Office might be your second home but indeed it’s got its share of restrictions and rules. We’ve been given our tiny own cubicles at workplace and introducing liveliness into this place entirely depends on our taste and efforts. Some individuals’ cubicles are like a whiff of fresh air which makes your feel peppier, eager to work more and lifts your spirits whereas some other workstations are mundane. In between all the important discussions, meetings and personal work comes the inconspicuous lunchtime hours which are not even listed in some employees’ itinerary. Either they grab a bite on their way back home or munch down something sitting in their desk working away. But how good is it on your health and above all, how hygienic is it? The Relentless Worker Though we keep insisting that smart work is better than hard work the number of hours you sit at office and make people aware of your presence do count in few work settings. Individuals are also of the concept that a person sitting at his/her desk without breaks (or eating at his/her desk) and working diligently is a hard-working person who definitely needs a praise! But there is nothing good about eating snacks or meals at the desk. It’s not only bad for your health but can also be annoying for other employees. The second part is very much true. For instance, let’s say that it’s around 12 pm or so and you open a box of garlic rice which sends out an aroma instantly to all other people in the room. Already some of the guys have started feeling hungry but keep working anyways to wait until official lunchtime. While you might apologize for eating at your desk its necessary to remember that all others are immediately disturbed. If you feel the need to eat at your desk, do it inconspicuously. Its advisable to take a small break at least every two hours to flex the body, take a short walk during lunch and be energetic. Abstaining from taking a lunch break limits even the little exercise that we could get from walking to the cafeteria for lunch. Even if your office permits you to eat at your desk others might find the aroma of strong foods such as garlic, chilli, onion and radish to be disturbing. While you have the right to eat any food of your choice it is also necessary to remember you have no rights to disturb others. Go easy on the spices and keep everyone happy at your office. Despite all these, if you still insist on eating at your desk at least avoid getting yourself attacked by foodborne illnesses with the tips given below:
Workplace Safety Some of the tips given here can help you ward off bacteria and germs from laying their hands on your food:
Lunch Break Can Make a Great Difference to Your Work Routine Your lunchbreak can have a psychological effect on the mind affecting your thinking and emotional state. This is the result of a research study done on 32 female participants of whom half of them ate alone at office and another half went out for a leisure meal together. At office, the participants ate their meal in a short span of time in the absence of any company but at the restaurant the participants took time to select and eat the meal along with others. Those who went out also had to walk back a short distance to reach office. After their meal, the participants were measured their sematic memory, cognitive control and error processing and processing of facial expressions. Those who ate outside reported feeling much relaxed and displayed improved facial processing which improves their creativity and connectivity to others. Many officers and managers might see a prolonged lunch break as a potential threat to productivity, but it can help the employee work better, stress little and improve output. Your lunch can actually determine the course of events that might happen during the rest of day. Going off for a relaxing lunch break with your colleagues can improve bonding with them. A strong relationship at work gives you happiness, a soul to rely upon during tough times and someone who can give you suggestions. All these in turn improve your job performance, work satisfaction and mental health.
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Humanity is at a junction in life where we keep hearing the word ‘infertility’ more frequently than the word ‘fertility’. Couples suffer from the absence of a newborn in their life for years together before being blessed with a child adapting to artificial reproduction techniques or in rare cases, conceive naturally. The reason for infertility these days is also owned by the male gender almost 40-50% times. This is a great advancement in a society where men were branded as 100% fertile with the entire blame for infertility shouldered by the women during previous days.
