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November 17, 2023 By Dhwani Bagadia Leave a Comment

How to Heal a Leaky Gut

In the previous article, we addressed the symptoms and causes of a Leaky Gut. If you have been experiencing any of the symptoms, here’s what you can do to heal your gut!

Ways to Heal a Leaky Gut

One of the best ways to heal a Leaky Gut is to consume a healthy, well-balanced diet with optimum nutrition. The process includes:

Remove: Excluding the toxic and inflammatory foods as it causes the gut to become leaky and adding good and healthy nutrients that will result in healing the gut. Remove products which affect the environment of the gut negatively.
Replace: For appropriate digestion and absorption, including important healthy nutrients for proper break-down and absorption of the nutrients i.e. digestive enzymes, HCL (Hydrochloric Acid) and bile acids.
Reinoculate: It is quite difficult to restore the important bacteria to improve the good gut bacteria.
Repair: It is important to provide essential nutrients for the gut to be restored. To revive the lining of the gut wall it is important to consume L-Glutamine supplement.

Necessary Dietary Modifications

Listed below are a few ways in which you can heal a leaky gut, improve gut health as well as good gut bacteria.

Reduce the Intake of Refined Carbohydrates: Harmful Bacteria grow more when there is an excess intake of sugar and can harm the gut barrier function. Avoid unhealthy, processed, junk and fried foods.
Include Probiotic Supplements: This helps improve the beneficial gut bacteria. Probiotics include curd, buttermilk, and probiotic supplements.
Eat Fermented Foods: Fermented foods such as yogurt, kimchi, saukerkraut, kefir and kombucha, help improve gut bacteria.
Include Plenty of High Fiber Foods: This includes fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole-grains that feed the beneficial bacteria.
Reduce the intake of alcohol and Quit Smoking
Avoid or reduce stress

Common Questions Asked

How long does it take to heal a Leaky Gut?
To get an idea about this question, we need to go down to the cellular level. 300 square meters is the surface area of the gut. The enterocytes are the lining cells of the gut that keep reviving/restoring in a gut which is normal and healthy. A new lining of the gut is seen every two to three weeks. For those individuals who do not have any medical disease or conditions, studies prove that that gut-healing might take around 2-12 weeks (higher range may-be for those who have other medical conditions).

In another study by Harvard published in the Medical Journal Nature, states that those who are keen on healing their gut majorly have an underlying cause as an issue will take a longer time to heal by making it more complex and slow i.e. like a journey.

In-case whenever you decide to change your time in terms of diet and lifestyle, that restores the gut functioning, skin gets clearer, energy increases, bloating reduces, loss of weight, betterment in the conditions like eczema, asthma, allergies, migraine, depression, eagerness/anxiety, auto-immune disease and much more. This again varies depending on several factors/causes.

How do I know my Gut is repaired?
There are a few signs which indicate that the gut is fully repaired. Firstly, you’d want to check whether your gut has healed completely or not. This can be analysed via the symptoms that you experience. Below are a few points which should help you analyse:

Digestive Issues, food sensitivity vanish/fade away along with skin issues
Auto-immunity lab markers improve, returning to optimal self (quality of life improves)
Your energy and stamina return
Improved mood
You came back to proper weight.

You can also check it through a spectrum, with one side being no inflammation & healthy balanced gut with no symptoms and other end being leaky gut with several symptoms.

Even if the gut is repaired, it could have its draw-backs where you need to work to get back to normal health. Be calm and firm on following your gut-healthy protocol. It will not only help you get your health back on track but it will improve your quality of life as well!

We hope this article helps you make the necessary changes and heal. Do share it and leave your thoughts in the comments below. You can find more articles like this on Gut Health here. If you want expert advice or further guidance on improving digestive or gut health, speak to a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

November 16, 2023 By Poornima Seth 1 Comment

The Miraculous Health Benefits Of Horse Gram

Horse gram, also known as Kulthi Dal, is neither unique nor ordinary. It is lesser-known and most still don’t recognize this precious ingredient. Its medicinal effects are enormous. It doesn’t play an important role in any cuisine but it can make any cuisine healthier and might enhance the nutritional value once it is fully adopted by any regional cuisine.

