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SHEDDING LIGHT ON DEPRESSION

depression

Last year, when the famous Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone opened the lid on her struggle with anxiety and depression and admitted to the world that she was on medication for the same, it became the talk of the town. Everyone started discussing mental health, there were articles in Newspapers, TV channels interviewing the actress and asking her to tell her story. Padukone became an example for many to come out and discuss their issue without fear. Why so? Because depression and mental illness isn’t usually talked about. There is shame and stigma attached to talking about depression. Today, on world health day, I would like to share some insights into depression and what needs to be done when in that situation.

My first experience in dealing with depression was when I was still in Medical school. My very close friend from medical school went through depression. It was then I realized that one needs a lot of empathy and patience to understand what someone is going through in depression. The extreme low mood during depression is such a bad feeling that no one chooses to be depressed by choice …it’s either circumstances or medical conditions that push an individual into depression.

My friend had slipped into depression due to a heart break. The impact was so huge that he withdrew himself from studies, friends and family. He slept longer than usual 8 hours, ate less and experienced terrible mood swings. He refused to talk to anyone and eventually turned suicidal. It is at this point that we had to rush him to the psychiatry department of our college hospital.

The psychiatrist talked to my friend privately for 15 minutes and then to his parents and me privately for another 10 minutes. Then, called us all in and sat us down and explained to us that my friend was suffering from an episode of major depression and medication was a must.

None of us were comfortable that he needed medication to recover from depression but, as counseled by the doctor, avoiding medicines wasn’t an option as he was feeling suicidal. Fifteen days later he started feeling better by 10% and the counselor started weekly sessions with him on the recommendation of the Psychiatrist to expedite recovery. Thankfully my friend recovered completely to his normal self in 6 months’ time and medicines and counseling were discontinued.

It is said that one in every four people suffer from anxiety and depression. According to WHO (World Health Organization) 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression in a year. By the year 2020, it will be the second most common disorder after heart disease. The chemical changes occurring in the brain during depression is a reduction in the level of Serotonin, dopamine and nor adrenaline – these are neurotransmitters (Chemicals which are produced by brain cells).

SOME COMMON SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION:

  1. Loss of interest / pleasure in activities which were previously enjoyable.
  2. Decreased energy.
  3. Feelings of guilt and low self – worth.
  4. Disturbed sleep and appetite.
  5. Poor concentration.
  7. Substantial impairment in the person’s ability to handle his/her daily responsibilities.
  8. At its worst it can make the person suicidal.

All symptoms are mild in the beginning and gradually increase in intensity over time.

RISK FACTORS:

  1. Genetics – If you have an immediate family member who has experienced major depression, there is a likelihood that you will also have an episode in your lifetime.
  2. Financial hardships and low education levels.
  3. Female Gender – depression is two to three times more likely in women as compared to men. Depression setting in after delivery of child occurs in some cases.
  4. Chronic illnesses like diabetes, tuberculosis, arthritis.
  5. Exposure to violence / Abuse especially in childhood.
  6. Being separated / divorced especially for men.

MANAGING DEPRESSION:

It is important to recognize depression and take it seriously. Going to a psychiatrist is a must

Mild cases can improve with counseling and psychological therapy (depending on the cause of depression, the person is taught coping mechanisms). Severe cases need anti-depressants along with psychological therapy. Self help is equally essential.

Some self help tips:

  1. Create a daily routine and try to stick to it.
  2. Exercise releases endorphins in the brain which give a feeling of happiness, hence daily exercise is a must to recover and prevent depression.
  3. Try to eat a healthy and balanced diet daily.
  4. Openly communicate with family members and loved ones about what you are experiencing to foster relationships and get support.
  5. Avoid alcohol and recreational drugs as they worsen depression.
  6. Be patient with yourself. For someone with depression even the smallest tasks can seem impossible.

Depression is treatable and plenty of help is available to assist a person cope with it and get back to leading a normal and enjoyable life.

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Detoxification: Some do’s and don’ts for Detox Diet Day

Detox diet

Did you know….that As we breathe and live life, day- on today, we also accumulate toxins into our bodies?. That’s right…we are exposed to toxins on a fairly consistent basis. Some of these accumulate due to our diet and others are due to the environment around us. Of course, our lifestyle also adds to it—if you smoke or drink alcohol on a regular basis you tend to accumulate more toxins.

