We are always told to never mix work and friendships in social settings. While it is normal to make friendships at work, you should always keep a professional distance to make sure things do not go sour and start affecting your work. This also means that you do not divulge private information or have private conversations with your colleagues as you may never know how this could be brought up and affect you. This is an unsaid rule in corporate culture that if you are sick or you are coming down with a serious issue, you should never bring it up and keep it to yourself. While this may seem unusual to new workers, it is a very common knowledge for people who have been in the industry for a long time. A new study showed that this is much more common than many people believe!

A new poll shows that a lot of U.S. workers with long-term health problems keep it a secret from their bosses. This affects their health and their jobs. It's a big problem that employers could help fix, which would be good for everyone. This isn't just about people having a sniffle. We're talking about serious conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and asthma that require ongoing management and can significantly impact a person's life, both inside and outside of work. The fact that so many people feel they need to hide these conditions shows a larger issue of stigma and lack of support in the workplace.

How Does Health Become A Hidden Burden?

Most U.S. workers which were over half of the people, have some kind of long-term health problem. But a lot of them, about 6 out of 10, don't tell their boss. They might be afraid their boss will treat them differently or think they can't do their job. Keeping secrets like this can make it hard to get the help you need at work. It can also make your health problems worse because you're stressed about hiding them. It's a tough situation, and it shows that many workplaces aren't as supportive as they could be.

The poll also found that more than a third of people with health problems have had to miss doctor's appointments because of work. This means they're putting their jobs ahead of their health, which isn't good. It's hard to balance work and health, especially when you have a long-term illness. People need understanding bosses who will let them take time off for important medical stuff. Missing appointments can make health problems worse, and it can also make people feel more stressed and anxious.

Does It Impact Their Career And Well-Being?

Almost half of the workers with health problems said they couldn't even take breaks during the day to take care of themselves. They also said they felt like they'd been passed over for promotions because of their health. And some people even got bad reviews at work because of their health problems. This can make people feel really bad about themselves and their jobs. It can also make their health problems worse because they're so stressed. It's not fair, and it's something that needs to change.

It's not just people with health problems who have a hard time. Lots of people are also taking care of someone at home who is sick. Almost half of these caregivers have to help their sick family member during work hours. And many of them have trouble taking time off to care for their loved ones. Some people even have to work fewer hours, which means less money. This shows how much pressure people are under, trying to juggle work and family and health.

There is a conversation that comes up in almost every consultation, and it is rarely the one the patient came prepared for. After graft numbers, hairline design, cost and downtime have been discussed, the question of smoking and drinking inevitably follows — and the answer is usually a shrug: occasionally, socially, nothing serious.

Yet of all the variable that determines what a patient sees in the mirror eighteen months later, these two are among the very few fully within their control, and among the most underestimated.

What Smoking and Alcohol Do to the Scalp

The hair follicle is one of the most metabolically demanding structures in the body, dividing faster than almost any other cell population and depending entirely on a dense network of microscopic vessels feeding its base. Nicotine constricts those vessels; over years, repeated narrowing combined with low-grade inflammation contributes to perifollicular fibrosis — scarring that gradually chokes the follicle.

Alcohol takes a different route, depleting the zinc, iron, folate, B12 and protein hair is built from, while fragmenting sleep and raising cortisol — both of which push follicles prematurely into their resting phase. For a transplant candidate, this matters twice over: it reflects donor-area quality, and it signals the kind of healing environment the grafts are about to enter.

Also read: The Hidden Health Risk of Sitting for Long Hours: What Young Professionals Need to Know

Why the First Week After Surgery Is So Critical

For the first few days after surgery, a transplanted follicle is essentially cut off from its blood supply, surviving on nutrients diffusing in from surrounding tissue.

New capillaries begin connecting around day four or five, with full revascularisation taking seven to ten days — the most vulnerable window in the graft's life. Smoking attacks it from two directions: nicotine causes sustained vasoconstriction after every cigarette, while carbon monoxide binds haemoglobin more readily than oxygen, so the reduced blood reaching the scalp also carries less oxygen.

