Healthy Living Archives - Page 13 of 70

January 26, 2024 By Dr Akshat Chadha 2 Comments

When Was The Last Time You Had A Complete Health Check?

The week began on a sad note. Monday morning was a morning, I would like to erase out of my memory as soon as possible. I was sitting at the breakfast table with my wife when I got a call from my mom saying that one of my cousins-Raj had suffered a major heart attack and had passed away even before reaching the hospital. It was an untimely death. He was barely 40 years of age, young and happy with no major worries. Nobody in the family had seen this coming, not even his wife.

He displayed no signs of stress, worry or any kind of illness. He was not fat nor did he lead a sedentary lifestyle. Then what happened? This thought kept bothering me ever since I heard of what had happened. Being a Doctor, I was determined to delve deep to find the root cause of the problem. After probing some of the family members, I found that there was a family history of heart disease and diabetes. Despite this, he had not done a single blood check in the last 3 years. Whenever I would enquire about getting a health checkup, he would brush it aside and say, “I am healthy and I do not see a need to get pricked unnecessarily”.

What upsets me more is that we are a family of doctors and within my own family, I have people who think otherwise about health check-ups and feel it is unnecessary to have one done regularly, more so, when you do not display any symptoms of illness. The importance of health checkups is highlighted only when you encounter health problems you really can’t predict. Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry later?

Let me be loud and clear when I say, there is a reason why blood tests have been invented and have a huge diagnostic value. Unfortunately, getting a blood test today, is considered as a money making a source for the Doctor. I don’t want to talk about blood tests today, I just want to emphasize the importance of getting a whole body check-up done once a year, especially if you are over 30 years old. Timely medical checkups could make all the difference between prevention and cure; especially when each decade comes with its own set of lifestyle ailments.

What is the harm I ask? What do you have to lose? If it’s the money, then maybe you can cut down on eating out one weekend or reduce your shopping one month and instead utilize that money to get to know about your health?

A lot changes in 30 days leave alone in 365 days. We go through several ups and downs and our body goes through a lot of wear and tear process be it physical or mental. Our internal organs such as the heart, liver, kidneys are designed to work non-stop and there is no harm in knowing the state of our organs and bones in real time so that the necessary lifestyle changes can be made if needed.

One does not have to necessarily pop pills, more often than not, lifestyle changes can make a huge difference. If a machine works well with regular maintenance and check-ups, then why do we leave the most important machine (our body) to chance? You need to listen to your body, feel the pain when it happens, and address the breakdown in a way to avoid its re-occurrence. You need to give your body a good fighting chance by living a good healthy life which is supported by well-functioning internal organs.

Personally, a good comprehensive screening package including CBC ( Complete Blood Count), Lipids, Renal (Kidney) and Liver profile, Sugar tests, Thyroid and basic Vitamins like D and B12 is a must for every individual once a year even if he or she is absolutely healthy. The Thyrocare Aarogyam C package covers all these tests and is available on the GOQii Health Store here.

Age is not a factor. Anybody at the age of 30 years and above should get their blood tests done once a year at least. This is an excellent comprehensive screening of your entire body including heart, liver, and kidney along with important vitamins. We are putting in a lot of effort taking care of our bodies but, if our organs don’t support it then we will always fall short of results.

The prerequisite for leading a healthy life is a comprehensive health check-up once a year. You don’t even need to step out to get a test done. You can even do it from the convenience of your home! So hurry up, get a complete health check now and stay safe.

#BeTheForce

January 22, 2024 By Disha Jhamb Leave a Comment

Transforming Habits for Lasting Health: A 5-Step Guide to Automatic Fitness Mastery

Healthy habits are foundation for healthy lives. Once you are healthy it’s hard to give up being so. It’s an automatic behavior that is tough to change.

