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Mining for Hidden salt

avoid salty foods
You can easily tick off a list of salty, sodium-rich foods: potato chips, popcorn, hot dogs, pizza, pickles and more. But there are plenty of high-sodium foods you probably aren’t aware of. According to the centres of Disease Control, Americans get one-third of their sodium from breads and rolls, chicken and chicken dishes, pizza, egg dishes and pasta dishes. That’s partly because these foods contain added salt and partly because we eat them so often. Here’s another staggering number: up to 80% of the salt in your food was put there by someone other than you.

Your body needs little bit of sodium in salt to contract muscles, send nerve impulses, and maintain a healthy balance fluids. But, too much sodium can increase blood pressure, make the heart work harder, thicken and stiffen blood vessels, and more. Higher salt and sodium consumption have been linked to increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

HOW CAN YOU AVOID THESE HIDDEN SALT MINES?
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Read food labels carefully. Look at both the amount of sodium per serving and the recommended daily sodium allowance percentage. Shops for product labelled “salt free,” or “no salt added,” or “low sodium.”

Avoid condiments such as soy sauce, ketchup, teriyaki sauce, and salad dressings, which tend to be loaded with salt.

Another good strategy is to limit your use of prepared and processed foods, which tend to be made with a lot of salt. Adding more fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables to your diet can also lower sodium and increase potassium.

Restaurants foods are often loaded with salt. Many restaurants now offer low-sodium choices. If your food is being made to order, don’t hesitate to ask that it be made without salt.

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You are as ‘Old’ as your Prostate

Untitled-1Mr Rebello, sitting in front of me recalled his plight of waking up 2-3 times every night to void urine instead of only once as before. Initially, he assumed it was due to winter but, when the problem persisted in summer as well, he blamed it on his poorly controlled diabetes. He was 65 yrs of age when he began to experience this. He didn’t bother visiting his physician since he had made peace with his high blood sugars as he had no control over his eating habits.

How he wished he hadn’t assumed and instead consulted his physician. After 2 yrs he moved to another city and didn’t feel up to the task of finding a new physician to follow up with. Five years down the line, after his 70th birthday, he began experiencing lower back pain which he again concluded was due to ageing. Only when the pain became persistent and unbearable, he met an Orthopedic who after examination and X-rays diagnosed him with a collapsed vertebral fracture. He was crestfallen when the cause of his vertebral fracture was pinned down to ‘PROSTATE CANCER’.

Going back to the time when Mr Rebello was 65 yrs old, he overlooked the fact that the frequency of urination was normal during the day. Had high sugar been the cause, the issue would have bothered him during the day as well. Actually, this was the first symptom that his prostate gland was enlarged. Undiagnosed and untreated over 5 yrs the non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate had turned cancerous and spread to his backbone.

Let’s try to make sense about what the prostate gland is, its enlargement and when does it translate into cancer.

The Prostate Gland: Location in the body and function.

The image below shows the location of the prostate gland in the body which is present only in males. It is located below the urinary bladder. The prostate secretes the fluid that nourishes and protects sperms. During ejaculation, the prostate squeezes this fluid into the urethra, and it’s expelled with sperms as semen. In the prostatic cells, the male sex hormone testosterone gets converted to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which causes the cells to grow resulting in an increase in its size.

Normally, the prostate gland is approximately the size of a walnut. As the size increases with age (which can start as early as 40 yrs) it starts to obstruct the urine outflow as shown in the image.

prostrate cancer-image 1

 

Symptoms of Prostatic enlargement:

  • A weak or slow urinary stream.
  • A feeling of incomplete bladder emptying.
  • Difficulty starting urination.
  • Frequent urination.
  • The urgency to urinate.
  • Getting up frequently at night to urinate.
  • A urinary stream that starts and stops.
  • Straining to urinate.

Medically enlarged prostate which is not cancerous is called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).

As the gland keeps getting enlarged, there are mutations in the DNA of its cells causing it to grow uncontrolled and abnormally resulting in cancer.

The saving grace in this entire process is that prostatic enlargement can be diagnosed early and controlled thereby preventing cancer.

DIAGNOSTIC MODALITIES:

  1. Sonography of the prostate gland is advised once a man turns 50 yrs to establish if enlargement has started. If there is a family history of prostate cancer then it should be done as early as 40 yrs.
  2. A blood test called Prostate Specific Antigen(PSA) should be done. Very high values are suggestive of cancer whereas in the enlargement phase the values remain < 4 units.

If you are facing any of the above symptoms, you must visit a Urologist who will diagnose and prescribe medication for the same. Incase medicines are not effective, one might have to opt for surgery.

In Mr Rebello’s case, since cancer had already developed, radiotherapy was first given to shrink the size of the prostate, post which surgery was performed to remove the cancerous gland. Cancer which had spread to his backbone was controlled by a combination of chemo and hormonal therapy.

Risk Factors for prostatic enlargement and cancer:

Age – prevalence increases markedly with age. The gland grows at a rate of 2 – 2.5 % annually in older men.

Genetics – 50% men undergoing surgery for BPH < 60 yrs of age have inheritable form of the disease.

PREVENTION:

Apart from timely diagnosis and treatment, being physically active, controlling Diabetes and weight are known to reduce enlargement of the gland. Diet rich in antioxidants and vitamins is also beneficial in prevention along with avoiding red meat.

Image credit – prostate.net

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All you want to know about NEUROBICS?

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Medical science is working wonders on a daily basis to make one healthier. And, health does not really mean just physical well-being but, includes being stress free with a healthy mind. To be healthy, regular exercise is a must. There are various ways you can exercise. Some take to running ( cardio) , some take to gyming or playing a sport and some take to Yoga or Aerobics.

