Sarcopenia is an emerging clinical entity characterized by a gradual decline in skeletal muscle mass and strength that accompanies the normal aging process. It has been noted that sarcopenia is associated with various adverse health outcomes in the geriatric population like prolonged hospital admission, disability, poor quality of life, frailty, and mortality. Factors involved in the development of age-related sarcopenia include anorexia, alteration in the hormone levels, decreased neural innervation, low blood flow to the muscles, cytokine dysregulation, altered mitochondrial activity, genomic instability, intracellular proteolysis, and insulin resistance. Understanding the mechanism may help develop efficient preventive and therapeutic strategies which can improve the quality of life in elderly individuals. Thus, the objective of the present article is to review the literature regarding the mechanism involved in the development of sarcopenia in aged individuals.

Introduction: The cardiomyopathy in diabetes mellitus (DM) is the disorders in cardiac muscle due to prolonged exposure of vascular tissues to hyperglycemia in DM; and is termed as diabetic cardiomyopathy (DC). The early preclinical features of DC are the left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD), preceding the systolic dysfunction and being able to evolve to symptomatic heart failure. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done including 50 DM-2 patients without any feature of cardiovascular involvement and blood pressure less than 130/80 mmHg. Doppler echocardiography was done to evaluate LVDD. Results: In this study results showed diastolic dysfunction was more common among female than male. The prevalence of diastolic dysfunction is more in cases of longer duration of DM. Conclusion: Our study supports other studies that myocardial damage in DM-2 affects diastolic dysfunction before systolic dysfunction. As Doppler echocardiography is a simple non-invasive procedure to assess cardiac function, so in diabetes it should be done routinely in DM for early diagnosis and prevention of further complications.

Introduction: Yoga has been reported to improve pulmonary function tests in healthy and respiratory illness. Aim: This study was done to find out the effects of yoga practice on pulmonary function tests. Materials and methods: This study was done on 50 subjects, (30 males, 20 females), with written consent. The subjects were the MBBS students of 1 st year with the age between 17-21 years. The respiratory parameters like FVC, PEFR and MVV were determined in both groups using the instrument computerized Spirometer. Results: FVC, PEFR and MVV were found to be increased in both male and female subjects after practicing a short term yoga. Conclusion: From this study we concluded that yoga can be advised to improve respiratory efficiency in healthy as well as an alternative therapy in respiratory disorders.

Objectives: Micro and macrovasculopathy are common complications of undertreated or undiagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. One of the underlying factors of macrovasculopathy is arterial stiffness, which may lead to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Understandably, diabetic micro and macrovasculopathy affect vital functions, which may affect the well-being of the individual. However, few studies have attempted to determine arterial stiffness, cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) and lipid profile separately in South Asian population and examined its associations with T2DM. Moreover, there is a need to understand the mechanistic links among cardiovascular risk factors. This forms the basis of the present study. Materials and Methods: T2DM patients of 53–62 years and age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects were recruited in the cross-sectional and observational study (n = 30 each, eight women). Anthropometric measurements, physiological parameters such as resting heart rate, peripheral blood pressure (PBP), central blood pressure (CBP), augmentation index% (AIx%), brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and lead II ECG for analysis of heart rate variability parameters were recorded after obtaining the consent of the study participants. The lipid profile and fasting blood glucose were also analysed. Results: Peripheral systolic blood pressure was significantly higher (P = 0.05) in T2DM patients. Dyslipidaemia was evident in T2DM patients. Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) was also significantly higher in T2DM patients. Correlation analysis revealed a positive association between AIx% with PBP and CBP as well as between AIP index and central systolic blood pressure, serum triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) levels. AIP index was found to be negatively associated with HF (nu). Serum TG, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and AIP index have emerged as significant independent predictors of T2DM vasculopathy by multiple regression analysis. Conclusion: In the present study, atherogenic dyslipidaemia was observed in T2DM patients in combination with increased serum levels of TG, VLDL-C and decreased serum levels of HDL-C. Moreover, AIP index, a predictor cardiovascular risk, was found to be significantly higher in T2DM patients. Dyslipidaemia was found to be associated with dysregulation of autonomic nervous system in those patients. A positive association between noninvasive, surrogate markers of arterial stiffness with PBP and CBP indicates that enhanced arterial stiffness may elevate systemic arterial pressure. Therefore, early screening of T2DM patients for the estimation of serum lipid profile, arterial stiffness and cardiac autonomic neuropathy may be performed to unravel diabetic vasculopathy.

Indian society is entrenched in graded inequality with the continuity of Brahminical order among the Hindu caste. The Ambedkarite perspective of graded inequality paves the way towards the possibility of a critical examination of the discourse based on a prospective theorization of the caste patriarchy having its epistemological origin in the ideas propounded by Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole and Dr B. R. Ambedkar. The article seeks to explore the potential of such a theorization emerging from the predominant practices in Indian caste society that are pervasive across the communities with respect to the dehumanization of Dalit women in their everyday life. The article also focuses upon the strength of such a stand-point which would not only form the basis of an alternate academic discourse but also contribute towards the agenda of Dalit women collective in envisaging their role in terms of self-identity embedded with critical consciousness. The multiplicity of vulnerabilities of being a Dalit and a woman reflects the way the Dalit women get dehumanized in a number of cases, and they are often considered a gateway to the caste system. There is an emerging need of such theorization based on experiential learning along with the realization of its importance in defining the base of a radical sociopolitical alternative championing the ideological principles of a Phoole–Ambedkarite perspective.