Here are 5 steps to automatic fitness

Decide what you want to change about yourself: Every human has the ability to change something about his or her life by controlling the mind which only comes with practice. For example – if you want to change your binging habit, be 100 percent convinced that you can change it.
Cause of the habit: Once you have identified the cause of your habit you will be able to deal with it better. For example – binging throughout the day could be because of stress. So ‘stress’ is the cause. Now that you have identified stress start reasoning within your mind on how binging can lead to calorie over load and thereby affect your weight and health? So what is it that you can do to get rid of the stress levels that makes you binge? Once you are done with the reasoning, you will get a clearer picture on your areas of improvement.
Set short term goals: It’s taken several years for you to build on your bad habits. And, it’s going to be very difficult to get rid of them instantly. Hence decide on a realistic goal that will work for you. For instance – if you take the case of binging again then you can decide to binge on nuts, seeds, fruits as and when the urge arises. At this point in time you can also question yourself if it’s emotional eating or if you are actually hungry.
Value and appreciate every small change and don’t be disheartened with the occasional slips: Appreciate yourself as you are on your journey to improve yourself and doing your best to build on healthy habits. Occasional relapses are a part of this journey which is a natural phenomenon to take place use these slip episode as a spring board of your fitness journey.
Seek additional support if your habits are proving harder to change: One of the best ways to build your inner resilience is by looking outward for support. If you’re having trouble making these changes on your own, reach out to your friends, family, or professionals to help you achieve the so called impossible.

Embarking on the road to automatic fitness involves a blend of self-awareness, realistic goal-setting, and a supportive environment. By embracing these steps, you empower yourself to create lasting positive changes that contribute to your overall well-being. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

January 20, 2024 By Aaishwarya Haldule 2 Comments

Meditation and it’s healing powers

Meditation as we all know is one of the most ancient stress relieving and healing techniques used in India and now even in the Western world. It however has its roots buried in the centuries old science of medicine in India. Now one may think, meditation is only to sit with eyes closed and breathe, to be practiced by saints and yogis.

MEDITATION- the true meaning is to make peace with oneself mentally and physically.But, this is not easy as one may think and needs practice or even training for some period.

The term meditation refers to a variety of practices, such as techniques designed to promote relaxation and build internal energy or life force which is also PRANA in Sanskrit. This enables the individuals to develop love, compassion, patience, effortless single pointed concentration, thus enabling the person to enjoy the well being while engaging in any life activity.

In the recent times meditation is often suggested as a treatment to ease health concerns such as hypertension/ blood pressure, depression, anxiety, insomnia, fear and phobias, control emotions such as anger or hatred. Meditation has a calming effect on the body as well as mind. It directs awareness inward until pure awareness is achieved which is rightly described as “Being awake inside without being aware of anything except awareness itself”

Now one may ask how to achieve the state of awareness and peace? Here is how you can.

Sit comfortably wearing comfortable clothes.
Starting with your head working downwards feel the vibrations in your body.
Focus on your breath; follow the sensation of inhaling and exhaling. With each inhalation the tummy will blow out and with each exhalation the tummy will go back in.
Once you achieve this state, you will face thoughts, the key here is to not hold on to any thought. Instead make it a slide show, let all the thoughts come and go as if it is a photo gallery.
Once you are able to achieve this, you can begin with mantra repetition such as OM for 5- 6 times.

It has been proven that practicing meditation; has numerous benefits and accelerates the process of healing of many health conditions, as well as delay the ageing.

To highlight a few prominent benefits, let’s look further.

Increase immunity:

Relaxation appears to boost the immunity in recovering cancer patients. Progressive muscular relaxation when practiced daily has shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer and its recurrence. A study at Ohio state university has shown that practicing meditation and relaxation for a month boosted the immunity cells in the elderly giving them more resistance to viruses.

Emotional Balance:

As we discussed earlier, meditation helps to achieve control over emotions such as anger, hatred.

Emotional balance means to be free of ego. Though this is very difficult to achieve fully, meditation does help to lessen the outbursts due to ego. As the consciousness is cleansed of emotions and memories, one not only achieves a full freedom but also great balance in actions and words.

Increases Fertility:

It has been found that women are more likely to conceive when emotionally balanced and stress free. Being stress free also helps improve male fertility in many ways.

Relieves Digestive Ailments:

People who suffer anxiety related acidity, or other digestive complaints get great relief with regular meditation and breathing exercises.

Hence, it is widely recommended as an effective treatment.

Lowers Blood Pressure:

Similar to exercise meditation also helps to secrete “happiness hormones such as endorphins”, making the body less responsive to stress hormones. These effects are also seen with regular cardio exercise and blood pressure lowering medications as well.

Inflammation:

Stress; of all kinds’ leads to inflammation, which is widely related to heart disease, arthritis, asthma and many skin conditions. Practicing regular meditation can prevent and help in treating these conditions by reducing the stress response.

