-smokers, especially children.
"It is truly remarkable that one single factor, namely smoking, which is entirely preventable, accounts for nearly one in 10 of all deaths in India,” said Harvard University Professor Amartya Sen. "The study brings out forcefully the need for immediate public action in this much-neglected field."
Half of Smoking Deaths Occur Among Illiterate Indians
There are approximately 120 million smokers in India, about 37 percent of all men and 5 percent of all women between the ages of 30 and 69. The government is taking several steps to control tobacco use, including making special efforts to inform people who are poor or illiterate about the dangers of smoking. According to the study, more than 50 percent of the tobacco-related deaths in India occur among illiterate men or women, and 80 percent of those people reside in rural India.
Indian health authorities have urged the government to do more, but some politicians oppose further action because they want to protect the jobs of tobacco workers.
Smoking Deaths On the Rise in Developing Nations Worldwide
The projected increase in smoking-related deaths in India is part of a global trend, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which estimates that smoking-related deaths worldwide will surpass 9 million annually by 2020—with 7 million of those deaths occurring in developing nations.
Twenty-five years ago, nearly 70 percent of the lung cancer deaths worldwide occurred in high-income nations. Today, 50 percent of lung cancer deaths occur in low-income nations, and by 2030 that number is expected to increase to 70 percent.
Tobacco Companies Targeting Developing Nations
One reason for the change is that consumer education, regulation and societal pressure have lowered smoking rates in many developed countries, which has also brought down the number of smoking-related deaths in those nations. Another reason for the shift is that tobacco companies have mounted aggressive marketing campaigns in developing countries, where there are few restrictions on how they sell or advertise their products, to help compensate for decreased smoking rates and lower profits in developed nations.
Currently, 1.3 billion people worldwide smoke or use other tobacco products, and nearly 5 million die as a result. Eighty-four percent of the world’s tobacco users live in countries with developing or transitional economies.
WHO Takes Aim at Cancer and Tobacco Use
WHO has started a global effort to reduce cancer deaths worldwide—aiming to prevent 8 million cancer deaths by 2015—and a primary focus of that initiative is to lower tobacco use in developing countries.
"Even if smoking rates stayed the same worldwide, we would see a huge increase in cancer incidence in the next decades just because of the growth and aging of the population," said Peter Boyle, Ph.D, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, a WHO research organization. "Whereas there were 100 million deaths in the 20th century caused by tobacco, if current trends continue, there will be 1 billion in the 21st century. Tobacco is the biggest enemy we face.”
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Top 10 Reasons to Quit Smoking
You will reduce your chances of having a heart attack or stroke.
You will reduce your chances of getting lung cancer, emphysema, and other lung diseases.
You will have better smelling clothes, hair, breath, home, and car.
You can climb stairs and walk without getting out of breath.
You will have fewer wrinkles.
You will be free of your morning cough.
You will reduce the number of coughs, colds, and earaches your child will have.
You will have more energy to pursue physical activities you enjoy.
You can treat yourself to new books or music with the money you can save from not buying cigarettes.
You will have more control over your life.
You will reduce your chances of getting lung cancer, emphysema, and other lung diseases.
You will have better smelling clothes, hair, breath, home, and car.
You can climb stairs and walk without getting out of breath.
You will have fewer wrinkles.
You will be free of your morning cough.
You will reduce the number of coughs, colds, and earaches your child will have.
You will have more energy to pursue physical activities you enjoy.
You can treat yourself to new books or music with the money you can save from not buying cigarettes.
You will have more control over your life.
10 Reasons Not to Smoke
The old days of smoking looking cool are slowly fading away. The tobacco industry has been the target of many lawsuits, and studies have shown that the nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive, which makes it extremely difficult to quit. Many people need extreme motivation in order to try to stop smoking. Here are 10 reasons not to smoke.
1. Live Longer. Smoking is one of the top killers in America and leads to more deaths than alcohol. Smokers die on average around 12 years earlier than those who do not smoke. At least 400,000 people die each year from smoking. Some health problems for smokers are cancer, heart disease, and gangrene. You will live a much longer life if you do not smoke.
2. Save Money. Cigarettes cost about $4.30 a pack. If you smoke a pack a day, this means you will spend about $1559.50 a year on smoking. You can buy an awesome Plasma TV for this amount. Smoking is a very expensive habit.
3. Breathe Easier. Smoking leads to emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. Many people who have smoked for years and years have to be put on oxygen tanks. Others have to use an inhaler. Smoke leaves black tar on the lungs, which inhibits breathing.
