Meditation Lifestyle

Food and Nutrition

Lifestyle and Nutrition – Ayurvedic Perspective

Dr. Priyanka Bhusari Oka B.A.M.S., PGDHM, PG Integrative Dietetics The fast-paced lifestyle of today’s urban population has led to various health conditions due to poor lifestyles and dietary choices. Ayurveda as well as Modern Medicine have described diseases that arise because of living an unhealthy, sedentary life. The onset of disorders ranging from Obesity, Insulin Resistance, High Cholesterol levels, Hypertension to Infertility, Skin diseases, etc. have become very common, especially in the young adults of the age group 30-35 years. These diseases have two main causes, poor nutritional intake, and lack of physical activity. There is a dire need for nutritional intervention to prevent and reverse such lifestyle disorders. Interestingly, Ayurveda, an age-old medical science emphasizes prevention being the best choice over therapeutic measures. Some common lifestyle disorders: Obesity Diabetes Type 2 Insulin Resistance  Cardiovascular issues Thyroid disorders Hyperacidity  Skin diseases Hair and scalp diseases Sleep disturbances  Fatty liver Ayurveda and Lifestyle Disorders Ayurveda mentions all the lifestyle disorders which are prevalent in recent times are a result of misuse of Santarpana, which is over nutrition. Overnutrition ends up increasing Kapha Dosha and as a result, increases Kleda, which vitiates the normal functioning of Dhatus especially Rasa, Rakta, Mansa, and Meda. This imbalance causes blockage in the regular functioning of the Agni and channels of microcirculation and results in Vyadhi or disease. An action plan that improves the functioning of Agni and thereby all the Dhatus and Doshas effectively reverses diseases. Ayurvedic Nutrition: Ayurveda believes that if the diet is wrong, medicines will not be useful and if the diet is perfect then there is no need for medicines. This is a strong and powerful statement that is applicable to today’s lifestyle. Poor diet and lifestyle practices are the leading cause of a plethora of diseases. Ayurveda recommends eating a balanced and nutritious meal. Meals should consist of six tastes or Shad-Rasa, namely, Madhura - Sweet Amla - Sour Lavana - Salty Katu - Hot, Spicy Tikta - bitter Kashaya - Astringent All types of foods can be categorized based on these six tastes. Each taste denotes a specific type of food group which can be corelated with modern nutrition. A holistic and integrative approach of personalizing the diet based on an individual’s age, BMI, Prakriti, digestion capacity, and current health condition is ideal. Only Ayurvedic nutrition can cater to the wholesome health of an individual. There are certain rules for eating and lifestyle mentioned in Ayurveda and following those helps in improving digestive fire known as Agni and effectively, absorption. Eat only when there is a true sense of hunger Eat only when the previous meal is digested Do not eat stale, under-cooked food Meals should always be fresh and warm. No reheating Drink water only when there is a true sense of thirst Do not lie down immediately after meals Make lunch the biggest meal of the day Do not stay up late at night unnecessarily Exercise daily as per half your capacity Ayurvedic nutrition is a customized dietary guideline that by itself acts in a therapeutic way. Including Ayurvedic nutrition along with medicinal intervention goes a long way to reverse any lifestyle disease. Even after the medicines are stopped, following this sustainable dietary practice becomes a part of the lifestyle. Read More► Monsoon Diet And Precautions For Pregnant Women
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5 Lifestyle Changes Help You Ease Your Period Pains

Pain and discomfort are often considered a part of menstruation. 80 per cent of women experience pain during menstruation at some point in their lives. However, for some of them, it could last from the beginning of their periods to menopause. For most women, period pain can be managed through some lifestyle change. Speaking to IANSlife Aastha Sharma, Co-founder, of Imbue Natural shares tips that can help you ease period pain and manage it efficiently: Switch to Healthy Snacking: Your diet plays an important role in maintaining healthy uterine upkeep. The hormonal imbalance during periods often leads to unhealthy food cravings. While you give in to your food cravings, make sure that you also eat snacks that are healthy and will provide you with essential nutrients. Make sure to include healthy fatty acids such as Omega 3 in your diet. Foods high in fibre such as green vegetables, legumes, and whole grains have been known to reduce cramping during periods. Exercise: Indulging in physical activities has also proven to reduce period pain. Walking, running, swimming or yoga can help you relieve pain. Exercise releases hormones like endorphins and serotonin that act as natural pain-killers. Stay Hydrated: Period cramps will feel more painful if you're dehydrated. Make sure that you drink at least 2 to 3 litres of water in a day. You can also include fruit juices in your diet that will nourish your body while keeping it hydrated. Heat Therapy: Pampering your body while on your period can not only reduce pain but also help your body relax. Women often use hot water bags to reduce cramping and comfort the abdominal region, however, a hot water bag can prove tedious when it comes to managing the temperature and finding instant comfort. An alternative to this is using period pain relief oils. Imbue's Rosa Period Pain Oil is one such alternative that is made with the goodness of pressed cinnamon, yarrow, and vetiver oil. The self-warming properties of this oil help in reducing period cramps and elevates mood by relieving stress. Take a break, stop working through it: Women are often taught to keep menstruation a private affair, and talking about periods is often stigmatised. We are expected to endure the pain and work through it. Stress from work and domestic life can add to the physical discomfort. You must listen to your body and give it a break as and when it needs. (Agency) Read More► 10 Steps to Successful Teenager Skincare
Health News

