GOQii

Blog

By Leave a Comment

Foods to Boost Memory Power

Memory Boosting Foods

If you have grandparents, you may be familiar with instances of them forgetting to take their medicines or forgetting names. This is due to weak memory power. Ever wondered why their memory is so weak? How can one boost memory power? Let’s understand this better!

What is Memory Power? Why is it Necessary to Boost it?

Memory power is the capacity of the brain to remember things. You can remember things for a short period of time or a long period of time depending on the importance of the information. Your brain decides what needs to be saved as a memory depending on the intensity of the matter.

From the above example of grandparents, weak memory happens due to decreased blood flow to the brain. Hormones and proteins protecting brain cells decrease with age, leading to reduced cognitive skills and memory power which result in forgetfulness.

Individuals who work long and hard for a presentation often tend to forget key points. This may happen due to the anxiety and stress which affects the nervous system. The nervous system plays an important role in memory. You may have noticed that when we try to rush, we often forget things such as a snack or a water bottle.

The best way to overcome this lapse in memory is to improve the blood flow to the brain. A few lifestyle changes and focus on certain food and boost memory power.

Lifestyle Changes to Consider

Lifestyle plays a major role when it comes to maintaining bodily functions such as gaining or losing weight, disease management and intelligence as well!

  1. Healthy Weight: Being overweight impairs bodily functions. This includes the brain. It causes neurodegenerative diseases like Dementia, Alzheimer’s and may also shrink the brain’s size. Maintaining a healthier body weight by decreasing the body fat percentage and improving muscle mass can help prevent cognitive problems.
  2. Physical Activity: Doing some form of physical activity improves blood flow to all the organs including the brain. It also improves the amount of oxygen delivered to the brain. You must exercise daily, be it walking, jogging, swimming or any kind of sports at least for 30-40 mins a day. Yoga and meditation can also be included as they heal your brain by improving oxygen levels.
  3. Proper Sleep: Sleep is a phenomenon which is often neglected despite the fact that it has a greater impact on one’s health! A lot of psychological changes happen when an individual is asleep. Lack of sleep can affect memory formation. A peaceful 6-7 hours of sleep can boost your memory power and a powerful day nap of 30-40 mins can also help sharpen your memory.
  4. Stress & Depression: These conditions can damage brain cells and cause memory loss. Reduce stress by laughing. Laughing engages multiple regions of the brain and also reduces stress and improves memory power!

Foods to Boost Memory Power

Nourishing yourself is the best way to improve your IQ level or memory power. To maintain brain health, avoid sugary drinks, refined carbs and unhealthy fats. Opt for nourishing and well-balanced meals.

  1. Turmeric: Curcumin is the active compound found in turmeric. It has several health benefits. It protects the brain, reduces brain inflammation and boosts memory power by removing plaques. 2 gram of freshly grounded turmeric is recommended.
  2. Blueberries: Due to its unique antioxidant properties, Blueberries help in boosting memory power. This is done by reducing the oxidative stress on neural tissues which improve brain functioning. Add them to your breakfast cereal or munch on them as a snack. You can even add them to your milkshakes, smoothies or salads!
  3. Dark Chocolate: It contains compound flavonoids which improve blood flow to the brain and help in learning and improving intelligence.
  4. Fish: Fishes such as salmon, tuna and mackerel are all good sources of Omega 3 fatty acid which help in improving blood flow to the brain. They make you smarter.
  5. Nuts & Seeds: Nuts, especially like miniature brain shaped walnuts and seeds like pumpkin seeds are filled with healthier fats which improve brain functioning. Pumpkin seeds are loaded with zinc, magnesium and iron, the absence of which may make your brain stop functioning.

We hope this article helps you improve your brain function and make you smarter! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

If you found this article useful and would like to read more, click here. For more tips on improving brain function with exercise, nutrition, sleep and stress management, speak to an expert by subscribing for GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

By 5 Comments

What Alkaline Water Does To Your Body!


A few days back, I was at a store. I came across water filters that claimed they increase energy and regulate the body’s pH level. It tempted me. To add something more healthy to my regimen, I purchased an expensive filter without knowing what I was really buying. Now that I have read up a little on Alkaline Water, I want to share my thoughts on it.