4. Look Better. You can sometimes tell a person smokes by looking at his skin. Smokers often have pale skin, and usually age much faster than the rest of the population. They also tend to have stained teeth. People who smoke often just don?t look very healthy.
5. Smell Better. There is nothing worse than being in a confined place with a smoker. The rancid smell of smoke sticks to their skin, clothing, and hair. No matter how clean someone is, all that it takes is one cigarette to make a person smell gross.
6. Improve Your Sex Life. Most smokers do not have as much of a libido as their non-smoking peers. In addition to decreasing a person?s sex drive, smoking will decrease fertility. Studies show that smokers usually have DNA mutations in their sperm. Many women who smoke also have higher increases in miscarriages, and are less likely to get pregnant.
7. Be More Productive. Nicotine often makes people agitated and lose their concentration. Also, people lose a lot of time in the office from going outside for constant smoke breaks. When people give up smoking their memory improves, and they accomplish more.
8. Help the Country Be Healthier. Over 40,000 people each year die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Many states like California and New Mexico have implemented non-smoking laws where smokers cannot smoke in most businesses such as restaurants and hotels. The purpose of these laws is to protect people from second hand smoke.
9. Improve Fetal Health. Women who smoke during pregnancy have more complications, and this also leads to more costs in medical care. These babies are often born pre-maturely, and when they are born to term, they tend to have more medical problems such as allergies, ear infections, asthma, and colds. Women who smoke when pregnant are more likely to have stillborn babies, or have infants who die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
10. Improve your Brain Function. Smoke not only harms your lungs and heart, it also harms your brain. Recently, Scientists and Medical Doctors have discovered that lifelong smokers are more prone to Dementia in later years.
1. Live Longer. Smoking is one of the top killers in America and leads to more deaths than alcohol. Smokers die on average around 12 years earlier than those who do not smoke. At least 400,000 people die each year from smoking. Some health problems for smokers are cancer, heart disease, and gangrene. You will live a much longer life if you do not smoke.
2. Save Money. Cigarettes cost about $4.30 a pack. If you smoke a pack a day, this means you will spend about $1559.50 a year on smoking. You can buy an awesome Plasma TV for this amount. Smoking is a very expensive habit.
3. Breathe Easier. Smoking leads to emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. Many people who have smoked for years and years have to be put on oxygen tanks. Others have to use an inhaler. Smoke leaves black tar on the lungs, which inhibits breathing.
4. Look Better. You can sometimes tell a person smokes by looking at his skin. Smokers often have pale skin, and usually age much faster than the rest of the population. They also tend to have stained teeth. People who smoke often just don?t look very healthy.
5. Smell Better. There is nothing worse than being in a confined place with a smoker. The rancid smell of smoke sticks to their skin, clothing, and hair. No matter how clean someone is, all that it takes is one cigarette to make a person smell gross.
6. Improve Your Sex Life. Most smokers do not have as much of a libido as their non-smoking peers. In addition to decreasing a person?s sex drive, smoking will decrease fertility. Studies show that smokers usually have DNA mutations in their sperm. Many women who smoke also have higher increases in miscarriages, and are less likely to get pregnant.
7. Be More Productive. Nicotine often makes people agitated and lose their concentration. Also, people lose a lot of time in the office from going outside for constant smoke breaks. When people give up smoking their memory improves, and they accomplish more.
8. Help the Country Be Healthier. Over 40,000 people each year die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Many states like California and New Mexico have implemented non-smoking laws where smokers cannot smoke in most businesses such as restaurants and hotels. The purpose of these laws is to protect people from second hand smoke.
9. Improve Fetal Health. Women who smoke during pregnancy have more complications, and this also leads to more costs in medical care. These babies are often born pre-maturely, and when they are born to term, they tend to have more medical problems such as allergies, ear infections, asthma, and colds. Women who smoke when pregnant are more likely to have stillborn babies, or have infants who die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
10. Improve your Brain Function. Smoke not only harms your lungs and heart, it also harms your brain. Recently, Scientists and Medical Doctors have discovered that lifelong smokers are more prone to Dementia in later years.
