Healthy Living Archives - Page 3 of 52

January 8, 2019 By Dr. Viral Thakkar Leave a Comment

Stroke: Straight Drive or Pavilion

“Doctor please help! Half of my body does not move anymore” came a slurry cry from a helpless Vinod Agrawal, a businessman. His wife stood next to him in the emergency department weeping profusely and their 16 year old son watched his parents helplessly.

When examined thoroughly, Agrawal was diagnosed with STROKE. Thanks to the lifestyles that most people lead these days, this is a common site in hospitals.

A stroke strikes when the blood supply to the brain is affected either due to blockage leading to ischemia or rupturing of vessels. Due to this the brain does not receive enough oxygen and nutrition causing cell death, which is the ideal condition for stroke.

How does a stroke happen?

Ischemia: Occurs due to narrowing or blockage of blood vessels due to blood clots formed either in arteries connecting brains or other vessels or due to dislodgment of fatty deposits called plaques (atherosclerosis).
Haemorrhagic: Bursting or leaking of blood vessels which compresses the brain cells. This leakage of blood puts pressure on brain cells which is accumulated in brain due to trauma, hypertension or some blood thinning medication.
TIA- Transient Ischemic Attack (Mini Stoke): Brief episodes of stroke which is self-limiting. Blood flow is briefly interrupted and these are the warning signs of future stroke. It is like an alarm from the body.

Common Presentation of Stroke –

Weakness or tingling in half or full body depending on the involved artery
Deviation of face with difficulty in speech and closure of one eye
Mental Confusion, severe headache, loss of power in the limbs

When any of the above symptoms are seen, the patient must be rushed to the hospital.

After thoroughly understanding the history and general examination, few specific tests and examination like CT scan are done to find out the cause of the stroke. The treatment is very complicated and management is done in ICU and Neurophyscican may be required.

As there are two major causes of stroke- ischemia and haemorrhage-both have different management. If ischemic– the focus is to restore adequate blood flow-clot is broken or dissolved.

If haemorrhagic -stop bleeding or leakage of blood, to reduce the pressure of brain cells. Surgical intervention may be required if there is any arterial malformation or rupture of vessels.

Rehabilitation activities like physiotherapy, speech therapy, etc help to restore the physical activities gradually.

Prevent Stroke!

All the above symptoms and complications can be prevented if a healthy lifestyle is followed. Eat a healthy- diet which includes fresh fruits, vegetables, avoiding processed meat and avoid junk food.

Yoga, especially pranayama, as this ensures that every cell of the body receives adequate oxygen for appropriate functioning. Pranayama rejuvenates the body cells which ensures the ideal functioning of the body.

Stress kills! Accept what life offers happily and keep working towards your goal without killing yourself.

Remember Smoking Kills — all advertisements shown are true. STOP smoking. Avoid alcohol, if you do consume it, make it minimal.

If you are hypertensive keep absolute check on blood pressure and follow all dietary and physical discipline so the blood pressure is controlled.

If one is diabetic, regular check of sugar is important.

Listen to your body. It always warns you before the disease sets in.

Stroke is an acute emergency but the root cause lies in chronic habits and patterns of life. Every moment, even at this moment of reading the blog, we can choose health or disease. Either you choose to pick up alarming signals of body and take necessary preventions to live a healthy life or be undisciplined and get hospitalised. THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

January 3, 2019 By Arooshi Garg Leave a Comment

Tips to reduce stress and strain for eyes

eye stress

I get many queries from my players suffering from eye stress and strain due to excessive small screen time. With most of us using computers at work, computer eye strain has become a major health issue. Research has shown that eye strain and stress issues occur in around 70-80% of people using computers at the workplace.

Feeling fatigued, mistakes while working, watery eyes, twitching, and redness in eyes, constant headache, and irritability are some common issues that people face due to eye strain.

Here are some ways to help you cope up and manage eye stress and strain:

Adjusting lighting:

Many times we tend to ignore the light arrangement while we work for long hours. The bright light from windows or sharp interior lighting can cause major eye stress. One should position the computer screen in a manner that the windows are to the side, instead of in front or behind it. Try to block excess lighting from outside by using curtains. Reduce sharp interior light by reducing the number of light sources or by using warm light tone bulbs/tubes. Halogen lights are better than overhead fluorescent lights.