The good news is that your body has a means of processing and eliminating these toxins. Also, when you make healthy changes to your diet or lifestyle…you can help support or maybe even accelerate that process. When you make a healthy change in your diet or lifestyle, this is part of the reason that short-term detox diet plans have gained popularity.

If you should decide to embark on such a plan, it can be a powerful tool. There are, however, a few things to keep in mind. For example, toxins are released into the bloodstream and carried through the circulatory system before being eliminated from your body. This process may result in a headache, diarrhea, or constipation, or symptoms like lack of energy.

The benefits, though, are usually worth the discomfort. Detoxification is one way to cleanse and throw out the toxins out of our body. Interestingly, Linda Page (http://www.webmd.com/linda-page ) , ND, Ph.D., a Naturopathic doctor, lecturer and author of the book ‘Detoxification’ –defines detoxification of the body as “spring cleansing.”

“It’s a way to recharge, rejuvenate, and renew, says Page in her article in WebMD. “Anybody can benefit from a cleansing. The body is coming out of what might be called hibernation. It’s a way you can jump-start your body for a more active life, a healthier life.” “Our bodies naturally detoxify every day,” Page tells WebMD.

“Detoxification is a normal body process of eliminating or neutralizing toxins through the colon, liver.”

There are some nutrition experts who are reluctant to recommend detox diets, so it’s important to be informed. Katerine Zeratsky, specialty editor for the nutrition and healthy eating guide, for example, argues that it may just be because detox diets get rid of a lot of processed foods – which has the effect of making us feel better. And either way, she advises getting the OK from your doctor – especially if you have chronic conditions.

If you decide to move forward, there are several ways to detoxify. There is a “water only” fast (which is pretty straightforward). Interestingly, there has been some evidence to suggest fasting in this way may even help trigger stem cell regeneration (Link: https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old- immune-system/), diet detoxification (adding in food) is another, gentler, strategy. But it’s a bit more involved.

 

One of the hardest things about detox or cleansing is really knowing what to do and what not to do. One can undergo a Detox day or ten-day detox. The duration and severity of symptoms depend on your lifestyle before making a change and how quickly you make it.

Here are few do’s and don’ts to go on a ‘Detox Diet Day’. The basic key is to think and feel positive and treat yourself with some foods every 2 hours. You would definitely feel lighter the next day. More specifically:

  1. You can go for a ‘detox day’ once in a week or once in a fortnight. Either way, you want to be sure you don’t go longer than 2 consecutive days.
  2. When you engage in a detox plan, you are limited to fruits, or homemade fruit/vegetable juices.
  3. You can have Sautéed/stir fried vegetables or green leafy vegetables in cooked form. You can have boiled vegetables as well.
  4. Minimize your cereals intake. If you want to have you can have one serving of fibrous cereals like broken wheat (Daliya in Hindi) or one millet flat bread (chapatti) in a day.
  5. No coffee. No caffeinated tea. You can have green tea if you wish, along with some herbal teas..
  6. No processed food, No sugar. You can have jaggery in small quantities
  7. Your meals should be vegetarian.
  8. You can make soup out of your favorite vegetables and season it with Extra Virgin Cold Pressed Coconut oil. Better to use this oil in all your preparations like salads/soups/stir-frying
  9. You can have sprouts to feel full
  10. No milk allowed on a detox day

Make sure that before you go on a detox day, you check with you coach, nutritionist or a doctor about doing it. Once you get the go- ahead, then you can begin. Once you are successful in following all instructions and doing the right things, you will probably also notice that each time you do an effective detoxification, the next time is even easier as you have fewer toxins to process.

And if you’re feeling overwhelmed…take heart. As a health coach, I am personally here to, personally help you get the best results from this valuable health tool.

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Why eating too healthy is dangerous for your health

Fruit diets, fruit juice diets, banana and milk diets, high protein diets, chia seed infused water, salads, Vegan food, sugarless snacks, low-fat foods, organic foods, fortified foods, innumerable ranges of organic vitamins, supplements etc……

We have it all….We also have more obesity, more cancer, more diabetes, more depression, more mental decay, more medication, more vitamin deficiencies, more time spent with doctors and in hospitals.

