
Cardiologist reveals how to control high blood pressure naturally with diet: Here's what to eat and what to avoid
In a January 2019 video on his YouTube channel, he shared that if you're overweight or obese, losing weight can help lower blood pressure. Dr Chhajer advised aiming for a healthy weight through a combination of diet and exercise. He also advised including a range of colourful fruits and vegetables to get a broad range of nutrients. 'Have fruits and veggies, cut down on salt and fat'
Dr Chhajer said in Hindi, 'You should know a lot about controlling high BP. First, when it comes to the changes you should make to your diet, the biggest thing is that your weight should be under control. Every kg you lose can help with your blood pressure. The simple way to lose weight is by eating vegetables and fruits and removing roti and rice from your daily diet. Along with this, you have eat less salt as it is a major contributor. Have more fruits and vegetables and cut down on fat.' 'You should walk for half an hour'
Sharing more tips to manage high BP, Dr Chhajer added that chronic stress can contribute to high blood pressure. According to him, engage in stress-reducing activities like meditation, yoga, or deep breathing exercises.
He said: 'You should walk for half an hour to help control your BP. However, the biggest thing to help with your BP would be reducing your stress levels. What you need to do is find out the actual cause of your stress and address it. You cannot control or change the world and your circumstances, so you should try to manage yourself better to avoid stress. Yoga can also help reduce stress. If nothing works, you can have doctor-prescribed medication.'
If you are feeling stuck with high blood pressure even after medication, click here to know five alarming reasons your blood pressure stays high, and what to do about it.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.

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Time of India
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- Time of India
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NDTV
a day ago
- NDTV
MBBS In Hindi? What Madhya Pradesh's Failed Experiment Shows
Recent reports in the media point to the failure of the experiment of introducing a Hindi-instruction-based MBBS degree. A report in NDTV stated that after three years of starting this programme with much fanfare, the less than 20% students from Hindi medium background in medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh are not keen on going the 'Hindi' route. With Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu planning on repeating the unsuccessful experiment and with state governments and the National Medical Commission (NMC) subtly pushing for it, it is imperative to have a thorough relook at the whole bilingual medium of instruction policy in medical education in India. How It Started The question 'Why can India not have Medical Education in Hindi right now?' first came up in Parliament in August 2018. The then minister of Health and Family Welfare, J.P. Nadda, had replied that due to a lack of resources, the need to update the curriculum and given the international exposure and experience that the English language provides, the Medical Council of India (the erstwhile medical education regulator) had decided not to impart medical education in Hindi. By 2022, thanks to the New Education Policy (NEP), the 'MBBS in Hindi' push had gained political momentum, with Madhya Pradesh becoming the first state to walk that path. The NMC while releasing the Competency Based Medical Education Regulations (CBME) in 2024, also gave a further push to the bilingual mode of education as it state that 'teaching, learning, and assessment may be carried out using a bilingual mode (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu) along with English." Today, Madhya Pradesh even offers a 50% reduction in the examination fee if it is taken in Hindi. However, the misalignment between what the powers that be think about the vernacular language policy and the experiences of MBBS students is only growing stark. Is There Really A Need? While it is evident that the government's move in this direction is a bit premature, the concerns of a section of students, which finds learning in English tougher, remain valid. Various studies have shown that foreign language-based medical education negatively affects academic outcomes due to difficulty in comprehending foreign language textbooks. In a study in a medical college in West Bengal, nearly 70% of students surveyed agreed to the suggestion that medical colleges in India should prioritise offering medical education in vernacular languages to improve the understanding of the subject, with 45% stating that textbooks in vernacular languages must be available. In another study in Uttar Pradesh, the opinion among healthcare professionals was split. A little over half of the respondents believed that MBBS in Hindi would attract more students from Hindi-speaking backgrounds to join the medical field. On the contrary, and aligning with the initial feedback from students in Madhya Pradesh, another study found professionals in two medical colleges in Gujarat and Rajasthan, preferring English over regional language, with pre-clinical students (first and second year of an MBBS degree) showing relatively higher preference for vernacular languages. These studies go on to establish that a significant number of students who come from non-English-medium schools find it difficult to navigate an English-language-medium MBBS degree. More And Better Research However, in a study published in March this year, 274 MBBS students in Maharashtra were classified based on their medium of instruction in higher and higher secondary schooling, and this was compared with their final-year MBBS marks. For the 75% of students who came from non-English medium backgrounds, no difference was observed in their final performance. Such studies in other countries also point to similar findings, thereby putting a question mark over the need to promote vernacular-language medical education. Even in Madhya Pradesh, there seems to be no data about the exact number of students who have opted for exams in Hindi, how many of them refer to Hindi textbooks, or details of the quality of such textbooks. Solution Lies Elsewhere Manouevring MBBS in English does not require producing transliterated textbooks, which anyway do more harm than good to medical education. Nor does it require rolling out Hindi-based MBBS programmes. Surely also, proposals to set up Hindi-medium MBBS colleges is an overkill. 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The Real Problem The Madhya Pradesh experiment is failing because there are gaps. Questions abound about the acceptance of a vernacular language degree, its status in the medical fraternity and research ecosystem and its helpfulness in competitive exams. The solution lies in good old mentoring and creating effective support systems. There needs to be more nuanced identification of the pain points, and these must be addressed in a more tailored fashion, rather than making sweeping changes, such as what the Madhya Pradesh government has done.