Medicinal Uses of Horse Gram

Anti Hyperglycemic: Horse gram seed possesses antihyperglycemic properties which control the glucose level in the blood. It lessens the absorption of carbohydrates and has copious amounts of soluble fiber.
Hemolytic Activity: The seeds make anti-inflammatory drugs that efficiently neutralize indirect hemolytic activity.
Diuretic activity: Kulthi Dal increases the flow of urine. It creates pressure on the deposited stone and thanks to this pressure, the stone comes down and gets removed through urination. One of the studies published in the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India in 2010 compared the effect of Kultha and potassium citrate on 47 patients with renal stones. It has been concluded that Kultha is often used to reduce the recurrence of calcium oxalate stone and had better results than the utilization of conventional potassium citrate.
Treats Jaundice: Horse gram water is being used in Andhra Pradesh for the treatment of Jaundice.
Relieves Cough and Cold: When consumed as soup, it helps relieve congestion by liquifying mucus and opens up the nasal tracts, allowing the mucus membranes to melt-up. Thus, horse gram water has been found effective in relieving cough and cold. This helps with easy breathing since the specified nutrients are boosting the metabolism of the body and immunity as well.
Helps Weight Loss: Consuming this miraculous gram helps reduce body weight. Also, if we add powdered horse gram with sour buttermilk and apply it to the fat deposited area, it helps to cut back the fat.
Treats Leucorrhea: Kulth is also used as a treatment for leucorrhoea (discharge from the vagina) and menstrual disorders in the hilly regions. According to Ayurveda, if we soak a handful of these overnight in a bowl of water, and boil it the subsequent day and use this water for consumption thrice daily, it will help treat the symptoms of leucorrhea. Being rich in iron, proteins, and calcium, is really good for kids too.
Treats Piles: Piles happen when the veins in the rectum swell up and get inflamed, causing a lot of pain. Despite rushing to the pharmacy for medication and treatment, experts recommend the utilization of horse gram. Soak a cup of these overnight and consume the water the next day. Eat the gram steamed as a salad as well. The roughage in it, together with the fibre, helps treat piles effectively.
Rich source of various natural bioactive substances: such as phytic acid, fibre and phenolic acid, etc. These bioactive substances have immense potential for curing different types of diseases such as cold, streptococcal sore throat, fever, urinary stones, asthma, bronchitis and leucoderma, etc.
Skin Rashes and Boils: Horse gram can also be used as a topical pack to treat rashes, boils, and disorders of the skin to some extent. This is because it is antimicrobial and antibacterial, and has plenty of antioxidants in it in conjunction with minerals to nourish, replicate the healthy lipid layers of the skin and more.

Best Recipes

Kulthi Water: It is a lengthy process but truly natural without any side effects. Soak 25 grams in 250 ml of water overnight and in the morning, strain the water and drink this water on an empty stomach. Later, add the same amount of water in the same soaked horse gram and drink it for lunch. Continuing this process for 6 months will help break kidney stones. Later on, you’ll make thin dal of this soaked horse gram and can be consumed along with rice or roti.
Kulthi soup: Take 200 grams of kulthi dal with 2 liters of water and boil it on a slow flame for around 4-5 hours. When it’s reduced to half, consume it for lunchtime. Try having this soup alone at that time. Within a week or two, it will start working.

That’s a lot of nutritional and health benefits, don’t you think? Go get your horse grams now! We hope this article helps you. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below! For more on nutrition and food, check out Healthy Reads or speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

November 15, 2023 By Srini Leave a Comment

Breathing – A Forgotten Art

We eat 3-4 times a day, about 1.5kg of food, but we breathe 20,000 to 25,000 times a day – we intake about 20-25kg of air – We are not fully knowledgeable on breathing. Since it is an autonomous process, we do not – My research with Sleep naturally took me to research about “Breathing” and what I found out, woke me up (pun intended) and I decided to continue my blogs on Breathing.

