Everyone wants to have a healthy body and mind.
And it needs 3 fundamental things. They are
- Good sleep
- Good food
- Good exercise
1. GOOD SLEEP
Nowadays we see lots of patients in the opd with complaint of lack of sleep. It has become more common among youngsters. A good sleep is essential for your body and mind to rejuvenate and get ready for the next day. It helps our brain to rest for a while and to do an auto- repair.
How does a bad/lack of sleep affect our body?
- It disturbs the immune system and results in future risk for diabetes and coronary artery diseases
- It increases anxiety/ depression and bad performance of the brain
- It leads to obesity
- It leads to heart attack and stroke
Recommended duration of sleep for each age group
- Newborn to 2 months of age- 12 to 18 hours
- 3 months to 1 year- 14 to 15 hours
- 1 to 3 years of age- 12 to 14 hours
- 3 to 5 years- 11 to 13 hours
- 5 to 12 years- 10 to 11 hours
- 12 to 18 years- 8 to 9 hours
- Adults- 7 to 9 hours
Can we catch up the lost hours of sleep?
Definitely. We can replace the lost hours of sleep
Other things to keep in mind…
- Avoid drinking energy drinks/coffee at night
- Avoid using TV/Computers /mobile at least 1 hour prior to sleep time
- Avoid loud music
- Avoid bright lights in the bed room
- Can drink one glass of hot milk, it gives you good sleep
- Can take a shower in lukewarm water before going to bed
- Have your dinner at least 2 hours prior to your bedtime.
2. GOOD FOOD
Next challenge in our lives is the lack of good quality food! All are busy and don’t even have time to prepare food. Fast food shops are emerging like anything around us. We can see people standing and gulping fast food in each and every corner. We have lost respect for our traditional food items are running behind the western culture blindly! The excessive use of junk food is the main concern among children.
What all problems does it cause to us?
They are very rich in calories, fat and sugar. But of very less nutritional value!
- Excessive use of these kind of foods causes obesity and metabolic syndrome.
- It leads to fatty liver and it may progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma
- It leads to constipation and even colon cancer
- It may lead to cardiovascular diseases too.
- It leads to peptic ulcer diseases too, even in children.
- Excessive sugar in this leads to insulin resistance and diabetes.
- It can lead to hypercholesterolemia and hypertension which leads to complications like stroke and heart attack.
- It is even proven that they may lead to some psychological imbalance also. They make us more prone for depression.
WHAT TO DO THEN?
- Do exclusive breastfeeding till 6 months
- Have a good complimentary feeding from 6 months onwards
- Avoid junk foods
- Give your children home-made nutritious foods
- Include vegetables and fruits in the diet
- Drink lots of water
- Avoid carbonated drinks
- Make your diet balanced with adequate carbohydrate, protein, fat, minerals and vitamins
- Avoid regular fast food and canned food
3.GOOD EXERCISE
The third main component is good physical exercise. Nowadays most of the jobs are sedentary. Children are also confined to their flats and addicted to mobile watching/TV shows. It affects our body in many ways. The glucose needed for daily activities is not fully utilized and get stored in our body. This leads to obesity and fatty liver. These problems can lead to any kind of complications like cardiovascular issues, stroke, diabetes, hypertension etc. Lack of sunlight exposure make everyone vitamin D deficient and this leads to poor calcium storage. Nowadays many such cases are seen in the opd just because of sedentary lifestyle. A minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical exercise is needed for the adults everyday. We can do brisk exercises /walking at home only. Encourage your children to go out and play for sometime daily.