Saiqa Rashid is an Assistant Engineer at Power Development Department (PDD) whose passion for art and calligraphy has blossomed into a remarkable journey of self-expression and inspiration. From a young age, Saiqa has had an innate talent for calligraphy and painting, a passion that was nurtured by her love for artistic endeavours. Throughout her childhood, she participated in mehndi competitions, showcasing her intricate designs and earning the coveted title of winner for four consecutive years. During her college days, she also excelled in art competitions, further fueling her passion for creative expression. However, as life unfolded and personal responsibilities took centre stage, Saiqa's artistic pursuits took a backseat. It wasn't until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that she rediscovered her creative spark and reignited her love for art. In the midst of uncertainty and isolation, Saiqa turned to her artistic talents as a source of solace, joy, and a means to channel her emotions. What sets Saiqa apart as an artist is her deep-rooted connection to her homeland, Kashmir. The majestic beauty of the region serves as a constant source of inspiration for her artwork. Through her creations, she aims to capture the essence of Kashmir, its rich culture, and the profound spiritual influence of Islamic art. Saiqa's artwork embraces various forms, including abstract art, modern art, and calligraphy. She skillfully blends colours, dots, lines, and words to convey a deeper meaning that sparks the imagination. Her preferred mediums include acrylic paint, ink on paper, and canvas, which she uses to infuse her pieces with vibrant, non-traditional colours and unique calligraphy styles. When asked about her artistic process, Saiqa explains, "I believe that art is a language of the soul. Each stroke of the brush, each intricate design, carries a piece of my heart and soul. Through my artwork, I hope to inspire others, to evoke emotions, and to encourage viewers to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us." Saiqa's dedication to her craft is evident in the exquisite details and intricate patterns that adorn her creations. Her artwork not only serves as a visual feast but also as a reflection of her innermost thoughts and experiences. As she continues to evolve as an artist, Saiqa dreams of showcasing her work in exhibitions and galleries, both nationally and internationally. She aspires to create a bridge between cultures, using her art as a means to foster understanding, appreciation, and unity. Saiqa's artistic journey is a testament to the power of pursuing one's passions, even amidst life's demands and challenges. Through her art, she not only breathes life into canvases but also celebrates the beauty of her beloved Kashmir, weaving together a tapestry of inspiration, culture, and creative expression. In the words of Saiqa herself, "My art is an extension of my soul, a reflection of my roots. Through it, I hope to spread love, inspire imagination, and create a lasting impact."