Reduce Glare on the screen:

Excessive glare on the screen which might go unnoticed is another cause of getting headaches while working on screens. There are different gadgets available to help reduce this strain:

-Download Blu-ray filter which is an app which creates a shield on your screen

-Use anti-reflective coating/cover on your screen

-If outside light cannot be reduced you can use a computer hood

-Use Anti-reflective coating glasses. One can opt for Anti-reflective (AR) coating glasses. These are special glasses made for people with excessive screen time. This special coating helps block harmful blue light, keeping the eyes relaxed.

Adjust your computer display settings:

Adjusting the display settings like brightness, text size, contrast, the temperature of your computer can help reduce eye strain and fatigue. Generally, these adjustments are beneficial:

** Brightness: brightness of the screen you are looking at should appear relaxing to the eye. If the background seems to emit light/is too bright or seems too dull or grey, then you need to adjust the brightness. Also, most screens have automatic brightness control these days, wherein the brightness is automatically reduced if the surrounding lighting is dimmed.

** Colour temperature: Adjust the screen settings according to your comfort. Reducing colour temperature also reduces the amount of blue-light being emitted by a screen.

Text size: This is one considerable factor. Avoid straining eyes by reading text that appears difficult to read. Adjust text size as per your comfort.

Taking frequent breaks:

Try to take 5-10 minute break every 2 hours to reduce the feeling of fatigue. Take a stroll, look away from the screen and splash your eyes with cold water. During your computer breaks stand up, move about and stretch your arms, legs, back, neck and shoulders to reduce tension and muscle fatigue.

Use cold green tea (used) bags for relieving puffiness around your eyes. (Keep used green tea bags in the refrigerator- and put them over your eyes- covering the under eye area as well) rest for 20 minutes and remove.

Blinking:

Blinking is a mechanism by which eyes rewet themselves. Constant gazing at screen reduces our blinking by 30-40%. Hence, the eyes feel dry and strained. Every 20 minutes, blink 10 times by closing your eyes as if falling asleep (very slowly). This will help rewet the eyes. If eyes feel strained post blinking, rub palms together and apply a warm compress to the twitching eye and gently massage the eyelid with your fingers.

Eye exercises:

Eye exercises can greatly help in improving eyesight and is a must for people having long screen hours to avoid developing eye issues.

-Try moving your eyeballs up and down without

-After about 10 repetitions of this exercise, rub the palms of your hands together and cup your eyes so you can feel the warmth seep through- this is called palming.

-You can follow this by moving your eyeballs horizontally, from 9 to 3, and diagonally, from 2 to 7 and 11 to 4. This can help relieve the extra pressure on muscles which develops while looking at computer screens.

With all the suggestions listed, I am sure it will help you immensely in avoiding and treating eye stress and related issues. Having a routine eye exam is a must if you have more than 3-4 hrs of screen time every day.

January 2, 2019 By GOQii Editor 1 Comment

How to stick to your New Year resolutions?

Hey all, Wish you a Great New Year. The new year has begun and its once again time to make new resolutions. I am sure many of you would even be ready with the resolutions.

What are these New Year resolutions and Why?

More often than not, it’s a promise that we make to ourselves or with our near and dear ones to kick one bad habit and imbibe a good change for a better future.

A New Year resolution can be:

Weight loss
Get fit and regular exercise
Eating healthy
Joining yoga class,
Quit the butt (Giving up smoking)
Quitting excess alcohol consumption etc
Involve with some sport and many more such things

Largely, I have noticed that most resolutions are around health and lifestyle. What is difficult though is to stick to the resolution made. It’s not easy to keep the enthusiasm going week after week. Especially when you have never played a sport or been active in the past.

It’s not easy to maintain the same motivation levels throughout the year. Discipline is hard to come by. Most people don’t feel motivated enough and they give up within few days. It takes focus, planning and determination to stick to resolutions made. It takes the same amount of time to change a particular habit.

Here are few tips on how to stick with your New Year resolution and make it successful?

Golden Rule: Make your goal achievable do not aim for goal which is too difficult to achieve

Once you have decided on your achievable resolution write it down. Writing it down makes a greater connection between your thinking self and doing self. This makes the resolution more real than it is only in your head.
Change one behaviour at a time. Replacing unhealthy behaviour with healthier ones require time
Fitness cannot be your short-term goal.
If you want to eat junk food think what are the benefits you will derive from it. It’s the same as thinking before making any financial investments. Occasionally you can include a piece of Pizza or a burger but not daily.
If you are looking to reduce 20 Kgs then achieve the target by reducing 2-3 kgs in a month. It is not practical to lose 20 kgs in 2 months because it took years to accumulate all that fat and it will only go slowly.
If you want to quit smoking and you are smoking 20 sticks in a day then reduce it gradually. You cannot stop immediately because it will take some time for your body and mind to adapt to the change.
If you intend to start working out, yoga or any other activity in the morning then begin with 3 days a week instead of 7 days a week.
For working out most have the issue of waking up early. Try to start at a time comfortable to you. If you wake up daily at 8 am but plan to start working out at 5 am then it will seldom happen because your circadian system will take time to adjust. Instead try to wake up at 7 am which is practical and you will continue for a long time.
Be positive while thinking about your achievable goal. Instead of saying I cannot do something, say I feel much better doing this
Always tell your near and dear ones about your resolution and seek their support in order to successfully achieve your goal.
Review your progress and reward yourself on the first target achieved

Lastly, I would say do not wait for anything. Every day is a new day. Start working on your resolution immediately.

There is the famous saying that ‘Whatever you want to do tomorrow do it today and whatever you want to do today do it Now’.

Go right ahead and work on your Resolutions for the New Year.

December 31, 2018 By Navnee Garg Leave a Comment

HEALTHY FOOD TRENDS OF 2018

Healthy Food Trends 2018

Let me begin by wishing you Compliments of the Season!

The health food scenario evolves every year, with some trends becoming part of our daily diet, whilst others just being passing fads. Whether your goal was to lower risk of ailments, boost your overall wellbeing, or make mindful eating a priority, you would have undoubtedly run into some of 2018’s principal healthy food trends. So here’s a quick recap of what we relished while sailing through the food culture this year.

1. Plant-Based Diet:

plant based diet

Plant-based diet became increasingly popular, with an increase in the number of people turning Vegan, due to various reasons including health, ethics and the environment. In fact, a lot of meat eater turned towards a “Flexitarian diet” eating meat or fish occasionally, while primarily focusing on a Vegetarian diet.

2. Meat- Free Zone: Getting inspired by Vegans, Manufacturers started to offer meat-free options to those limiting meat products, or vegan lifestyle. Though one cannot match up to the protein intake of Meats, they almost gave their best to resemble the chewy consistency, flavours, and a convenient on-the-go snack option.

3. Healthy Fats:

healthy fats

Heart-healthy fats like olives, walnuts and avocados were immensely popular last year and continued to have the same place in everybody’s kitchen this year too. These healthy fats increase the chances to attain weight loss goals and let you stay fuller for longer. Keeping in mind, the health benefits of healthy fats and consciousness among people, it was one of the key trends of the year.

4. Medicinal Foods: In recent years, probiotics have been able to make a strong impression in the health world. Things such as Sauerkraut, and Kimchi, together with other picked vegetables became even more popular as more and more people wanted to rejuvenate their body from the very root of the system- The Stomach.

5. Superfood Powers:

super food powers

Superfoods have in hitting everyone’s kitchen this year as it healthy and super easy option to be added to any dish. Flaxseeds, chia seeds, matcha powder was seen added in healthy shakes and salads.

6. Floral Teas:

floral teas

The year 2018 is full proof to state that Flowers is not only for Valentine’s Day, but it also has some immersing health benefits too. Whether Lavender lattes or Hibiscus Teas, floral notes bloomed the evenings for many of us.

7. Golden Milk: If the year 2018 was a colour, it would surely be Golden….or at least if it is the colour of the milk. Also known as Turmeric Tea or Golden Milk has been traced back to the ancient Ayurvedic Times to treat many ailments, and often a combo of turmeric, pepper, coconut oil or milk.

The year 2018 has been great for India’s food culture where we not only saw varieties but most importantly, the awareness among all of Us for our Health. We now see everyone getting conscious about health by opting healthy options and joining some form of Fitness Club. But, if you still missed on adding any of these to your diet, then Get Ready…. New Year is coming soon… Time to take Resolutions and Achieve your Goals…..By then..…Stay Updated to know

“THE UPCOMING FOOD TRENDS OF 2019”