Dr. Hardik Thakker Clinic

Hello,

I am Dr. Hardik Thakkar. I am an MD in internal medicine practicing in Mumbai. Today I would be speaking on a very special topic which is called as cholesterol disorders and dyslipidaemias. As we know the Indian population has a very huge burden of cholesterol issues in the population. We are genetically predisposed to have dyslipidaemias. Also, the Indian diet is such that we have foods which are rich in fats which is like ghee and oil use, especially a lot of Indian foods I mean Indian sweet dishes they are rich in the Ghee, even when you are having roti and even diet people have a habit of using ghee with that. So, because of these dietary habits what happens is Indian patients tend to have high cholesterol levels so they have high total cholesterol, high LDL.

LDL cholesterol is the one which is the bad cholesterol. It is the one which forms plaques in the heart and that is one which gives rise to heart blocks and leads to heart attacks. So, our target is to keep this total cholesterol and the LDL cholesterol low. There is one more cholesterol called as the HDL cholesterol which is a good type of cholesterol so this can be increased by physical activity and certain drugs and the LDL target should be more than 40 in men and more than 35 in women. Apart from this, triglycerides that is also a type of fat actually in the blood which should be less than 150 milligrams per DL. Anything above that is harmful. It gives rise to blockages in the heart and leads to heart attacks. Apart from that very high amounts of triglycerides can also lead to pancreatitis.

So, we need to have these lipid profile parameters under control. So, what are the parameters? The total cholesterol should be less than 200, HDL more than 40 in case of men, more than 35 in case of women and LDL should be less than 100 and in diabetic especially less than 70. So, this is the target and triglycerides should be 150. So, only if you achieve these targets will it give you a mortality and morbidity benefit. Apart from this, we also want the patients to have a low-fat diet, diet which is rich is MUFA which is monounsaturated fatty acids, sunflower oil, rice bran oil these are the healthy oils which can be used every day, avoid using coconut oil or palm oil or ghee or dalda or anything which has trans-fats in it. These trans-fats are the ones which are very bad for health. So for more information on treatment modalities, for cholesterol issues and lifestyle changes, you can consult me online through my profile on lybrate via www.lybrate.com.

Thank you.

Hello,

 I am Dr. Hardik Thakkar, MD physician, practicing in Mumbai. Today I would like to speak about a very important and a hot topic which is multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. I am sure you must have heard of tuberculosis as a very common infectious disease seen in Indian population. However, not all types of tuberculosis are the same. There is a particular subtype of TB which is called as MDR TB that stands for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. So, what happens is in this disease the bacteria are really very strong and they do not respond to the regular tuberculosis medications and hence these patients need some special treatments which lasts for a longer duration of time. Also, this disease is very dangerous, it can be life-threatening and hence it has to be diagnosed on time and treated on time by the right experts who have the right kind of training protocol so that you can reach the best outcome from those patients.

Actually MDR tuberculosis patients have to be referred on time now after starting one month of therapy if you realise that the medicine is not working and ideally you are supposed to do a drug-resistant and a culture test, If the drug sensitivity test tells you that is resistance, immediately it is proven. We also have DNA tests like gene expert, flying probe assays which help you to point out what are the drug resistances and which drugs are sensitive for the tuberculosis bacteria.

So moral of the story is mdr-tb it needs treatment for about 2 years and it has drugs which are more in number like you need to give at least 5-6 drugs a group of drugs for this disease and even some injections for about 3-5 months of duration. The total duration of therapy lasts about 2 years and there are a lot of side effects with these medications. Hence, they have to be given under utmost diligence and care by trained expert doctors. So, I request you if you are suffering from tuberculosis please get the drug sensitivity test done and please consult us on time. For more information, you can even refer to me online through the lybrate website which is www.lybrate.com.

Thank you.

Hello,

I am Dr. Hardik Thakkar, MD physician. Today I would like to take this opportunity to speak about insomnia and sleeping disorders. So, as we all know this is a very common complaint that we see in an urban population, there are a lot of patients who come in with this complaint that they are unable to sleep on time, they get up also late and they have a very short duration of sleep. So, what happens is this affects the quality of the life of the patient, the people get up feeling exhausted and not rejuvenated and in future leads to depression. So, I would like to talk about certain sleeping habits which one has to inculcate so that you do not get this issue of insomnia. First and foremost you should have something called as detox from your smartphones.