The Print
2 days ago
- The Print
Pitched as ‘educational revolution' in 2022, why the ‘MBBS in Hindi' initiative has seen few takers
Launching the MBBS course in Hindi in Bhopal on 16 October 2022, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that it was in line with the National Education Policy 2020, which emphasised imparting primary, technical and medical education in students' mother tongues. The trigger: A lukewarm response to an initiative started in 2022 through which the course was launched in Hindi in MP, a first anywhere in the country. New Delhi: Last month, the Madhya Pradesh government announced that a rebate of 50 percent in examination fee will be offered to MBBS students opting to write the annual tests in Hindi. Those topping the test in the language will also be given cash awards, with the highest reward set at Rs 2 lakh. Calling it an 'educational revolution' aimed at restoring the pride of 'our languages', Shah had dedicated text books for MBBS first year, translated to Hindi from English and procured at a cost of Rs 10 crore. Over the next two years, state governments in at least four other states, including neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, also announced plans to replicate the project. However, while some students, enthused by the idea of studying medicine in the language they are most comfortable with, picked the textbooks—mostly kept in college libraries following supplies by publishers such as J.P. Publication and Elsevier—not a single student in any of these states so far has written the MBBS examination in Hindi. The reason for this, according to students, is the fear that studying medicine in the local language may limit their potential and career prospects, which demand English proficiency. 'I come from a small town and though I went to an English medium school, I am not very comfortable in the language,' a second-year MBBS student at Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal and a resident of Rewa, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint. The idea of studying medicine in Hindi seemed good initially, she said. 'That's because when we get into pursuing the course, there are two big challenges—learning medicine and a language that is not our first language. The new textbooks, which are in Hinglish—interspersed with technical words in English with grammar in Hindi—made life easy, at least during the initial few months. 'Yet, when I assessed whether I should opt for the first year examination in Hindi, there was not much confusion around the decision because I know that evidence-based medicine is universal and it is better to follow it in a universal language,' the second year-MBBS student remarked. According to officials in MP Medical Science University, while all 18 government medical colleges under it have ensured that Hindi textbooks till 3rd year of MBBS are available for those interested, only about 10-15 percent of the students opted for the book. Also, there are no takers for the examinations in Hindi. 'We are trying to push for it but students do not seem to be finding it useful from the career perspective,' said a senior official in the university, requesting anonymity. ThePrint reached out to Rajendra Shukla, deputy chief minister and state health minister over the phone. This report will be updated if and when a reply is received. In other states too, the initiative has met a similar response. In Bihar, for instance, while nearly 20 percent of the first-year MBBS students last year in a few government medical colleges opted for Hindi books, none wrote the examination in the language this year. 'There has been an option for MBBS students to now study the course in Hindi… (but) the response has not been very enthusiastic though we tied up with MP-based publishers of Hindi textbooks to encourage students to pursue the programme in the language,' conceded Shashank Sinha, special secretary in the Bihar state health department. The trajectory has not been different in Chhattisgarh, UP and Rajasthan. Yet, proponents of the initiative feel it's an experiment worth pursuing. 'I am not a fanatic (over this project) but I feel it's an initiative that needs to be introduced and encouraged. When countries like Japan, China, France and Germany teach medicine to their students in their mother tongue and can still be competitive globally, why can't we do that?' asked Dr B.N. Gangadhar, outgoing chairman of the National Medical Commission (NMC) which regulates medical colleges across India. But few others agree. 