Making Lifestyle Changes For An

While everyone wishes to have ideal body weight and a healthy body, it is one of the tasks that require the most practice. To establish a base for ideal body weight, one must successfully maintain a healthy, calorie-controlled diet combined with adequate physical activity which should be followed on a consistent basis. Additionally, to ensure a strong immunity, a healthy lifestyle, and an ideal weight, one must make permanent changes in the day to day eating and health habits. These things are pivotal because they can determine the choices we will make for our body and these choices can then decide the path for our ideal body weight. These three yet noteworthy lifestyle changes can leave a lasting impact on our body weight and health in general: Healthy Eating While it is no secret that eating healthy is the first step toward a healthy lifestyle, it is even one of the most crucial ones as well. To ensure consistency in weight management, one needs to follow an eating pattern that can promote weight maintenance while allowing for appetite satisfaction. One way is to make sure that you can lower your calorie intake and keep a check on your food consumption. By using a food journal or food activity app, one can monitor each item that's consumed. Additionally, one must ensure to eat more nutrient based foods fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Moreover, one must abstain from unhealthy snacking or binge eating by keeping portion control. By striving for variety in nutritious food items, one can achieve their goals without giving up their favourite foods. Activeness The secret behind regular exercise is that it not only allows for calorie restriction, but it can also even help give one a weight-loss and weight management edge. By helping one burn off the excess calories, staying active via regular exercise is the best lifestyle change one can adopt. It also offers numerous health benefits, including boosting your mood, strengthening your cardiovascular system and reducing your blood pressure. It is proven that to maintain weight loss over the long term, one needs to get regular physical activity. One can make a small lifestyle change through steady aerobic exercise - such as brisk walking - for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Additionally, one can even join pilates, take online dance classes or practice HIIT workouts. Similarly, one can be clever in getting more steps in by making several trips up and down stairs instead of using the elevator, or parking at the far end of the lot when shopping. One must always think about ways to increase physical activity throughout the day even if one can't fit in formal exercise on a given day. Positivity To make sure that one remains healthy and maintains the ideal weight, one must incorporate a perspective of positivity and self-care. It's not enough to just eat healthy foods and exercise, to ensure long-term and successful weight management, one has to go above and beyond. By combining a positive outlook with the right habits, one can make these a way of life to implement the required lifestyle changes. Firstly, one must realise their body requirements and then set a goal for themselves. Instead of being hard, one must gradually change habits and attitudes to make them move in the correct direction. Also, one must keep a track of their progress and move beyond any setbacks that may come in the way. In face of no immediate results, one must consistently ensure to stick to a healthy lifestyle and habits to witness the results that they want. (Nutritionist Pritika Bedi is the founder of Healthsake) Read More► Tips to Keep Your Eyes Safe at Work
Health News

Intake of Diversified Nutrients in Balanced Diet Vital for Healthy Life

As part of its 'Illness to Wellness' campaign, ASSOCHAM had recently released India's largest primary healthcare survey report on the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country. The report titled "Non-Communicable Diseases in India" covered 2,33,672 people and 673 public health offices across 21 states. It concluded that imbalanced diet is amongst the top three causes for the high rate of NCDs in India. The study found that people were increasingly consuming diets low in legumes, milk, omega-3 fatty acids, vegetables, fruits, calcium etc, and were opting for foods rich in sugar and trans-fats. The most common NCDs due to consumption of unhealthy diet included hypertension, digestive diseases, and diabetes. The prevalence of NCDs in India was found to be 116 per 1000 population. ASSOCHAM has organized an Illness to Wellness webinar on 'Healthy Diet for Healthy Tomorrow' With the paramount objectives to cascade awareness and disseminate wisdom about healthy diets which can reduce risk factors and lead us to a healthier, happier, and prosperous life. "In today's times, optimum nutrition is truly medicinal," said Dr Zubeda Tumbi (PhD Nutrition), Founder, HealthWatch Nutrition, Senior Clinical Nutritionist, Expertise in Weight Management & Metabolic Diseases, Certified Diabetes Educator, IBS FOD map certified in her special address. She went on to say that switching to functional foods for therapy to protect, reverse, or remove an ongoing condition can assist relieve mental, economic, and financial stress. Anil Rajput, Chairperson, ASSOCHAM CSR Council shared that issues related to our diet, weight and physical activity are the biggest public health challenges we are facing in current times. Even though our policy makers are taking significant steps to inculcate a healthy food culture through interventions such as 'The Eat Right Movement', 'Task Force on Balanced and Healthy Diets', 'Poshan Abhiyan' among other, sustained action from all stakeholders will be critical to identify strategies for promotion of wholesome and healthful diet across all sections of the society. Rajesh Kesari, Founder and Director, Total Care Control, Delhi-NCR moderated the session. A balanced diet is a means to keep yourself fit and active, according to Dr Shabana Parveen, Group Team Leader, Clinical Nutritionist Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics Department Artemis Hospitals, Gurugram. Healthy diet enhances the body performance, strengthens your immune system, and protects you from diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and others. Eat a variety of meals, such as whole grain cereals, ragi, bajra, jwar, entire legumes, beans, whole pulses, healthy fats, fruits, and vegetables, to get a wide range of nutrients. It's vital to eat a varied diet rather than relying on a single nutrient, she added. She went on to say that all nutrients are necessary for performing bodily functions effectively. She advised to stay hydrated and active at all times. Vinita Aran, Senior Nutritionist, Wellness Coach at Apollo Clinic, Andheri (E) Founder of Diet Clinic 'Eat your way to good health' shared her insights saying that people are forgetting about traditional and seasonal foods available in India which are a great source of nutrients. She said to include foods that are whole and nutrient dense in our diet for extra benefits. (agency) Read More► Why Women Are More Likely to Die After Heart Attack Than Men
Research