The result is rarely dramatic — just poorer graft survival, patchier density, and a final outcome thinner than the graft count promised. Patients often read this as bad luck; it usually isn't. Notably, this applies equally to vaping, hookah and smokeless tobacco like gutkha or khaini — the delivery method changes, but the nicotine doesn't.

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Alcohol's More Immediate Risk

Alcohol's damage is more mechanical. It causes vasodilation and impairs clotting, meaning patients who've been drinking beforehand bleed more during surgery — which makes graft placement less precise and can dislodge grafts already sited.

Afterward, the same vasodilation worsens normal post-op swelling, its diuretic effect fights the hydration healing tissue needs, and its immune-suppressing effect arrives just as the scalp carries thousands of small open wounds. There's a medication risk too: alcohol combined with post-op antibiotics, anti-inflammatories or steroids raises the chance of gastric irritation or a genuinely unpleasant systemic reaction.

Recommended Windows

For smoking: stop at least two weeks before surgery (four is better), and stay off it for two weeks to a month afterwards — the long lead-in accounts for how slowly small-vessel and immune function normalise, and the long tail covers graft revascularisation.

For alcohol: stop five to seven days before, and avoid it for ten to fourteen days after, or as long as medication continues, since its effects reverse faster. One caveat worth repeating: patients often say they've "stopped" when they've merely cut back. A single cigarette produces measurable scalp vasoconstriction — in this window, occasional isn't the same as fine.

Also read: Love Travelling? Here's How Flying Frequently Impacts Your Health

The Myth That Lifestyle Stops Mattering

A costly misconception is that once surgery is done, lifestyle no longer matters. It's a half-truth: transplanted follicles, taken from the DHT-resistant back and sides of the scalp, are permanent and won't miniaturise. But a transplant only redistributes existing hair — every native follicle remains susceptible to ongoing loss.

If that native hair keeps thinning, overall density falls even though every graft survives, and patients often mistake this for transplant failure. In reality, the surroundings have receded, accelerated by smoking, poor sleep, chronic stress and poor nutrition. Surgery buys a foundation; lifestyle determines how long the picture around it holds.

Practical Guidance

Honesty at consultation matters — knowing a patient smokes heavily changes the surgical plan toward more conservative density and staging, which protects the result. The pre- and post-op window should be treated as non-negotiable, even if permanent quitting feels distant; a defined four-week commitment is far more achievable than an open-ended one.

Switching to vaping or nicotine gum isn't automatically safe — it removes carbon monoxide and tar, but nicotine, the actual vasoconstrictor, remains, so replacement therapy should be discussed with the surgeon. Fundamentals also help: adequate protein, iron and vitamin D, seven to eight hours of sleep, hydration, and gentle movement once cleared.

Turning Surgery into Leverage

Finally, surgery itself can be motivating. Patients who've just invested significant money and recovery time in their appearance are often more driven to quit than at any other point in

By Dr. Harikiran Chekuri, Hair Transplant Surgeon, Founder and Chief Plastic Surgeon, Redefine Hair Transplant & Plastic Surgery Center

It is difficult to determine emotions because of the neurological differences, the surrounding in childhood, the psychological ways of survival, and absence of emotional training.

Alexithymia or "emotional blindness" is the neuropsychological trait associated with severe problems with identification, recognition, and description of the person's emotions. Alexithymia is not a psychiatric disease but a personality trait.

It is characterized by the inability to identify and distinguish emotions and body sensations, difficulty of finding the words to express feelings, inability to understand facial expression and body language of another person and emotional detachment during stressful situations.

It is diagnosed in people with autism spectrum disorder, depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and after traumatic brain injuries. It can be inherited or acquired as a result of childhood trauma, abuse or neurological damage.

The Brain Science Behind Alexithymia

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The cause of alexithymia is the brain wiring and neurological differences. Therefore, there is impaired interception, which is the inability of the brain to recognize its own physical sensations. Also, an unusual structure of the brain regions like amygdala and insula, that regulate emotions, makes difficult to decode emotional signals.

Early childhood environment and emotional competence must be developed in childhood, because, without that, there can be emotional neglect and emotional vocabulary deficiency. Due to the inability to interpret emotional data, the person misses the compass that directs decisions and self-calming. This leads to emotional outburst, panic, hyperarousal, social and psychological consequences.

