Search Results for: breathing

March 14, 2020 By Anusha Subramanian 4 Comments

Safety Tips to Prevent Coronavirus Infection

The recent Coronavirus outbreak has become one of the biggest health scare in the world right now. What started in Wuhan, China on 31 December, 2019 has now struck Europe and the US and has overall claimed many lives. As of February 27, 2020, China reported 78,824 confirmed cases of the virus with a death toll of 2,788.

The virus is spreading rapidly and has been deemed to have pandemic potential by WHO. Now, among all the quarantines, preventive measures and news spreading like wildfire, how much do we really know about the virus? Of course, we’re well aware that it spread from China but what else do we really know?

In India, people are aware about the virus but aren’t prepared. This is because of lack of details. At this point, we are of the opinion that prevention is best as there is no cure for the Coronavirus yet.

As a leading preventive healthcare company, GOQii is recommending a few basic prevention and safety tips that people need to follow. The recommendations made here are in line with WHO guidelines: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

The first and foremost thing is to build your defense by building your Immunity. All that one needs to do is follow the basics of exercise, eat right and sleep well.

How Do You Build Immunity Against the Coronavirus?

Include 1 or 2 cloves of garlic every day in your meals. As garlic is a potent anti-viral.
Cut out smoking completely. Smoking destroys your respiratory tract including the lungs.
Exercise regularly- Include a combination of strength training and cardio, concentrating on breathing patterns
A dehydrated body is most prone to infections. Drink adequate water. Avoid alkaline water and drink boiled water.
Avoid refined sugar in any form as sugar can reduce your immunity directly plus alters the bacteria in your gut
Make sure you sleep well for at least 6-8 hours.

Other Prevention Must-Dos to be Followed

Wear a Mask while travelling to crowded places. Preferably avoid crowded places.
Wash your hands at regular intervals.
If you have any symptoms of fever, cough, cold, sore throat and having trouble breathing please seek medical advice immediately.
Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth while travelling and otherwise
While coughing or sneezing use a tissue and dispose it off safely

January 13, 2020 By GOQii Leave a Comment

GOQii Trail Challenge Heroes: Give Up on Shankar Sabadi Giving Up!

Through adversity, there is redemption! What would life be without challenges? How would you know your limits? It is because of challenges we learn our limits, how to push past them and reach our goals. Getting demotivated is natural but with a sound mind and a strong spirit, nothing is impossible! For everyone who was a part of the GOQii Trail Challenge 2019, this was one of the most heroic tales which unfolded before us! Shankar Sabadi didn’t just complete the challenge but served as a living, breathing example of what you do when faced with adversity.

How Was the Experience Compared to 2018?

Shankar Sabadi has been an active GOQii Player since 2017. Since undergoing a transformation and making a positive lifestyle change, he has always been looking for challenges to test his limits. This was the second time that Shankar Sabadi had participated in the GOQii Trail Challenge. Although he said it was painful, and you’re about to find out why, he said it was a refreshing experience when compared to last year.

As the trail challenge was a fairly fresh concept introduced in 2018, the participants, Shankar included, didn’t know what to expect other than the fact that they had to walk 50km. He didn’t expect the mix of hiking, trekking, inclines and declines. Despite not knowing what awaited him, he completed the Trail in 2018 within 12 hours.

This year, he trained himself well for the challenge ahead by climbing stairs every day, going for mountain walks and taking normal ones as well.

Shankar Sabadi at GOQii Trail Challenge 2019

The trail began and all our participants went on route. After a group of 8 people, including Shankar Sabadi and a pacer left the 1st checkpoint, they were following the ribbons used to mark the trail. However, they missed one and took a wrong route. The path was rocky, covered with dense bushes, which made Mr. Sabadi realize that they might have taken a different route. He suggested they should return to the last ribbon.

Few of them weren’t in favour of the decision as they had walked for at least half an hour. After much discussion, the pacer confirmed that they were on the wrong route and they all decided to retrace their steps. As Shankar Sabadi turned around, he tripped on some pebbles. He quickly realized that he won’t be able to avoid the fall and instead of taking the fall on his back and hurting it, he decided to fall on his hands.

He immediately realized that he had fractured his hand…

Never Back Down! Give Up On Giving Up!

He did experience pain and his fellow walkers helped him to his feet. They noticed his arm was swollen. He just kept his hand in his pocket and asked everyone to move ahead. He didn’t want anyone to be delayed on his account.