Among young people, heart disease is on the rise. According to experts, the risk of heart disease is increasing among most of the youth due to uncontrolled lifestyle, unhealthy eating habits and work stress. Various studies have shown that young people tend to eat processed foods, excess salt and sugar, which leads to diabetes, cholesterol and other compounds in the blood from an early age. Liver problems also increase with metabolic rate variation. These habits increase the risk of heart disease. What is the way to get rid of it? Quitting smoking or drinking reduces the risk of heart disease. According to doctors, not only control but also the regular health checkup should be done to avoid this problem. After 40 years, health checkup should be done on a regular basis. However, doctors are now advising to have a health check-up from the age of 30. Besides, there is no alternative to exercise. If you don't have much time, you can walk in the morning and at night.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said her government has made healthcare services more affordable and reached it at every doorstep alongside making Bangladesh almost self-reliant in treating cardiovascular diseases. "Bangladesh is now almost self-reliant in treating heart diseases. It has the ability of treating 95 to 98 percent cardiovascular diseases and the country has efficient manpower, modern technology and required equipment to this end," she said. The premier said this in a pre-recorded video message aired at the 3rd Scientific Conference organised by the Bangladesh Cardiovascular Research Foundation at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel here. She said cardiovascular diseases are one of the main reasons of the people's death across the globe referring to 17.9 million people's death every year in the heart diseases. Sheikh Hasina said almost 27 percent deaths have occurred in Bangladesh due to heart related diseases while 10 children are now suffering from heart diseases in every one thousand while one young man is at risk of cardiovascular diseases in every five youths.   The Premier said the numbers of patients with heart diseases have increased due to food habits, lack of physical exercise, smoking, and diabetes.   "We have to focus on preventive measures alongside upgrading the treatment facilities for the heart patients," she said.   Briefly describing her government's measures for the overall development of the health sector, she said remarkable progress has been made in the health sector in the last 14 hours despite having various limitations. The Premier said as many as 600 hospitals have so far been built across the country alongside setting up 11 postgraduate super speciality hospitals, cardiovascular hospital, chest disease hospital, cancer hospital, neuroscience hospital and others.   "We have established 18500 community clinics and union health centres to ensure primary healthcare of the village people. Thirty types of medicines have been distributed from the hospitals free of costs," she said. Tele-medicine services have been introduced in 43 hospitals across the country whereas there are 30,000 satellite clinics across the country to ensure healthcare of the mother and children, she said. Besides, she said that there are 103 service centres to give free treatment to five lakh autistic children.   "The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Bangladesh free from polio and tetanus (dhonustonkar) free country due to our tireless efforts," she said. The Prime Minister said her government has taken a plan to build one each medical college in every district, adding that the number of medical colleges now stands at 115 from 50 of 2009 while the number of seats in the medical colleges have now risen to 10,789 from only 2050 in 2009. She went on saying that the number of dental medical colleges and units has stood at 37 which was only 13 in 2009. The Prime Minister said her government will build one each medical university in each of the divisions while four medical universities have already been set up. She said her government has appointed 10,000 physicians and 15,000 nurses and midwives in the last three years. "The treatment system of us has developed immensely while efficiency of the physicians has also increased. The country is now giving treatment of the diseases which were earlier treated abroad," she said.  She said various complicated diseases such as kidney, liver, bypass, neuro- surgery and bone-marrow transplant have now been successfully treated in Bangladesh.   The country's heart disease specialists and physicians are now giving treatment of the cardiovascular diseases successfully for which the people are getting its benefits and thus the country is saving huge foreign currencies. Work is in progress to set up a complete cardiac unit to give treatment to the children with heart diseases, she said. The Premier said the scope of producing more efficient heart diseases specialists with building a complete cardiology and cardiac surgery unit at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU). She said that a world class Cardiovascular of Science and Research Institute having 500 beds has been set up at the BSMMU.   The Prime Minister said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had established the footing of the country's health sector upon which the country's health system is currently running. Bangabandhu had set up the IPGM@R and Bangladesh College of Physician and Surgeon to provide higher training to the physicians at the post graduate level to produce international standard specialists, she said. "Our government had transformed the IPGM@R as the Bangabandhu Medical University Hospital in the 1996-2001 period," she said. Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq, MP, President of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Dr Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin, Adviser Scientific Committee, Professor Dr ABM Abdullah, and Chairman of International Academy Course, Dr Rajesh M Dave, spoke at the function with President of Bangladesh Cardiovascular Research Foundation Prof Dr SM Mustafa Zaman in the chair.

The number of patients suffering from heart disease is increasing globally. Death can occur if it reaches severe levels. Many times it can occur due to lack of understanding even after symptoms appear.  According to the data provided by the World Health Organization, about 1 crore 79 lakhs people die every year due to heart disease. So there is no substitute for awareness. The main cause of heart problems is the lack of proper blood circulation in the heart. This disease can occur due to unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits. Besides, genetic reasons can cause heart problems. This problem does not only occur with age. Many people are affected by heart disease even at a young age. Knowing about some of the symptoms of heart problems will make it easier to prevent them. Let's find out- Chest tightness or chest pain can be a sign of heart problems. This problem occurs when blood can not flow in a proper way in the heart.  In medical terms, it is called coronary artery disease. Accumulation of plaque in this duct creates a problem. Be alert for symptoms such as chest pain, chest tightness, chest heaviness. Do not ignore this problem at all. You should go to the doctor immediately. During a heart attack, not only chest pain, but also you can feel the  pain everywhere in the body. It can even spread to your face.  Experts say, if you have a sudden pain in the jaw or neck, be careful. Do not ignore such problems. Flatulence, nausea are the symptoms of heart problems. This problem is more common in women. So if these problems occur along with chest pain, consult a doctor quickly. Then it will be easy for you to avoid heart disease. Or the disease can reach a fatal stage. However, such a problem does not necessarily mean that it is a heart disease. So it is better to examine and be sure. Fatigue can be due to various reasons. The main reason for this may be that the blood does not reach all parts of your body part properly. It can also cause breathing problems. Be careful if you have this kind of problem for a long time. Heart disease can be responsible for this. Sometimes prolonged work stress can also cause fatigue. So don't get scared, know the reason and take action accordingly.

