Why regular exercise is good for health!

Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis – Indians are facing an unhealthy future burdened with a slew of lifestyle diseases. But instead of expensive medication and therapy, the cure lies in making exercise a compulsory part of everyday life, health experts say.

“Indians are increasingly leading a sedentary and machine-dependent life, which may seem comfortable but has extremely adverse effects on health,” T.S. Kler, Head of the Department Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, said.

Kler said with increasingly hectic lifestyles, most Indians in urban areas nowadays do not walk to the neighbourhood store but rather order groceries on phone for home delivery or drive down.


“We do not climb stairs any more, with lifts being omnipresent. Riding bicycles to work or to school is not cool in urban areas any more. Forget adults, this conditioning begins with children who prefer to stay indoors watching television or playing video games rather than spending time in the playground,” he added.

“We all know that cardiovascular diseases are today a major health concern in India. They are the single largest leading cause of deaths in the country, and relatively younger people are today afflicted by coronary artery disease,” the noted cardiologist said.

Various surveys done in India have shown that the incidence of coronary heart disease is 8-10 percent in urban areas and 5-6 percent in rural areas.

Kler said regular exercise can help prevent risk factors for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and type II diabetes. It also keeps the weight in check.

“Incidences of coronary artery disease can be reduced substantially if the entire Indian population religiously takes to physical exercise. Even 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily can be immensely beneficial. We need a national focus on this less-talked about subject,” Kler said.

According to Rajeev K. Sharma, senior consultant orthopedics and joint replacement surgery, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital: “Adequate levels of physical activity decreases the risk of a hip or vertebral fracture and helps control weight. In fact, exercise is very crucial for maintaining good bone health, besides adequate intake of calcium.”

“WHO estimates that globally, one in four adults is not active enough while more than 80 percent of the world’s adolescent population is insufficiently physically active. This is a dreadful scenario as all these inactive people are making themselves vulnerable to several health issues,” he said.

Osteoporosis-related injuries such as vertebrae fractures not only cause pain but also degrade the quality of life, curtail movement and increase dependence. Since the bone is a living tissue, it becomes stronger when subjected to exercise, Sharma said, adding that loss of bone mineral density that begins during the 30s can be curtailed by exercising regularly.

“People who exercise are found to have greater peak bone mass as compared to people who do not exercise.”

According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, the malaise annually causes more than 8.9 million fractures around the globe.

“Though exercising can, to a large extent, help in building strong bones, there is a general lack of an exercise culture in India. This needs to change. Schools, colleges and other institutions should take the lead in nurturing an exercising culture.”

Harvinder Singh Chhabra, medical director and chief of spine services at Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Vasant Kunj, said Indians generally do not realize the importance of exercising unless hit by an ailment.

“Many patients start walking regularly after back pain or osteoarthritis has already set in their bodies. We tell them they could have delayed it by being active all their lives,” he added.

According to Chhabra, in the West, there is a lot of focus on physical activity and people are moving away from sedentary ways of life. “They are junking television and going for cycling, running, or adventure sports such as rock climbing. This shift is yet to take place in India.”

To make exercise a national culture, apart from awareness, many enabling policy measures are also needed.
“In urban areas, several environmental factors discourage people from leading more active lives even if they want to. Lack of public spaces such as parks and grounds, safety issues on the roads, pollution and irksome traffic do not allow many people to step out of homes to run or walk. This needs to change,” he said.

The latter half of the 20th century has brought substantial progress in disease control due to expansion of health infrastructure. With food and nutritional consumption also improving for a vast majority of population, life expectancy in India has gone up over the years. Experts say that deaths due to communicable diseases have decreased while those from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have risen.

NCDs at present account for 53 percent of all deaths and 44 percent of disability adjusted life-years lost. Projections indicate a further increase to 67 percent of all deaths by 2030. Cardiovascular disease is the major contributor to this burden, attributable to 52 percent of NCD-associated deaths and 29 percent of total deaths.

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How to prevent Type 2 Diabetes!

Although the genes you inherit may influence the development of type 2 diabetes, they take a back seat to behavioral and lifestyle factors. Data from the Nurses’ Health Study suggest that 90 percent of type 2 diabetes in women can be attributed to five such factors: excess weight, lack of exercise, a less-than-healthy diet, smoking, and abstaining from alcohol.

Among 85,000 married female nurses, 3,300 developed type 2 diabetes over a 16-year period. Women in the low-risk group were 90 percent less likely to have developed diabetes than the rest of the women. Low-risk meant a healthy weight (body mass index less than 25), a healthy diet, 30 minutes or more of exercise daily, no smoking, and having about three alcoholic drinks per week.


Similar factors are at work in men. Data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study indicate that a “Western” diet, combined with lack of physical activity and excess weight, dramatically increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in men.

Information from several clinical trials strongly supports the idea that type 2 diabetes is preventable. The Diabetes Prevention Program examined the effect of weight loss and increased exercise on the development of type 2 diabetes among men and women with high blood sugar readings that hadn’t yet crossed the line to diabetes. In the group assigned to weight loss and exercise, there were 58 percent fewer cases of diabetes after almost three years than in the group assigned to usual care. Even after the program to promote lifestyle changes ended, the benefits persisted: The risk of diabetes was reduced, albeit to a lesser degree, over 10 years.

