Our ‘stylish’ lives and obesity!

We live no more as we desire... We live for our employers, friends, neighbours and you name others. It’s not a problem of morals we are going to tell you about. Rather, it’s a problem of lifestyle changes that we are more concerned. It’s all about our so called “stylish” lifestyles which make us fat and obese.

Gone are the days of men sweat on physical work in work places and in houses. Gone are the days women laboured on kitchen duties. We have machines to work for us and we are slaves of machines. We do not climb stairs, but we wait for the elevators. We do not walk a short distance but wait for a vehicle. We do not move and our lives move on ...

This life style without physical activities is number one danger for the development of obesity. It is wise to note that physical activity and exercise are two different things. One article quotes the distinction as follows:

“Physical activity can be defined as any bodily movement that increases energy expenditure and can include job-related activity, household chores, and leisure time activity. Exercise, on the other hand, is considered a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive with the purpose of improving physical fitness”.

It is understood that, unlike exercise, which is planned and structured, physical activity is what we do, day to day. It is obvious that we are becoming less active in job related duties, household tasks and in our leisure time spending. We burn fewer calories and accumulate fat because of this.

Now researchers are finding facts about, increasing the physical activity in daily chores is very much affective just like a well structured exercise program, combined with dieting. Increasing physical activity is not very hard to achieve if we think and act. If you use the stair way and avoid the elevator and walk the five minute distance instead of using your car, you are making a start!

Our so called “urban” lifestyle is making our lives’ faster and shorter. Most city dwellers do not have a space to walk around and to do some gardening in their limited space. Recreational activities have changed into “easy chair” activities. Most people nowadays like watching television, rather than going out for a walk. Playing cricket is replaced by video games.

Fast lifestyles have made us lovers for fast food. Fast food joints budding up in every nook and corner of town press us to eat large chunks of oily, fatty, unhealthy food. Gone are the days, small timer herbal drink cart along side the road offer you “kola-kendha”. Greasy and oily stuff have arrived with French fries. Many western experts on this subject have revealed the dangers about our modern lifestyle and related bad eating habits.

“The main reason for the increase in the prevalence of obesity, I believe have to do with modern lifestyle: We as a society produce food in large quantities and people are used to eat large portions of food,” says endocrinologist David Schteingart, M.D., associate director of the General Clinical Research Center at the University of Michigan Health System.

So, it is time to think differently. Time to become out-laws of modern lifestyles. We can make smaller, but effective moves towards it by simple lifestyle changes. Why waste money on more and more fast foods? We can make some thing at home and live healthy. We want a revolution of mind sets for a healthier future.

Courtesy: Slimlife Vol 6 sent by Dr. Kelum Pelpola

Cancer food pyramid

Good nutrition is especially important for people with cancer. The guide to appropriate eating, which divides food into six key groups of varying sizes. However the food pyramid alone may not be sufficient.

Maintaining a calorie balance is important. Choose food with more calories and more high protein foods such as meats and dairy products. You may need to cut high fibre foods for a while, such as a vegetables, fruits, cereals and whole grains, if your treatment cautions diarrhoea.

Consider small frequent snacks which can be easily tolerated. Cut back on fats, sugar, alcohol and salt.

Free Medical Meditation Health Service

Regular meditation is now accepted by most people in west as an effective way to lead health lives, avoiding most of the stresses we confront in life today.

So stated the widely travelled Sri Lankan Dharmachari Siri Goonasekera in an interview with the Healthwatch on Sunday.

He said “out of all meditation practices Buddhist meditation is now gaining ground in the post modern west and there are millions practising this in that area in the world”.

He has opened a health promoting Buddhist Meditation Centre at No. 36 Siripa Road, Colombo 5 for those interested in trying out this meditation therapy for good health overcoming stresses and ill health.

He could be contacted on 0777105449.

Global health watch - 2 launched

W.A. Sumathi Fernando

The Global Health Watch 2 as an alternative to the World Health Report was launched on November 19 at the Nagarodaya Centre in Colombo by the People’s Health Movement in association with several other network organisations.

Sirimal Peiris of the People’s Health Movement in his initial address thanked all the participants including the distinguished guests Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Prof. Tissa Vitharana, Dr. K. Balasubramaniam of the Hai Institute and Dr. Vinya Ariyarathna, Executive Director of Sarvodaya and apprised the audience that this report has been launched in more than 22 countries in the world and invited Dr. Vinya Ariyarathna to take the chair and conduct the proceedings.

In his address Dr. Vinya Ariyarathna mentioned that the World Health Organisation issues the World Health Report annually to raise the health of the masses and said that the Global Health Watch 2 contains certain factors that are not embodied in the World Health Report and gives a deeper analyses than the World Health Report and that it ranks high and is a very important document worth reading.

He emphasised that the stories embodied in this report (Global Health Watch 2) makes a revelation of the heavy burdens played on the masses which has contributed to the deterioration of their health.

Translation of this report into Sinhala would enable the masses to exchange a series of experiences. Minister of science and Technology Prof. Tissa Witharana said he was able to go through only a few chapters of the reprodute to lack of time. But he was able to grasp the value of the contents as he was a doctor and worked in that capacity for a considered period of time.

He said that instead of giving treatment to the root causes of illnesses, patients are given treatment to cure the symptoms and the patients continue to return to hospitals on a number of occasions.

He stressed the importance of prevention which means the provision of clean drinking water, toilet facilities, good food etc. Although various discussions are held, adequate monies are not allocated for research work which is of utmost importance.

He said this report covers many aspects of health problems. He raised the issue that due to the various pressures exerted, whether any person could lead a healthy life. Drugs are being bought from other countries.

