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A To Z Of Wellness

April 20, 2010 By

For Dr Dilip Nandkarni, leading orthopedic surgeon specialized in treating sports and fitness related injuries, wellness is all about passion and fun. “If you are passionate about things and enjoy doing them, nothing’s impossible,” he says. He tries to implement this maxim in his own life.

Besides his busy medical practice, Nandkarni exercises four times a week, is an avid golfer and pursues writing and music with equal passion. “Wellness is also about synthesising the left and right side of the brain. Stress comes from the left brain, while the right side tells you how to tackle it. For a healthy body and mind, you need to practise visiting the latter more often,” he says.

As he prepares to launch Knee Problem, No Problem, his third book after Real Fitness and Calm Sutra, Nandkarni gives some sutras from what he calls “the dictionary of good health”:

Awareness

Means being in sync with the present moment. Start with the tangible stuff. Say, if you are eating, then enjoy your food and be fully in tune with the texture and taste. Similarly each time you sit, be aware of your posture and correct it. Gradually it will spread to other aspects in life too.

Breathing

Breath awareness is the best exercise to remain in the present. Breathe through the nose, pause, become aware of your lungs filling in and then start exhaling slowly. Do this at least five times in a day.

Cardio-exercise

The best cardio exercise you can give your body is morning walk. Cardio makes your fat disappear, heart healthier and puts you in another training zone. Feel too lazy to join a gym? Just invest in a good pair of walking shoes. You will feel inspired to take a walk.

Dance

Though we belong to an inhibited culture, dancing with all your heart can be therapeutic. If you are shy, start off by dancing with close friends. Else join an organised workshop with your partner – it helps both, your health and relationship.

Esteem

If you don’t know your worth, you are not worth knowing. One of the best ways to improve self-esteem is through positive affirmations. Constantly remind yourself you are good, it will provide impetus to get rid of bad habits.

Fun

Find out what is it that you enjoy the most – sports, music, reading… And devote at least a few hours every week to it. Your happiness quotient will rise dramatically.

Golf

Golf is green meditation. The walk on the grounds in the morning air, the water and the sounds of birds is calming. Forget golf, just take up any physical activity that gives you a kick.

Hydration

Lack of hydration adds to our stress levels and makes us irritable. Don’t wait for thirst to strike you. Keep sipping water throughout the day.

Introspection

It’s best to look inward the first day of the week. Make it a Monday morning exercise to check the balance sheet of life, make small targets for the week on each front – career, relationships etc – and work towards completing them.

Job-elation

Make your job a cause for celebration. If you aren’t lucky enough to do what you love, list the few things you enjoy in your job. Focus on those features alone to motivate yourself.

Karaoke

Music is hugely therapeutic. Karaoke can help discover your inner musician.

Laughter

Keep your eyes open to any chance of laughter. Take a cartoonist’s approach to minor irritants, especially when you can’t change the situation. Say if you are stuck in traffic, instead of feeling abusive, view some fellow commuter or cop’s expressions and try to seek some humour in it.

Meditation

If you find it difficult to sit still for a long time or meditate to music, just try feeling your breath. Shut your eyes for 5-6 minutes once in a day and listen to some melody. Store some soothing music in your cell and hear it on your way to work.

Nutrition

Go the basics. Stop fad diet. Have more vegetables. And try less-cooked or raw substances as far as possible.

Optimum weight

Reach your optimum weight with a combination of exercise and good food habits. Prevents a host of medical problems and perks performance, improves self-image and self-esteem.

Posture

Body posture has tremendous impact on health. Apart from indicating good body language, correct posture is important in preventing degenerative diseases. Be more aware of the way you sit and walk. And  invest in a good chair at work.

Quest

Learn new things. Get out of your comfort zone to activate the right side of the brain!

Relaxation

Practise progressive muscle relaxation techniques. Clench your body tightly for a few seconds and gradually let go.

Stretching

Stretch as and when you can. Wall pusher  or the Titanic pose are quick, easy examples.

Time management

There are four quadrants: urgent, non-urgent, important and non-important. Finish important things before they turn  urgent.

Understand

Listen carefully, without jumping into conclusions.  Understand before being understood.

Visualisation

Everything happens first in the mind and then in reality. Visualisation helps in goal setting.

Weight training

Weight training gives strength to your muscles, helps you keep joint problems at bay.

X-cursions

Try getting away. Else go on a ‘virtual vacation’ by reliving your holidays in your mind.

Yoga

It’s the most complete wellness form, but be careful of practising any new forms.