Similar results were seen in a Finnish study of weight loss, exercise, and dietary change, and in a Chinese study of exercise and dietary change.

Simple Steps to Lower Your Risk
Making a few lifestyle changes can dramatically lower the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. The same changes can also lower the chances of developing heart disease and some cancers.

Control Your Weight
Excess weight is the single most important cause of type 2 diabetes. Being overweight increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes seven fold. Being obese makes you 20 to 40 times more likely to develop diabetes than someone with a healthy weight.

Losing weight can help if your weight is above the healthy-weight range. Losing 7 to 10 percent of your current weight can cut your chances of developing type 2 diabetes in half.

Get Moving—and don’t be a couch potato!
Inactivity promotes type 2 diabetes. Working your muscles more often and making them work harder improves their ability to use insulin and absorb glucose. This puts less stress on your insulin-making cells.
Long bouts of hot, sweaty exercise aren’t necessary to reap this benefit. Findings from the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study suggest that walking briskly for a half hour every day reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 30 percent.

Tune Up Your Diet
Four dietary changes can have a big impact on the risk of type 2 diabetes.

1. Choose whole grains and whole grain products over highly processed carbohydrates.
2. Skip the sugary drinks, and choose water, coffee, or tea instead.
3. Choose good fats instead of bad fats.
4. Limit red meat and avoid processed meat; choose nuts, whole grains, poultry, or fish instead.

If You Smoke, Try to Quit
Add type 2 diabetes to the long list of health problems linked with smoking.
Smokers are roughly 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes than nonsmokers, and heavy smokers have an even higher risk.

Limit your alcohol intake
Too much alcohol can lead to weight gain and may increase your blood pressure and triglyceride levels. Men should have no more than two standard drinks a day and women should have no more than one.

Control your blood pressure
Most people can do this with regular exercise, a balanced diet and by keeping a healthy weight. In some cases, you might need medication prescribed by your doctor.

The Bottom Line: The key to preventing type 2 diabetes can be boiled down to five words: Stay lean and stay active.

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Playboy goes non-nude with Hemingway's great-granddaughter!

The great-granddaughter of novelist Ernest Hemingway strips off for a revamped issue of Playboy magazine as it abandons full frontal nudity for flirty, more natural shots of women with some, or no, clothes on.

Actress and fashion model Dree Hemingway, 28, is the March Playmate for the first so-called "non nude" edition of the 62-year-old magazine, which hits U.S. newsstands on Feb. 12, Playboy said on Thursday.

Social media personality Sarah McDaniel appears on the front cover in an edition that Playboy describes as showcasing "beautiful women with a very real, relaxed vibe."

In the new-look magazine, Hemingway and McDaniel pose both scantily clad and naked, while partly covering themselves strategically with their hands, bed sheets or rugs.

Playboy, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner, announced in October that it would stop publishing nude photos of women, saying they had become outdated due to the plethora of free pornography on the Internet. 

Playboy's circulation has dropped from about 5.6 million in 1975 to around 800,000 in recent years.

Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson was the last person to bare it all for Playboy for the January/February 2016 edition.

Playboy Enterprises Chief Executive Scott Flanders said the new look magazine was a "labor of love." It also contains interviews with actor James Franco, U.S. television news anchor Rachel Maddow, and an essay by "American Psycho" novelist Bret Easton Ellis.

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Nutrition diet for cancer patients!

Nutrition is an important part of cancer treatment. The nutrient needs of people with cancer vary from person to person. Eating well means eating a variety of foods that will give your body the nutrients needed to help fight cancer.

It’s important to eat extra calories and proteins to keep you strength up during treatment. Chemotherapy, radiation, and other cancer treatments can be hard on your body, hence making healthy food choices can help you feel better and speed up your recovery.

Choose Healthy Foods like whole grains, pasteurized 100% fruit or vegetable juices, lean meat like fish & chicken, dried fruits. Limit the intake of red meat, processed foods and sugary foods which has lots of calories but very little nutrients.


Lack of appetite is common during cancer treatment. Some treatments can even make food taste unpleasant. Even though you don’t feel like eating, it’s important to get adequate nutrition. Choose high-calorie, nutrient-rich foods such as nuts, beans, puddings, and cooked cereals. Eat small meals throughout your day; don’t wait till you feel hunger.

Some cancer treatments temporarily weaken your immune system. So it’s important to avoid germs that you can pick up from food. Contaminated food can make you ill.

1. Keep all perishable foods in the fridge until you’re ready to prepare them.
2. Cook all your meats until they’re well done.
3. Avoid eating half cooked or soft boiled eggs.
4. Check expiry dates to avoid food spoilage, and throw away any moldy foods.
5. Prepare your food on surfaces that are cleaned with soapy, hot water.
6. Use a separate cutting board for raw meat, fish, or poultry. Wash it thoroughly after each use.
7. Scrub and rinse fruits and vegetables thoroughly. Don’t eat any fruits or vegetables that you can’t wash easily, such as berries, grapes, etc. Scrub the outsides, even if you don’t eat them, like the rind of a melon.