preventive healthcare Archives

October 15, 2020 By Navnee Garg 1 Comment

Washing Hands Can Save Your Life and Here’s How!

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, WHO has deemed washing hands as one of the standard precautionary steps! But have you wondered by washing hands is important? How does it help?

Fact: Did you know that washing hands can prevent about 30% of diarrhoea-related sicknesses and about 20% of respiratory infections?

The Science Behind Washing Hands

Washing hands definitely plays a key role in the battle against COVID-19. Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean water. If one does not wash hands properly, the germs get onto hands and may spread while shaking hands, touching other objects, sneezing and coughing. Washing your hands properly reduces these risks and stops viruses such as the coronavirus from spreading.

According to Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Washing Hands prevents from infection because:

People frequently touch their eyes, nose, and mouth without even realizing it. Germs can get into the body through the eyes, nose and mouth.
Germs from unwashed hands can get into foods and drinks while people prepare or consume them. Germs can multiply in some types of foods or drinks, under certain conditions, and make people sick.
Germs from unwashed hands can be transferred to other objects like handrails, table tops, or toys, and then transferred to another person’s hands.

How to Wash Your Hands?

Washing hands is a day to day task, but if done with ideal steps, it can surely make a positive difference. CDC (Centre for Disease Control), an international organisation, recommends cleaning hands in a specific way to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others.

Follow these steps:

Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

WHO recommends that “If your hands are not visibly dirty, frequently clean them by using alcohol- based hand rub or soap and water.” CDC recommends washing hands with water and soap but in case water and soap is not available, only then a hand sanitizer with at least 70% alcohol can be preferred to wash/clean hands.

This is because:

Sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of microbes but they DO NOT ELIMINATE all types of germs.
Hand sanitizers are not recommended when you get your hands greasy or visibly dirty.
Hand sanitizers might not remove harmful chemicals, like pesticides and heavy metals, from hands.

Click here for the right way to use a hand sanitizer: https://goqii.com/blog/the-correct-way-to-use-hand-sanitizer-to-kill-99-9-germs/

When Do You Wash Your Hands?

According to WHO, Wash your hands:

After coughing or sneezing
When taking care of a person who is ill
Before, during and after preparing food
Before entering your home
Before eating your meals
After using the toilet
When hands are visibly dirty
After handling animals or animal waste
Before and after using gloves

Washing your hands is an easy, cheap, and effective way to prevent the spread of germs and keep kids and adults safe from the virus and various diseases. Let’s spread awareness among our kids by demonstrating the correct technique of washing hands, by making this a regular part of their routine with their eating habits, giving frequent reminders to each other and carrying sanitizers in the community areas.

For more information and safety tips, tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

Let’s end this pandemic together and #BeTheForce

September 4, 2020 By GOQii Leave a Comment

There’s A Reason Why Akshay Kumar Has Been Using This Smart Watch

As we’re slowly unlocking, there is still that sense of panic and dread. COVID-19 might be far from over but should that stop you from being active? Should it get in the way of your business? At times like these, it is important to be cautious and even more important to be smart about it. The best part is that now, you can do both with the GOQii Smart Vital – the latest offering by the Smart-Tech Preventive Healthcare Platform, GOQii.

What Is The GOQii Smart Vital?

The GOQii Smart Vital is a smartwatch designed to measure your vitals. It has an integrated pulse oximeter which helps you monitor your blood oxygen and provide real time updates of variation in blood oxygen levels. Apart from monitoring your blood oxygen levels, the other features of the device include:

Sensors to detect Body temperature
Track heart rate in real-time
Check blood pressure
18 Exercise modes with real-time data display
Counts steps, calories, sleep, alarm and inactivity alerts, etc.
Personalized watch faces
Music and phone finder to go truly hands-free
Smart notifications for messages, calls, WhatsApp and other apps on your phone
Water Resistance
3” full screen touch display
External Charger with up to 7 days battery life

How Does The GOQii Smart Vital Help During A Pandemic?

