New Mid Life Crisis - Are the 20's the new 40's ?

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There was a time when mid life crisis was something way ahead into the future somewhere in the late forties when you were settled in with your kids in high school or college and your cholesterol shooting up just around the corner, or menopause hitting you like a mob is pelting you with stones in the middle of nowhere, wrinkles beginning to make a permanent address on your body, heart attacks come knocking on the door in the middle of the night and of course a sudden realization that you need to look after your health and diet now since you lived all your youth careless and fancy. STOP ! hold it right there, this isn't the early 90's or 80's we've crossed the millennium border 10 years ago and when that happened a lot more changed than just how we write our date. For starters 21st century brought about many researches into digging out the number of incidences in cardiac, gastrointestinal, diabetic and liver disorders that were seen in the population between 25 - 35 years of age. Stunned? don't be because its true "reality is always stranger than fiction".

The Incidences - Back in 2002 when I was studying to be a health professional in my grad school we had to do certain research and case presentations of other researches or disorders and that itself was an eye opener. Most of the incidences of a heart attack, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel disease, fatty liver, insulin resistance and then diabetes, angina, and some kidney failures were seen in male population between 24 - 30 years. I must say it was a shocking data to study. Most of these incidences were seen in high stress occupations like banking and financial investments, IT, BPO, Medicos, and hospitality sector. I know there aren't many occupations left so to say but these were the most prominent places people suffered these ailments all over the world as well. Ever since the incidences have become more prominent with the stifled economic climate, competition and need for more convenience in lifestyle.

Women join the Men - If the cardiac and diabetic incidences rose in male population the women were joining in ranks with hormonal and gynecological disorders like amenorrhea, early menopause, osteoporosis, endometriosis, fibroids in the uterus, hypertension etc. With so many hurdles to overcome and so little time left to take care of themselves women like men completely ignore their wellbeing in the long run. Although they are extremely particular of the way they look their health which is ironically the thing that rules how they appear is given a stepsister treatment. The toll is taken up not just their careers or kids (if any) but most importantly their life as in normal way of living. It isn't ambition that has to be blamed nor is it competition to thrive but its just simple responsibility towards yourself that needs to be given a thought long overdue. The strangest thing with the women's problems is that they started to show problems usually seen in men like gastrointestinal disorders and cardiac disorders due to the imbalance in estrogen in the blood stream and the men have also shown problems usually tagged with women like osteoporosis, andropause, hormonal imbalances. Well truth is both the sexes are equally messed up and both are responsible for their own doing all in their 20's to repent in their 30's.

Where did we go wrong ?? - We take the simplest of routine for granted, we make a big deal out of time or the lack of it, we presume to have no control over anything that happens around us and for our back up we always have one devious person to blame everything on - our "BOSS". Oh yes as long as we have them in our lives we are covered as far as excuses are concerned, whatever it is blame it on the boss. Remarkable thing about how people in their 20's go wrong with health is they want to look their best and want the best shiny new toy in town be it the car, phone, gizmos, accessories, clothes, address, job, girlfriend/ boyfriend; but nobody is ready to have it all the best way possible by staying healthy. Its like everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die, how is that ever possible? All the fancy things in life come to you when you are healthy enough to enjoy it. A fabulous pay check and an apartment/ house with a car isn't going to keep that heart that pumps 5.5 liters of blood in the best of shape nor is it going to keep your waist and hips from getting the shape of a potato sack, nor your bones to be strong and sturdy instead of sponges. We eat and drink and use substances so harmful for your body that it brings the body down to its knees to get our attention any way it can to stop the constant abuse over it. Where do we go wrong? We go wrong from the moment we have cups of coffee tall, dark, with sugar & extra cream, cappuccino, a cream bread roll or cinnamon roll or bagel loaded with fat or donuts or burgers or even the Indian/ Asian breakfast that is otherwise light and nutritious but for the sake of taste is floating in oil or fat. We go wrong in sleeping late and waking up just in time to go to work. We go wrong in rushing to take a transportation so that when climbing stairs is concerned we chose the elevator (those working on levels above 5 can take elevator on level 4). We never stretch our body even at work no matter how much time we squander in smoking areas or in washroom gossip or cafeteria or game room at work. We smoke a pack during work hours alone, we eat a late lunch because the meetings are lined up, we drink coffee immediately post late lunch. Fruits are part of an extinct species of plants that we don't seem to remember. Eating out after work is a norm we can't seem to get rid off and having a quick bite is more of a fashion statement than one of the 6 frugal light meals, more over it isn't even a healthy quick bite. Like fruits exercise happens when calamity or boredom strikes and there are no other options left. We make sure even the most nutritious ingredients in our meals are fried, boiled or sweetened. The list is endless and comprises of minute aspects that are easily overlooked. But all those aspects play a vital role in making our building blocks of life tumble down.