First, let’s understand what Alkaline Water is and how different it is from regular water. Certainly, it boils down to the pH levels. Liquids with a pH closer to 0 are very acidic while liquids with a pH close to 14 are very alkaline. Pure water is neutral and has a pH of 7.0 whereas Alkaline Water has a pH between 7-9.5.

In today’s fast paced world, our gastric acid levels have increased. Due to our dependence on processed foods, artificial additives, refined sugar, increasing stress levels and reduced physical activity, there’s an imbalance in the acid and alkaline environment in our body. So we are moving towards quick fixes like alkaline water.

Advantages Of Alkaline Water

  • The most important health benefit of alkaline water is to fight acid reflux, which is a common health concern these days
  • It makes us feel more energetic as our body is able to absorb it more quickly
  • Healthier gut, as higher pH water protects us from dangerous microorganisms due to its negative oxidation-reduction potential (ORP).
  • Provides antioxidants
  • Protection from contaminated water

Disadvantages Of Alkaline Water

  • Digestive malfunction – drinking alkaline water can cause steep changes in the levels of pH and can hinder the digestion process
  • Can cause a condition called hypochlorhydria, that is the reduced absorption of calcium in our body
  • Presence of too many ions in the body can result in acute dehydration at the cellular level
  • Exert pressure on the kidney to bring the pH level to ideal

Artificial Alkaline Water

Lot of water ionizers are available in the market these days. In essence, what they do is split the water molecules with electricity to create alkaline water. We get them in the form of water filters or filter bottles.

All water found in nature has a pH that perfectly corresponds to the minerals in water. When we drink alkaline water, our body assumes it is receiving alkaline minerals like calcium and magnesium. The problem with ionized water is that the body thinks it is receiving more alkaline minerals than what are actually present in the water.

Before the body is stressed by the artificial alkalinity, the first 30 days might make you feel better due to the presence of antioxidants and hydration. Other side effects can be erratic heart behavior, hypertension, UTI, infections etc.

It is also advised that if we are drinking ionized water or artificially alkaline water, we should measure our bodies pH daily and regulate the consumption accordingly.

Few Interesting Facts About Our Body’s pH

  • Our body regulates blood pH in a very narrow range because all the enzymes are designed to work at pH 7.4. If the pH varies too much it will not be able to function
  • We cannot change the pH of our blood but our diet does affect the pH of our urine. Normally urine is at pH 6, which is acidic but normal and shows our kidney is working fine
  • The pH of the stomach acid or gastric acid is 1.5 – 3.5 which is required for the proper digestion of our food . Alkaline ions might cancel the acid and neutralize it
  • It is the job of the lungs, liver and kidney to maintain a normal pH of our body
  • The most common minerals found in water are calcium, potassium, copper, manganese, magnesium and iron. According to World Health Organisation(WHO), water contributes to 1-20% of the dietary intake of some trace minerals

How to Make Your Body Alkaline Naturally

  • Start your day with a glass of lemon water
  • Add a tsp of natural baking soda to water and drink it the first thing in the morning.  It helps neutralise stomach acids and provides relief from indigestion in adults
  • Add some cucumber slices to water to make it alkaline
  • Store water in a copper vessel and drink it in the morning
  • Drink cumin water or cumin tea. Cumin water generally stimulates the secretion of digestive enzymes and accelerates the digestion process, thus helping you fight gut issues
  • Vegetable juice will not only make your body alkaline but add various nutrients to your diet too
  • Start your day with a glass of water with 1-2 tbsp of Aloe Vera juice added to it. Aloe Vera juice alkalizes the body, balancing overly acidic dietary habits
  • Drink natural coconut water. The pH acidic level in the body turns alkaline when you drink coconut water and that’s why it’s good for acidity
  • Add more fruits and vegetables in your diet. According to the Institute of medicine 20% of water comes from food sources

Naturally occurring alkaline water is undoubtedly good for health but what we get in the present times is water that is artificially made alkaline. If our goal is to be healthy, why would we drink or eat anything artificial?

If you found this article helpful, let us know in the comments below. To explore more, click here. You can also get this information directly from a GOQii Coach. All you need to do is subscribe for Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

By 6 Comments

Tips to Help You Sleep Better!

sleep better

Sleep! You might have already read so many articles about this especially when you’ve not been getting quality sleep. Before we go deeper into how you can sleep better, let us first understand how we define sleep! As per the world’s sleep research, William Dement (Author of promise of sleep) defines sleep as the ‘Moment when the brain starts producing theta waves’.  

