Another Booker for this medical book?

CHANDIGARH: Department of community medicine at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) and National Institute of Nursing Education (NINE) have come up with a two-volume book on women's health, which attempts to provide home remedies for most of their problems.

The book focuses on the fairer sex as its members often find it difficult to access medical facilities.

It emphasizes having a lifestyle that is conducive to a person's wellbeing. That requires regular physical exercise, healthy diet, yoga, spiritual orientation, meditation and philanthropic activities, it mentions.

Dr Amarjeet Singh, who works with the PGI department, edited the book. He says, 'These volumes are a virtual gold mine of home remedies, some of which are commonly known. The rest are new.'

The tome has 41 chapters written by 61 authors. They are mainly from PGI, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Aligarh Muslim University and Delhi-based Maulana Azad Medical College and University College of Medical Sciences.

Dr LK Dhaliwal, head of PGI's department of obstetrics and gynaecology and Dr Indarjit Walia, principal of NINE are its co-editors.

It is based on the dictum that prevention is better than cure.

The range of diseases that the volumes take up includes such varied topics as hair loss, dental health, bad breath, foeticide, skewed sex-ratio, epilepsy, cancer, infertility, knee pain and AIDS.

In all the cases, the book does not stop at explaining the physical remedy. The importance of emotional support and maintenance of mental equilibrium is also stressed.

The book also includes non-medicinal approach for dealing with women's health problems like backache, infertility, incontinence, uterine prolapse, painful menstruation, hair care, mental illness and pregnancy-related issues among others.

It intends to make people less dependent on medicines and doctors.

However, sources clarified that the book did not advocate that no medicine should be taken.

The emphasis is to impress upon the reader that much relief can be achieved without medicines and if needed, doctors' help may be considered, they said.

Walia said the book was written in a two-year period and most of the chapters were the outcome of research done by nursing students in Dadumajra and Dhanas.