3 external physical objects are consumed by us regularly. Life critically depends on them. Food, Water and Air. Food and Water can be paused through fasting for some time. But breathing cannot be paused beyond 10 minutes. Life will cease.

Only Free Divers can hold their breath for a maximum time of 10 minutes. We cannot and should not. Unlike eating food or drinking water, which are conscious activities, breathing is an autonomous process. It is controlled by the medulla oblongata, a part of the brain stem.

However, Both Indian and Chinese ancient wisdom has clearly found out that “Conscious Breathing” is the only process which can be used by human action to influence the brain functions and hence, the mind.

As evolving human beings, we have forgotten what is the natural and correct way of breathing.

Our modern lifestyle has robbed us of natural breathing. We have got to relearn

Correct Breathing
Conscious Breathing

Unfortunately, there is little or no focus on breathing from modern medical science.

Other than just asking you to breathe deep while checking heart/lung function using the stethoscope, I am not aware of any doctor visually observing or inquiring about how the patient is breathing!

My research into sleep took me naturally to breathing. So, I read James Nestor, the author of a recent bestseller on “Breath, the New Science of a Last Art”, Anders Olsson on “Conscious Breathing” and Wim Hof about the Wim Hof Method of breathing.

I acknowledge the above authors in taking up the cause of breathing and explaining lucidly about the science behind breathing, the anatomy concerning breathing and some breathing techniques which have given me massive improvement in my health and attitude to life over the past few months.

Correct Breathing

First let us learn about Correct Breathing and then I will talk about Conscious Breathing. So, what exactly is incorrect about breathing? All 3 aspects:

Breathing through the Nose
Using Abdomen and Diaphragm for breathing
Breathing Rhythmically and Slowly

Breathing through the Nose:
I wonder why I even should talk about this. Is this such a big thing? Then I really started observing the world around me – Shocking when I observed that my wife was breathing through her mouth during sleep (how I worked on it and corrected is a separate story).

We believe that it is ok to breathe through the mouth – this is as correct as eating through your nose! Nose is created to be the sole instrument of breathing! Period. Google it or look around when people are sleeping. Surveys and research says that at least 50% of people are breathing through their mouth during sleep! Add to this the percentage of people who have choked noses, COPD and other breathing issues!

We are talking about a VERY LARGE proportion of the human population incorrectly breathing.

How do you breathe? Do you know? Ask your partner to observe while you breathe.

If you have a dry mouth when you wake up, if you have a V-shaped upper palate (as against a U-shaped palate), If your tonsils are removed when you were a child, if you are snoring then IT IS QUITE LIKELY THAT YOU ARE BREATHING THROUGH YOUR MOUTH.

See what you are missing out if you breathe through your mouth?

Your nose captures impurities, particles, bacteria and viruses using the hair mucous surface in the nose when the inhaled air is going through.
Your nose heats up the air and moistens it using the moist mucous surface. Why is this important? The incredible process of Gas exchange in the lungs happens optimally only when the air is hot and humid (more about Gas exchange and the process/chemistry of breathing later).
It also adds the magical element of Nitric Oxide which is secreted in the sinuses. Nitric Oxide dilates the blood vessels as well as the air tubes of lungs, reducing blood pressure.

Tip: When you do Bhramari Pranayam (humming), you are releasing 15 times more Nitric Oxide into the breathed air and hence, practicing Bhramari Pranayama a few times a day during these days of the pandemic, can help you avoid getting infected.

So, why not simply hum and breathe through your nose?

PS: All of what is stated above is a summary of reading so many research articles and you can google about any of them.

