Brain damaging habits

I am busy today, I can't think of breakfast now ...

I am free today, Let me have food till the neck point ...

I am tensed, let me have one puff ...

Just watch out and be careful when you are going to make such statements from now on. Little we know how these habits are going to affect our life/healthy body in the long run.
I am sure nobody would like to do this to their body, what requires is the awareness on the hazards of such habits.

1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain

I hope after reading this you won't be the same. Start putting them in to practice....

You are what you eat - Eat u'r way 2 Health

There is an adage that stresses the significance of the balanced diet. Foods that we eat control our thoughts which control our mind, which controls our actions, and actions help us to become what we are.
That is the importance given to the food. Gone were the days where individuals used to spare enough time for eating delicious/well cooked food. In the current generation people are ready to save time by cutting down their lunch/dinner time. That is the reason you find more fast food centers.
People are forgetting that by cutting down their time spent of food, they really cutting down their stay at this beautiful place called earth. Whatever may be the scenario we still need to provide a balanced diet to our body.
I found an interesting article which says Eat Your Way to Health
I am embedding this article which is worth reading and following:



Food for Mind:
Avoid fruit and nuts. You are what you eat. ~Jim Davis
The belly rules the mind. ~Spanish Proverb
Food is an important part of a balanced diet. ~Fran Lebowitz
If junk food is the devil, then a sweet orange is as scripture. ~Audrey Foris
The more you eat, the less flavor; the less you eat, the more flavor. ~Chinese Proverb
He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well. ~English Proverb
Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are. ~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Kaizen 4: Neck & Shoulder Exercises

Once we start practicing the simple exercise mentioned in post Kaizen3 surely our hands would have got enough relief. Let us move on to other important parts that too requires some exercise/movement.
Back and Shoulder Exercises

Stand up straight, place your right hand on your left shoulder and move your head back gently. Do the same thing for the right shoulder

Head and Neck Exercises

Move head sideways from left to right and back to left

Move head backwards and then forward

Kaizen 3: Hand Exercises

I hope the previous post was quite useful, and I would like to give away few exercise tips for the benefit of those who spend a lot of time in their office chairs. The key point is that we need to do some exercises that keep up the movement of the body ensuring proper blood flow. After all the blood is the carrier of the oxygen to every minute part of the body.

• One of the biggest injury risk factors is static posture.
• Try to spend at least 5 minutes every hour away from your computer.
• Remember to ONLY stretch to the point of mild tension.
• Try to incorporate the stretches into your daily routine.
• Below are some illustrations of simple active stretches to perform at the office.
• Hand Exercises
  Tightly clench your hand into a fist and release, fanning out the fingers. Repeat 3 times
  
  
• 
  

These are simple exercise that do not take much time. You can do it sitting on you chair.

I will also show some exercises related to neck and shoulder too!

Kaizen 2: Proper Seating & Sitting

It is a general notion amongst all that those working, sitting on comfortable chairs and under fan or in AC would be hale and healthy. But when it comes to the physical fitness they are the ones in real danger and need lot of precautions and tips.
Coming from a software industry let me share about how the seating and sitting should not be and should be for the employees.
Most of us intentionally or unintentionally end up sitting somewhat like shown in the below picture:



But this is how exactly it should be:



Follow this simple kaizen and be fit.

Kaizen 1: Do not skip breakfast ...

Missing breakfast can be seen as a way of saving time in the morning, or of losing weight. During early and mid-adolescence, disordered eating patterns are very strongly associated with health-compromising behaviours like use of tobacco, alcohol and marijuana."
Especillay in case of bachelors, they replace the breakfast with coffee and few puffs(smoking). This is really unhealthy and leads to irregular functionalities of many systems(digestive system, circulatory system).

BreakFast - breaking the fast
After nine or more hours of not eating (that is after your dinner), you are in a fasting condition. Blood glucose levels are very low and need to be replenished. To keep up mental work requires a large turnover of brain glucose. If glucose levels are inadequate, the brain cannot function efficiently. Breakfast helps to replenish blood glucose levels.

For School going children:
Studies of school-children have shown eating breakfast improves their concentration levels in the morning. There are multiple scientific studies that show that eating breakfast improves academic performance, including improved maths scores, better working memory and increased verbal skills. The studies also show an improved attitude towards school, as well as less depression, anxiety and hyperactivity.