Monday, March 1, 2010
INSOMANIA-The disease i am suffering now
Insomnia is a symptom[1] which can accompany several sleep, medical and psychiatric disorders, characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep despite the opportunity. Insomnia is typically followed by functional impairment while awake. Both organic and non-organic insomnia without other cause constitute a sleep disorder, primary insomnia.[2] One definition of insomnia is "difficulties initiating and/or maintaining sleep, or nonrestorative sleep, associated with impairments of daytime functioning or marked distress for more than 1 month."[3]
Types of insomnia
Although there are several different degrees of insomnia, three types of insomnia have been clearly identified: transient, acute, and chronic.
Transient insomnia lasts from days to weeks. It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, severe depression, or by stress. Its consequences - sleepiness and impaired psychomotor performance - are similar to those of sleep deprivation.[6]
Acute insomnia is the inability to consistently sleep well for a period of between three weeks to six months.[7]
Chronic insomnia lasts for years at a time. It can be caused by another disorder, or it can be a primary disorder. Its effects can vary according to its causes. They might include sleepiness, muscular fatigue, hallucinations, and/or mental fatigue; but people with chronic insomnia often show increased alertness. Some people that live with this disorder see things as if they are happening in slow motion, wherein moving objects seem to blend together. Can cause double vision.[6]
Onset insomnia - difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night, often associated with anxiety disorders.
Middle-of-the-Night Insomnia - Insomnia characterized by difficulty returning to sleep after awakening in the middle of the night or waking too early in the morning. Also referred to as nocturnal awakenings. Encompasses middle and terminal insomnia.
Middle insomnia - waking during the middle of the night, difficulty maintaining sleep. Often associated with pain disorders or medical illness.
Terminal (or late) insomnia - early morning waking. Often a characteristic of clinical depression.
[edit]Insomnia versus poor sleep quality
Poor sleep quality can occur as a result of sleep apnea or clinical depression. Poor sleep quality is caused by the individual not reaching stage 4 or delta sleep which has restorative properties. There are, however, people who are unable to achieve stage 4 sleep due to brain damage who lead perfectly normal lives.
Sleep apnea is a condition that occurs when a sleeping person's breathing is interrupted, thus interrupting the normal sleep cycle. With the obstructive form of the condition, some part of the sleeper's respiratory tract loses muscle tone and partially collapses. People with obstructive sleep apnea often do not remember awakening or having difficulty breathing, but they complain of excessive sleepiness during the day. Central sleep apnea interrupts the normal breathing stimulus of the central nervous system, and the individual must actually wake up to resume breathing. This form of apnea is often related to a cerebral vascular condition, congestive heart failure, and premature aging.
Major depression leads to alterations in the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, causing excessive release of cortisol which can lead to poor sleep quality.
Nocturnal polyuria, excessive nighttime urination, can be very disturbing to sleep.[8]
Signs and symptoms
A survey of 1.1 million residents in America conducted by the American Cancer Society found that those who reported sleeping about 7 hours per night had the lowest rates of mortality, whereas those who slept for fewer than 6 hours or more than 8 hours had higher mortality rates. Getting 8.5 or more hours of sleep per night increased the mortality rate by 15%. Severe insomnia - sleeping less than 3.5 hours in women and 4.5 hours in men - also led to a 15% increase in mortality. However, most of the increase in mortality from severe insomnia was discounted after controlling for comorbid disorders. After controlling for sleep duration and insomnia, use of sleeping pills was also found to be associated with an increased mortality rate.
The lowest mortality was seen in individuals who slept between six and a half and seven and a half hours per night. Even sleeping only 4.5 hours per night is associated with very little increase in mortality. Thus mild to moderate insomnia for most people is associated with increased longevity and severe insomnia is only associated with a very small effect on mortality.
As long as a patient refrains from using sleeping pills there is little to no increase in mortality associated with insomnia but there does appear to be an increase in longevity. This is reassuring for patients with insomnia in that despite the sometimes unpleasantness of insomnia, insomnia itself appears to be associated with increased longevity.
It is unclear why sleeping longer than 7.5 hours is associated with excess mortality.[9]
[edit]Causes
Insomnia can be caused by:
Psychoactive drugs or stimulants, including certain medications, herbs, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, methylphenidate, MDMA and modafinil
Fluoroquinolone antibiotic drugs, see Fluoroquinolone toxicity, associated with more severe and chronic types of insomnia [10]
Restless Legs Syndrome can cause insomnia due to the discomforting sensations felt and need to move the legs or other body parts to relieve these sensations. It is difficult if not impossible to fall asleep while moving.
