Cholesterol is a normal constituent of the human body. However excess cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia or sometimes called dyslipidemia) is one of the most important risk factors for developing heart attack and stroke.

Here are a couple of videos on cholesterol explaining why is cholesterol important to the body, how it causes disease and what lifestyle changes are required to decrease excess cholesterol.

What does high cholesterol do? (Time 4:11 min)

Lifestyle changes for high cholesterol (Time 7:40 min)

Animated video explaining how coronary angioplasty with stent insertion is performed. Also called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), it is the procedure of choice for most cases of heart attack.

Coronary artery bypass grafting is performed for severe disease as in involvement of all 3 coronary vessels or left main coronary artery.

Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is potentially fatal disease caused by HIV virus. AIDS renders our body defenseless against any and every infection in the world by killing the immune system.

The currently available treatment - highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART) is very effective in giving people a few more decades to live. However, HAART has 2 major problems:

1. It is not a cure and the medications have to be taken lifelong
2. The side effects of treatment at times may be as bad as cancer chemotherapy

Therefore, it is of imperative importance that we find a cure for this deadly disease which is safer (ideally without side effects) and does not need to be taken over a protracted period of time.

Mortality data of HIV/AIDS in the world and US:

Video: BLOODLINE: AIDS and Family is a short documentary movie by Kristen Ashburn and takes an intimate look at the harsh reality of the AIDS pandemic in Africa (available for online viewing on Mediastorm Project website).

Video: HIV 101 - This is a 10 minute video explaining HIV and AIDS (YouTube Link)

Do you think electric cars are less polluting then regular cars. Think again.

The electric car has not come of age, because more than half of the electricity in this country (USA) is currently generated with coal - the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

- Comment in Time Magazine (Oct 13, 2008 issue)

Ten years later - we may be asking the same question. Again.

This presentation gives a brief overview of the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis and management of ciguatera fish poisoning.

Google Search : Ciguatera Poisoning