How Alexithymia Differs From Emotional Numbness

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Emotional numbness is the transient psychological state caused by acute trauma, deep grief or burnout.

The lack of emotional intelligence is the lack of social and emotional competence, when the person feels his emotions correctly, but he cannot control temper, lacks empathy, makes inappropriate social decisions or do not know what kind of effect his behaviour causes on the room.

But alexithymia is different since it is long-term personality trait and the person is unaware of the particular emotion.

In terms of neurodevelopment, the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are the structural core of the brain's salience network. They work as a translator, transforming chaotic physical sensations into recognizable emotional experience.

Although there isn't any cure for alexithymia, one can improve his emotional awareness through certain measures. Interoceptive training where individuals are taught how to associate physical body sensations (such as tightness in the chest) with particular emotions (such as stress).

The use of emotion wheel or list of emotional words to bridge the link between vague physical sensation and precise description. Mindfulness, which involves observing oneself without judgment or without trying to suppress those internal feelings right away. And it is always good to seek professional help from a psychologist or a counselor.

By Dr. Arun Shah, Director - Neurosciences, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital

Urine leakage after pregnancy is a common occurrence in many women. It is considered a normal part of motherhood. However, it doesn't have to be. Urine leakage can occur after childbirth, but persistent symptoms should not be ignored or tolerated just because you feel that it is not a big deal. It will be imperative for women to consult a pelvic health physiotherapist to examine the pelvic floor and guide women with the help of personalised rehabilitation for improving bladder control and recovering quickly.

Pregnancy and childbirth lead to changes in a woman's body. However, there can also be an impact on the muscles and tissues that support the bladder, uterus, and bowel. Hence, many women can experience urine leakage while coughing, sneezing, laughing, exercising, or lifting their baby after delivery. Vaginal delivery, prolonged labour, multiple pregnancies, a larger baby, excess weight, and chronic constipation can also cause pressure on the pelvic floor. So, the pelvic floor is a group of muscles that supports the pelvic organs and also contributes to bladder and bowel control.

During pregnancy, these muscles carry load, and childbirth can further stretch or affect their strength and even coordination. Hence, stress urinary incontinence is seen in women post-pregnancy, wherein the urine leaks during activities that increase pressure inside the abdomen. Some women may experience urinary urgency, difficulty controlling urine, pelvic heaviness, or discomfort during physical activity. Even signs such as vaginal pressure and heaviness, urinary leakage during exercise, or difficulty controlling gas can also indicate pelvic floor dysfunction.

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Why Pelvic Floor Recovery Is More Than Just Kegel Exercises

Pelvic floor recovery is more than just doing Kegel exercises: Pelvic floor muscle exercises, commonly known as Kegels, will help to enhance muscle strength and bladder control if done as recommended by the expert. However, not everyone will need the same type or intensity of pelvic floor exercise. Some women tend to have weak pelvic floor muscles, while others may have muscles that are poorly coordinated. So, a pelvic health physiotherapist will help to assess pelvic floor strength, relaxation, coordination, breathing patterns, posture, and abdominal muscle function.

The expert will also help women to understand how the pelvic floor responds to activities such as coughing, lifting, or exercise. The aim will be to have a stronger pelvic floor contract and relax muscles when the body needs it. Breathing and pressure management within the abdomen will also be crucial for women during exercise and doing daily activities. Women may need guidance before returning to running, jumping, gym workouts, or other high-impact activities. Recovery should also be gradual.

Also read: What Happens When Kidney Function Declines: Understanding The Stages Of Chronic Kidney Disease

What Women Can Do To Support Pelvic Floor Health

What women should know: It will be important for women to maintain an optimum weight, exercise daily, quit smoking, avoid constipation by having fiber in the diet and staying hydrated. Quit smoking, use appropriate lifting techniques to reduce unnecessary strain on the pelvic floor, and don’t hold urine for a long time. Women who opted for a Caesarean section should also ensure they prevent pelvic problems.

Pregnancy itself causes pressure on the pelvic floor, so pelvic floor rehabilitation can be recommended for women with a C-section. Motherhood should not mean silently living with bladder problems. So, pelvic floor rehabilitation can improve bladder control and confidence in women.