We see that smartphones tend to interfere with daily life of the person. What happens is this blue light radiation which happens when you operate a cell phone and that keeps your brain awake. So, we would advise you to switch off the cell phone at least an hour before you are planning to go to sleep so that there is no distraction to keep you awake, WhatsApp messages, emails coming in the middle of the night or any sound for that matter can be a source of distraction and it can disturb the sleep. So, detox from a smartphone use a decent hour before sleep is very important.

Secondly avoid having any stimulants like tea and coffee after 6:00 pm in the evening coma people who work-out they tend to have products which contain caffeine, pre workouts and fat burners so even these products are going to keep you awake till late and will lead to insomnia. So, stay away from stimulants after 6:00 p.m. in the evening. Apart from this, one should avoid reading late into the night. People think if you read more, you will get a sound sleep but that's not true. If you read more, it stimulates the brain more and you will not get sleep so avoid reading at least an hour before you are going to sleep. And the fourth thing you need to take care of is to have a bath in warm water at least half an hour before sleep that is scientifically proven to induce sleep. So, these are the four common tips that you can take into everyday life so that you do not suffer from insomnia. For more information on others sleeping disorders and parasomnias you can come to me for a real-time consultation at my clinic or you can even avail an online consultation. For more information you can visit my profile on lybrate which is www.lybrate.com.

Thank you.

Hi! I am Dr Hardik Thakker, Internal Medicine Specialist. Today I will talk about erectile dysfunction. It is a condition where the patient is unable to achieve an erection or to sustain an erection during intercourse. This is the most common problem we see in men at the age of 35. The most common cause is stress, diabetes, hormonal disorder. Those who have a low level of testosterone, have the problem of ED. We evaluate the patient with multiple tests and then treat the patients. Treatment can be given by medications after prescription. If you have any queries, consult me through lybrate.com. Thank You.

Hi! I am Dr. Hardik Thakker, Internal Medicine Specialist based in Mulund, Mumbai. Today, I will talk about Coronary Artery Disease. It is a very common and non-communicable disease. We eat food like ghee, oil which are rich in cholesterol and lead to the deposition of cholesterol in blood vessels. It results in ischemia and muscles of heart do not get enough oxygen.

That leads to the death of the muscle and it is called as myocardial infarction. Patient complaints of chest pain. Sometimes patient may wake up with chest pain. The common cause is diabetes. 2nd major cause is genetics. Also smoking, alcohol consumption and age are other risk factors. So, you should report to the doctor immediately. We take the patient immediately and do the angiography. We also suggest for a bypass. For more information, you can talk to me through Lybrate. Thank You!

Hi,

I am Dr. Hardik Thakker, Internal Medicine Specialist, today I will talk about TB. It is very common infection in India. It is caused by Mycobacterium TB. It effects different parts of the body. The most common part is effected are lungs. Patient comes with the fever, cough of 2-3 weeks. Sometimes patient even complain of the weight loss and the blood in sputum.

TB can also effect the brain. TB can also effect genital urinary and bones also. Sometimes patient is not able to make any movements. Patient also have weakness in the legs which is called paraplegia. Nowadays TB is very easily treated.

Types of TB: Common TB and MDR TB. MDR TB is bit difficult to treat. So, if you have any symptoms, you should immediately consult a Dr. TB is very common in patients who have HIV. So, you should always get tested for HIV.

For any help or query, you can contact me through Lybrate.

Thank You.

Good evening!

I am Dr. Hardik Thakkar a MD physician speaking from Mumbai. Today I will be talking about monsoon-related illnesses. As we all know these are the monsoon months going on all over India and we have a lot of water coming in these four months of the year. As a result of water logging in many areas, it is a very good breeding house, the breeding ground for mosquitoes and a lot of mosquito-borne illnesses are very prevalent during that time. Most common monsoon-related illnesses are malaria and dengue fever. However these are the 3 common fevers that we see and the most striking feature of these diseases is a drop in the platelet count. So as the platelet count drops what happens is that the person complaints of rashes and if the count drops even further the patient may develop hemorrhage.

The blood does not clot in the body. One of the most dreaded complications of malaria, dengue and leptospirosis fever is called ARDS, So what happens here is there is a fluid accumulation and sometimes even blood in lungs. As a result the person cannot breathe. The oxygen exchange does not happen and he starts getting breathless. Such patients are then required to have ventilator supporter in the ICU. This is the most dreaded complication and not everybody survives successfully.