Hope Floats on Lifestyle - While we run in the race towards a higher pedestal to stand tall on as compared to our peers, neighbors, friends, siblings and competitors in general, little do we realize the very reason we do it is so as to enjoy an aspiring lifestyle. What and irony something everybody is chasing is a lifestyle to be envied  and ultimately forgo all the details of making that lifestyle possible in reality - health. Hope thereby floats only on our decession making skills to be healthy overall. A healthy lifestyle gives you the power to race or relax at your time & choice. It offers more strength & endurance to be a winner in the most competitive environments of business. Benefits to our personal life are beyond comparison and the happiness we offer our loved ones. It takes less than 30 minutes of a day physically to be healthy and lesser than 15 minutes every 4 hours gastronomically to be satiable and happy. Life is dependent on your lifestyle management give it hope by taking your first step towards it.

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Treatment for Fatty Liver Disease without Alcohol

Previously I shared with you about the alcoholic fatty liver disease where the patient consumes more than 30 ml of alcohol per day. However the dynamics of the disease are also seen without any consumption of alcohol but have similar role as alcohol would have on the liver and that is an erratic lifestyle. Non alcoholic fatty liver disease is mostly observed in Indian men as well as some Asian genome as per a study done in New Haven, Connecticut.
How does an erratic lifestyle cause liver to become fatty again is the mystery but it all boils down to the same old story of a healthy lifestyle and yes genetics too has a role in it. Let us discover and unravel this face of the disease today.
Causes of Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease:
Insulin Resistance - The mother of all harm is also the reason why non alcoholic fatty liver disease occurs. Insulin resistance is the resistance by our cells to the hormone insulin due to the excessive presence of fat and free radical damage done to the cells due to stress. This also invariably causes non genetic diabetes of adult onset wherein the insulin secreted is not able to activate due to the receptors on the cells being damaged. This affects the metabolism of carbohydrates and fat which affects the liver ultimately.

Free Radical Damage - Once you have a lifestyle thats overt and out of order be assured you will be under immense and long term stress which will evolve into a viscous cycle of free radical damage to the body one day or another. By getting a non alcoholic liver disease is the last nail in the proverbial good health coffin. Free radical damage stems from wrong food habits, substance abuse or pollution and also mental stress. This leads to a lot of stress on the one organ that is meant to remove stress like that of drugs, substances, chemicals etc and if it is under a disease you need emergency professional intervention. Free radicals are no less than a atomic chain reaction within our body it is responsible for ageing, degeneration of brain cells, heart, food pipe, prostate gland and causing diabetes.

Excessive erratic weight loss - Sometimes people do go over the top losing weight and if they are overweight losing excessive weight in too less a time can prove to be hazardous. Certain cases tend to show this liver disease.
All in all the causes have one thing in common imbalance and disturbance of metabolism of fat which leads to fatty liver disease as discussed previously.

Treatment - Nothing heals a liver more than taking away the root cause of the problem. Liver diseases are to be healed by a well calculated diet plan which should vary as per the prognosis. What is mostly forgotten is that unlike alcoholic fatty liver disease the problem here is that of overall unhealthy lifestyle which needs to be addressed first and insulin resistance needs immediate attention. erratic lifestyle habits of untimely meals, frequent high fat or high sugar or high sodium food, smoking or alcohol use everyday, any other substance abuse like drugs, lack of exercise, disturbed sleep patterns, mental stress and physical as well. Many that I know of take a very blatantly just stop eating fat, opt for boiled veggies or steamed food, and of course no salt for like a month and declare they feel better because the bile test levels are normal. Voila! there you have it no need for any professional help. How convenient to not check if the fat metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism has returned to normal, liver is detoxifying, breaking down protein well, vitamin storage and supplement is done well. Almost everything we eat has to pass the liver at some point for metabolism and compromising its health just for our convenience isn't the solution that will help. Protein and fat are the most hit metabolisms and intake of these above a certain level won't serve well for its recovery. In addition not supplying the body vitamins that are otherwise stored in the liver like A, E and D as well. Boiled food fr months isn't the real solution because the entire course of prognosis could be reversed or relapsed into the same cycle if not handled carefully. A well planned and customized diet plan with variables to suffice the current nutrition and liver healing is a must have. Whilst the liver battles out its ill health and restores on the diet consumption of potent liver cells harming drugs should be avoided, chemicals in food should be stopped, strictly home cooked food should be consumed, preservatives of any nature should be avoided in food. Once the liver reaches a stage where recommended daily allowances of all nutrients can be consumed a plan of daily routine should be charted out to ensure no relapse due to faulty lifestyle.