Zzzz, sleep and rest

Good sleep is a combination of  exercise, hydration and avoiding stimulants like coffee. Mumbai Mirror

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Stay Attractive & Engaging

April 20, 2010 By

For the benefits of those who still do not know the truth about some anti-aging skin care is that it doesn’t have to be expensive when purchasing a full sized products. Also, do remember that it takes any skin care at least six weeks to three months to show real results for reducing the signs of aging. And so towards this process, you should use a product that has key ingredients and backed by scientific evidence addressing your specific eye care needs.

Nevertheless, better look for best eye cream ingredients that effectively diminish fine lines and wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness while increasing skin’s hydration and firmness. And because of the special needs of the skin around the eyes, a regular eye cream is not enough. Instead, you should look for products that are specially formulated for this challenging area. Remember, the eyes are our most alluring, expressive feature and keeping the eye area smooth and radiant will help us stay attractive and engaging throughout life.

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Best Choice In Creating Ambiance

April 20, 2010 By

For some people, though a gas fireplace is a great choice considering burn bans can be in effect during summer months, but many people chose the option of an outdoor fireplace being one of the best choices in creating ambiance and giving heat. . So, if anybody of you here is an outdoor lover, then an outdoor fireplace or prefabricated fireplace kit is a home accessory you will enjoy. Towards it, just visits the above mentioned for your complete selection of fireplace mantel surrounds and mantel shelves including wood mantels, fireplace mantel shelves, thin cast stone fireplace mantels, cast stone mantels and marble mantels.

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The Threat Of Chronic Diseases

April 20, 2010 By

WHATEVER THE benefits it brings, rapid economic development is also causing an explosion of chronic diseases around the developing world. Researchers at an international conference here on chronic heart and lung disease, diabetes, stroke and preventable cancers fear that the trend is accelerating. Just four weeks ago, for example, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine doubled a previous estimate of the prevalence of diabetes in China. Ten percent of adults there have diabetes, and another 16 percent have pre-diabetic symptoms. In other words, China has nearly a quarter of a billion diabetics and pre-diabetics. India, meanwhile, has 50 million people with diabetes.

The speed at which chronic diseases are spreading is terrifying, because it suggests that health care costs will rise dramatically — and drain governments that are struggling just to build good roads and provide clean water. Only by slowing the spread of these diseases can developing nations avoid an economic and medical disaster.

Virtually overnight, China is now nearly tied with the United States in the rate of adults with diabetes. The wealthy contract diabetes with obesity, while the poor — even though they look thin — contract diabetes because dietary changes associated with “modernization,” such as switching from vegetables to oily, salty, sugary foods, are too sudden a shock for their bodies.

“I think this is just the beginning of the volcanic eruption,” said C.S. Yajnik, the director of the diabetes unit at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Pune, India, during a break at the conference, hosted by the World Diabetes Foundation and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (I served as a panelist.) “No one knows when the pace will stop, with all the crowding into cities that is occurring, the poor food that is in the slums, the lack of exercise.”

What is clear is that the trend will create enormous economic pressure. It will bankrupt millions of people, the vast majority of whom have no health insurance and must pay for care out of pocket. The World Economic Forum estimates that income loss in China, India, and Russia alone will top $1 trillion by 2015.

Yajnik, who co-authored a paper last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the rise of diabetes in Asia, sees all this first hand at his hospital. He says that the epidemic is redefining how governments should view health. Health officials make a point of distinguishing infectious diseases from non-communicable ones, such as diabetes and heart disease. But there is growing evidence, Yajnik said, that people with even non-communicable diseases have compromised immune systems and are more susceptible to illnesses caused by germs.

“You can imagine what this might mean,’’ Yajnik said, “in communities with poor hygiene and poor water supplies. It is a cycle that we don’t know the end to.”

It is a cycle that top government officials, financial leaders, and donor nations need to understand, right now. Of the $22 billion in international aid for health, only 0.9 percent is spent on chronic disease. For instance, the US Agency for International Development listed seven “areas of health” for its $5.7 billion of health funding in 2009. The areas included HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases, but not chronic disease.

“Wealthy countries were the leading edge of chronic diseases with over-nutrition,” Yajnik said. “Now the developing countries are catching up dramatically, with a combination of under-nutrition and poverty, and switching diet and in many cases becoming sedentary so fast. It is happening so much even in rural areas that some of us call this the urbanization of poverty. You already have this in the United States with both rich and poor having diabetes. But the impact of having this happen in developing countries is something no one knows.”

Developing nations — and the donors that help them — must find ways to promote prosperity without promoting the diseases that afflict wealthy countries. Without a global reordering of priorities, the price of a high standard of living will be an epidemic of chronic disease. By Derrick Z. Jackson, The Boston Globe

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