Sperm count rates have steeped too low almost halved in the last 50 years or so in the Western countries. But even now, sperm count doesn’t hold top place in causing infertility problems but only hinders the conceiving time-it takes a longer time for couples to conceive. But if this continues, infertility rates are sure to increase and conceiving becomes a more problematic task. Many have tried to exploit the problems of infertility and make it a business by deceiving people with different humbug solutions that never workout. There are different diets and exercises too recommended as obesity/overweight has been recorded as one of the major causes of infertility in couples. Health experts prescribe lifestyle changes and dietary modifications as the primary means to fight off infertility problems. Get in touch with registered dietitian nutritionists at www.firsteatright.com to help you conceive naturally with dietary modifications and lifestyle changes. A new study by researchers at the University of Sheffield shows that sperm quality can be improved with a simple diet supplement containing a compound found in cooked tomatoes. They conducted a double-blind randomized trial to find out the effects of giving men a dietary compound called LactoLycopene. Lycopene is a pigment that’s found in a variety of fruits and vegetables including tomatoes, watermelons, grapefruits, apricots and guavas responsible for giving them a red color. This compound is poorly absorbed by the body and hence, the study team used a commercially available formulation called Lactolycopene to enhance its availability to the human body. For instance, you would need to eat around 2 kilograms of cooked tomatoes every day to get the same dose of lycopene as absorbed from the supplement which is not practically possible. The study period was 12 weeks involving 60 healthy volunteers aged between 19 and 30 years. Half of them received lycopene supplements and the other half received placebo (dummy supplements). Neither the participants nor the researchers were aware who received the supplement and who received the placebo. All the participants were collected sperm and blood samples at the beginning and end of trial. Results showed that using the supplement helped improve the size and shape of the sperm dramatically. Measurements were taken using a computer system but again, the person entering data remained unaware of who’s taken what supplement. The researchers were surprised by the study results and as the second step, plan to recreate the same study on a group of men with fertility problems to witness whether it helps them conceive naturally without the need for IVF or IUI. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant and this might prevent any damage caused by oxidation of sperm (main cause for male infertility). Also, the same antioxidant effect could be the primary reason behind improved sperm quality. Not long time back I was in this delicate situation where two of my best friends laughs and giggles made me giggle too irrespective of the circumstance or the content. While it made me hate myself on one hand, I was enjoying the happiness and laughter surrounding my life on the other hand. But it ended up messing up our internship at office during later months. It was one of the critical meetings held in the conference room and the entire team was seated around. As usual, my friend provoked me to laugh with some silly joke of hers and I started to giggle which made my other friend giggle too. Seeing us laugh the employee next to me started to laugh which irritated the boss. When questioned, the employee simply replied that he started to laugh seeing all three of us giggle. We were all warned seriously about our attitude and let off the hook that day. While the experience might be a bitter one it surely does help us understand that emotions are contagious! A crying baby in the hospital invokes the same in other babies in the ward, one student laughing in the class makes the whole class rumble with laughter and a sense of joy or sadness in any one individual in the house spreads the same feelings to all others too residing. We often say that we can judge people by the type of friend they keep in their life. Likewise, we can judge the emotional state of a person by the emotional state of other members of the house too. Even if you are not aware of it, there are excellent chances that your emotions will affect the people around you. Also, have you ever noticed that you feel happy when someone around you is happy, sad when you are around someone who’s sad and depressed when people are anxious or stressed? This is clearly visible in the small things in life-when someone in the train smiles at you, you smile back in a reflex even though you barely know the person; if you see someone cry over the loss of their loved one there are tears rolling down your eyes and this might happen even while watching movies; and when your dad is sad over some financial crisis the entire house wears a dull look until your dad starts being himself! Researchers have been trying to unravel the reason why people mimic emotions for centuries and studies show that expressions in the face of people trigger the brain to reciprocate the same emotions as our brain predicts it to be a representation of our own emotions. So, just like catching cough and cold maybe it is possible to ‘catch’ emotions such as happiness, sadness, anxiety and stress too. Such a tendency where an individual or a group of individuals affect the emotion and behavior of other individuals is described as emotional contagion (EC). EC is made possible by the interconnected network of cells in the brain that make up the Mirror Neuron System (MNS). MNS captures all the emotional traits of your opponent and mirrors the same in your face. For instance, if you notice someone being happy your brain records the emotion and immediately signals you to be happy too. A smiling person signals your smile muscles to bring on the broad smile to