Be Your Body's Best Friends

Healthy body is the gift of happy mind.

- Dr V K Nigam

Mrs Aarti Sakhiya (name changed) was a singer at a prestigious hotel in New Delhi. She had to perform one night but she felt extreme weakness and loss of energy while applying makeup at home after taking a bath and dressing up. She thought it might be momentary and would disappear. Besides, she did not have any comorbidity issue.

She lay down for five minutes and then, asked her maid to prepare a cup of coffee with two spoonfull of sugar. She also ate half an apple and waited for some time after taking coffee. But weakness and loss of energy persisted; she had no strength to get up and go to perform in the hotel.

Ultimately, she rang the hotel and apologised for not being able to come and sing. She was extremely worried and wondering what could have happened? Though she had experienced such episodes earlier, they were momentary. Those times, she consulted her general physician who did a thorough physical checkup and also, did some blood tests.

Blood pressure was in normal range and blood tests and ECG also were normal. There was no doubt of hypertension, heart problems, diabetes or thyroid. So, he prescribed her an anti-anxiety drug and said, "It is probably due to stress."

She was also told to develop some outdoor hobbies such as walking, jogging, badminton or some other sport as they could reduce stress.

But this time, it was severe so she decided to consult an internal medicine doctor. She consulted Dr Vijay Kumar, the senior-most internal medicine consultant in the city, as she was almost terrified of her sickness.

The next day, she met him, who first took the detailed history of her sickness including her daily routine and about food, sleep and exercise. He advised a few tests, asked her to come back with the test results after three days, and advised her to continue the anti-anxiety medicine.