The heat waves are rising all over the world and causing a lot of damage. While there are issues of dehydration and heat strokes, studies are suggesting that it might also be responsible for declining mental health, the heat among other things is not only affecting the physicality of human beings but is also having adverse mental health.

Emotional distress: The heat can trigger mood swings, making you feel irritable, anxious, depressed, or even aggressive. You may not be able to predict your reaction, you may be good one moment and then any minor inconvenience will make you angry or sad. Heat often triggers that helplessness in people.

Scattered Focus: Concentrating on tasks becomes a struggle when it's hot. Simple things feel overwhelming, and staying focused is a challenge. While you may be in the zone working on completing something, the heat and sweating will disrupt your flow and then you will not be able to focus on anything other than the heat.

Sleepless Nights: High temperatures, especially at night, disrupt your sleep. This lack of rest can leave you feeling tired, and grumpy, and worsen existing mental health issues. All humans require a comfortable temperature to sleep in, if your body is too wound up or heated up, it will not be able to relax and sleep.

Feeling the Pressure: The heat can pile on stress and make you feel overwhelmed. Concerns about the heat itself or its impact on other aspects of your life can contribute to this feeling. You will feel overwhelmed and unable to work on anything else. The heat makes you feel a certain helplessness, as you cannot stop the sun or turn down the heat.

Body Blues: The heat can cause physical symptoms that affect your mental well-being. Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea can all contribute to anxiety and low mood. When your body is already fatigued, the urge to do anything else disappears. Your body is drained of energy to function at all and will seek rest and sleep.

Behavioural Shifts: The heat can influence your behaviour. You might act impulsively or have difficulty managing anger. It's like the heat turns up your emotional thermostat. When your body and brain are overheating, it is difficult to think straight and you will grasp at straws to release this energy and pressure off of you.

Some other side effects of the heat are.

• Mental Health Flare-Ups: If you already have a mental health condition, hot weather can worsen your symptoms. Existing depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia might feel more intense.
• Heat and Suicide Risk: Studies show a disturbing link between hot weather and increased suicide rates, particularly among men and older adults. Hot weather can be a tipping point for those already struggling.
• Heatwave Hospitalizations: When temperatures soar, people with existing mental health issues may require increased hospitalization. This highlights the need for healthcare systems to be prepared for heat waves.
• Climate Change and Mental Health: Climate change is leading to more frequent heatwaves. Research suggests this could lead to a rise in mental health problems and suicides. Taking action against climate change is crucial for protecting mental well-being.

Advances in hematology, oncology, and blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) have transformed patient outcomes over the past two decades. However, alongside these achievements lies a persistent and often underappreciated threat—Invasive Fungal Infections (IFIs).

Despite significant improvements in diagnostics and antifungal therapies, IFIs continue to contribute substantially to morbidity, mortality, prolonged hospitalization, and healthcare costs among immunocompromised patients. Fungal infections in patients with blood cancers and blood disorders are neither rare nor unpredictable. And yet they continue to be diagnosed too late, too often.

What Happens To The Immune System During Treatment?

The treatments that have transformed the outlook for leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and serious bone marrow disorders are genuinely remarkable. Intensive chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation, and the newer targeted therapies have extended and saved lives in ways that were not imaginable a generation ago. But each of them does something to the immune system that creates a serious risk.

Chemotherapy depletes neutrophils, the white blood cells specifically responsible for recognizing and destroying fungal organisms. A transplant requires conditioning that leaves patients with almost no immune defenses for an extended period. Prolonged neutropenia, mucosal barrier injury, corticosteroid exposure, graft-versus-host disease, and the increasing use of targeted therapies collectively create an environment where opportunistic fungal pathogens can thrive. Some of the most effective modern therapies in hematology work by modifying immune pathways, leaving patients vulnerable to fungal disease for months after treatment ends. This window can last weeks, sometimes much longer.

The Fungi That Exploit This Window

Aspergillus is a mould found in ordinary dust and soil. In most people, it causes no harm whatsoever. In a patient with severely depleted white blood cells, it can establish a lung infection that progresses faster than most people would expect and carries a mortality rate that remains unacceptably high even with treatment. The earlier it is identified, the better the outcome. But the gap between early and late diagnosis in this context is narrow and unforgiving.

Mucormycosis is less familiar to the public but arguably more aggressive. It invades blood vessel walls directly, cutting off blood supply to surrounding tissue. Patients with blood disorders who require repeated transfusions are at particular risk because excess iron in the body accelerates their growth significantly. India has the highest burden of this infection in the world. That statistic deserves more attention than it currently receives.

Candida lives in the gut of most healthy individuals without causing any problems. When the gut lining is damaged by chemotherapy, it can cross into the bloodstream and reach the liver, spleen, and other organs, causing infections that are difficult to detect and slow to resolve.

Delayed recognition frequently results in disease progression, leading to respiratory failure, disseminated infection, and poor outcomes.

The Problem Is Underdiagnoses

None of these infections begins dramatically. The early signs are a fever that does not settle with antibiotics, a cough without an obvious cause, and breathlessness that seems proportionate to the treatment but lingers too long. In

a patient already unwell from intensive therapy, these signs often get attributed to other causes. Time passes, and the infection progresses.

Specific blood tests can indicate a fungal diagnosis before imaging shows anything definitive. They are not available everywhere in India, and that gap costs lives. Apart from the economic burden of IFIs, it can disrupt cancer treatment schedules, delaying chemotherapy or transplantation and potentially compromising long-term disease control.

What Families Should Know

Preventive antifungal therapy for high-risk patients has strong evidence behind it. Centers that have built awareness of fungal infection risk into their standard care protocols consistently see better outcomes.