Too technical! What exactly are theta waves? I don’t want to get too technical, so I will talk about medical jargon in the most simplest way possible.

The Brain Produces ‘Waves’ All The Time!

While you are awake (concentrating), your brain produces beta waves. When you are daydreaming, relaxing or lying around, your brain produces alpha waves. While your body is in the transition from relaxing to sleeping, that’s when your brain starts producing theta waves. When your body is in deep sleep, your body produces delta waves. sleep better

During this period, your body starts producing growth hormones. I always tell this to my patients. Your body undergoes repairs when you enter deep sleep which is very crucial for overall well being. When I was learning more about sleep, the one question that often came to mind was, “How and when do we get dreams?”

After theta waves, there is one interesting thing which happens. It is called as REM Sleep or Rapid Eye Movement Sleep. This is when your eyes are moving with closed eyelids. You might be dreaming but you will not remember your dreams completely the next day. According to me, these are just basic things about sleep which everyone should be aware of (and with good reason).

Do you ever get a feeling of waking up tired after sleeping for almost 9 hours? When I ask this question to my patients, they say, “I am tired all the time!” This is called as Sleep Deprivation.

How Do You Know That You Are Sleep Deprived?

I read a lot! One of the books that I read on sleep is the Promise of Sleep. The book spoke about a very cool way of figuring out if we are sleep deprived or not. Check out the steps below:

  • Go to bed with a spoon in your hand
  • Your hand should be in a position where the spoon is over the floor and not over the bed
  • Note the time when you plan to sleep
  • As soon as you fall asleep, your hand muscles will relax. Once this happens, the spoon will fall on the floor and the noise will wake you up.
  • Note the time when you wake up. That’s your own sleep latency.

There are many other sleep tests which are done as well to figure sleep deprivation out.

Now that we understand what happens when we sleep,

Follow These Tips to Sleep Better

As always, we go back to our basics: Sleep Hygiene

  • Restrict Tea/Coffee/Green Tea and other caffeinated drinks. Caffeine circulates in the system for at least 7.5 hours. Taking caffeinated drinks close to bedtime can mess your sleep schedule.
  • Make sure you create a sunset kind of environment post sunset with yellow dim lights so your body realizes that it’s the time for you to relax, rest and sleep. Same thing goes for the gadgets! Blue light from your devices block the sleep hormone production. If you have long screen hours, try using blue blocking glasses post sunset.
  • Make sure that your room temperature is around 19-20. Usually, our body temperature tends to fall when we sleep. This will help you in maintaining an ideal body temperature when you wake up.
  • Try to avoid exercising, watching exciting/horror movies which will keep your mind active for a long period of time.

Apart from the basics,

Try the Sleep Restriction State Method

  • If you think you sleep 4 hours per night, then sleep for 4 hours only
  • Go to bed at 1 AM and set your alarm clock for 6AM. You’re not allowed to go to bed earlier than 1AM, or wake up later than 6AM.
  • You will be tired the following day. Extremely tired! That’s a good thing. You will be wondering, what is good in being tired but this will drive you to sleep earlier the next day
  • The next day, you add ½ hour to the sleep time. You go to bed at 12:30AM instead of 1 AM and wake up at 6AM.
  • Keep increasing your sleep window by ½ hour per day till you feel the sleep debt is paid off.

Why are we doing this? It’s because during this time of the sleep window, you won’t be allowed to use stimulants to keep yourself up. No coffee or any kind of caffeinated beverages. We are doing this so that your body starts building up the fatigue, drowsiness and eventually you will end up sleeping. This will help in recovering your sleep debt.

Sometimes, stiff neck muscles will decrease the blood supply to the brain, which results into fragmented sleep. Getting a physio evaluation for the same will also help in improving sleep quality.

We hope these tips help you sleep better! Do type your thoughts and queries in the comments below!

To read more on sleep, check out Healthy Reads. To get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach, subscribe for personalised health coaching here.

#BeTheForce

By Leave a Comment

The Link Between Sugar and Child Behavior

The Link Between Sugar and Child BehaviorIs sugar and child behavior connected? Before we delve into that, we need to understand that a perfect balanced diet of carbs, proteins, essential fats, vitamins and minerals is important during the growing age of the child. It is an ongoing research on whether food intake is really linked to a child’s behavior and mood. Below are the effects of healthy and unhealthy eating habits on the mood and behavior of a child.

