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February 26, 2021 By Neha Goyal Leave a Comment

7 Reasons Why You Should Avoid Caffeinated Drinks During Winter

Avoid Caffeinated Drinks

Caffeine is a natural stimulant most commonly found in tea, coffee and cacao plants. Billions of people rely on caffeine to start their day and to get through their night shift or afternoon slump. It works by stimulating the brain and the central nervous system, helping you stay alert, reducing the onset of tiredness. Nothing is as comforting on a chilly morning as a hot cup of tea with a cozy blanket. For most people, intake of these caffeinated drinks increases during winter as they believe it provides warmth to beat the cold. But is that really so? Is there a reason to avoid caffeinated drinks? Let’s find out! 

How Caffeine Works

While caffeine is considered safe, drinking too much raises some concerns. When you drink any caffeinated drink, your gut absorbs it very quickly and sends it to your bloodstream. From there, as it reaches your brain, it starts blocking the effects of a neurotransmitter called adenosine. Adenosine relaxes your brain and makes you feel tired. So by blocking its receptors, caffeine helps you stay awake and alert. But with alertness comes anxiety as well. At the same time, caffeine also stimulates our stress or “fight & flight” hormones.

Reasons To Avoid Caffeinated Drinks During Winter 

  1. Dehydration: During winter, most people feel less thirsty and their water intake automatically reduces. All caffeinated drinks are diuretic and tend to flush out water from the body through urine, making it deficient in not just water but also vitamins and minerals that are required for the smooth functioning of the body.
  2. Amplified Heart Rate and Blood Pressure: Winter is not a good time for people with heart conditions and high blood pressure. They are always advised to stay away from low temperatures as it can constrict their blood vessels and lead to high blood pressure. Caffeine being a stimulant also increases heart rate and blood pressure. So it may increase difficulties for such people.
  3. Empty Calories: Most caffeinated drinks are loaded with sugar and give you not just empty calories but a sugar crash later, which might make you feel more lethargic after some time.
  4. Effect on Digestion: Being a stimulant, caffeine increases gut motility or the contraction of muscles that propel the contents in the gastrointestinal tract. This might be a reason why you feel like having tea or coffee with or after a heavy meal. But this actually isn’t good because it reduces the time your food stays in each part of your digestive system, not letting the nutrients fully absorb. In fact, too much can lead to diarrhea which is followed by dehydration.
  5. Pregnancy & Lactation: Caffeine can easily cross the placenta and can reach breast milk. So, women who consume caffeinated drinks may need to limit their intake to avoid risk of miscarriage or low birth weight.
  6. Interaction with Medication: Our body flushes out caffeine generally within 6-8 hours but while in the system, it can react with your medication and supplements, causing poor absorption or side effects.
  7. Suppresses Appetite: Now this can be both good and bad for all weight watchers. Research shows that caffeine acts as an appetite suppressant but increases higher plasma levels of PYY & Leptin (anorexic hormones). It might make you eat less calories, but with less food, there is less nutrition as well. So beware of consuming too much caffeine, as our body needs more nutrition to maintain immunity.

Now, the purpose of all this information was not to coax you off caffeine but to ensure you control your intake. Controlled amounts can have some benefits too! Make sure you drink the right quantity and the right version. 1-2 cups of black tea, green tea and black coffee are better options than sugary and cream filled versions. Also ensure that you drink your last cup 6-8 hours before you sleep. 

We hope this article on why you should avoid caffeinated drinks in winter helps you! Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For more on nutrition, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play. 

#BeTheForce 

February 10, 2021 By Anusha Subramanian 2 Comments

Here’s How The GOQii Vital ECG Saves Lives

GOQii Vital ECGDr. Arvind Sinha has been suffering from hypertension for the last 3 decades and has had cardiac problems for close to 2 decades now. He first developed cardiac problems when he was around 46-47 years of age due to a sedentary lifestyle. About 25 years back, he underwent a coronary bypass operation. Almost a year ago his son Dr. Chandan Sinha came across the GOQii Vital ECG band, he decided to get it for his father to keep a check on his ECG. 9 months later, Dr. Arvind Sinha, one afternoon, suddenly developed palpitations. This kind of palpitations was something he had never experienced in 3 years. He had an oximeter by his bedside and so he first checked his SpO2 levels. His SpO2 levels were normal and BP showed 148-88mmHg. But, the palpitations continued for a while. Then around half an hour later, he again felt uneasy which is when he decided to use the GOQii Vital ECG band and check his ECG. The time was around 5:30 pm. The ECG reading showed abnormal – Atrial Fibrillation. Dr. Sinha was having palpitations when he took the ECG. He took his ECG (on his own) and the device helped him to understand what was happening to him.

