Mausam Noor, the Congress candidate from Malda North, drinks coconut water during an election rally. (PTI)

DOCTOR’S ADVICE

Elections are best waged in good health and spirits — achievable through only a bit of discipline

THREATS ON THE TRAIL

Sleep deprivation, irregular meals, physical stress, exposure to heat and crowds, encounters with allergens and infections. “Physical stress, sweating and long hours without food can influence blood pressure and blood sugar levels,” says Anoop Misra, an internal medicine expert in New Delhi who has provided pre-campaign medical advice to political leaders

WATER

“Adequate intake of water is a must for everyone — not just for people with medical conditions,” Misra says. Excessive sweating in the summer may cause the blood pressure to drop and high levels of salt intake may precipitate a rise in blood pressure

SLEEP

“Sleep deprivation is also common — some get less than the essential six hours of sleep a night,” says Misra. “I ask them to try and grab sleep even during car rides.” But that is easier to prescribe than to practise, especially when helicopter drops have replaced long car rides

FOOD

Nutrition experts say that while campaign days demand extra workload, extra food is not required. “Campaign work is not a pregnancy. Routine intake of food is good enough.You don’t need to consume extra to ride in cars or fly in helicopters or planes or to deliver speeches,” says Umesh Kapil, professor of nutrition at AIIMS

WATCH OUT!

Election watchers recall instances of leaders ignoring good diet practices. A senior Congress leader was once seen tucking into a heavy breakfast — juice, toast and egg — and surviving the rest of the day on a diet of cold drink and chewing gum. A chief minister, qualified in ayurvedic medicine, spends his campaign days drinking buttermilk. Both extremes are bad and it is best to stick to routine food

MEDICAL KITS

One doctor has prescribed carry-on-campaign kits — automatic blood pressure and blood sugar monitors, fever-relieving tablets, standard pain-killers, and biscuits to avoid long hours without food — to a few leaders who’ve consulted him. Politicians with diabetes or cardiovascular disease or other conditions need to be specially careful about their blood pressure and sugar levels.They will need to maintain their daily lifestyle

VOICE, VOICE

Extra care is needed to protect the politician’s most potent weapon: vocal power. A simple prescription to reduce the risk of a hoarse voice: warm saline gargle or gargle with an over-the-counter antiseptic solution. “The warmth increases circulation, and a speech may be delivered more efficiently,” says a doctor

MALARIA SCARE

Leaders travelling to areas where malaria is endemic will do well to take a preventive dose of chloroquine — just as some westerners do when they visit India, says an internal medicine specialist