Q Can stress cause weigh gain? How is stress related to weight gain? How to prevent it?

Yes stress is the major cause for weight gain! People turn to food for comfort whenever they feel stressed and tend to overeat. To make it worse, often we choose junk food. So, one, we eat unnecessarily without being hungry and two, junk food means much more added calories than needed.n Over a period, the caloric imbalance leads to weight gain and eventually elevates risk of diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.n Now that you know, choose healthy alternatives like an apple or roasted almonds next time you feel stressed and are tempted to eat!n Moreover, try alternate ways like going for a walk or dancing to the tunes of some soothing music. This will not only relieve stress but will give bonus benefit by burning excess calories.

Q Whats causing my palpitations and how can I get rid of them?

The causes for palpitations are - strong emotions such as anxiety, fear, or stress; palpitations often occur during panic attacks; caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, or illegal street drugs such as cocaine; some medical conditions, including thyroid disease, a low blood sugar level, anemia, low blood pressure, fever, and dehydration; hormone changes associated with menstruation, pregnancy or menopause etc. In most cases, palpitations are found to be harmless and often go away on their own. Treatment depends on the cause of your palpitations. Some lifestyle changes like exercise and yoga and quitting smoking and alcohol help a lot.

Q What is "Selective Mutism"?

Selective mutism is a condition in which a person who is normally capable of speech is unable to speak in given situations or to specific people. Selective mutism usually begins in childhood. It usually co-exists with shyness or social anxiety. Its important to understand that when the mutism happens, the child is not voluntarily refusing to speak but is literally unable to speak, feeling frozen. In time, they learn to anticipate the situations that provoke mutism and do all they can to avoid them. Example: selective mutism while interacting with the opposite sex. Other attributes of children or adults with selective mutism are nervousness, socially awkward, clingy, excessively shy or withdrawn, stubborn or aggressive. Behavioral therapy forms the mainstay of treatment with medications used in a few older patients. Most children will work their way through SM with sympathetic support, although they may remain reserved and anxious in social situations.

Q Should my child drink alcohol?

Absolutely not. No person under the age of 18 should be allowed to drink alcohol.

Q What are monounsaturated fats? Are they healthy?

Monounsaturated fats are the fats present in vegetable oils, nuts, fruits, legumes, and seeds. They are heart-healthy and help in lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol and increasing HDL (good) cholesterol.

Q My mother is 69 years, last year we accidntally came to know that she has polycystic kidney disease. She never had any symptoms of this disease. When she went for an ultra sound scan for porlonged cough, doctor deteced PKD, then a nephrologist suggested to go in for continuous dialysis and we have been doing the same twice a week. She is normal now. Should we continue doing dialysis? She is not BP or Sugar patient

Whether to continue with dialysis or not will depend upon how well is the kidney functioning. Frequency of dialysis can be decided only by nephrologist considering her response to the treatment. Do regular consultation with your doctor and follow his advises.

Q i m 32 years serving army officer ..had a brain stroke 1 and a half year back..have recoverd a lot..started breathing on my own started eating,i do walk but with support..i remember everythng i write i can do calculations and my speech is slur.will i be alright

Being patient is the key word. Follow your routine and exercise schedule. Take medicine on time. You will definitely recover from this. You can take help of speech therapy for your slurred speech.

Q Can you have a normal ECG but an abnormal chest X-ray ?

Yes. This can happen. As both the investigations serve different purposes. ECG is restricted to evaluate and diagnose heart conditions. It does not give an idea about other structures in your chest cavity. But a chest X-ray is more elaborated and preliminary examination to detect any problems inside thoracic cage. Most commonly chest X-ray is advised to see lung condition, but its scope does not limit there. A normally functioning heart with problems to other organs and spaces inside chest cavity can give normal ECG with an abnormal chest X-ray.

Q After what age children can drink coffee?

Children under 12 are generally recommended to avoid caffeine or to limit its intake. Because, Caffeine is absorbed very quickly into the body and then passes into the central nervous system. In low doses caffeine can affect the body causing decreased appetite, increased urination, hyperactive behaviour and difficulty sleeping. The harmful effects may occur when a child consumes more than 4.5 mg of caffeine per pound of body weight.

Q My penis bleeding during sex and its hurts. my age 31

You seem to have injured yourself during the act. Please visit a physician to determine the cause and further management. Meantime maintain hygiene, avoid sexual intercourse to allow healing process, wear cotton underwear.