Pain[11] Any injury or condition that causes pain. Pain can preclude an individual from finding a comfortable position in which to fall asleep, and in addition can cause awakening if, during sleep, the person rolls over and puts pressure on the injured or painful area of the body.
Hormone shifts such as those that precede menstruation and those during menopauseLife problems like fear, stress, anxiety, emotional or mental tension, work problems, financial stress, unsatisfactory sex life
Mental disorders such as bipolar disorder, clinical depression, generalized anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, or obsessive compulsive disorder.
Disturbances of the circadian rhythm, such as shift work and jet lag, can cause an inability to sleep at some times of the day and excessive sleepiness at other times of the day. Jet lag is seen in people who travel through multiple time zones, as the time relative to the rising and setting of the sun no longer coincides with the body's internal concept of it. The insomnia experienced by shift workers is also a circadian rhythm sleep disorder.
Certain neurological disorders, brain lesions, or a history of traumatic brain injury
Medical conditions such as hyperthyroidism and rheumatoid arthritis[12]
Abuse of over-the counter or prescription sleep aids can produce rebound insomnia
Poor sleep hygiene, e.g., noise
Parasomnia, which includes a number of disruptive sleep events including nightmares, sleepwalking, violent behavior while sleeping, and REM behavior disorder, in which a person moves his/her physical body in response to events within his/her dreams
A rare genetic condition can cause a prion-based, permanent and eventually fatal form of insomnia called fatal familial insomnia
Physical exercise. Exercise-induced insomnia is common in athletes, causing prolonged sleep onset latency.[13]
Sleep studies using polysomnography have suggested that people who have insomnia with sleep disruption have elevated nighttime levels of circulating cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone They also have an elevated metabolic rate, which does not occur in people who do not have insomnia but whose sleep is intentionally disrupted during a sleep study. Studies of brain metabolism using positron emission tomography (PET) scans indicate that people with insomnia have higher metabolic rates by night and by day. The question remains whether these changes are the causes or consequences of long-term insomnia.[12]
Insomnia can be common after the loss of a loved one, even years or decades after the death, if they have not gone through the grieving process. Overall, symptoms and the degree of their severity affect each individual differently depending on their mental health, physical condition, and attitude or personality.
A common misperception is that the amount of sleep required decreases as a person ages. The ability to sleep for long periods, rather than the need for sleep, appears to be lost as people get older. Some elderly insomniacs toss and turn in bed and occasionally fall off the bed at night, diminishing the amount of sleep they receive.[14]
Diagnosis
Specialists in sleep medicine are qualified to diagnose the many different sleep disorders. Patients with various disorders including delayed sleep phase syndrome are often mis-diagnosed with insomnia.
If a patient has trouble getting to sleep, but has normal sleep pattern once asleep, a circadian rhythm disorder is a likely cause.
Treatment for insomnia
In many cases, insomnia is caused by another disease, side effects from medications, or a psychological problem. It is important to identify or rule out medical and psychological before deciding on the treatment for the insomnia.[16] Attention to sleep hygiene is an important first line treatment strategy and should be tried before any pharmacological approach is considered.[17]
Types of insomnia
Although there are several different degrees of insomnia, three types of insomnia have been clearly identified: transient, acute, and chronic.
Transient insomnia lasts from days to weeks. It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, severe depression, or by stress. Its consequences - sleepiness and impaired psychomotor performance - are similar to those of sleep deprivation.[6]
Acute insomnia is the inability to consistently sleep well for a period of between three weeks to six months.[7]
Chronic insomnia lasts for years at a time. It can be caused by another disorder, or it can be a primary disorder. Its effects can vary according to its causes. They might include sleepiness, muscular fatigue, hallucinations, and/or mental fatigue; but people with chronic insomnia often show increased alertness. Some people that live with this disorder see things as if they are happening in slow motion, wherein moving objects seem to blend together. Can cause double vision.[6]
Onset insomnia - difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night, often associated with anxiety disorders.
Middle-of-the-Night Insomnia - Insomnia characterized by difficulty returning to sleep after awakening in the middle of the night or waking too early in the morning. Also referred to as nocturnal awakenings. Encompasses middle and terminal insomnia.
Middle insomnia - waking during the middle of the night, difficulty maintaining sleep. Often associated with pain disorders or medical illness.
Terminal (or late) insomnia - early morning waking. Often a characteristic of clinical depression.