Healthy Eating Habits (Includes a balanced diet)

  • Better concentration
  • Improved learning skills
  • High grasping power
  • Socially active in making friends, prefers to play in groups
 Unhealthy Eating Habits (Includes consumption of sugary food, preservative containing food, food colouring foods)

  • Lack of concentration in any given task
  • Hyperactive
  • Mood swings
  • Nutritional Deficiencies

We tend to correlate the word ‘kids’ with chocolates, ice creams, candies and cakes, etc.. The basic ingredient in these items is sugar!

Sugar and Child Behavior in Relation to Nutrition

Sugars are simple carbohydrates that easily get absorbed in blood glucose. Sugar is an empty calorie food i.e it has no nutrients and provides only energy.

Sugars have various forms like white sugar, brown sugar, honey and corn syrup. It’s a myth that jaggery, honey and brown sugar are better off than white sugar. Calories coming from them are same. The only difference is that white sugar is absorbed faster in the bloodstream than other sources.

Fruits naturally contain fructose with fiber which makes you feel fuller and are rich in water content, vitamins and minerals. On the other hand, colas or sugar candies contains only fructose syrup which disrupts the brain signal of being full and the child feels hungry again

Hidden Sugars in Food

Hidden Sugar means that the packet of food doesn’t show the word sugar on the ingredient list but still contains sugar labelled as other names such as dextrose, dextrin, corn syrup, or barley malt.

When consumed more than the required amounts and on a daily basis, sugar affects various parts of the body and mind:

  • Teeth (Tooth Cavities): Bacteria live on sugar medium. When kids don’t brush well or don’t drink water after eating, bacteria tends to overgrow, which in turn leads to cavities and tooth decay.
  • Brain: Impaired ability to memorise things, as the brain doesn’t get the right amount of nutrients to function.
  • Behavior: Sugar numbs the neurons in the brain, shortens a child’s attention span and makes them hyperactive.
  • Immunity: Constant bouts of cold and cough makes it difficult to sleep at night.
  • Metabolism: A child is at a higher risk of being obese and developing long term diseases like Diabetes.
  • Hormonal: Being in the growing stage, they are more prone to hormonal issues like acne, early onset of puberty, dandruff, skin issues, impaired growth.
  • Worms: Thread worms are caused due to bacteria thrive on sugar if the intake is high.

How to Minimize Sugar Dependence

  • As parents, we need to change our attitude of rewarding kids with sugar-rich foods every time they complete a task or behave well.
  • Fix up a Treat day like once a week or fortnightly wherein only on that day they can eat their favourite chocolate, cakes or candies
  • Substitute ready to drink fruit beverages with homemade smoothies or freshly prepared pulp fruit juice
  • Train them to choose healthy items like high fiber biscuits instead of cream-based biscuits
  • Prepare desserts at home with less sugar and store it. This way you minimize the chances of buying them from a shop
  • Be gradual and change one habit at a time. Don’t be adamant on changing the habits all at once.

How to Encourage Healthy Eating Habits

  • Make them learn all the food groups – vegetables, fruits, cereals, pulses, dairy. Either draw it on a paper or show them the real foods. Ask them to pick up the ones they want to eat for that particular day. This way, you can plan for 2-3 days in advance.
  • Usually, unhealthy eating habits make them vitamin and mineral deficient. So consult your doctor and start the appropriate supplements for it.
  • Prepare attractive snacking ideas in their tiffin boxes like a veggie stuffed roll, colourful sandwich, idlis made with spinach puree or tricolour idlis.
  • Remember the negative effects of unhealthy eating don’t show up immediately. It’s a long term consequence. But if the child’s health is compromised with headaches, asthma, cold/cough then the negative effects are seen in the short term.

Another important factor is being intolerant to certain food items like dairy products (casein) or gluten (wheat), which may make them aggressive, cranky and/or fussy. Common food allergens like soy, peanuts, corn and nuts also adversely affect the behaviour of the child in a negative way.

It is always better to read labels of food packets before purchasing. Be aware of what you and your kids are consuming. In case of doubts, do consult a doctor or nutritionist.

We hope this article on sugar and child behavior helps you make smarter nutritional choices for your children. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For more on Kid’s Health, click here. To get expert advice, speak to a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching.

#BeTheForce

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]