That is a trend in the whole world. He concluded by saying that due to the collapse of the economy in the whole world and due to various loans taken by the government and our country’s exchange earnings from tea and rubber too have collapsed, the country’s economy has fallen into a grave abyss.

However, the President is taking meaningful action to provide better health facilities and the whole health system needs to be re-vitalized. He said that this report deals with health issues, contagious diseases and HIV/AIDS.

He pointed out that Dr. Balasubramaniam had taken a keen interest in this book. Translation of this book in to Sinhala is a good idea.

Prof. Carlo Fonseka in his address said that he would explain how to understand the gist of this book. He explained his own characteristics.

Loving kindness shown to all humans ie. helping all those who comes his way, non-pollution of the environment ie. to refrain from damaging the earth. He went on to explain that by leading such a life one could achieve what is preached in all the doctrines.

Reduction of poverty, provision of health facilities to all beings, provision of educational facilities to all and reduction of climate change are universally accepted rights as given in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

All these problems have arisen as those four conditions are not strictly adhered to. 40 per cent of the world’s 6000 billion population are extremely poor.

Due to the existence of a wealthy minority the poor have been deprived of any wealth. Drugs smuggling is rampant.

All these have resulted in the failure to get treatment for illnesses. Exercise is very important. Lack of exercises, addiction to liquor and smoking contribute to a long list of illnesses such as High Blood Pressure, Heart troubles, cancer, stroke, diabetes etc. Cigarette manufactures are known as merchants of death he said. All these are explained in this book in detail he said.

Sirimal Pieris expressed his gratitude to Prof. Carlo Fonseka for his worthy views and expressed his anticipation that the encouragement shown by the Professor in this regard would continue in the future too. Dr. K. Balasubramaniam of the Hai Institute spoke and his speech was translated by Vasudeva Nanayakkara.

He said that this book was valuable for the academics and it embodies the work of multi national companies. It is the duty of a government to provide the needs of the masses. This book serves as a guide to implement a series of suggestions for the betterment of the health of the masses. According to the World Health Organisation poverty is the deadliest disease.

In Sri Lanka over 30 per cent of the under five children are malnourished due to poverty. Over 40 per cent of pregnant mothers are anaemic. Most of these mothers die at child birth delivering under weight babies.

Although Sri Lanka has all the resources and all the skills it is a sad plight that such things happen in our country.

Untidy beds can be healthy

Not making your bed in the morning might actually be better for you. It’s all to do with dust mites, which live in our beds (yours probably contains about 1.5 million) and produce allergens that are a major trigger for asthma.

Dust mites thrive in the warm, damp conditions of an occupied bed. But a team at Kingston University, London, found that simply leaving the bed unmade in the morning can help remove moisture from the mattress and sheets, so the mites dehydrate and die.

Courtesy: Reader’s Digest Sent by Dr. Viraj Peramuna

Low dose of caffeine may damage offspring’s heart

Drinking just two cups of coffee during pregnancy may affect fetal heart development and then reduce heart function over the entire lifespan of the child, showed a new study by U.S. researchers.

The study was conducted by a group of researchers from Yale University and published Tuesday online in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

In addition, the researchers also found that this relatively minimal amount of exposure may lead to higher body fat among males, when compared to those who were not exposed to caffeine.

Although the study was in mice, the biological cause and effect described in the research paper is plausible in humans, said the authors.

“Our studies raise potential concerns about caffeine exposure during very early pregnancy, but further studies are necessary to evaluate caffeine’s safety during pregnancy,” said Scott Rivkees, a senior researcher on the study.

To reach their conclusion researchers studied four groups of pregnant mice under two sets of conditions for 48 hours.

The first two groups were studied in “room air,” with one group having been injected with caffeine and another injected with saline solution.

The second two groups were studied under conditions where ambient oxygen levels were halved, with one group receiving caffeine and the other receiving saline solution.

They found that under both circumstances, mice given caffeine produced embryos with a thinner layer of tissue separating some of the heart’s chambers than the group that was not given caffeine.

The researchers then examined the mice born from these groups to determine what long-term effects, if any, caffeine had on the offspring.

They found that all of the adult males exposed to caffeine as fetuses had an increase in body fat of about 20 percent, and decreased cardiac function of 35 percent when compared to mice not exposed to caffeine.

“Caffeine is everywhere: in what we drink, in what we eat, in pills that we use to relieve pain, and even in candy,” said Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal.

“This report shows that despite popular notions of safety, there’s one place it probably shouldn’t be: in the diet of an expectant mother.”

Xinhua

Your question based on heart to heart talk on Heart Transplant

Healthwatch has arranged this talk in association with the Colombo Apollo Hospital where Sri Lanka’s first heart transplant is to take place shortly by Dr. Sujeeth H. Suvanna from U.K. who has done over one hundred heart transplants there. He is now at Apollo at its heart surgery unit.

The talk will be by this heart surgeon who at our request readily agreed to give a ‘heart to heart’ talk based on your heart touching questions on this field of surgery where heart surgery has developed and expanded enabling any of us with seriously affected heart problems -live with a donors heart.

Please give thought to this talk which is interesting and coming under our ‘health education programme’ send us your interesting questions based on the topic a the earliest possible.

The talk will be on at the Apollo auditorium on January 24, 2009, at 10 a.m.

Send your questions to:

Healthwatch Medical Education Talk
Heart to heart on heart transplant
Dr. Sujeeth Suvanna (Cardiothroracic Surgeon)
C\O Features Editor,
Daily News
Lake House,
No - 35,
D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10.