[edit]Insomnia versus poor sleep quality
Poor sleep quality can occur as a result of sleep apnea or clinical depression. Poor sleep quality is caused by the individual not reaching stage 4 or delta sleep which has restorative properties. There are, however, people who are unable to achieve stage 4 sleep due to brain damage who lead perfectly normal lives.
Sleep apnea is a condition that occurs when a sleeping person's breathing is interrupted, thus interrupting the normal sleep cycle. With the obstructive form of the condition, some part of the sleeper's respiratory tract loses muscle tone and partially collapses. People with obstructive sleep apnea often do not remember awakening or having difficulty breathing, but they complain of excessive sleepiness during the day. Central sleep apnea interrupts the normal breathing stimulus of the central nervous system, and the individual must actually wake up to resume breathing. This form of apnea is often related to a cerebral vascular condition, congestive heart failure, and premature aging.
Major depression leads to alterations in the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, causing excessive release of cortisol which can lead to poor sleep quality.
Nocturnal polyuria, excessive nighttime urination, can be very disturbing to sleep.[8]
Signs and symptoms
A survey of 1.1 million residents in America conducted by the American Cancer Society found that those who reported sleeping about 7 hours per night had the lowest rates of mortality, whereas those who slept for fewer than 6 hours or more than 8 hours had higher mortality rates. Getting 8.5 or more hours of sleep per night increased the mortality rate by 15%. Severe insomnia - sleeping less than 3.5 hours in women and 4.5 hours in men - also led to a 15% increase in mortality. However, most of the increase in mortality from severe insomnia was discounted after controlling for comorbid disorders. After controlling for sleep duration and insomnia, use of sleeping pills was also found to be associated with an increased mortality rate.
The lowest mortality was seen in individuals who slept between six and a half and seven and a half hours per night. Even sleeping only 4.5 hours per night is associated with very little increase in mortality. Thus mild to moderate insomnia for most people is associated with increased longevity and severe insomnia is only associated with a very small effect on mortality.
As long as a patient refrains from using sleeping pills there is little to no increase in mortality associated with insomnia but there does appear to be an increase in longevity. This is reassuring for patients with insomnia in that despite the sometimes unpleasantness of insomnia, insomnia itself appears to be associated with increased longevity.
It is unclear why sleeping longer than 7.5 hours is associated with excess mortality.[9]
[edit]Causes
Insomnia can be caused by:
Psychoactive drugs or stimulants, including certain medications, herbs, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, methylphenidate, MDMA and modafinil
Fluoroquinolone antibiotic drugs, see Fluoroquinolone toxicity, associated with more severe and chronic types of insomnia [10]
Restless Legs Syndrome can cause insomnia due to the discomforting sensations felt and need to move the legs or other body parts to relieve these sensations. It is difficult if not impossible to fall asleep while moving.
Pain[11] Any injury or condition that causes pain. Pain can preclude an individual from finding a comfortable position in which to fall asleep, and in addition can cause awakening if, during sleep, the person rolls over and puts pressure on the injured or painful area of the body.
Hormone shifts such as those that precede menstruation and those during menopauseLife problems like fear, stress, anxiety, emotional or mental tension, work problems, financial stress, unsatisfactory sex life
Mental disorders such as bipolar disorder, clinical depression, generalized anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, or obsessive compulsive disorder.
Disturbances of the circadian rhythm, such as shift work and jet lag, can cause an inability to sleep at some times of the day and excessive sleepiness at other times of the day. Jet lag is seen in people who travel through multiple time zones, as the time relative to the rising and setting of the sun no longer coincides with the body's internal concept of it. The insomnia experienced by shift workers is also a circadian rhythm sleep disorder.
Certain neurological disorders, brain lesions, or a history of traumatic brain injury
Medical conditions such as hyperthyroidism and rheumatoid arthritis[12]
Abuse of over-the counter or prescription sleep aids can produce rebound insomnia
Poor sleep hygiene, e.g., noise
Parasomnia, which includes a number of disruptive sleep events including nightmares, sleepwalking, violent behavior while sleeping, and REM behavior disorder, in which a person moves his/her physical body in response to events within his/her dreams
A rare genetic condition can cause a prion-based, permanent and eventually fatal form of insomnia called fatal familial insomnia
Physical exercise. Exercise-induced insomnia is common in athletes, causing prolonged sleep onset latency.[13]
Sleep studies using polysomnography have suggested that people who have insomnia with sleep disruption have elevated nighttime levels of circulating cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone They also have an elevated metabolic rate, which does not occur in people who do not have insomnia but whose sleep is intentionally disrupted during a sleep study. Studies of brain metabolism using positron emission tomography (PET) scans indicate that people with insomnia have higher metabolic rates by night and by day. The question remains whether these changes are the causes or consequences of long-term insomnia.[12]
Insomnia can be common after the loss of a loved one, even years or decades after the death, if they have not gone through the grieving process. Overall, symptoms and the degree of their severity affect each individual differently depending on their mental health, physical condition, and attitude or personality.
