The Weekly Dose - Episode 36

The Weekly Dose...

... the latest from Dr Karan

  Here is your weekly dose...  

Hi all!Here is your weekly dose of the Sunday Six! A few things I found interesting this week. If you enjoy this please feel free to forward this to friends. families and enemies alike!**You'll find more in depth analysis of some of these subjects on my social platforms in the links just below, including Dr Karan Investigates! for deep dives into interesting topics on my YouTube channel.**

Ways To Go Out...

Sensitive content warning: I'll be talking about death!

From an early age we are all heading one way  – 6 feet under – well, there are numerous alternatives to being 6 feet under actually.One of the things I've been increasingly aware of at work and in general life is that we (the collective we), take great pains to euphemise death and generally avoid talking about it. It remains one of the great taboos in western society.Who cares you might think - well the unfortunate consequence of this is that because we put off talking about death, we also put off having conversations about what you or a relative might want when they are in ill health and facing this reality; these so called end-of-life decisions. Do you want that major surgery which you have a 10% chance of making it through but could leave you worse off with complications? Do you want to be resuscitated? Do you want to pass away at home or in a hospice? Too often these conversations happen far too late.Anyway..that rant is for another time. BUT...did you know that you can be 3D printed into a vase? or have your ashes sent into space so you become actual space dust! (The downside is the death part, but we can gloss over that for now...) Other burial alternatives include the tree burial practice common in places such as the Philippines, to protect the bodies from wild animals. This strange burial practice takes place by putting bodies in a tree or embedding them in a tree-trunk. Bodies can also be concealed in a coffin or blanket that will be tied into the branches of a tree!

If you fancy another version, why not aquamation! This is the procedure of being ‘bathed’ in water, which speeds up the deterioration process!

Resomation, another variant, is an eco-friendly burial method that decomposes the body using an alkali and water based solution under high pressure. Sounds nice. I guess...This breaks down the body to a liquid and bone ash. The liquid can be recycled into the ecosystem by pouring it into a garden or nature, similar to the spreading of ashes, while the bone ash is collected and placed into an Urn

By far the coolest option and highly expensive is a Space Burials - launching ashes, or for a higher cost, the full remains of the deceased into space via a rocket! (I need to confirm that this bit is legal...because it sounds inappropriate and I certainly don't think space agencies would take kindly due floating frozen space bodies..)Finally for fans of Breaking Bad - Dissolution. This is the quick and dirty process of a body being placed into a tank of strong chemicals, causing it to dissolve, rapidly breaking down the body’s cells. Often, the body is separated from limb to limb to save space and speed up the dissolution process. Which reminds me, go watch Breaking Bad.

The Language Of Medicine... 

Never did I imagine my time learning latin & Greek in school would actually turn out to be somewhat useful.

I’m not talking about “caecilius est in horto” but more ..retrobulbar neuritis 

As a healthcare professional I’m acutely (urgently!) aware that medicine has a language of its own, often leaveing patients confused or frustrated when they’re flooded with jargon.

I’ve found Over the years that when patients don’t fully understand certain medical words ..it affects nit just their relationship with the treating team but often patient satisfaction, recovery and compliance with the treatment process.

I’ve actively trie to change my language over time to avoid these things..it’s not a huge shift but instead of thrombus i say blood clot...instead of haematoma..collection of blood ajd so on and so forth!

A Painful Condition That Affects 10% of Women...

Endometriosis.I'm not a gynaecologist but I deal with lots of women with abdominal pain. A lot of the times the cause is NOT surgical, but often urological, medical or even gynaecological. It is in this latter cohort of patients that doctors often miss or delay the diagnosis of an incredibly debilitating and life changing condition...endometriosis.Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to that lining the womb finds itself erroneously in all sorts of funny places in the body from ovaries to bladders to bowel to even lung! Suffice to say this causes more than just incredibly painful periods but can ruin a person's quality of life to the point they cannot function, go to work or have a normal life.The statistics for this condition are damning. In the UK it is AN AVERAGE of at least 7-8 years for a diagnosis of this condition. There are multiple reasons why but ultimately, women's health is (wrongly) poorly taught and understood by the vast majority of healthcare professionals. I was formerly in this group and through being educated by colleagues smarter than me, self directed learning and by making mistakes and general experience I have improved my understanding of gynaecological health greatly.You might have heard of the pay gap but there is also a gender health gap. Women's health is often not taken as seriously and this can lead to harm.Endometriosis awareness is not just a month but requires an institutional changes which will I suspect sadly take years but that's better than the status quo. 

  Online Racists... 

I've had my fair share of run ins with online trolls and racists.I recently shared a screenshot of someone who spewed some pretty despicable things my way online which epitomises how racism is not just stumbling through the back weeds of anonymous online forums but sailing gallantly in broad daylight. When I get a troll like comment I generally don't "name & shame" for fear of a mob of people attacking said person. Troll or not, it's never nice to be virtually attacked. Not a nice feeling at all.However, I draw a hard line at racism. Through years of exposure to racism, it doesn't affect me at all. I often find it amusing but allowing racist remarks, even if said in jest, is something that I will make every effort to quell.I shared the screenshot of said racist message to my social media pages and the internet won. Numerous people stumbled on the smooth brained individuals page and subsequently his racist posts were removed.Internet 1 - 0 racist troll.Well done friends.  

The Podcast...

The Podcast is happening. I want to tentatively say it'll be on my YouTube channel and streaming services around April/May but this is flexible currently.I've been working on getting this right and trying to find time to squeeze it all in so it has been a mammoth task and very very delayed for the above reasons.A full time surgical job is not particularly conducive to podcasts and making social media videos! I am planning to record a pilot episode and finalise a list of early guests soon so the cogs are turning and things are kicking into action.I have a meeting about my podcast tomorrow so this should provide even more updates next week! If you haven't already make sure you check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel because this is where the full video versions will live! (it'll be a weekly podcast) 

A Thank You...

My mum will be fuming. I rarely say thanks at home because I take everything for granted (according to my mum of course).But I do want to say thank you...to you. Yes you. Thanks for engaging, commenting, liking, sharing, sliding into DMs, debating, laughing, questioning, arguing, enjoying and generally sticking around long enough to see me on this weird social media journey.I say it's a journey because we still haven't arrived at the destination and hopefully we never have to. And on the day the journey ends, hopefully my crispy friend remains will be blasted into Omicron Persei-8. If you know, you know. 

As always, please give me feedback on Twitter. Which of this weeks Sunday six is your favourite? Is there something you want more, or less of? I'm open to any suggestions so please let me know! Just send a  tweet to @drkaranrajan and use the hashtag #theweeklydose at the end so I can find it!

Have a wonderful week, all.

Much love,

Karan