In our endeavor to get healthy, we may actually be doing more harm than good, if we don’t understand the physiology of the human body and mind. Too much of a good thing is bad…..even food… Yes, fruits are extremely nutrient dense foods but, it does not mean we constantly eat them.
Protein is needed, it’s good for repair, tone, muscle, recovery but, it does not mean we need more and more of it.

Many fats may be bad, but it does not mean we stop eating fat completely. It’s a very common belief that to be healthy, we need to eat more and more healthy foods.

Pure Ghee on a fresh hot wheat roti? What’s’ worse, the ghee or the roti?

Most people say that Ghee, is a fat and fat causes cholesterol and high cholesterol causes heart attacks… which really isn’t’ the case in most people who have cardiac arrests or strokes. There are many other reasons. I would worry about the roti, the wheat, where has the wheat come from, is it GMO? How processed is it?

Our beliefs about healthy foods need to be balanced with the understanding of what our body really needs and how our body assimilates nutrients from the food we eat.

A fruit diet is not going to do anything but cleansing……

Too much protein intake is going to do more harm than just repair or muscle build. This is when good food turns bad. When we have too much of even a good thing, it ceases to be good, and can in fact cause harm. There is absolutely no doubt that fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals and all things good, and that they also contain fibre, which prevents constipation and other gastric problems. But, too much fibre (for instance, when you eat platefuls of raw green leafy vegetables or salads like radish day in and out) can mess things up – big time. Excess fibre often causes bloating, abdominal cramps and gas right away.

In the long term, it can interfere with the absorption of minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, causing some serious deficiencies. Fruits also contain natural sugars, no harm in that but, too much is bad…your body only uses what it needs, the rest gets stored as fat or becomes waste and all waste is waste, whether it’s a fruit or a samosa. Waste is toxic.

Insane workouts or working out too much, I have a question for you, is it really working? are you really getting the desired body you have in mind? Or are you using exercise as a way of punishing your body because you ate too much?

It just doesn’t work, your body has a life, so does your bones, your muscles and joints and over exercising will decrease your bone density, deplete vitamins from your body , raise cortisol levels, decrease immunity and leave you with ‘STUBBORN BELLY FAT AND LOVE HANDLES’…

The body needs not more than 30 minutes of smart exercise to stay health and if your fat and you are trying to lose weight, more exercise DOES NOT mean more exercise…it means looking smartly at your food choices, your alcohol intake, your sleep, your stress levels, your sugar and the consistency of your exercise program.

Does your choice of exercise suit your body or are you just following the latest fad ?

The body needs protein to repair and build muscle, but eating excessive amounts won’t do the job better. In fact, in a diet where the protein intake goes beyond 30 per cent of the daily caloric intake, a build-up of toxic ketones in the body may occur, causing the kidneys to go into overdrive in an attempt to flush them out. This may lead to a significant loss of water and calcium from the body, causing dehydration and bone loss.

Symptoms include a feeling of weakness and dizziness, dry skin, loss of hair, low appetite, nausea and bad breath. In the long term, this may strain the kidneys, stretch out the liver and put stress on your heart too.

Weight loss efforts go bust too, as excess protein is converted into fat. Another problem is that while making protein into carbs or fat, the body converts the protein’s nitrogen into urea or uric acid. In large amounts, this can mess up your kidneys, lead to gout (a condition that causes your joints to become inflamed, tender and painful to move) and cause gallstones and kidney stones.”

Be super careful with protein shakes and bars. The body can process only about four to five grams of protein per hour, so the 50 grams you got from that protein bar or shake will take about 10 hours to digest and absorb. Also, when you replace your meals with protein shakes, you run the risk of missing the vitamins and nutrients you get from real food.

The Japanese eat soya and stay healthy and live longer. It is high in protein and has zero cholesterol. So what could be wrong with that?

That’s true, but, what is also true is that most Japanese eat only about 8 to 10g of soy protein a day, and even soya causes problems when eaten in excess. If overeaten, it may promote cancer, dementia, reproductive abnormalities, and osteoporosis and thyroid disorders. Increased consumption could also increase a woman’s total estrogen level, which is a risk factor for breast cancer.

For men, excessive soya can raise the risk of infertility, physical changes, and hormonal havoc.

The body will only use what it needs…anything in excess becomes fat or waste and both are detrimental to your mind-body health.