Calmness and Sleep:

The simple difference between the people who meditate and those who do not, is that for a meditative mind the thought occurs is witnessed, while for an ordinary mind, the thought occurs and is governed by ego. In case in both minds, an upsetting thought occurs, but for those who meditate it is just another thought which is seen, allowed to blossom, and let go, while in a non meditating mind, such thoughts can instigates a storm which rages on and on. This can lead to sleep disturbances. Hence meditation helps to improve sleep.

In short, Meditation is a way to celebrate being at peace with oneself and celebrating it with silence.

We hope this article helps you. For further information or guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

Happy Meditating!

#BeTheForce

January 16, 2024 By Dr. Viral Thakkar 5 Comments

Turmeric- ‘Haldi’- for Health

Bablu disliked ‘Haldi Dhoodh’ (Turmeric Milk) to no extent. He could endure anything but turmeric powder in his milk. But alas, his mother insisted and as a child he could not do much about it. Bablu’s mother believed that turmeric is a wonder ‘drug’ for numerous ailments. As he got a bit older he also got aware and realised during winters he never succumbed to common ailments like cough and cold. His immune system was stronger than many of his friends. He enjoyed his health! But, always wondered how!

Turmeric is derived from the rhizomes of the plant Curcuma longa, which is a member of the ginger family. It has the compounds with medicinal properties which is Curcumin. Even though Curcumin is 3% of turmeric, the use of turmeric is not lessened in anyway. Curcumin is the most active component of turmeric and has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This is precisely the reason that ‘Haldi’(turmeric) finds a special place in India (Ayurveda) for many ailments.

Turmeric is Anti- inflammatory

Turmeric contains more than two dozen anti-inflammatory compounds including six different COX-2-inhibitors (the COX-2 enzyme promotes pain, swelling and inflammation).
External application of turmeric is beneficial for sprains and swellings because of the Curcumin compound.
Due to its anti-inflammatory properties and pain relieving properties, Curcumin and turmeric is used for arthritic pain.
Because inflammation is closely linked to tumor promotion, Curcumin with its potent anti-inflammatory property is anticipated to exert chemopreventive effects on carcinogenesis. Hence, the past few decades have witnessed intense research devoted to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of Curcumin.

Turmeric Prevents

The antibacterial and anti-viral action of curcumin makes it the best remedy to treat cough and cold naturally. The anti-inflammatory action of curcumin aids in relieving the chest congestion that develops in people suffering with chronic cough. It is advised to include turmeric in a daily diet during winters to prevent viral and bacterial infection. The dosage could be –one tsp turmeric with a glass of warm milk.One can also have a 1-2 tsps of turmeric powder without mixing it for the same effect.

Turmeric Heals

Curcuma has natural antiseptic and antibacterial properties and can be used as effective disinfectant in case of cuts and minor burns. Turmeric also helps repair damaged skin and may be used to treat psoriasis and other inflammatory skin conditions.
Turmeric with other constituents has a great effect- Having haldi (Turmeric) mixed with mustard oil and onion juice every hour stops rectal bleeding in piles in most of the cases.
As a rich source of iron, turmeric is valuable for anemia.
Curcuma has protective action on intestinal flora. Curcuma is beneficial in Crohn’s disease (an ailment that affects the digestive tract) and ulcerative colitis.

Turmeric Boosts General Health

Curcumin Detoxifies the liver- It helps in stimulating bile production in the liver and encouraging excretion of bile via the gallbladder, which improves the body’s ability to digest fats.
It balances cholesterol levels, fights allergies, stimulates digestion, boosts immunity and enhances the complexion.
Studies suggest that curcumin has several properties that could make it effective at preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

Turmeric is Anti- cancer

Curcumin powder mixed with pure cow’s ghee(Clarified Butter) might wade away cancer cells in most cases and also regenerates new cells in the body.
Curcuma has been demonstrated to inhibit tumor growth and stimulate apoptosis, an intracellular mechanism for cells of all types to “kill” themselves. It neutralizes those substances and conditions which can cause cancer.
It directly helps a cell retain its integrity if threatened by carcinogens.

Turmeric is an Effective Cosmetic

Turmeric paste mixed with aloe vera, water and milk will clear your skin as well. Turmeric mixed with gram flour (besan) is an effective & cheap scrub, and is known to clear tan.

So if you say yes to your health, haldi (Turmeric) has to find some space in your scheme of affairs!

If you’ve found these turmeric health benefits valuable and have more questions or thoughts to share, drop a comment below! For further insights into maintaining a healthy lifestyle, explore more on Healthy Reads. If you’re seeking personalised guidance, reach out to our certified experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce