Search Results for: disease

January 30, 2019 By Anusha Subramanian 1 Comment

Lifestyle diseases: An epidemic among young Indians

riseinlifestylediseases

You must have heard the term “Lifestyle Disease” before, but have you ever wondered what it is? As the name suggests, they’re diseases which are linked to your way of life. For example, if someone is leading a sedentary lifestyle, with minimal or no physical activity, that person is more susceptible to diseases like Diabetes, Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure etc. On the other hand, a physically active individual has lower chances of contracting these diseases. Unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity are the main reasons behind lifestyle diseases. Let’s take a look at the trend of Lifestyle Diseases in India as per the GOQii India Fit Report 2019.

Image: “Since last year, there has been a rise in the number of lifestyle diseases among people overall.” – India Fit Report 2019

According to the report, there has been a rise in Lifestyle Diseases since last year among individuals who are below the age of 45. This is an alarming trend as it clearly shows the rise of an unhealthy lifestyle among the younger generation. Let’s take a look at the major lifestyle diseases affecting India, namely High Blood pressure, Diabetes, Cholesterol and Thyroid.

Cholesterol
Since last year, the percentage of cholesterol among Indians has increased from 10.1% to 14.1% as per the Report. It also says that 68.9% of the affected individuals take no medication to tackle the condition but aim to overcome cholesterol by making changes to their lifestyle. Since cholesterol is a condition that can be cured by lifestyle changes, it is something the rest should aim to achieve. Currently, Kolkata (18.2%), Delhi (17.3%) and Bengaluru (15.3%) are the major cities with the highest number of people suffering from Cholesterol.

High Blood Pressure (HBP)
High Blood Pressure is another serious condition which is often overlooked by Indians. 34% of the population has HBP running in their families. This data alone shows how serious this condition is in India. HBP has increased from 9% to 12% over the last year and about 44% of the affected individuals look to tackle the condition without the help of medication. Kolkata (21.9%), Mumbai (13.7%) and Delhi (13.6%) are the cities that have high concerns of HBP as per the Report.

Diabetes
We are all familiar with Diabetes as it is one of the most common lifestyle diseases out there. Chances are that at least one individual in your family is suffering from Diabetes. As surprising as it sounds, the rise of Diabetes in India has decreased from 7.9% to 7.1% since the last year. The increased awareness is one of the reasons behind this dip. Research indicates that 33.7% of the people affected by Diabetes are looking to tackle this condition without the help of medication. Like HBP, Diabetes is also a condition that usually runs in the family.

“31.8% of the users claim a family history of Diabetes. Thus, it is a key illness to watch out for in the future” – India Fit Report 2019

Thyroid
Thyroid issues, unlike other diseases, has remained the same at 6.8% of the total population. Mainly women face this issue and they also deal with fluctuating weight caused by it. About 9.6% of the population reported a history of thyroid issues in the family.

The only thing good about these conditions is that they can be tackled by living a healthier and active lifestyle. Exercise, quality sleep and proper nutrition are extremely necessary in order to overcome these diseases. It is no secret that as you get older, you tend to succumb to more diseases.

According to the GOQii India Fit Report 2019, 30% of 20-30-year-olds reported some kind of medical issue, 48% of 31-45-year-olds and 74.6% of the users above the age of 60 reported some issues medically. It is very important to follow a good lifestyle from a very young age so that you can avoid these diseases in the future. As the old adage says, “Prevention is better than cure!”

September 29, 2017 By Anusha Subramanian 2 Comments

The Heart Truth: ‘Let heart disease be a new beginning’

Widely recognized as a pioneer of Cardiac rehabilitation in India, Dr Aashish Contractor is a valuable information resource for the layperson to understand the various dimensions of coronary complications, their prevention and resolution. He just does not believe in leading a sedentary lifestyle. He is a marathoner and was the medical director at Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon from 2004-14. In his book ‘The Heart Truth’, Dr Contractor has summed up his 18 years of medical experience to provide inputs and tips on how to take care of the heart. This is not a doctor prescribing from the pulpit but a heart expert sharing his knowledge as a friend would. The intention of the book is to spell things out with clarity. Anusha Subramanian met up with Dr Contractor to know all about ‘The Heart Truth’. Here are excerpts from the Interview.

What prompted you to write this book?

Heart Disease is the leading cause of death among men and women worldwide and even in India. I have found that even among people who have suffered a heart disease, the lack of knowledge about the disease is astounding. With the amount of information we have today, I would expect people to be more aware but they aren’t. Funnily enough, there is lots of alternative information floating around and what’s app just amplifies it. Which is why I called the book- ‘The Heart Truth’ and decided let’s stick to facts and put it out. Secondly, I wanted to share a lot of real-life examples in order to show that after suffering a heart disease life does not end in fact in my opinion it begins. One starts a new chapter in life. My philosophy is one should get better than before and not just get back to where they were before. Through these real-life examples, many of whom have gone on to run marathons or climb mountains. One of them even had a turnaround just 200-300 meters from Mt Everest Summit only because of bad weather. Through the book, the idea was to showcase these real-life examples and inspire people to turn their lives and let heart disease be a new beginning.

What has led India to face this heart disease epidemic? We are already called the world Capital of Diabetes and we are not far from being called the World Capital of Heart Disease. Any particular reason why India’s are more prone to heart disease?

You are absolutely right, the trend of heart disease in India is rapidly on the increase. The statistics show that from 1990-2000 there has been a rapid upward curve for the disease and we are getting close to being called the world capital of heart disease and there are multifactorial reasons for this. According to me earlier many were dying of infectious diseases. I guess, the life expectancy during the early 50s and 60s was also less. Most were not living long enough to suffer from heart disease. As we are getting better and taking care of infectious diseases we are living longer. And with better diagnostic, we are understanding what the health issues are. Earlier, probably people were suffering heart diseases but one did not know or diagnosed and just died. Hence, we did not label it as dying of heart disease. There is a gross underestimation of the no. of heart disease deaths in the past. Now we are getting better in measuring this. Secondly, as we have got economically better off, our lifestyle has also changed. There is more processed food in our diet now than it was before, one is indulging in far less physical activity on a daily basis or there is no activity at all. Indian’s are genetically more prone to developing insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and higher triglycerides and more prone to developing belly fat and all of these conditions are a boiling pot which makes Indians more susceptible to heart disease.

When you say Indians are more susceptible to insulin resistance, higher triglycerides and other areas of diseases.. is it because of our diet?

One aspect could be a diet but, we should not isolate genes. Genetics or family risk for heart disease is a potent risk factor. How much would they affect, it is difficult to say. Some people’s genes are so ‘bad’ they may get it no matter what but there is a difference. If they take all the care, they may get an attack at 60, that too, a mild one than getting a fatal attack at 45. So it is not that if your genes are bad, you are doomed, there are a lot of other things that you can do. We are genetically prone and Indians are affected a decade earlier than our western counterparts.

What according to you is the best way to detect Cardiac Ailment? As a layperson, if I do not want to go to a doctor but yet know if have a cardiac ailment?

There is no best way to detect. Once you become an adult you should keep a track of your BMI, height, weight, waist circumference on a regular basis. Once a year you should get a medical checkup done to know your basic lipid, cholesterol, BP and blood sugar levels. If the values are normal then it’s very good and you should get your tests done regularly once a year and if they are not then you must take the necessary action and make sure you go for follow-ups. If you feel any sort of discomfort, heaviness, breathlessness, chest pain, pain in the arms, in the right, in the left, back, jaw, exhaustion related kind of pain could be related to heart disease, exhaustion in your daily activity which you were doing easily at one point in time could be a symptom. These are warning signs and in most cases, these symptoms do occur before the full-blown attack it’s just that people ignore these symptoms.

Are Bypass and Angioplasty the only cure or are there alternative therapies?

Talking about heart disease or blockages, depending on where and what type of blockages these are. The kind of risk profile and symptoms the patient has, the medical management the patient has undergone, whether it is a bypass surgery or angioplasty? Bypass and Angioplasty are not the only cure. All the above questions have to be built on good lifestyle management. Whether you do A B or C you still need to maintain a good lifestyle. In addition to all of this, you may be fine just taking medicines or you might need a surgery or an angioplasty. Considering avoiding bypass and telling will manage through good lifestyle is not an alternative therapy. It’s a misnomer. True alternative therapies are external counterpulsation (ECP). ECP is meant for a specific subset of patients who have had stable angina after best medical management and stable angina still remains then ECP might work on them. This is generally done over 35 sittings, for an hour each. The goal of the therapy is to create collateral circulation by opening up small channels of blood. ECP is a good therapy for some patients with angina and for patients with heart failure. However, it’s not appropriate for every person with heart disease.

Can we reverse heart disease without surgery?

The term reversal of heart disease needs to be understood properly. We think that there is an artery with 90% block and you do something and it reduces to 60% but, it doesn’t work that way. The block doesn’t shrink to 60%, the only thing that is reduced is the chance of an event. So it is a physiological reversal but it is not an anatomical reversal. When you take care of all these factors, a reversal is possible. That is what we also do in our cardiac rehab program. He has ‘a method’, we have ‘a method’ but the principles are the same

There is a huge confusion on the fact that fit people are succumbing to a heart attack. Case in point is Dr Rakesh Sinha who was fit and a marathoner and he suddenly one day had a heart attack and died. And on the other hand, you have people who are completely unfit and doing all sorts of vices and yet survive longer a with no ailments

This is a concept of Risk Factors. Different factors go into your risk to develop heart disease. My classic example is driving a car; there are many factors that are in consideration when making a car accident-free. You cannot just say that my breaks were running fine and still I had an accident. That is exactly like saying I am fit and I still got a heart attack. It is good that one is fit but it is just one factor, being fit doesn’t give you immunity against other factors.

Two things that women need to know about Heart Disease.

One of the main thing that women need to know is that heart disease is one of the main cause of deaths among women, not breast cancer. Secondly, awareness is important as women often do not get diagnosed and this is a fact world over which is they get less care than men. The symptoms such as breathlessness in women are never considered to be a risk towards heart disease and hence not be considered for diagnosis. Sadly, women’s health is the most neglected.

Dr Contractor how do you keep yourself fit

I run, cycle and gym at least four to 5 days a week. It’s a mix and match of all the activities during the week.

How do you keep yourself away from getting stress?

Stress is part of normal life. I do believe that exercising regularly is a great stress buster for me. I would like to think that I take on a fairly positive attitude and this helps. It’s about how you deal with it. Some people really react to it negatively while some people deal with it calmly.

What are the three main things that people should keep in mind?

1^st thing- you do not have to run a marathon or climb a mountain to be healthy. That you should do for achievements and not for health. First thing is to build a good baseline. Basic routine for few months then after that you can go for your huge goal of running a marathon or other extreme activities.

2^nd Make a good plan and 3^rd stick to that plan and gradually build on it. Believe me, there is nothing that you cannot do. Everybody can do everything.

Your Parting comments

Overall take care of yourself. Nobody needs to do anything dramatic. Consistency gets people results. As supposed to doing a dramatic program… push hard for 3-6 months and then after that, the motivation fades away. Remember, always stick to your plan. 42-43 weeks out of 52 weeks in a year helps.

Follow the ABCD principle-A- active, B- Blood pressure, C-Cholesterol and D-Good balanced diet, take care of Diabetes and do not smoke and get adequate sleep daily.

It’s not the end of the road. After suffering a heart ailment you can still come back and live a good life.

November 25, 2024 By Tabassum Parveen 2 Comments

Food And Nutritional Guidelines for Healthy Kids

Every parent, at some point, has faced an issue with food and children. On one hand, children can be quite fussy about the food they eat and on the other, they need the right food and nutrition. How do you bridge the gap? How can you feed your children nutritious food and get them to like it too?

While every child has his/her own preferences, we will share the essential food groups that must be included in your child’s diet as well as food options you can choose to get your child on the right side of healthy!

Carbohydrates and Proteins

Grains are a good source of carbohydrates. They provide much-needed energy by children to carry out their day to day activities. We can get carbs from oatmeal, quinoa, millet, wheat bread and multigrain roti. This can be mixed with protein sources such as bread with peanut butter or almond butter, upma (cooked Semolina) with peanuts or Poha (flattened rice cooked) with a few dry fruits. Idli (steamed rice cakes) with sambar (vegetable curry) or roti (flat wheat bread) with dal (lentils) or beans or an egg sandwich can be opted for in order to make the meal nourishing.

Since proteins are the building blocks of the body, they promote growth and development. Kids need 1gm of protein for every kilogram he/she weighs. Few other examples of protein sources which you can opt for are peas, chicken, seafood, unsalted nuts and seeds.

Fruits

Fruits either in the morning or evening will give your kids a boost of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. They will boost your child’s disease-fighting ability not just now but in the future as well. Keeping in line with the old adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, try to incorporate at least one fruit in their meal.

Although, there are certain rules of eating fruit. It should not be consumed along with a meal or immediately after meals. This is because the fruit might rot when mixed with any food you have eaten. It is safe to consume them at snack time. You can add a few pieces of fruit in his or her lunch box or can give it separately so they can eat it with mini intervals.

Vegetables

Encourage your kids to eat veggies. We understand that it is difficult to get your children to eat vegetables. An option that you could explore is smoothies. Some greens with a dash of any fruit they like, mixed with jaggery or honey can be a delicious treat! You could also make sprouts salad, peanut salad or chicken salad with a few vegetables like corn, tomatoes, peas, carrot or a vegetable liked by your child.

Good Fats

Try to incorporate some good fats. Fats help in the development of the brain, nerves and eyes. Examples of good fat are nuts like almonds, pista, cashew nuts and peanuts. Avoid these if your child is allergic to any nuts. You can also include seeds like chia, basil and mix them with fruit juice. More examples of good fats include avocados, olive oil and canola oil. The best way to consume oils is by sprinkling them on salads and nuts. Seeds can also be sprinkled with the aforementioned oils. You can also add them to any sandwich or toast.

Focus on reducing junk and fast food which are high in sugars, fats and low in important nutrients. They are easily available and tempting but they increase the risk of obesity, juvenile diabetes, asthma and allergies. Always try to make your kid’s plate colourful and attractive.

Dairy

Dairy plays an important role in keeping your little one’s bones strong. To ensure that your child has stronger teeth and bones, add one or two cups of milk to their diet. If your child does not like milk, go for Greek Yogurt which is available in many flavours. In case your child is lactose intolerant, go for almond milk, soy milk or opt for lactose-free milk.

Water Intake

Lastly, keep an eye over your child’s water intake. Water helps in various bodily functions such as absorption and digestion of food as well as excretion. Lack of water may leave your child dehydrated. Do not opt for carbonated beverages. Avoid tea or coffee as they don’t need it at such a tender age. Yes, you can give them tea but ensure that it is herbal like chamomile or green tea. You can also opt for healthier options such as a ginger turmeric drink which will reap positive health benefits for your child.

We hope the food and nutrition guidelines above help you and your growing child. Do leave your queries in the comments below! For more on Children’s Health, check out Healthy Reads or speak to an expert by subscribing for GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

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November 21, 2024 By Sohini Chakraborty Leave a Comment

Fat Facts That Are Easy to Digest

It’s a shame that the word “Fat” has developed such a notorious reputation over the years with every health-conscious individual hellbent on removing that word from their dictionary. Before we condemn the word, we need to understand that the quality of fat is just as important as the quantity of it. So let’s bust some myths with these fat facts!

Fat is one of the macro nutrients which provides 9kcal per gram and it is also essential for many functions of the body like solubilizing fat-soluble vitamins, secreting hormones, protecting our vital organs, etc. It is imperative to classify fats into broad categories. Now, let’s delve a little deeper into fat facts.