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Here is your guide to Nut allergy: Dos and don’t’s

Nuts! Oh…they sure can cause trouble if you are allergic to them and growing number of adults and kids alike are allergic to them. I became more attentive to it when my 3 year old daughter experienced it. The doctor identified the red rashes all over her body, as an allergic reaction to some food.

The doctor asked me to cut down on 8 foods namely eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shell fish, wheat and soy which accounts for about 90% of all the reactions.

So what type of food allergies are we talking about? It could be peanuts for one or tree nuts. (Almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashew).

Nut allergy is one of the most common types of food allergy in both children and adults. This allergy tends to last an entire lifetime, although about nine percent of children with a tree nut allergy and 20 percent of children with a peanut allergy eventually outgrow their allergy. On stopping the consumption of peanuts, the rashes never turned up, thus confirmed the nut allergy in case of my daughter.

The first thing that comes to one’s mind about having an allergy is, you picture non-stop sneezing, running nose etc. But, unlike an allergic dust or spring flower that many have, a nut allergy can cause difficulty in breathing and other serious issues including skin rashes etc.   And could prove fatal at times.

Before we proceed towards, the symptoms, precautionary measures to take and substitutes, let’s quickly check out what exactly is a food allergy.

What is food allergy?

It is very important to know what food allergy is. People are seldom aware that one could be allergic to some food and that dust and flower allergies are not the only allergies that people may have.

The job of our body’s immune system is to identify and destroy the germs (such as bacteria or viruses) that make you sick. A food allergy occurs when this immune system wrongly identifies a harmless food as an allergen i.e a threat and attacks it.

When you come into contact with something that you are allergic to (an allergen), a group of cells in your body, called mast cells, release a substance called histamine. Histamine causes the tiny blood vessels in the tissues of your body to leak fluid which causes the tissues to swell. This results in a number of different symptoms.

The Symptoms may vary for person to person. Here is a list for you to go through. Basically the symptoms are divided into two categories-:

  1. Mild symptoms which can be cured by medication

Rashes, swelling of the extremities, redness and tenderness, hivesm nausea, stomach cramps, vomitting, diarrheo and breathing difficulty.

Quick action: Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or loratidine (Claritin) can help relieve rashes and hives. Cold, wet compresses can also help soothe irritated skin.

  1. Anaphylaxis: Life threatening

Constriction and tightening of airways, a swollen throat or the sensation of a lump in your throat that makes it difficult to breathe, Shock with a severe drop in blood pressure, Rapid pulse, Dizziness, lightheadedness or loss of consciousness

Quick Action: Emergency treatment is critical for anaphylaxis. Untreated, anaphylaxis can cause a coma or even death.

KEEP YOURSELF ALERT !!

A person with an allergy to one type of tree nut has a higher chance of being allergic to other types. Therefore, many experts advise patients with allergy to tree nuts to avoid all nuts. Here are few precautionary actions to need to take care of:

  1. Avoid peanuts and tree nuts. This means we also need to avoid foods containing them like cookies, candies, ice creams, yogurts, sauces, Thai, Chinese and Indian dishes that often contain peanut and tree nut. One can have these without the nuts in them.
  2. Read labels while you purchase foods from market. Keep at bay all the food products which say “may contain nuts” or “produced on shared equipment with nuts or peanuts”
  3. Be very cautious in the kitchen while using the equipments. Knife, spoon or any vessel in which peanut or nut food preparation was used should be properly washed before using it again.
  4. Inform about your allergy to everyone with whom you enjoy your food like your family, friends and colleagues so that they are careful while serving you food. When you visit a restaurant, be very careful to check the ingredient list or ask the manager about the foods served. Don’t feel shy and if they are not willing to share, better opt for some other restaurant. (Abroad restaurant menus do specify dishes that have nuts and warn anyone with nut allergy. But, in India we do have to ask and let the person know about your allergies)
  5. Keep rescue medicines on you at all times — not in your locker, but in a pocket, purse, or bag that’s with you.
  6. If your child is suffering from nuts allergy, inform this in their school.

Take care of your loved ones, by being extra careful of what they are eating. Make them happy by suggesting these alternatives such as sunflower seed butter or soy nut butter, hummus and nut free granola bars over peanuts and tree nuts.

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