This should get some light into the mystery of how a liver disease of this nature be cured for good and for more help on the matter please do visit the wellness programs suited for your customized lifestyle or at consultation@wellnessandi.com

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Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease & Nutrition Therapy

This isn't one of the most seen diseases in a population as a whole but yes I do owe the foundation of my career and nutrition counselling skills to this one disease. During my stint in hospitals I would have probably treated more fatty liver cases next to diabetes and heart disease itself and its quite bewildering to me as well. So while I retrospect on it, let me share with you some of the crucial must know facts about this disease and how it can become into a hedge maze if you don't follow the right path.


How does the liver get fat ? - The process is called 'steatosis' which means abnormal deposition of fat inside a cell. Small vacuoles of triglycerides are formed in the hepatocytes (liver cells) which may also accompany inflammation of liver or as commonly known hepatitis. This fatty deposition occurs when the energy or fat metabolism is disturbed or imbalanced so as to not break down fat properly. It can also be caused due to the fat metabolism hormone receptor being impaired or inhibited. Alcohol is metabolized by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) into highly toxic acetaldehyde, then further metabolized by aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) into acetic acid which is oxidized into Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and water. Alcohol harms the mitochondria and other cellular processes. The mitochondria is the power house of the cell which generates energy and orchestrates metabolism inside the cell thereby the energy metabolism gets impaired. fat vacuoles are small in the early stages which do not cause any displacement of the cell's nucleus position, later stages the fat vacuoles contain more fat and grows larger in size causing obvious pushing of the nucleus to the periphery of the cell thus disrupting it. However as the disease progresses the fat vacuoles can coalesce to form fat cysts which are more irreversible lesions and can damage the liver cells for good.

Complications of AFLD - When the liver is laden with fatty tissue or even fat cysts it can also get inflammed to an extent where hepatitis can ocur. This condition is more severe and harmful to the body. In this stage the hepatocyte can balloon up or undergo necrosis (die). As the hepatocytes necrose and the liver scars the blood vessles in hte liver become narrow leading to increased pressure in hte blood entering the liver (portal hypertension). The veins need to develop collaterally and thus form a network of collateral portal veins which are fragile and can easily rupture causing bleeding or varices. Varices can lead emergency situation of internal bleeding. The increased blood pressure creates backlog of the blood which the veins try and match up with the collateral system but it doesn't prove enough. This leads to excess body fluids retention in the abdominal area in the peritonial cavity (abdominal wall cavity) and is termed as 'Ascites'. Ascites puts pressure on the diaphragm making breathing laboured. The later stages of alcoholic fatty liver disease leads to toxic substances ammonia as protein isn't metabolized well and can cause disorientation and loss of brain activity leading to sudden death.


Therapy and Care - The liver has main functions of detoxification, fat metabolism and protein metabolism which suffers during any liver disease. Therefore the diet that is administered should make sure the protein, fat and other substances are calculated as per the disease stage after liver function test. The medium chain fatty acids bypass liver and enter directly to be metabolized in the intestine therefore these are good substitutes for fat in the diet. Easily digested peptides and amino acids in the diet should be given rather than the usual protein foods. Protein and fat percentage in the diet should be as low as possible depending upon the stage of the disease and can be modified as the therapy and healing progresses. Liver is the only regenerative organ of our body and it needs ample of simple sugar to do so in order to heal itself back to original health therefore glucose is the best remedy as well as soft fruits and organic home made fruit jellies. Since the ascites is due to water backlog the fluid administration should be measured as per urine quantity daily and fluid drainage done at the health care center or hospital. Excess fluids can also become fatal. the liver is highly susceptible to any kind of infection or toxicity in this disease therefore a complete avoidance of processed, canned or outside food should be the mantra. fat soluble vitamins like A,D and E cannot be administered as their normal doses as they are stored in the liver but can be given in reduced amounts. Potassium and sodium content needs to be measured as it influences the water retention and blood pressure. The liver is in dire need of antioxidants like Vitamin B, C and minerals to heal the stress it suffers and more of fruits that are easily digested and chewed (preferentially soft) should be eaten in merrily. Complete abstinence of alcohol and drugs like paracetamol should be observed. The patient should be under thorough medical care and observation with a total bed rest for couple of months.


If you would like to know more about a disease & its treatment please do write to me at contact@wellnessandi.com and I shall be happy to share with you. For more on custom made personalized wellness management please see our wellness programs offered.

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Is drinking water before a meal bad for digestion?

How many times have you been asked or told this while discussing the usual health tips amongst your friends, family or colleagues. I know so many people personally who defend this theory like they know the inside of a human gastrointestinal tract better than itself. The reason behind this theory is that 200 ml of water dilutes 1 liter gastric juices and acidity therefore it doesn't help normal digestion infact it dilutes or causes harm. Let us find out today if this theory has relevance or it is yet another theory amongst many such cases that we've been discussing.

pH of Stomach - Just off the mind let me remind you that the acidity counted in pH is between 0 to 7 and anything above or equal to 7 is considered alkaline or simply not acidic at all. Water has a neutral pH of 7 and blood has a pH of 7.3. The pH of our gastric juices is 2 which is extremely acidic on a scale of acidity. So lets understand what really happens either before we ingest a single morsel of food and while eating our meal. Gastric juices is comprised of Hydrochloric acid (HCl), pepsinogen and mucus which is secreted once the hormone gastrin is secreted by the presence of food or protein in food. The acid does not physically digest the food it only provides the pH for the enzyme pepsin to denature or breakdown the protein chain. Now almost a liter of pH 2 HCl needs a sufficient quantity of water to neutralise or increase the pH.

How much harm can a glass of water do? - Honestly depends how big is your 1 glass. If it is 200 ml standard glass and you consume it over the whole meal with some sips not gulps, then it doesn't affect at all since the pH change from 2 to 3 needs a good amount of a neutral or alkaline substance. Of course food and its pH matters too and nobody ever considers that while spreading a myth however point is you can have a glass over the entire length of the meal and not concentrated at a given point alone. Besides we eat our meal for enjoying it not to drown our appetite with water, now do we? Hosing down your stomach with a glass of water entirely just before eating could of course spoil your appetite and also mildly increase the pH.

Moral of the story - You may drink water while having your meal. Since it can't do much harm with a little over 1.5 pint of gastric juice every meal. However do not load water more than a glass while eating but can do so after ingesting the whole meal. Infact some amount of water will help bulk the fiber content in the intestine and provide better motility.

For further information visit Wellness & I and get your personalized lifestyle plan. 

Wish you wellness.

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Importance of healthy liver

Very rarely do we keep this one vital organ in our radar of good health and more than any other organ except kidney our entire body thrives on its good health. Liver mostly our source to secrete bile an enzyme that breaks down fat in the food we ingest. But liver has more functions than one can imagine and it is also the grave yard of our blood cells. One of the key functions of our liver is protein metabolism, vitamin metabolism and storage, mineral metabolism and storage, glucose chain synthesis and storage and fat metabolism. Detoxification of the body and blood is one of the results of these functions. Keeping the liver healthy is keeping the entire body healthy. Your liver will always showcase how unhealthy or stressed your body really is even if you don’t see it outwardly or the other blood parameters are masked.

A healthy liver will never have fatty deposits like it’s loaded with blobs of fat neither will it have stocks of clogged toxins like our drug chemicals, food preservatives, additives, coloring agents, food substitutes etc. Liver was designed to breakdown protein and then help body build up its biomolecules, breakdown fat into fatty acids and further into triglycerides and lipoproteins. It is well equipped to store fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A, D and E while also metabolizing them for the body. Minerals such as zinc, selenium, copper etc are also broken down from food and metabolized by the liver. When the liver isn't receiving organic, fresh and well cooked food it is not going to function in its best way after repeated abuses. Alcohol and smoke are the most common substances that cause problems for the liver functioning as the particulate matter from the smoke and other polluting molecules once pass the lungs can harm the liver by depositing in it. The liver cannot get rid of many such pollutants as it cannot process alcohol beyond a limit. 

To make sure you detoxify your liver you can incorporate herbs, condiments and fresh fruits and vegetables that contain polyphenols, vitamins that can wash out the toxins in the liver and thereby the body. Make sure you ingest raw vegetables everyday as much as raw fruits as it is one of th best medicines to detox your liver and of course nutmeg has also been seen to detoxify liver. Liver is the primary organ which supplies our body the biomolecules it needs to strengthen, repair and discard if our supply and trash can is over loaded with trash itself it won't do us any good now can it ? Get on a diet that will not only help your overall goals for the body but also take care of these minute yet significant details of the body's normal functioning. To do so you may sign up with a customized wellness program or even get your free trial consultation. 

Wish you wellness. 

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