I will be sharing more on breathing in the articles to come! Stay tuned. For more breathing exercises, check out Healthy Reads. To learn breathing techniques with the right guidance from a certified expert, subscribe to Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

November 14, 2023 By Priyanka Mangla 3 Comments

The Early Signs & Symptoms of Diabetes

Diabetes has become one of the most common lifestyle disorders affecting both, urban and rural areas alike. You can attribute this to overeating, obesity, stressful, busy and sedentary lifestyles which lead to the early symptoms of diabetes. This also includes lack of proper nutrition which leads to disturbed glucose metabolism. Heredity is also a major factor in the development of the disease. It is usually misunderstood that eating only refined sugar in excess will lead to diabetes but that’s not the case. Excess intake of proteins and fats also leads to development of diabetes because ultimately they are also metabolized and converted to glucose.

Diabetes is characterized by the elevated levels of glucose in the blood and urine. It is of 2 types:

Type 1: is present since birth due to complete absence of insulin
Type 2: Develops later in life due to the deficiency of insulin

There are other variants too like gestational diabetes which occur during pregnancy. Read more about it here: https://goqii.com/blog/what-gestational-diabetes-can-do-to-you-your-unborn-child/

Since untreated or uncontrolled diabetes gradually starts affecting the functioning of major organs of the body, like the heart, kidneys, brain, nervous system, eyes, etc. it is important to diagnose and manage diabetes as early as possible.

How Can You Diagnose It?

It is diagnosed by a blood test, in which the blood glucose in the fasting state (normal values range between 80-120 mg/100 ml of blood) and 2 hours after having the meal (normal values, 140 mg/100 ml of blood) are measured. Now, even before getting your blood glucose tested, there are certain signs and symptoms which our body shows which indicate the development of diabetes.

Early Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes

3P’s: Polyphagia (increased hunger), polydipsia (increased thirst), polyuria (increased urination). Remember these 3 P’s and look out if you are experiencing these.
Loss of weight: In spite of increased hunger, there will be a very sharp loss of weight, which again is a warning symptom. This is happening because the glucose is getting lost in the urine, also due to insufficient insulin, the available glucose is not getting utilized to provide energy and to function, the body has started utilizing the glucose which is stored in the muscles and organs.
Getting tired: Loss of weight due to this condition leads to early tiredness. The person gets tired easily both mentally and physically.
Dry mouth: Despite drinking more water, there will be dryness in the mouth.
Paleness: appears because of anemia.
Frequent infections and delayed healing of wounds: happens due to excess of glucose in the blood.
Loss of libido.

In its early stages, we can easily prevent it from progressing further to a full blown Diabetes Mellitus with:

Regular exercise: for a minimum of 30 minutes to maintain optimum weight. Engage yourself in light games.
Proper diet: Which includes salads with meals (this slows down digestion and prevents an immediate spike in blood sugar levels) and excluding refined sugar, alcohol, smoking and high fat foods.
Yoga & meditation: take care of the stress levels and curb the disease from getting any worse. Pranayama and certain yoga asanas like bhujangasana, sarvangasana and various others help in stimulating the pancreas to produce insulin .

There are certain home remedies which can be used as a supportive measure. I want to discuss here the two most important ones.

Bitter gourd (Karela): is highly beneficial in the treatment of diabetes. It contains an insulin-like principle, known as plant-insulin which has been found effective in lowering the blood and urine sugar levels.
Jambul fruit (Jamun): The seeds contain a glycoside ‘jamboline’ which has the power to check the pathological conversion of starch into sugar in cases of increased production of glucose. In the Homoeopathic system of medicine, we have a very effective medicine prepared from this fruit to treat diabetes.

We hope this article helps you manage Diabetes and helps you spot the early signs and symptoms. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on managing Diabetes, check out Healthy Reads.

For further guidance and motivation by certified experts, join the GOQii Diabetes Care program. It’s India’s only diabetes program that is driven by Smart Science and Personal Coaching to improve Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), Postprandial Blood Sugar (PP), and reduce HbA1c levels. You can subscribe here: https://store.goqii.com/diabetescare.

#BeTheForce Against Diabetes!

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Ways to Heal a Leaky Gut

Necessary Dietary Modifications

Common Questions Asked

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