Karnataka - Bangalore

Watch what you eat this summer

Bangalore: It has been an unpredictable prelude to summer, to say the least. With rain clouds hovering over Bangalore, there is still little indication that the scalding summer — the months of April and May, when the mercury is known to have once shot up to as much as 39 degrees Celsius — will be upon us in a matter of days.

And as if the vagaries of the weather and unseasonable rain have not already taken their toll on our health, summer, say doctors, will bring with it a whole new set of ailments.

Summer is when gastritis “peaks,” says K.V. Ashok Kumar, Head, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, at Victoria Hospital. “One of the most frequent causes for gastritis and peptic ulcers is the contagious helicobacter pylori bacteria. Summer is the perfect time for these water-borne bacteria to multiply,” says Dr. Kumar.

But then again, you cannot blame everything on the weather, he says. Much of your health depends on the choices you make. As appetising and irresistible as street food might be — chaat and paani puri and fruit salad — and as much as you might crave for some thirst-quenching icecream, make sure it is absolutely hygienically prepared and stored. And if it is not, exercise your will power to avoid it, Dr. Kumar says.

Then there are the other dreaded summer diseases — typhoid, jaundice, and gastroenteritis — the source of which is the same: contaminated food and water.

But those suffering from chronic respiratory problems such as asthma can breathe easy to an extent now that summer is here — “but only as long as the temperatures stay constant, and we have respite from rain,” says Padma Sundaram, pulmonologist at Manipal Hospital

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