Everyone is aware of the benefits of Aerobic exercises on our body but, how much do we know of – Neurobics?

Neurobics is a term coined by Lawrence Katz and Manning Rubin to describe exercises that help the brain stay fit. Its primary goal is to help you remember, along with the ability to learn new information.

Neurobics has basic 3 concepts namely:

  1. Involve one or more senses in a new context.
  2. Involve your full attention.
  3. Break your routine in a significant way.

Here are few examples of this super interesting exercise form:

  • Use your non-dominant hand for your daily tasks like brushing your teeth, holding a glass, writing, combing your hair or holding your phone.
  • Visit unusual shops/parks or places or take a new route to reach to the same destination.
  • Change order of your meals – Start with dal – rice and then go for chapatti and veggies.
  • Keep your eyes closed while doing activities like dressing up, reaching to your cupboard/chair, sitting in the car and wearing your seat belt.
  • Add some new odours in your day. For example, start your day with mint tea rather than your usual tea/coffee.
  • Visit some park, sit at a place, close your eyes and try to visualise what is happening around.
  • Go on a drive with a friend or any family member without having any destination in mind. Let them tell you when to take left or right.
  • Change interiors of your room – if it is not possible to move bigger furniture, just play with the smaller things like painting/wall piece/photo frame.
  • Choose entirely new curtains/bed sheets for your room and make yourself notice them every day.
  • Listen to some new language and try some of the pronunciations.
  • Make it a family activity – everyone eating with their non-dominant hand/everyone writing their own names with the non-dominant hand.
  • Try tongue twisters. They train a lot.

Try with activities which you don’t do generally – balancing a book on head/juggling/making toys or shapes from clay/identify things from your drawer while your eyes closed.

These activities are challenging as well as fun at the same time. Your kids and elderly at home– all can train their minds for better memory and co-ordination and keep several neurological conditions away like memory loss. Do these regularly, invent some similar exercises and have a super brain workout!

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What I considered a huge hardship, fitness has now become part of life for me

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He has struggled since childhood, adolescent years and now as a young adult with excess weight issues. He was always ridiculed for being overweight. There was not a single day that he did not spend feeling bad about being on the heavier side. He tried everything on this planet and kept yo-yo to shed those extra kilos but nothing worked.  Finally, some correct advice from his personal coach to eat right and workout correctly has helped him shed 7 kilos within a month and totally 18 kgs. Let’s hear Nilesh’s story in his own words. 

I have been overweight my entire life. I started out as a chubby baby, who grew into an overweight child and by the time I graduated High school I was starting my adulthood as morbidly obese. And as I moved from my 18 to early 20s, I had crossed a landmark of 100 kgs. Things become critical when people started knowing you by the”extra pounds” you have. And that is what actually I was as a person. And, let me tell you that feeling was really depressing.

Post this realisation, my weight went up and down for years as I went on one fad diet after another. I would try a new diet for a week or two, would try every other gym that opened up in the vicinity but if I did not get the quick fix that was promised to me I would quit, go on a month long binge, and gain everything back.

It wasn’t until I realised that quick fixes and magic gyms don’t work for me and questioned myself would I able to lose those weight that had been holding me down all my life. I realized (thanks to the million advice you get when you have those extra pounds) that if I had to put down “this portion of body”(the splurged fat, the cellulite’s and my dear pot belly) that was originally not part of me, I had to make changes to my lifestyle- the way I eat, drink, sleep and exercise.

My first task was to set a goal for myself and needed someone to monitor that so that I don’t cheat. While I was still evaluating what is to be done, my boss introduced me to GOQII. At the first instance, it was just a device that would keep track but, I took it as it was providing me with all features that I was looking for- A target setter and someone who could monitor.

And believe me, it has been a life-changing decision for me. I chose Trishala Chopra as my coach as her profile said she dealt with all the problems that I was going through currently. And, it worked a miracle. She kept me well motivated to complete my physical training goals and also supported my diet well by introducing small changes but, effective changes to my diet.

These changes were implemented in a manner that didn’t stress me to remove extra time from my daily schedule but, were made part of my lifestyle. In a month’s time of being a part of the GOQii ecosystem, I lost close to 7 kgs. My Coach has been flawless in her approach and the knowledge she shares with me. The best part is that I have made small changes in my lifestyle that has led to tremendous improvement. In measurable terms, I have gone two sizes smaller (from an XXL to L size) on all my clothing. This is a great achievement for me. Also, Weight has gone down by over 15kgs. Diabetes is in check. The best part about all of this is that from being a person who hardly walked a few hundred steps a few months ago, recently completed a half marathon. I had very low step counts may be 500-600 before GOQii and now I do a daily step count of over 15,000 steps.

My coach has been instrumental in guiding me every day with regard to the dos and don’ts towards leading a healthy life.

I feel much lighter and energetic now. And, fitness has become part of life than what it was earlier- a huge hardship.

What does Coach Trishala Nitesh Chopra have to say about Player Nilesh Maurya?

Nilesh was highly obese when he was assigned to me. He was close to 117 kgs. He had been an overweight person all his life. His lifestyle was sedentary and workout was negligible. He used to participate in food challenges and had the capacity to eat so many large pizzas, it was not easy for me to change his food habits.

The first thing I planned was to get him to move his body. Walk was the first thing he started and the best thing about him was his willingness to do things. When he started, he was a bit lazy which required me to poke him to doing his activities. I monitored every single activity and motivated him to just reach an everyday target.

Then the eating habits were changed, reduced the excess carbohydrate contents in his diet and he started losing weight with little changes here and there and here he is today from 117 kgs to 99 kgs. His sheer dedication and hard work have made him achieve this! More kgs to go…this is just the beginning . 

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]