Pulse Beat

Prof Dr BM Hegde 29 September 2015

Life after Death

Does human consciousness live beyond physical death? Yes, say researchers from Southampton University (United Kingdom), in a paper in the recent issue of the journal Resuscitation.

They conducted one of the largest ever studies of death and what happens after death. The paper says that the “the team has concluded that, while it is not known why or how, there nonetheless appears to be some consciousness and awareness for some time after physical death has occurred. That suggests consciousness and the body are intertwined in some fashion, but they may travel down a separate non-physiological path after what humans describe as death.”

This gives credence to the old Indian wisdom of the atman (soul) surviving death. The mind (consciousness) and the body are intertwined, though they might they go through different physiologic streams after death.

The research was led by Dr Sam Parnia.

Youngsters, Be Wary of Social Media

Heather Cleland Woods and Holly Scott from the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) published their data at the British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Manchester.

To reach their findings, the team studied 467 teenagers, of ages 11-17 years from a single school, who were asked to complete a questionnaire. Questions around self-esteem, anxiety, depression and sleep quality were analysed. The findings revealed, for the first time, that social media has a negative effect on mental health.

‘Risk Factor’ is Statistical Imagination

The JNC8 report of the joint national committee (JNC) on the prevention, detection, evaluation and treatment of high blood pressure (BP), or hypertension, in the United States is yet to be universally followed even three years after its publication. JNC8 raised the bar for normal BP at 159/99 for adults and 140/90 for diabetics. Of course, this was not easily digested by the industry as billions of people come out of the drug net!

Lo and behold! The US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NIHLB) has now come out with a study that says that lowering BP even below 120/80 in the elderly is very beneficial. Almost all studies in the past, including the Cochrane database that the JNC8 based their recommendations on, were all in agreement with their recommendations. They were also aware that some feathers in the industry will be ruffled and were extra careful with their database.

The largest study of risk factors, after 25 years of observation of the largest ever studied American population, did show that risk factors are only statistical imaginations and do not exist in reality. Even if such risk factors are changed by drug intervention, the final risk, if any, remains just that. The research group felt that this 25-year-long study had been a boondoggle.

Despite all that evidence, this small study seems to weigh so heavily with the American Heart Association (AHA) and the NIHLB. The study has just come out and needs to be dissected properly to see who all got money; who benefited from this study; and where did all the funding for the study came from?

Epidemiology showed that the lower the BP, the better; but that was for untreated virgin BP levels. In addition, it was a linear study which, if extended too far, would show that zero BP is better than BP of 10mmHg. Are we going to believe that? To the best of my knowledge, there is no study which says that drug-treated BP levels will take away the risk, if any, of the original raised level! Interestingly, one of the mottoes of these medical organisations is ‘Truth Liberates’. What of untruths sold daily in the medical field?

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