At the next checkpoint, he asked one of the support staff to spray some pain reliever on his arm. They said a doctor will be available only at the village and offered to take him there. Shankar Sabadi was not ready to give up. He was determined to complete the trail. He said that even though his hand is fractured and hurts, his legs are okay.

Seeing his unshakeable determination, the staff made a makeshift splint out of a tree branch. One of the crepe bandages was used to tie the arm and another as a sling to rest the arm. With this arrangement, he continued on the trail. The walk was painful and the injury slowed him down but didn’t by any means stop him. He had to tread very carefully as he couldn’t use his arm to balance. All the pressure was on his left foot.

He is extremely thankful to all the fellow walkers who carried his bag, offered him water, supplements and energizers along the way (you know who you are and you guys are awesome!) Thanks to this, he only had to focus on walking.

After a lot of trials and tribulations, fighting through the pain and overcoming all of it, Shankar Sabadi completed the trail in 14 hours, just 2 hours behind his last year’s finishing time. Once the challenge was over and we reached Mumbai, he left for home and visited his doctor, who diagnosed that his arm is not broken but curved due to the impact of the fall. His arm was plastered for 3 weeks. You’ll be glad to know that he is recuperating at home and taking physiotherapy sessions to increase blood circulation to that arm and strengthen it.

We often hear of heroes and it is true, not all heroes wear capes. Some heroes teach us to push forward no matter what! Shankar Sabadi exemplifies what it means to #BeTheForce! He says that since he joined GOQii, he has given up on giving up.

Where else could you have heard such a valiant tale? Where else could you feel this energy? If you’re still having doubts, let this story be your motivation to participate in the next GOQii Trail Challenge and complete it.

We’ll be sharing many more heroic stories of participants who made #LifeWorthWalking through Healthy Reads as well as GOQii Play. Do you have an awesome GTC story to share? Write to us here.

November 6, 2019 By Dr. Viral Thakkar Leave a Comment

Stroke: A Few Untouched Aspects

Stroke is the sudden death of some brain cells due to lack of oxygen when the blood flow to the brain is lost by blockage or rupture of an artery to the brain. According to the WHO, it is the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of disability. Stroke is also a leading cause of dementia and depression. For commonly known causes of stroke, please refer to the article “Stroke: Straight Dive or Pavilion” published earlier. While you might have read a number of reasons which lead to stroke, this article focuses on the importance of emotional health to prevent stroke.

There Are 2 Main Types of Stroke

Hemorrhagic Stroke: is caused by bleeding in the brain due to a weak spot in the wall of the vessel, which can cause an aneurysm (bulging of the vessel wall). The vessels can also be weakened by chronic or very high blood pressure and break from force. When the vessel breaks, blood leaks into surrounding tissue, and the brain doesn’t get the oxygen and nutrients it needs.
Ischemic Stroke: results from blocked arteries, which often occur from cholesterol build-up, called plaque. Plaques on the inside of the vessel can be fragile when blood flows past, causing the plaque to lift. But in the blood vessel, when a plaque lifts-up and the body tries to heal it, like it would scab on your arm, it makes a clot where that plaque lifted up, which blocks blood flow and can lead to ischemic stroke.

The human body is magical. When the mind perceives a threat or stress, the body releases cortisol and adrenaline to cope with it. These hormones impact the homeostasis of the body; the other parameters get deranged and affect the healing processes of the body. Now, if your personality is to take constant stress, cortisol and level of other stress hormones will be high to ensure the body deals with stress. This could cause retention of salt which might increase blood pressure. Stress also causes an increase in blood sugar, which means the vessels can’t dilate or contract to better control blood flow. Increased cortisol is also known to disrupt sleep cycles leading to fatigue.

Anyone Can Be At Risk…

…for many reasons, not just stress. Sometimes, it just how your body responds.

While there is no concrete reason to state that positive emotions, a stress-free life or a balanced psychological state will not lead to stroke. However, there are numerous research studies to indicate that there might be a relationship between negative emotions, stress & stroke. In my practice, I have usually seen stressed people holding negative emotions fall prey to issues like stress, heart ailments, etc. A University of Michigan study found that men who were more physiologically reactive to stress were 72% more likely to suffer a stroke.

Regardless of how your life or your job is, if you feel you are stressed, you most probably are.