Secretary of statistics and information management Muhammad Yamin Chowdhury said, in the last 10 months more than 5000 people died due to coronavirus pandemic situation in the country. In this period about one lakh people died from heart attack and over 11000 people committed suicide. The secretary said this at a workshop titled ‘Stakeholder (media) consultation workshop’ organized at the auditorium of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on Thursday. Yamin Chowdhury said, we become too much concern regarding all the matter, this should not be. We should not do harm to other things being concern over one thing. Such as we were too much concern over Covid but more people died from other causes. It was beyond our assumption which has come out after performing surveys. The Secretary also said, if there is no inflation, the economy will not work. The investors will not invest. Inflation should remain at healthy stage. If it is more then will negatively affect our daily life, similarly if it goes downward it will hurt the economy. In our country inflation remains within 5 percent, it is positive sign. There is nothing to be happy if inflation goes downward trend. AH   

Chili peppers aren’t for the faint of heart, but maybe they should be. Scientists in Italy say the spice slashes the mortality rate from heart attack and cerebrovascular disease (which restricts blood flow to the brain and includes strokes and aneurysms),says Yahoo! The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, included 22,811 Italian men and women, who reported their chili pepper intake over an 8-year period. At the end of the study, people who consumed the spice at least four times a week reduced their risk of dying from a heart attack by 44 percent and from cerebrovascular disease by 61 percent. Study author Marialaura Bonaccio, PhD, of IRCCS Neuromed Mediterranean Neurological Institute in Pozzilli, Italy, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that consuming chili peppers won’t prevent heart attacks or stoke, but rather the risk of fatality. The observational study did not identify exactly why chili peppers were so beneficial. “But we know the results are independent of diet quality,” says Bonaccio. “This means that even if you don’t always adhere to the Mediterranean diet, the chili peppers will still have an effect.” Chili peppers get their heat from the compound capsaicin, which a Chinese study on hamsters associated with a reduction in cholesterol and with blocking the expression of a gene that makes blood vessels tighten. In animal studies, capsaicin also appears to minimize body fat, and when consumed with ginger may lower the risk of cancer. But some research has flagged capsaicin for its ties to cancer. According to the American Association for Cancer Research, “capsaicin can act as a carcinogen or as a cancer preventive agent,” adding, “Although widely consumed, capsaicin has a long and convoluted history of debate about whether its consumption or topical use is entirely safe.” Anuj Shah MD, an interventional cardiologist and endovascular specialist and founder of Apex Heart and Vascular Care tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the new study helps us better understand the power of chili peppers. “People who eat them likely consume more fresh food in general, so the results could benefit from this trend,” he tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Shah adds that studying a population — in this case, Italy — known for healthy eating (the Mediterranean diet is heavy on good-for-you fats such as olive oil, nuts, and fatty fish) provides a better baseline for results. “We all don’t have to rush to eat chili peppers,” he says, “but now we know that adding them to an already-healthy diet helps.” Source: UNB AH

Some good news for nap fanatics -- a new study has found that a daytime nap taken once or twice a week could lower the risk of heart attacks or strokes. Researchers from the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland studied the association between napping frequency and duration and the risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease complications. Tracking 3,462 people between the ages of 35 and 75 for just over five years, the report authors found that those who indulged in occasional napping -- once or twice a week, for between five minutes to an hour -- were 48% less likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or heart failure than those who did not nap at all. The observational study, which was published in Heart, the journal of the British Cardiovascular Society, found that no such association emerged for greater frequency or duration of naps. While some studies have been done on the impact of napping on heart health, many published studies fail to consider napping frequency or duration, the researchers said. "Subjects who nap once or twice per week have a lower risk of incident CVD (cardiovascular disease) events, while no association was found for more frequent napping or napping duration," the report authors said. "Sleep patterns have previously been reported to be associated with a range of chronic medical conditions," said Stephen MacMahon, a cardiovascular expert at Oxford University's George Institute for Global Health, who was not involved in the study. "Some, but not all, these associations will reflect the effects of underlying chronic disease on sleep rather than the converse. It's often difficult to untangle what is cause and effect, especially when some serious conditions, such as coronary heart disease, can be largely symptom-free for decades prior to a critical complication such as a heart attack," he told the Science Media Centre (SMC) in London. Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said that while the study was "somewhat interesting", it seems that those who nap once or twice a week have healthier or organized lifestyles, but that those who napped daily were likely to be more sick. "This means the former pattern of occasional napping is intentional and the latter of more regular napping likely represents sub-clinical illness linked to poorer lifestyle. This would then explain the differential risks," Sattar told the SMC. "I don't think one can work out from this work whether "intentional" napping on one or two days per week improves heart health so no one should take from this that napping is a way to lessen their heart attack risk," he added. "For now, far better to aim for regular good night's sleep and to follow usual lifestyle advice of good diets and decent activity levels." Source: CNN AH

