Significance of weight in combating Diseases

By Dr. Nikita Donage,
Doctor of Pharmacy.

 A healthy life is defined as, practicing living in “Healthy ways”. This is altogether the result of being disease-free with physically, mentally and spiritually healthy. Among all the aspects, our body weight plays an important role in healthy living and staying disease-free.

BMI (Body Mass Index) is calculated with respect to the height and weight of an individual and should show normal or healthy weight which ranges from 18.5 – 24.9. WebMD has shown over-weight and obesity contribute to various risk factors of diseases such as Hypertension, Diabetes, gout, Cancer, Osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and various other diseases.

Even though if diseases occur due to genetics, doctors recommend doing regular exercises if possible, for at least 15-20 mins a day. This helps to maintain our required weight and may also not aggravate the disease making it worse. Exercising is not only restricted to diseased conditions but can also be done on a daily basis for a healthier life.

• Stress:

The foremost reason trending today is “Stress”. It raises cortisol, the stress hormone in the body which decreases the glucose level resulting in the cravings of sugar which indirectly makes us over-eat. People with jobs or the ones doing businesses due to workload tend to face a lot of stress. Today the global tension is the outbreak of coronavirus. Due to the lockdown economy of India may get affected and may lead to even more stress among people, and it becomes a lot more necessary during these times to manage our stress and keep ourselves healthy.

This lockdown has given us the opportunity to sharpen our talents and find out more productive ways of utilizing this free time, this will help to reduce the continuous anxiety of not being at work.

        Stress also leads to unhealthy habits such as smoking and drinking. Any particular habit or thing beyond the limit is always harmful to us. These habits may result in different fatal diseases. Furthermore, stress may cause disease conditions adding up to more medicines and more worries.

• Overeating:

Overeating is a habit of increased frequency and amount of eating, which if not controlled at the right time leads to obesity. Today’s generation due to different reasons tends to consume more amounts of Junk food and low physical activity. If we are foody, or when it comes to our favorite food, we eat a lot. But it is necessary to understand our hunger and eat accordingly. Also, the Junk food contains used cooking oils having a high amount of bad cholesterol-fats which builds up in the body resulting in regurgitation and also adds up to Cardiovascular and peptic ulcer diseases. Therefore, overeating becomes another factor for an unhealthy lifestyle and weight gain.

• Sedentary lifestyle or Lack of physical activity:

It is the type of lifestyle where little or no physical activity is involved. It usually includes sitting or lying in one place along with being engaged in reading, watching television, playing games, using cell phones, computers, etc. Not only exercising but having hobbies that are encouraged to outdoor games like cricket, badminton, football or yoga has been proven beneficial to our Health.

Simple activities such as walking or cycling to your workplace if it’s nearby, walking while talking on the phone, stretching while watching television, taking a break in between work and going for a walk around the workplace may help you increase your activity. Planning for a vacation which involves camping and trekking is a very good idea to improve our physical activity. A sedentary lifestyle affects the body in and out. Muscle atrophy, blood clots, depression, anxiety, constipation may be experienced. It has shown to have a high risk of cardiovascular diseases mainly coronary heart disease due to blood clots.

• Genetics:

The fact that genes may determine 80% of weight and body shape but, the rest depends on the environment and personal choices of living. Thus, this becomes another common factor where people are obese and overweight due to heredity. Heredity is defined as where offspring show the same characters as that of parents. If genetics is the factor responsible for obesity, we can take immediate measures. This increase in weight will lead to different clinical issues such as shortness of breath, diabetes, osteoarthritis. If this has to be kept in control we need to exercise daily and maintain a healthy diet.

MEASURES TO KEEP HEALTH WITH HAPPINESS

• A planned diet is to be followed recommended by a nutritionist or a dietician according to the body’s requirement with respect to any disease condition.

• I recommend not to do strenuous exercise but 15-20 min of walking or running 3-4 times a week.

• To abstinent the notorious habits such as alcohol, smoking, sedentary lifestyle.

• Doing yoga has also proved towards a healthy heart.

• Boost your immunity by eating balanced food and keeping your body hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids.

• Eat intermittently and control portion size.

• Sleep around 7 to 8 hours daily.

• Swimming can also help in managing weight and prevention of many diseases.

• Staying socially active with friends and family.

• Try consuming more amount of whole grains, lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables.

• Arrange scheduled visits to hospitals and avoid negligence of any symptoms if experienced.

  “It costs money to stay healthy, but it’s even more expensive to get sick” – States absolutely right, it proves that health is always more important than wealth.

Having maintained a healthy lifestyle is very important to lead a productive life. To make this happen we need to make smart lifestyle changes concerning our diet and physical activity. Keep yourself motivated for fitness and go for regular check-ups and tests that can help in preventing many silent diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.,

Stay Healthy, Stay safe!

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