According to medical experts, COVID-19 patients are found to have low oxygen levels. Apart from this, high body temperature is also a symptom. Hence, such a device is crucial in diagnosing and monitoring the symptoms of COVID-19. It helps in tracking potential crisis. With the device, an individual can immediately track changes in their vitals and take necessary precautions. More so, the unique features of detecting sleep, calories, heart rate and blood pressure can also indicate the potential of other health risks.

The GOQii Smart Vital can be connected to a centralized dashboard that enables remote monitoring of a large user base. This monitoring is continuous and would require minimal user intervention. This can enable companies to track the health of their employees and mitigate any health risks or limit the infection from spreading further.

Vishal Gondal, the Founder and CEO of GOQii says, “We are on the path of innovation with GOQii Smart Vital that will help in detection, isolation and monitoring of coronavirus cases. The key is to understand your symptoms and correlate them to changes in body vitals. The smart watch will provide a reference to understand your health and fitness that is crucial while we battle the pandemic. The moment you detect temperature changes coupled with low oxygen blood levels, you know you have to contact your healthcare provider and get tested.”

Vouched For & Tested By The Best!

At the launch of the smart watch, GOQii’s brand ambassador Akshay Kumar said, “The GOQii Vital 3.0 was handed over to Mumbai, Jalandhar and Nashik police, and we have seen the impact it has had on our police force. It helped them in quick detection and isolation thus ensuring that the virus does not spread. The new smart watch with added advantage will also help in reducing burden on testing as people with normal fever need not rush to hospital unless other vitals are unstable. Using such devices will eventually become a necessity as we are slowly gearing to resume normal life”.

About 150 cast and crew members of the movie “Bell Bottom” have become the first group in the world who are going to use the GOQii Smart Vital during the entire shoot of the film in UK & India.

Where Can You Buy It?

The device is currently available on GOQii’s website – store.goqii.com/smartvital. You can also get it from the GOQii Health Store by downloading the app – www.goqii.com/app

The device is also available on Amazon India.

The device comes with a 1 year warranty and a 3 month Personal Care Plan Subscription in which you get a personal coach and an expert, who can enable you to meet your health goals, as well as access to various other features within the app.

#BeTheForce

September 1, 2020 By Palak Mittal 1 Comment

Fatty Liver Disease: What To Eat & What To Avoid

Our bodies have a tendency to store extra calories in terms of fat in each and every area to utilise it later for energy, or as a cushion for organs and insulation. The liver being the largest organ in the body, is partially made up of fat. However, if too much fat accumulates around the liver, it leads to Fatty Liver Disease.

Fatty liver disease is mainly associated with the excess usage of alcohol and is termed as Alcoholic Fatty Liver. However, those who do not drink alcohol at all, can also develop this condition over time and is known as Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver. Excess fat around the liver damages it and makes it difficult for the liver to remove toxins and produce bile for the digestive system.

The major plan of treatment for Fatty Liver Disease is dietary modifications and regular exercises. If the grade is too high, then one may need to see a doctor. For initial stages, the situation can be reversed completely with a few lifestyle modifications.

What Causes Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)?

Obesity: Overeating can cause weight gain which produces a load on the digestive system and the body forces the storage of extra calories in terms of fat, leading to NAFLD.
Pre-Diabetes: People with Insulin sensitivity or insulin resistance tend to store more fat in the liver as compared to non diabetics.
Over consumption of carbs and simple sugars: is linked with NAFLD as our body utilizes only what is required and rest is going to be stored as fat.
Poor Gut Health and genetics are also seen as linked with NAFLD.

Since it is a lifestyle disorder, modifying lifestyle with the right diet helps in controlling, maintaining and reversing both Alcoholic and Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

The diet should include:

Lots of fruits and vegetables
Reduced processed and packaged food with high salt and sugar
High fibre foods and less carbs
Whole grains like oats, quinoa, barley and millets
Nuts and seeds especially walnuts and flaxseeds as they are high in Omega 3
Vitamin E from Sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, olive oil or canola oil
Avocados as they are a good source of fat and fiber
Legumes

What Should You Avoid?