A nine-month old baby stunned doctors after he survived 25 heart attacks in a single day in the UK. It is believed to be the most ever suffered in 24 hours by one person in the country, reports Daily Mail Online. Theo Fry, now 19 months old, has had 30 cardiac arrests in total and has also been through 17 operations - all before his first birthday. He was originally rushed to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool after suffering from blood poisoning with his mother saying that 'everyone expected him to die'. The baby was eventually diagnosed with an interrupted aortic arch, which meant his heart, which also had two holes in it, couldn't pump blood around his body. After seeming to recover following his first operation, Theo returned to hospital where he suffered the repeated heart attacks in January 2017. Brave Theo has fought back to health, however, to the astonishment of doctors. His terrible ordeal started at just eight days of age in May 2017, with his parents saying that the symptoms came on suddenly. Mother Fauve Syers, 30, explained how Theo was suddenly sleepy and alarmingly turned blue and grey. After ringing an NHS helpline, Theo was taken to Salford Royal Hospital but a team of 40 doctors were left baffled by his condition. Fauve and Theo's father Steven Fry, 35, were told that their son was in critical condition, although medics didn't know what was wrong with him. Eventually, they were told that Theo had heart failure and needed an operation - or he would die. Fave said she went into shock and Theo was then rushed to Alder Hey where, four days later, he had his first open heart surgery. Speaking to the Mirror, Steven added: 'We were told if we hadn't called 111 that night, Theo wouldn't have woken up next morning.' As he was operated on, he suffered a heart attack and then suffered another one as he spent three months in Alder Hey. Theo even contracted sepsis but the baby was able to – yet he battled through and was sent home in July 2017. However, there was worse to come as he went back in to hospital a few months later with a dangerously high heart rate. On December 21, he had another cardiac arrest and his heart stopped beaten for 12 minutes. Over Christmas and January, he suffered two more heart attacks before the night of January 31 where he suffered 25 cardiac arrests in 24 hours. His mother said: ‘My baby's 25 heart attacks in 24 hours’ 'It was horrific. He was having attack after attack. I knew he couldn't take much more. Every time it happened, nurses would buzz for the arrest team. He had the most buzzers pressed overnight in intensive care anyone can remember. 'I watched the resus team working on him with every chest compression, thinking, ''Oh my god, please don't let this be his last breath''.' The constant attacks prompted Theo's surgeon Dr Ramana Dhannapuneni to operate. The doctor admitted Theo may not survive but also said that the baby would die if the procedure didn't take place.  Thankfully, Dr Ramana discovered the issue and saw that Theo's left ventricle was covered in scar tissue, which stopped it working. He was able to open it up and Theo immediately made a recovery, leaving the ICU just two days later.  One year on, Theo is all smiles with his cheeky, happy grin a regular sight. His mother added: 'Everyone who sees him says how happy he is,' says Fauve. 'It's incredible what he's been through. He's so strong.' The surgeon who saved Theo described his recovery as being incredible. Dr Ramana Dhannapuneni said: 'Theo suffered the most arrests in 24 hours I have heard of – it is very rare and unusual. We had to operate immediately, as he wouldn't have survived much longer. 'It was very risky. It could have gone either way. But he pulled through and his recovery was amazing. The difference in him is incredible.' MHK  

Australian researchers have developed a drone capable of measuring a person's breathing and heart rate from 60 meters away. Reports Xinhua. The team from the University of South Australia (UniSA), led by sensor systems and engineering expert Javaan Chahl, created the drones in conjunction with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to be deployed during humanitarian crises.  Chahl said that the drone is able to measure a subject's heart beat by using a camera to sense the top a person's head pulsing by approximately one millimeter with each beat.  "Basically in a disaster, unfortunately you have to prioritize who's living, who's dead and perhaps who's dying, and this might allow a drone to map a scene and establish the general condition of people," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.  Despite the good intentions of the device, Chahl acknowledged that it could be used for darker uses- including spying or weaponization.  "If we can start doing these things, so can somebody who has a bad agenda," Chahl said.  "The same software could do facial recognition, measure their heart rate after climbing up some stairs in the subway, and you could do that for 1 lakh people a day,” he added. Developing drones for humanitarian purposes has become a major focus of robotics experts with the Australian Red Cross in 2017 partnering with technology experts to provide aid in the wake of cyclones in Queensland and New South Wales.  WeRobotics, the firm that partnered with the Red Cross, is currently working on training governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) to use robotics in crises. AH