GOQii Vital ECGDr Chandan Sinha says, “We do have a proper ECG machine at home where we would take my father’s ECG readings. But, it would have taken a while before we took his ECG when he had palpitations. In such a scenario, the device is handy and it helped understand the abnormal situation immediately. What surprised us was we got a call from their Bangalore HQ and the person on the other side sounded concerned and was asking for the well-being of the patient. Moreover, he wanted us to connect to a doctor if required. Now, this is something which would help the elderly staying alone in smaller cities of India. I feel it’s a must have item for parents, not a normal fitness band but the perfect health tracker!” he adds.

1.53 mn deaths happen in India due to heart attacks every year  

How often have we have heard of situations wherein a cardiac patient has felt uneasy due to a very high heart rate (upwards of 180 beats per minute), uneasiness in the chest, severe sweating, high BP and has been rushed to the hospital and the first thing that is done is to take an ECG. Imagine if the same can be taken immediately with a band on the wrist of the patient; it can save a life. The GOQii Vital ECG device, according to both Dr Arvind and Dr Chandan Sinha, is a good preventive device on the wrist that gives you an indication to take action immediately.

The likelihood of surviving a heart attack is over 80% if action is taken within  the first 2 hours

GOQii Vital ECG provides ECG reports powered by Tricog Health, a platform that instantly and accurately interprets ECG readings with advanced technology and medical expertise. GOQii’s data shows that since August 2019, a total of over 10000 ECGs have been taken and the average age, of approximately 1000 users using the device, is 45 years of age. The ECG report is verified by Tricog & delivered within one minute in GOQii App. The ECG report in PDF format can be shared immediately with the doctors via Whatsapp, E-Mail, etc.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 17.7 million people lost their lives due to cardiovascular disease in 2015, making it the number one killer. In India, around 1.5-3 million deaths happen due to heart attacks every year. The high rate of mortality caused by heart attacks is mainly because the symptoms are often ignored or misunderstood. The likelihood of surviving a heart attack is over 80% if the action is taken within the first 2 hours. However, the average time between symptoms and treatment in India is over 6 hours. 

“We at GOQii are fostering a preventive health ecosystem. Our aim is to focus on real-time and easy ECG diagnostics on your fingertip, coupled with lifestyle coaching advice. We are interpreting GOQii Vital EGG data along with state-of-the-art deep learning-based Arrhythmia detection algorithms. This is a big step towards the reduction in India’s mortality rate due to heart disorders and is in support of PM Modi’s Vision of #FitIndia,” says Vishal Gondal, Founder & CEO, GOQii.

According to doctors, Cardiac diseases is the number 1 killer in India, due to the lack of awareness and availability of necessary medical infrastructure. Most people only check their ECG once they have suffered a cardiac episode, even though it is a quick and inexpensive test. The reason being most primary care clinics are not equipped with ECG machines owing to their high cost and complex nature. Secondly, a lot of primary care doctors do not receive sufficient training in ECG interpretation.

“Heart palpitations which tend to get overlooked is a strong indicator or symptom of an underlying heart problem. By raising awareness & providing a band which easily provides an ECG report by means of a simple touch, GOQii is revolutionizing the prevention of serious heart and brain ailments,” says Rajashree Menon, Business Head- Healthcare, GOQii.

The GOQii Vital ECG along with Tricog is here to bring in a new generation of heart monitoring on people’s wrists. “Undetected Arrhythmias can lead to potentially life-threatening conditions like strokes, that can be prevented with the use of technology and medicine,” says Dr. Charit Bhograj, Chief Cardiologist and CEO at TricogBhograj. 

Adding and echoing Dr Bhograj’s words is Dr. Vanita Arora, Director and Head Cardiac Electrophysiology Lab & Arrhythmia Services, Max Hospital, Saket. She adds, “The GOQii Vital ECG band will help diagnose symptoms of arrhythmia that are transitory in nature, thus aiding in quick analysis and interpretation as the symptoms exist only for a brief period. The patient can understand that the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat is irregular in a period of 30 seconds, and can take immediate action to prevent any fatalities.” Atrial Fibrillation increases the risk of Stroke and associated complications.

The GOQii Vital ECG wrist wearable can record a single-lead ECG, off the user’s wrist and makes diagnosis readily available to the masses. Also, users can book an online consultation with a cardiac specialist for a nominal fee. The consultant can help analyse the ECG report along with the lifestyle data, to recommend changes. 

The band also has a feature to detect serious heart conditions like Atrial Fibrillation. This has been made possible due to Tricog Health’s deep learning-based Arrhythmia detection algorithm -DeepRhythm™. It will provide GOQii’s users with accurate interpretation of their single-lead ECG. DeepRhythm is Tricog’s proprietary algorithm* (FDA pending) that has been developed with over three years of research, using 30 million traces of ECG recordings to detect several forms of Arrhythmias. The GOQii Vital ECG is only a screening device and not a medical-grade device.

Want to know more about the GOQii Vital ECG and why you should get it? Click Here

To read more about GOQii, check out Healthy Reads!

#BeTheForce 

October 15, 2020 By Navnee Garg 4 Comments

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

washing handsThanks 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: 

  1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
  2. 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.
  3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
  4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
  5. 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

GOQii Smart VitalAs 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?

2The 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 

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