1. Fats Which Are Bad For You

Here are the types of fats which are bad for your health.

Saturated Fat: Saturated fats are usually found in animal fats like beef, pork, lard, dark chocolate, full-fat dairy products like cheese, etc. They are usually solid at room temperature. Saturated fats were previously thought to cause cardiac problems but saturated fats are known to increase the amount of both HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol), hence it is safe to have saturated fats in lower amounts.
Trans-Fat: are produced during hydrogenation of fat when the oil is hardened to increase its shelf life. Apart from the natural Trans-fat present to some extent in dairies and meats, the artificial trans fat produced as a result of hydrogenation of fat is very harmful to health. It is found to increase the level of LDL cholesterol, thus increasing the risk of artery blockage and heart disease. It is also known to cause free radical damage to the body resulting in cancer. Trans-Fat is found in fried foods such as French fries, fried chicken, crackers, microwave popcorn, pizza, doughnut, cakes, muffins, pies, nuggets, sausages, non-dairy creamers, margarines, etc. Avoid this type of fat to stay healthy and free from diseases. Not more than 2% in a 2000kcal diet is permissible.
Cholesterol: is one of the most misunderstood subjects of this decade. Cholesterol is a wax like substance present in our body and can be obtained from many dietary sources like egg, meats and dairy products. It is necessary for bile formation and many other important functions of our body. According to recent studies, our total cholesterol level is not affected by entirely dietary intake as the body itself maintains the cholesterol balance. Then again, we should be careful about choosing the type of cholesterol to be consumed. There are 2 types of cholesterol:

HDL (High Density Lipoprotein): is very beneficial for the body as it removes plaques from the arteries and makes blood circulation smooth, preventing arterial block or damage. Its sources include olive oil, beans and legumes, high fiber fruits like avocado, chia seeds, nuts and fatty fish like salmon, trout, etc. These must be present in our diet.
LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein), VLDL (Very Low Density Lipoprotein): are considered to be very harmful to the body. They create atherosclerotic plaque in the arteries, constricting proper blood circulation and cause the narrowing of blood vessels and heart blockage. Most of its sources include pork, beef, lamb meat, milk, butter, cream and cocoa butter. These should be present sparingly in our diet.

2. Fats Which Are Good For You

Let’s take a look at fats which are actually good for you!

Unsaturated Fats: contain double bonds in their structure and are known to be most beneficial among all. It may be of 2 types:
Monounsaturated Fats: These contain a single double bond and are known to be helpful in many ways. Evidently, they aid weight loss, reduce cardiac problems and decrease inflammation. Its major sources are avocado, nuts like almond, pistachios, vegetable oils like safflower oil, sesame oil, olive oil, canola oil, etc.
Polyunsaturated Fats: are considered as the most beneficial among the fat family. These fats are mainly of 2 types:
1. Omega 3 Fatty Acids: are known to improve heart health, protect the nervous system, increase brain function, reduce anxiety and stress, improve eye function, reduce inflammation and help fight cancer as well. Sources include soya beans, chia seeds, walnuts, canola oil, salmon, sardine, etc. It’s good to have them as a part of daily diet.
2. Omega 6 Fatty Acids: This type of fat helps balance good and bad cholesterol, it helps reduce asthma or respiratory problems especially in children, relieves diarrhea in children and is essential for improving brain function. Sources of Omega 6 Fatty Acids include hemp seed or hemp seed oil, flaxseed or flaxseed oil, walnuts, almond, avocado oil, eggs, tofu etc.

These fatty acids are called “essential” because they are not produced in the body and that is why they have to be present in our diet.

Considering all the fat facts listed above, we must focus more on the types of fat we are consuming. In a typical Indian diet, about 15-20% of total calories should come from fat and the most desirable proportion of Saturated Fat (SFA), Monounsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA) and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA) must be 1:1.3:1.

We hope this article helps you make the best food choices. To know more about fat facts, bust more myths about food and nutrition, ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

Do leave your thoughts in the comments below!