STATE TIMES NEWS
RAJOURI: Head of Department Cardiology, Government Medical College, Jammu, Dr Sushil Sharma on Sunday organized free medical camp in Rajouri, which was inaugurated by Shri Shri 1008 Swami Vishwatamanand Ji Maharaj amidst Vedic invocations for universal peace and health for all.
Highlighting the fact that spirituality and medical awareness can help improve quality of life for people with chronic diseases particularly with reference to cardiovascular diseases , Dr. Sushil Sharma along with a team of doctors held a day long health check up cum awareness camp at SVS Degree College, Rajouri in association with SVS Charitable Trust.
Around 500 people benefitted from the health checkup camp. Free medicines were given as per advice. Important body tests viz., ECG, Lipid-profile, BMD, Blood sugar were also done. At the outset, Dr Sushil said that an important goal of the treatment of chronic heart diseases is preserving and improving the quality of life by controlling the symptoms and promoting useful life activities.
Coping with the new situation is key to achieving this important goal because living with heart related ailments and maintaining the treatment regimen are stressors with which patients must cope.
Several studies found that patients who can cope with their new reality improve their physical and mental performance. Mere emphasis on the physical aspect is not adequate for patients’ health and welfare; contribution of other strategies including religious coping ones is required. Religion is an important aspect of health care and attention to religious needs has been increasingly emphasized by healthcare professionals. The strength and comfort obtained from one’s faith in a personal relationship with God as a higher power include a sense of meaningfulness and well-being. Religious coping strategies and a sense of meaning help the patients suffering from chronic diseases to trust their strengths, accept new conditions, and cope through finding their inner selves.
This makes spirituality and religion an integral component of comprehensive care.
Dr Sushil Sharma further stated that numerous studies described that religion and spirituality are the main sources of coping for chronic and life-threatening diseases.
Patients may find purpose, community, and encouragement through religious or spiritual practices and beliefs or other coping mechanisms that can help them engage with and sustain positive lifestyle changes.
He specifically mentioned the recent analysis from the study on stress, spirituality and health published in Scientific Reports which demonstrates that spiritual struggles in particular significantly modify the impact of unique proteins on risk of developing cardiovascular disease in U.S. South Asians, a community that has especially high rates of CVD.
The American College of Cardiology and other major cardiovascular societies recommend palliative care for heart failure patients.
Spirituality is a core domain of palliative care, with the goal of identifying and addressing spiritual concerns and providing patients with appropriate spiritual and religious resources, he informed.
Swami Vishwatamanand Ji also showered the divine blessings on the team of doctors for providing best healthcare facilities to the residents of border town .In his address Swami Ji laid emphasis on the religious and spiritual dimensions of healthcare so as to lessen the overgrowing burden of Cardiovascular and other ailments in order to improve the quality of life. Others who were instrumental in this effort included Dr Shalinder Sharma, Dr Nasir Ali Choudhary, Dr Shahbaz Khan, Dr Anitipal Singh, Dr Kunal Sharma, Dr Poonam Jagiasi, Dr Sourav Gupta, Dr Sonali Sharma, Dr Himani Jandial and Dr Rajiv Jindal . Paramedics and volunteers, who were part of the team, included Vikas Kumar, Akshay Kumar, Raghav Rajput, Rajkumar, Ranjeet Singh, Rahul Sharma, Mandeep Sharma, Vishal Doshi, Ankush Kohli, Lalit Bali, Vinay Kumar, Shubham and volunteers of the SVS Charitable Trust.