For Obesed people:
People who were trying to lose weight were more successful if they had breakfast. And those who missed the meal were likely to be fatter, possibly because they are more likely to have unhealthy snacks mid-morning to boost their energy levels.

Skipping breakfast - U may fall prey for one of the below:
Is your friend restricting her food intake day and night? If so, he/she certainly is at risk for nutritional deficiencies. Some of these may include anemia, stunted growth (depending on her/his age), loss of bone or incomplete bone development, decreased immune function, amenorrhea (loss of menstrual periods in case of ladies), decreased thyroid function, increased susceptibility to colds and infections, low energy levels, poor concentration and cognitive development, and gum infections and poor dental health, just to name a few.

References:
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2296.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=4004
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/healthjournal/sep_oct_97_hj/articles/skipping_1.html
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/parenting/school/schheat/qas/0,,186627_187071,00.html

Kaizen for Health

Yesterday, I attended a beautiful session on Kaizen. Kaizen is a japanese word for "change for the better" or "improvement", the english translation is "continuous improvement", or "continual improvement". There the speaker/presenter highlighted the Golden rules and the Fundamentals of Kaizen.
In the speech there were lot of things to take away, but one simple analysis really caught my attention. This analysis was made with respect to an automobile company wherein, by improving the quality of the raw materials they could increase the sales. The logic behind was by improving quality of the processes, and materials we can avoid lot of rework, maintenance cost that proves very costly to companies. I quickly related it and started comparing it with the human body. It is infact astonishing, you take care your body properly, in all respects say from having quality food, regular medical checkups, follow strict diet and so on the chances of being hospitalised are really less.

No hospitalization, No tensions, No stress and No money loss

One of the Golden rules of kaizen is to "Start Now" and one of the Fundamentals of Kaizen is "Continuously make small improvements". I felt applying kaizen would help us in acquiring Optimal Health. I would be presenting these in the form of snippets, that will relieve our pain (of course we need to follow them strictly...). After all it's our Way2Health.

Diseases..! Are They?

Take sometime and ponder yourself on those good olden days where our great grand parents led a peaceful, healthy life, hospitalised very rarely if not never at all. Say you transported (in thoughts) to those days and be there. Just look around and see what people are suffering from Malaria, Plague, Tuberculosis... Have you heard of more people dying due to heart attacks, kidney problems, Alzheimer's ... Now come back to the present days, do you still find those old diseases Malaria, Plague, Tuberculosis as prevailing diseases. No, Thanks to advanced Medical Research. We got rid of them long back. Are we free from diseases? Are we leading a Healthy life?
What are the present haunting and lifethreatening diseases?
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's,Heart Attack, Obesity...

Let me sow some seeds in your head to keep your mind ticking/thinking.
Are we treating diseases?
Is our approach (Medically) apt?
Is there any alternative?
First of all are they diseases?
If these are not diseases then What are they?

Health or Optimal Health!!!

Let us first ponder upon both Health & Optimal Health!
I just googled about "What is health?"

• The absence of disease or injury along with physical, mental, and social well-being.

I just googled about "What is Optimal Health?"

• The highest possible achievement of physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

That was google fetched for us.

But let me say what WHO has to say about the Optimal Health:

"Optimal health is not the mere absence of disease but the complete physical, mental, social and economical well being of a person. -World Health Organisation."

If you believe in the adage "Aiming Low is Crime", then you should aim for "Optimal Health".

Watch out for upcoming posts that are steps to attaining this "OPTIMAL HEALTH".

Holi(y)stic/Realistic View

In my last post I mentioned that Body is the temple of God. But I got feedback from my good friends and collegues saying that they want some realistic way of keeping their body/health fit. Let me tell you, though they are not aware that fitness also falls under this broad category of realising that Body is very much a temple of God. The intentions behind this blog is to show the methods, give away the tips & suggestions and giving the holi(y)stic view of the body. Psychologically, when you make everyone aware of the holistic feature they show more interest in listening and putting into practice whatever little they learn. I will be giving you my understanding (of course based on some literature, conferences that I attended) as and when I collect something and make sure that visitors to this blog have something to pick up when they land here. After all it is Everybody's Way2Health.