If you’re suffering from this disease, here is a list of foods you should avoid completely.

Alcohol: As it is completely oxidised by the liver, there is no enzyme present in the body that can digest alcohol.
Added or simple sugars like candy, cookies, sodas, and fruit juices. It increases sugar level which increases fat build up.
Fried & oily foods due to excess calories and fat.
Too much salt makes the body hold on to excess water and can be a reason to gain weight.
Simple processed carbs like white bread, rice, and pasta, as they lack fibre and increase blood sugar.
Red meat like Beef and mutton are high in saturated fat.

Other Lifestyle Modifications

Shed the extra weight
Control sugar levels well
Include Cardio and strength training consisting of 30 mins for 5 days a week
Lower down cholesterol especially triglycerides.

We hope these tips help you manage Fatty Liver Disease with ease. Before you begin with any of the foods listed above, do consult your doctor, dietitian or nutritionist. Do let us know your thoughts and queries in the comments below! To learn more about AFLD and NAFLD, check out live sessions by our experts on GOQii Play.

#BeTheForce

August 12, 2020 By Swati Savla 1 Comment

Top Foods to Increase Hemoglobin Naturally

Hemoglobin and Iron are two terms that go hand in hand and there’s a simple understanding behind this. 70% of the body’s iron is found in hemoglobin and myoglobin. Hemoglobin is the red colored pigment present in red blood cells which carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of our body. This released oxygen then permits aerobic respiration to provide energy to power the functions of our body in the process called metabolism.

That’s not where it’s role ends. It is also a part of other cells which are found in some major organs like lungs, kidneys and the skin. Here, it’s function is that of an antioxidant and regulator of iron metabolism. Finally, it also transports carbon dioxide out of the cells and back to the lungs to be blown out of our body. The expected normal range of Hemoglobin in men is above 13 gm/dL and women is above 12 gm/dL, typically which is not difficult to maintain but still is of major concern if goes below the desired levels, creating a condition called Anemia.

Lack of Folate or B-12, blood loss post surgery, heavy menstrual bleeding or internal bleeding due to ulcers or even inadequate intake are some possible causes of low Hemoglobin levels. All of this explains our symptoms of Anemia like exhaustion, skin paleness, headache to abnormal or rapid heartbeat and chest pain. We’ve read and heard of varied iron supplements which can be taken to replenish extremely low Hemoglobin levels but eating the right kind of foods in the correct combinations can help increase hemoglobin naturally and quickly also.

What Can You Eat to Increase Hemoglobin?

When thinking about Hemoglobin, the 1st mineral coming to our mind is iron but here’s the catch – Iron alone cannot increase your Hb. It has to be in combination with folate or Vit B12 (depending on the deficiency) and Vit. A & C which act as carriers for it’s better absorption. Combining all the above elements finally gives us this list of foods which can help increase hemoglobin naturally.

Foods like shellfish, sardines, tuna, mackerel, eggs and meat are high on heme iron which is easily absorbed in the body and do not require carriers.
Plant foods like Spinach, Kale, broccoli, beetroot, pumpkin seeds, and legumes like soybeans, chickpeas, peas, etc. can help as well.
Vit. A & C rich foods like tomatoes, carrots, lemon, red peppers, oranges, pomegranates, etc. should be used in combination with above mentioned foods.
Fortified cereals also help as they are high in Folate.

While some elements are carriers, some can act as an hindrance. Phytic acid and Calcium are 2 such elements which make Iron absorption harder. Hence, avoid taking calcium supplements or very high calcium rich foods along with iron rich foods or supplements. Before making any changes to your diet, do consult a doctor, nutritionist or your dietitian.

We hope this article to increase hemoglobin naturally helps you. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below! For more useful information on Hemoglobin and other health-related queries, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play.

#BeTheForce