Right To Better Living

Salt (Photo credit: AloneAlbatross ) Harmful effects of Salt Intake It is not that everyone is trying to incarcerate salt as a culprit. But the fact is, higher salt intake is linked to hypertension by several studies conducted worldwide. Importance of Dietary Salt: Sodium is essential for many vital functions at cellular level. It helps maintain fluid balance and plays a role in functioning of cardiovascular system, nervous system & digestive system. How much salt do we need? An average adult needs about 2-5 grams of salt per day, 2 grams being the minimum & 5 grams being the maximum requirement. (Actually we do not need salt. What we need is Sodium.) But average Indian adult in urban areas consumes around 9-12 grams salt per day, which is double of what we really need. No wonder 23% men & 22% women above 25 years of age suffer from hypertension (WHO 2012 Statistics). India is already a Diabetic capital of the world & we are inching closer to bec

You probably know many people who took a weight loss resolution. They get on the band wagon of strict dieting, strenuous work out schedules, sauna baths and what not. These people literally kill them selves in order to loose weight. The cumulative list of restriction can be summarized as fallows: I will get up at 5 in the morning and go for walk/jog, work out at home/gym or do yoga etc. I will stop eating sweets. No to oily food and other fats.(30% of body composition is fat. Can you imagine body without fats?) I will go on 'No Carb' Diet I will stop drinking. I will eat only raw fruits and veggies. I will use sugar free sweeteners.(anything for Bips) I will not eat at parties.(Why go to parties at all?) What goes Wrong? First, your body is accustomed to a set of lifestyle, so when you make some changes it challenges your body. It is in human psyche to resist any change that comes its way. It becomes painful to sustain that change beca

Imagine yourself as a soldier who just started his/her military training. You have to wake up early. Then you go for a morning run of up to 16-20 kilometers. Then you are grilled in parade ground with a 10+ kg rifle held over head. In the afternoon session, you are made to crawl through the muddy terrain. In the evening you are you have to complete an Obstacle training within the given time frame. Be it summer, winter or monsoon, you got to do it, period. What happens as a result of such grueling training? You become stronger,robust & develop the ability to adopt to the changing circumstances. This is exactly what is happening to viruses due over and unnecessary use of antibiotics. antibiotics have trained the organisms become "Superbugs" and now they have become so powerful that small infections are becoming fatal. We Indians have a special infatuation with Antibiotics. Whenever anyone falls ill, all he/she needs is a magic pill (read antibiotics) to ge

Well I have a bad news, some more bad news and consolatory good news. The bad news is, "We can not prevent ourselves from developing an antibiotic resistance". Another bad news is, not only antibiotics but any drug for that matter, will become ineffective in long run as our bodies grow resistant to them. You can't help it. This is how our bodies are designed. Just as humans adapt changing circumstances, bodies adapt to anything they are exposed to. But there is some good news. By making right choices about how we use antibiotics, we can delay/minimize the progression of the resistance. You may inculcate few of the following habits to not live live healthy but also prevent antibiotic resistance. Practical ways to prevent antibiotic resistance Never use antibiotics to treat common cold and flu. As these illnesses are caused by virus, antibiotics any ways do not have any effect on them. Take antibiotics when absolutely necessary. If you can avoid taking it

Diabetes Mellitus Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder that interferes with how sugar/glucose is utilized in our body. Every time we eat something, our digestive system converts food into sugar/glucose. This sugar is then transported to all the parts of the body through blood stream. When the blood sugar levels rise, which usually happens after we eat something, pancreas releases insulin. This insulin is responsible for making the sugar available for all cells of the body which will use for the energy needed for all the bodily functions. It is a simple lock and key arrangement. Insulin acts as key to open cell 'lock' so that the blood sugar can enter the cells for further utilization. But when someone has a diabetes, this mechanism does not work. Types of Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus In type 1 diabetes, due to some reasons (off course unknown to scientists) our immune system attacks and kills insulin producing pancreatic cells. As a

Harmful effects of Carbonated drinks Apart from adding unnecessary calories, carbonated drinks harm human bodies in more ways than one. It has caffeine that is  associated with sleep disturbances and anxiety. Most soft drinks contain high concentration of simple sugars and others like glucose, sucrose fructose,etc. these substances activate oral bacteria and produce acid, which dissolves tooth enamel thus increasing the incidence of tooth decay. Carbon Di-oxide contained in these drinks is also associated with erosion of tooth enamel. Drinking cola to quench thirst in fact has a reverse effect. It actually causes dehydration making you more thirsty. 4-MEI, a carcinogenic chemical which is found in almost all carbonated drink. Companies say- it is within the permissible limits. My question is "Can poison becomes harmless if taken within the permissible limits?" Carbonated drinks are also linked to the Esophageal Cancer in the countries like US, UK &

India is becoming the Diabetic Capital of the world. As per WHO estimates, currently 6% of the population has some form of diabetes in India. By 2020, the percentage will increase to 9%. More importantly, majority of the people who are now becoming diabetic, have no family history of diabetes. Now this is something to worry about but we hardly see anybody taking it seriously. The irony is, rather than making permanent changes in the basic lifestyle, people are waiting for scientists to find the genes that are responsible for diabetes. 1. Genetic vulnerability to Type 2 Diabetes: During primitive times when food the scarcest thing around, human's genetic make up was evolved to cope up with this scarcity. The populations spread across the globe, specially Indians are genetically designed to live in food scarce environment. As we became civilized, the life we were exposed to started changing. Among other things, there came a supply of unending food supply. The extra food (calo

There are several things you can do to keep your health care bills in control. 1. Increase your understanding about a particular disease Learning about the particular disease & making some life style changes is 'the' most important thing one can do in order to control the health care costs. If you know that you have a family history of some health condition, understanding the disease in totality will help you take precautionary measures. 2. Learn about the Dietary habits that can prevent the disease Normally all the health conditions have some Good/bad foods associated with them. Find which foods may be good for you and start including them in your diet. Similarly, the bad ones must be reduced/eliminated altogether. For example, both my mom and dad have high Blood Pressure and take a pill. So the obvious lifestyle modification for was to reduce & control the salt intake. 3.   Get a family doctor: Avoid going to a Super Specialist doctor all by yourself,

We all want to live well. We want to have better house, better car, better professional life, better health , better bank balance, better everything. What if we get all that but don't have life left to live & enjoy it. This is precisely what happens with continue with the pursuit of happiness and life flies past us. The following unhealthy habits will take you to grave much earlier than you anticipate. Erratic eating habit: Eating foods which are loaded with salts, sugar & fats. Choosing foods which are not nutritious Not enough water: Average person needs to drink about 2 liters of water every day. But most people never touch that mark. If you research well about your own water intake, it would not cross 1.5 liters/day Smoking & Drinking: Smoking is proven to kill us early. But indiscriminate drinking is equally injurious to health. It not only affects liver, but also digestive system, nervous system, brain, Kidneys and heart. Taking doctor's advic