Regular, Moderate Physical Activity Enough for Healthier Brain

London: Worried that you are unable to hit the gym? A moderate physical activity like taking a stroll in the park or using steps instead of lifts done regularly may keep your brain healthy, according to a UK expert. Professor James Goodwin, Director of science and research impact at the Brain Health Network, in the UK said while diets like Mediterranean regimen that are low on meat and high in plants, pulses, nuts and fish are given much importance, exercise habits deserve more attention. "An active lifestyle (weaving regular movement and exertion into the structure of your daily life, such as taking the stairs instead of the lift) as well as 'purposeful exercise' (eg brisk walking to increase heart rate) is key," Goodwin was quoted as saying to the Sydney Morning Herald. "Exercise itself - like being in the gym - is not an antidote to living a couch-potato lifestyle. We know that if you sit for over 10 hours a day, you can go to the gym all you like - those benefits are undermined by that inactivity. You've got to do both," he added. In a nine-year study examining the link between fitness and Alzheimer's risk, researchers at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) found that those with the highest levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were 33 per cent less likely to develop the disease than those who were least fit. But 10 kilometre sprints and spin classes aren't essential. "For the middle-aged and older, the highest level of fitness can be achieved by walking briskly most days, for two and a half hours or more per week," the researchers said. Moderate exercise can not only slow ageing but can also turn back the years. "If you do enough moderate to intense exercise, you can reverse the ageing of the brain," Goodwin said. Further, Goodwin stressed that "the relationship between adequate brain function and exercise is fundamental". On the other hand, sedentary life is bad for brain health. "The brain rested as well to conserve energy. If we're inactive, we have an inactive brain. It's an energy-saving strategy," Goodwin said. (Agency) Read More► Alzheimer's and Covid Share Genetic Risk Factor https://nirogstreet.com/blog/research/alzheimers-and-covid-share-genetic-risk-factor
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Ayurvedic Remedies For Pimples

Mukhadushikais (Pimples) is one of the most commonest problems noticed now a day, characterized by Shalmali kantaka vata (thorn like) eruptions on the face. It is seen more from a cosmetic point of view than a medical one. In Ayurvedic texts it finds its place under the heading of Kshudra rogas which are considered minor diseases. But in exceptional cases like Mukhadushika(Pimples), these can produce a marked cosmetic disability and give rise to much mental distress. According to Ayurveda Diet & lifestyle has an important role in managing any disease, so the following modification are recommended if you are suffering from pimples: - Spicy, sour, oily and packaged food must be avoided. Fresh fruits & vegetables are recommended. Herbal soaps are recommended to wash face frequently Irritant cosmetics should not be used Pimples must be left untouched Sound sleep is recommended with proper time schedule as sleeping late at night & getting up after sunrise increases pitta in the body which can lead to problems in the skin. Intake of herbs is recommended which has a cooling effect on the body like Amla, Mint etc Every night before sleeping Avipatikar churan 5to 10gms should be taken to pacify pitta in the body. Apply the paste of sandalwood, turmeric & rose water on the affected area and leave it for 20 to 30 minutes. Then wash it with cold water. Apply honey on the skin & wash off after 10 to 15 minutes. Apply Neem paste on the affected area to get good results, in fact, neem can be taken internally too to get more results in pimples.   Few treatments like Virechana & Jaluka-avcharan (Leech therapy) has very good results in pimples, these two treatment should be taken under the guidance of Ayurveda consultants. Aleo Vera is one of the plants having a cooling effect and taking its pulp every day in the morning is very helpful in maintaining pitta dosh. Read More► Facial Massage For Skin Rejuvenation