The world is catching up…India, take a bow!

Many, many years ago, I think in the mid 1980s, I landed at Bombay airport to find that two friends had been with me on the flight from Hyderabad. After the usual hais and hellos it was fairly natural that we shared a cab.

Since I was travelling the farthest to Churchgate, it was decided that a) I would sit in front, and b) I would pay for the ride.

Just a few kilometers out of Santa Cruz one of the friends (for the life of me I cannot remember who it was) said to me...Vijay, do you know you're going bald. Honestly, I didn't, and told him so. No problem with that, he continued, but just wanted to warn you that a balding patch on your crown is a sure sign of an impending heart ailment or even an attack.

Naturally I shrugged the whole conversation off, dropped off my friends and forgot all about my balding pate and my ailing heart. Till this morning... I was reading the Times of India this morning when the following news item caught my attention...

Baldness increases heart disease risk...page 11...Kounteya Sinha...and goes on to say...a British study has for the first time linked male pattern baldness with an increased risk of coronary heart disease...the risk has been found to be greatest for those with a thinning crown rather than a receding hairline, it says, with chances of heart disease highest among those for who are balding in on the top/crown of the head rather than at front.

My first reaction was to see how this warning could be communicated to Mr.Brahmanandam, my favorite Telugu comedian who fittingly shows off his balding crown as his sign of being the undisputed king of comedy.

The second thought was...did they say...for the first time?

I have known this from say 1985...that's nearly 30 years back! Good morning world...good to see that you are waking up to this possibility now...and you are still talking trends while we KNEW.

Aren’t there more instances of where the world is researching to prove Indian medico theories? I am sure there are. By this logic maybe the allopathic doctors who practice 'English' medicine should be asked to wear ‘L’ Boards while outside their homes.

Looks like they have a lot to learn:-)