For families, the most important thing is simply knowing this risk exists. Asking about it is entirely reasonable. Expecting it to be actively managed is also reasonable. In hematology and oncology, the infections that go unrecognised are the ones that do most of the damage.

Invasive fungal infections are not merely infectious complications; they are major determinants of outcomes in modern hematology and oncology practice. Recognizing the hidden burden of IFIs is the first step toward reducing their impact and improving outcomes for our most vulnerable patients.

Men have been taught for generations that they must be strong, that they are supposed to be self-sufficient, not to feel any impact, and to be emotionally strong when they face challenges.

Resilience is a good trait, but it may also make men feel disheartened about sharing their vulnerabilities or asking for assistance when they need it. Emotional distress can often be seen as a personal failure, rather than a health issue, as many grow up hearing "man up" or "be strong.”

Why Mental Health Crisis In Men Is On The Rise?

Meanwhile, there is still a high demand for men in society. Financial pressures, career expectations, family commitments, and social expectations can become a never-ending burden.

These factors can lead to feelings of loneliness, worry, and sadness, especially when combined with not having enough emotional release and wanting to turn to others for help.

Toxic Masculinity

Men are expected to be a part of the discussion, but not the central point of discussion when it comes to mental health. But the figures don't match. Almost three-fourths of the suicides in India are committed by men, which is a hidden and unaddressed issue.

One of the major issues is that there is a definition of masculinity in society. Boys are taught to be tough and independent from a young age and do not have to show feelings. The traits can both assist people in coping with difficulties and hinder them from admitting to emotional problems or seeking help when it is most necessary.

Read more: Doctors Day: From Burnout To Work Anxiety, The Mental Health Struggle Doctors Rarely Talk About

Lack Of Safe Space

A further issue is that there are not enough safe places in which men can express feelings without risk of condemnation. Stigma can be a barrier to seeking help even when there is help available. This can not only postpone treatment but also increase symptoms of loneliness and hopelessness.

The answer is more than just asking men to "speak up". We need to actively question and combat the stereotypes entrenched in society that equate vulnerability with weakness. Both families and workplaces, schools and communities all have a part to play in promoting emotional literacy and open dialogue amongst men.

Men may not be aware of or express emotional distress in traditional ways, which can be a big problem. Rather, symptoms can be manifested as irritability, withdrawal, substance abuse, or risk-taking behaviour, which can make it difficult for family members and friends to recognise when intervention is required.

It is not enough to raise awareness to solve this crisis. It is important to establish a space of normalisation for expressing emotions, to provide support for mental health and to make it part of the identity to seek help instead of looking weak. Promoting the mental health of men is not only an individual matter, but also a public health issue that can save lives.

For a genuine commitment to the prevention of suicide, mental health status of men needs to be a public health issue. Being sensitive to their challenges, to the idea of seeking assistance, and to establishing environments that are supportive of them can make the difference between life and death.

By Dr. Hamza Hussain, Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at Ruby Hall Clinic and Bhavya Shah, Consultant Psychologist at Saifee Hospital, Mumbai

Cancer cases are rising across India, but many patients still reach hospitals only after the disease has advanced. According to Dr. Hasmukh Jain, Professor of Medical Oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, recognizing persistent warning signs and seeking timely medical care can make a critical difference.

Speaking about cancer awareness, Dr. Jain said, "Every year 15 lakh new cases of cancer are diagnosed in India. But the unfortunate thing is that most of these cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage."

He stressed that while cancer can present in many different ways, paying attention to your body's signals is one of the most important steps toward early diagnosis.

Persistent Symptoms Should Never Be Ignored

Dr. Jain explained that cancer often begins with symptoms that are common to many other illnesses, making them easy to dismiss. These may include:

• Unusual or persistent fatigue
• A cough lasting more than two weeks
• Unexplained weight loss
• Bleeding from the nose or other parts of the body
• Fever lasting more than two weeks

Although these symptoms may also occur due to infections or conditions such as tuberculosis, he advised against ignoring them.

"If the symptoms are persisting for more than two weeks, always seek medical attention," Dr. Jain said.

He added that many cancers can be detected through a physical examination, basic blood tests, and, when required, a biopsy.

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Everyday Habits That Can Reduce Cancer Risk

Cancer cases are increasing at an alarming rate, both in India and globally. To combat this, embracing healthy lifestyle practices can significantly reduce the risk of this life-threatening disease.

Here are some of the everyday habits that one can follow to reduce the risk of cancer:

Maintain A Healthy Diet

Consuming a healthy and balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins can reduce cancer risk. Berries, nuts, and green leafy vegetables contain many antioxidant properties that are useful in fighting oxidative stress-induced cancer. Cutting back and eliminating red and processed meat and sugar-containing drinks lowers the risk further.

Stay Physically Active

Regular physical activity keeps the individual body fit and reduces the risk of breast, colon, and endometrial cancers.

Avoid Tobacco And Cut Down On Alcohol Consumption

Among the factors that would be measured when determining preventable causes, tobacco use takes part as the first head in the index, associated with lung, throat, or mouth cancers. Similarly, alcohol consumption exposure is linked to many cancers, from hepatocellular to breast cancer. Moderation or abstinence is the key.

Protect Your Skin From The Sun

Skin cancer is one of the most preventable types of cancer. Applying sunscreen with high SPF, finding shade, and avoiding tanning beds would save you from harmful ultraviolet rays.

Get Regular Screenings

Most people, including men and women over the age of 40, should get routine screening through mammograms, Pap tests, and colonoscopy to enhance early detection, which can save lives.

Moreover, cancer prevention is a shared goal influenced by personal choices. Bringing small yet steady changes in daily habits can dramatically reduce cancer risk while enhancing quality of life.