If you’re still unsure, ask yourself these questions:

Does your significant other tell you, you seem stressed?
You tend to pick up fights and arguments with your family and co-workers more than normal?
You resort to alcohol, drugs, smoking to alleviate stress?
Do you find less joy in things that normally make you happy?
Do you find it difficult to fall or stay asleep compared to normal?
You don’t like to get up in the morning, especially on days you know you will come across stress causing situations

If the answer to the above is yes, then it’s time for you to work on yourself. Contemplate on the reason, give attention to the little things in life… It is the little things which lead to bigger changes! Some attitude changes like acceptance and forgiveness make a lot of difference!

Quick tip: Whenever you feel stress, start taking deep breaths. Mentally count till 5 & inhale, count another 5 and exhale. Make it as slow and steady as possible. Taking in more oxygen allows more oxygen to be available to the brain tissues. Some research suggests that deep breathing helps to rehabilitate the brain after a stroke. This style of breathing also helps to relax and calm the mind and whole being.

While everyone faces issues in life, it is the ability to cope with it, be in sync with one’s body which determines health!

#BeTheForce

October 31, 2019 By GOQii Leave a Comment

The New Age Health Horror of Diabesity

When someone says “horror”, what do you imagine? Definitely nothing pleasant but something extremely scary, right? Do you picture ghosts and demons? If your perception of horror is limited to only supernatural occurrences, you might want to take a big step back. While supernatural entities are subjective, health issues are very much real and their stats are horrifying to say the least.

Recently, we came across a study titled ‘Finding a Policy Solution to India’s Diabetes Epidemic‘ by Karen Siegel, K. M Venkat Narayan and Sanjay Kinra. The study indicated that ‘In India, 35 million people have diabetes—a number expected to more than double by 2025, disproportionately affecting working-age people’. That means over 70 million people. Isn’t that scary?

Diabesity, which is a combination of Diabetes and Obesity, is even worse! Can you picture it? Obesity is a key risk factor for diabetes. India has the world’s largest number of people with Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) and Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG), which are the precursors for diabetes. Obesity and IGT are mostly found in younger populations.

Major Causes Leading to Diabesity

Globalization: facilitates access to various pre-packaged and processed foods. In fact, there is minimal physical activity as we have one touch access to almost everything! Surely, we are growing economically but at the cost of our health.
Nutrition Transition: There is a major shift observed in the meal patterns of Indians today. People are turning more towards western foods, foods that are pre-packaged, ready to eat foods, high in calories, sugar, aerated drinks, hydrogenated fats over the simple traditional food which are high in vitamins, minerals, fiber and other essential nutrients.
Higher Percentage of Abdominal Fat: Abdominal obesity is the key factor of insulin resistance and development of diabetes.
Malnutrition During Pregnancy: Because of the co-existence of underweight and overweight, children are often born underweight and adapted to a low-nutrition environment. Low-birth weight infants are more susceptible than those of normal birth weight to obesity and diabetes, especially when raised in an Obesogenic environment.
Lifestyle: Most people today lead sedentary lifestyles devoid of much movement. Even at work we’re glued to our desks and laptops. This accounts to minimal physical activity. At the same time, the stress factor is the maximum with respect to targets/goals associated with work, family and social circles.

How To Keep It At Bay

Keeping Diabesity at bay actually involves 3 very simple and basic lifestyle modifications:

Make Healthy Food Choices: Choose whole grains and its products over refined ones. Incorporate more fruits and veggies daily. Opt for products less in sugars, fats and high in fiber. Make a habit of reading nutritional labels before buying a product. Do not forget “MODERATION IS THE KEY”.
Exercise: Make it a point to exercise on a regular basis. Exercising will not only keep you active but also help reduce insulin resistance, improve cardio vascular strength, tone your muscles, and increase Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Exercising releases endorphins which is a feel good hormone that will also help you relieve stress(both physical and mental).
Stress Management: Managing time and stress is essential to stop the release of the stress hormone Cortisol which makes you crave for foods that are high in carbs. All that you eat when stressed is stored in the body as fats, especially in the belly. Meditating regularly before going to bed, deep breathing during stressful moments, indulging in your hobbies, exercising, completing your work on time, etc. will help curb stress levels. It is not a single factor that would work but both.

If you want to learn about effective ways to manage obesity and diabetes, or want effective exercises to combat both, tune into GOQii Play and get live coaching from renowned experts you can even interact with.

We hope this article on Diabesity alarms you enough to make necessary lifestyle modifications before its too late! Stay healthy and #BeTheForce!