Hence, it is very important for all the patients who have symptoms of fever during the monsoon month to report to the doctor as soon as possible. So that you can be diagnosed in time and you do not develop such complications. We also have a concept of chemo-profile access where you can take a medicine to protect yourself from the disease. For example, for leptospirosis. If you live in an area where there is an epidemic of leptospirosis, we can give you doxycycline that can protect you from getting leptospirosis to begin with. For more details about this and treatment modalities you can reach me at my clinic or for an online consultation you can interact with me on the lybrate profile which you can reach through Lybrate.com 

Thank you very much!

A very good evening to all of you. I’m Dr Hardik Thakker. An MD physician from Mumbai. Today I will be talking to you about dengue fever. This year we have had a lot of patients suffering from dengue fever, so, this is a viral infection and it is an effect. It is caused by the dengue virus. There are four types of viruses this is a den1, den2, den3, den4. So depending on the zero watts the toxicity of the dengue virus varies and is transmitted to the bite of ADEs aegypti mosquito. So we commonly see patients coming with dengue fever who have gotten a fever with chills a lot of body ache and then this is a backache so it is called as a broken bone.

Break spine fever because of this reason and there are people commonly come with low platelet counts and low WBC comes and these infections and the reason is the virus goes and affects the bone marrow and fix the spleen and these are the reasons why there is a decrease in the counts. And one of the complication dengue fever is hock wherein the BP of the person drops really low levels and they can also lead to a RDS and breathlessness so it is very important to diagnose dengue on time and get treated on time. Certain population need hospitalization especially those with low WBC counts low platelet counts people who are breathless, who have a very bad rash or who are going into shock and low BP and this disease can take a toll hence you have to act very promptly. Also once you have an infection from one COR you can still be exposed to infection to other COR’s. In short, having dengue ones does not protect you from future episodes of dengue we currently have some vaccines in the research trial right now for prevention of dengue. Hope they come to the market soon and we can use it for the general public as well. And in the meantime, one has to take care of protecting yourself from the mosquitos not to allow them to breed keep away all water collections. Keep the areas dry and use mosquito repellents for more information on dengue fever you can reach me for my online portal which is www.lybrate.com. Thank you very much.

A very good evening to all of you. I’m Dr Hardik Thakker. I am an MD physician and an infectious disease specialist practising in Mumbai. Today I would like to talk about pneumonia. As we know pneumonia is very common in a regular population and it is an infection of the lungs. The most common situation where you see pneumonia is in the infants or children below 12 years or in old people about 60 years especially those with diabetes and HIV especially people who have a very weak immunity. so talking about the causes how does pneumonia happen? Pneumonia is caused by different bacteria, viruses and the fungi which are found in the air. So when you inhale the air, these pathogens enter your lungs. Most of the healthy people have a good immunity and that fights of these bacteria or the virus or the fungi only those people who are immunocompromised or diabetics with high sugars or children’s who have a weaker immunity those are the people who are very susceptible to pneumonia and these are the ones who actually get it. So what happens in pneumonia, people get a fever, they get a cough, they get breathlessness and it can take a toll if not control in time. Hence it is very urgent for us recognize pneumonia on time and hospitalize the patients if required for the treatment. For more information on treating pneumonia in and for further treatment options, you can reach me for my online portal which is www.lybrate.com/HardikThakker or you can go to my own website as well. Thank you very much.

Few tips to Lose Weight

A very good evening to all of you. I’m Dr. Hardik Thakker, an M.D physician from Mumbai. Today I would be speaking on Five tips for losing weight.

So as you all know there is a trend for people who are overweight these days, and they want to lose weight. This can be for varied occasions, like for going for parties, or getting ready for their marriages, or just to achieve their health goals.

• So the first and the foremost health tip would be once you get up in the morning one can have a glass of water with one lemon. This is one of the best ways to boost your metabolism, because as we know, lemon is a booster, it boosts your daily basic metabolic rate and helps you to lose more calories. This is to be taken in the morning on an empty stomach.
• The second health tip would be to avoid any foods which are rich in sugars or pastries or sweets, and to prefer to have more of complex carbohydrates in every day diet.
• The third health tip would be to have at least a jog or a cardio workout every day for thirty minutes. This is again to help you lose the calories and boost your metabolism. It’s only when you lose the calories that your fat depots go down.
• The fourth tip would be to have enough of sleep because good sleep is very important for the body to rest, and to do justice to whatever workout you have done.
• And the fifth tip is to have a weight training schedule at least five times in a week. This is to build muscles, so once you have more muscle tissue it is having a higher metabolic rate and it helps you to lose fast.

For more details on weight loss options and medication that can help you to achieve your goals, you can please get back to me on my website that is www.lybrate.com, and you can access my profile from there. Thank you very much.