'Our realities are different from those countries, where mostly one language dominates,' said Dr Shivkumar Utture, former NMC member and president of the Maharashtra Medical Council. The initiative, he said, has not been thought through or planned well and was started without holding wide consultations to assess ground realities. 'Due to these factors,' Utture said, 'the response is poor among MBBS students'. Breaking barriers or creating them? The argument given in favour of the initiative is that it will empower students from small towns and rural areas. 'The idea is to ease challenges that new MBBS inductees face when they join medical colleges. Being armed with a textbook in their first language is likely to make the navigation easier. I faced a similar problem when I went into medical college decades ago because I was not well versed in English,' Gangadhar told ThePrint. But those studying medicine now have different opinions. In a globalised world, which wants to connect in a common language and exchange ideas on a daily basis, these thoughts are outdated, they say. 'The Hindisation of MBBS curriculum in the current circumstances is a regressive step and it is only a political stunt aimed to appease certain groups,' Dr Amit Banjara, secretary of the Junior Doctors' Association, Chhattisgarh, said. According to Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, a geriatrician based in Delhi, who completed his MBBS from Government Medical College Jabalpur in 2010, pursuing the course in Hindi may limit the students for life. 'It may actually end up creating barriers for doctors rather than opening doors for them because science constantly evolves and as practitioners of modern medicine, they have to be comfortable in a language that is acceptable and usable worldwide, irrespective of our background,' Bhatti said. 'Reaching patients in a language they understand' The advocates for MBBS in Hindi also argue that those studying in Hindi, or in other regional languages once they are available, is likely to help medical practitioners communicate better with their patients. The statistics show that nearly 60 percent MBBS pass-outs prefer to work in the states from which they completed their course, pointed out the outgoing NMC chairman. 'Against this background, it makes sense that they study the textbooks in a language which can also be the language of their communication with the patients,' Gangadhar insisted. Many public health specialists, however, had a differing opinion. 'I am for education in one's mother tongue but I fully disagree about the same in national or state languages. Hindi, for example, is an urban language, which is seldom spoken or understood in most rural areas of what we call Hindi heartland,' said Raman V.R., a public health expert from Chhattisgarh. The lingua franca of Hindi heartland are actually Diaavadhi, Bhojpuri, Brij, Khari boli, Magahi, Maithili, Garhwali, Kumaoni and Pahadi, among others, according to the public health specialist. Further, without having a change in cultural orientation around languages, it is difficult to prepare useful textbooks or reading material in non-English Indian languages, as the broader language structures and vocabulary are heavily influenced by Sanskrit in most local languages, experts also point out. 'As a person who tried to prepare resources and training material in Malayalam and Hindi, I have seen these challenges and I have been struggling myself at times, when it comes to preparing communicative material,' said Raman. He added that unless there is a change in the larger approach across educational, administrative and societal levels about languages and communication, a reform limited to one sector can only lead to a backlash and it's better to orient doctors about the cultural and behavioral aspects of treating the rural population. Those specialising in public health also said that while using regional languages to make higher education accessible is beneficial in itself, it needs to be backed up by research journals in that language. For instance, there are quality scientific journals in languages such as French, German, Swedish, Chinese, Russian journals and Japanese. As medicine is an evolving science and doctors need to constantly upgrade their knowledge, the current push may lead to outdated doctors for rural areas, said Dr Prabir K.C., an independent public health consultant from Kolkata. The NMC chairman, meanwhile, maintained that the progress of the Hindi push in MBBS course and the students' response to it can be assessed only 5-10 years down the line. 'We can then decide whether the intended purpose of the initiative is being fulfilled or not,' he said. (Edited by Viny Mishra) Also read: Doctors welcome MP's decision to scrap seat-leaving bond for MBBS students. What the policy entails