A common misperception is that the amount of sleep required decreases as a person ages. The ability to sleep for long periods, rather than the need for sleep, appears to be lost as people get older. Some elderly insomniacs toss and turn in bed and occasionally fall off the bed at night, diminishing the amount of sleep they receive.[14]
Diagnosis
Specialists in sleep medicine are qualified to diagnose the many different sleep disorders. Patients with various disorders including delayed sleep phase syndrome are often mis-diagnosed with insomnia.
If a patient has trouble getting to sleep, but has normal sleep pattern once asleep, a circadian rhythm disorder is a likely cause.
Treatment for insomnia
In many cases, insomnia is caused by another disease, side effects from medications, or a psychological problem. It is important to identify or rule out medical and psychological before deciding on the treatment for the insomnia.[16] Attention to sleep hygiene is an important first line treatment strategy and should be tried before any pharmacological approach is considered.[17]
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Salaam Mumbai
This trip of mine to mumbai is going to be one of my most memorable ones ever.Well the start to this trip was a little strange though,my flight was scheduled for a 19.05 departure.Since the airport was 40 odd kms from my home,it was best to leave home as early as possible.Infact i had planned on leaving home at 3.30PM...but thanks to my watch which was showing 3.30PM(READ 2.30),i left an hour earlier than supposed to.....The Airport bus dropped me at the airport at 5PM(READ 4PM).Now as i walked in to the check-in counter,to my horror i saw the time at the check-in counter it read 4PM.It was a real shocker for me that i had reached the airport this early(thanks to my watch).Sincei had already got my boarding pass done,i had 3 hours time to kill......I had decided to take a look around the airport...The First thing i had observed was cafe coffee day....I just went in andbrought myself a cup of hot expresso...Then i took a useless stroll around the airport and proceeded to the waiting lounge(MORE OF A ROW OF CHAIRS)....Then I took out my NOKIA N95(NOKIA WILL SUE ME FOR REFERRING A CHINA MOBILE AS NOKIA-LOL).I watched THE LATEST BOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER 3 Idiots for a record breaking 18th time......WELL that's me...A MOVIE FREAK....I didn't watch the full movie as it was time for my security....Soon i was inside the flight and it took off at 7.15( A SMALL DELAY)....The first thing i noticed inside the flight apart from the AIR-HOSTESSES(SMIRK!) was how cramped the space was inside the flight....The flight landed in amchi mumbai at 8.45.Though i had a pleasant flight,i was relieved that it had landed because my knees became sore thanks to the cramped arrangement of the seats....My Chitappa(UNCLE IN ENGLISH I GUESS) was there to recieve me.....We reached home finally at 9.30...I had My dinner and was ready to sleep after chit-chatting with my Younger Siblings....But The problem was that off late i have been an insomaniac.....i couldnt sleep a wink in most of the nights for the past few months....So i Borrowed Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone from Sis no.1 and was reading it till 3.50 when i finally dozed off.....i woke up at 6.30 and opened the window screen to click a few snaps of the early birds(LITERALLY) and the not so scintillating Geogrpahy of this area(GOREGAON)....Then Finally after finishing my morning routines....Here i Am sitting in front of my Chitappa's Laptop and blogging about last night....WOW it was good opening up to all of you.....
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Big B offers Aamir a film
If things worked out, this could be the great Indian star cast to appear on the graffiti of Bollywood. Big B and Aamir who admire each other might work together for a flick produced by ABCL. And guess what, who will be the helmer…? It will be none other then the perfectionist Aamir who has impressed everyone with his TZP.
The idea was expressed by the senior Bachchan when he turned up to mourn Aamir Khan's father's death.
At the time of leaving Amitabh Bachachan gave Aamir the offer to direct a film for him and the Perfectionist nodded in approval.
The idea was expressed by the senior Bachchan when he turned up to mourn Aamir Khan's father's death.
At the time of leaving Amitabh Bachachan gave Aamir the offer to direct a film for him and the Perfectionist nodded in approval.
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