your face reflecting the emotional state of that person. Likewise, depression and sadness too are as contagious as happiness and smile. The perfect example that emotions are contagious is proved with a business simulation experiment at Yale University which gave two groups of people the responsibility to decide the bonus amount for each employee that was fair. While the amount given remained similar, one group of employees were stressed and tensed about the result but the other group felt good about the money received. Such differences in feelings were generated by planting actors who were responsible for bringing in feelings of negativity (as in the case of first group) and positivity (as in the case of second group) among people. Its been believed that 99% of our decisions don’t rely only on logic but emotions play a greater role in impacting our decisions. Like in the two groups here, the emotions and feelings of people are mostly chiseled by the most powerful person present in the group. So, when such a person is happy, angry or anxious the same emotions are reflected in the other people in the group too. Also, leaders bring in followers. When people see that their leader is calm, collected and brave in the face of crisis they too follow suit but if they find their leader to be upset, angry or depressed these emotions too are reflected in the employees which in turn decreases productivity. A happy friend has the ability to increase your chances of happiness by almost 10% whereas a sad friend can double your risk of sadness. A friend with a flu might pass on the flu to you but your chances of recovery do not depend on the friends surrounding you but purely depend on your body. The Social Media Emotion Frenzy The success of viral posts and digital marketing are based on understanding the pulse of the audience and delivering emotional yet truthful stuff across. Social media site Facebook knows more about us these days than our close relatives. It knows our relationship status and even understands our state of mind! A study by Facebook on 689000 users finally came up with the result that FB could make people feel more positive or negative based on the process of emotional contagion. In one test, Facebook reduced the user’s exposure to his/her friend’s positive posts thereby reducing the individual’s own number of positive posts. In another test it reduced the exposure to the user’s exposure to negative posts and this ultimately reduced the number of negative posts from the user too. The study finally concluded that the emotions expressed by friends via online sites impact our own moods and feelings too. Responding angrily to an angry post spreads anger but being kind can help stop the spreading of anger. Generally, people are caring and generous. Expressing gratitude, thanking individuals and spreading happiness do indeed have psychological benefits. Partners have the intense ability to mirror each other’s emotions greatly. When one partner texts the other that he/she is elated with salary increase the other partner too becomes happy. But, if one partner texts/speaks to the other one that he/she is sad the other one is likelier to sense your emotion and mirror it. Managers hold priority in organizations in affecting the mood and work culture of employees. A manager who is supportive, encouraging and believes his employees has the ability to create a work culture that is positive, productive and friendly. But if the same manager distrusts his employees and keeps accusing them of non-productivity people might work hard and complete the assignment but rarely they stay in the organization. No one likes to be around those who are negative and pessimistic. All of us like to be happy, stay with positive people and move forward in life. Spend more time with happy people, hang out with those who make you laugh with their witty jokes and when you feel happy, do help in spreading the cheer to other sad people around. But if you have a friend who is depressed it does not mean that depression is going to attack you too. Depression is way beyond feelings such as happiness and sadness. It is a mental illness that needs immediate attention of a health specialist. Help your friend by taking him/her to a physician. Never ever detach yourself from such people as they are already isolated-showing kindness and warmth towards such people is never going to pull down your happiness quotient or cause imbalance in your emotions. References Great Leaders are Positively Infectious: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/07/11/great-leaders-are-positively-infectious/#5f2fb8ec78cc Facebook Reveals News Feed Experiment to Control Emotions: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds Anger Can be Contagious: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/25/697052006/anger-can-be-contagious-heres-how-to-stop-the-spread Parents are the medium through which kids pick up on food habits and tastes. A mother is the source for a child to explore different tastes, like few, dislike many and come to a conclusion regarding foods. Kids tastes are often in sync with each other’s preferences. Most of them love to much on French fries, chocolates and dips. Infants are introduced to solids right from the 4th or 5th month (depending on the child) in the form of porridges, boiled vegetables and mashed fruits. Not many infants are happy with this transition and as parents we face a tough time habituating the kid to such routines thereon. Unending phases of spitting out, choking, not opening the mouth or indigestion are common. But physicians recommend us to try one new food every week or so before introducing another one. Even if the child’s response is not positive the food is to be reintroduced later on until the parent is sure enough that the food doesn’t go well with the child’s digestive system. So, we do take utmost care in feeding our kids with different foods, repeatedly reintroducing them despite the kid’s valiant efforts to sideline them and somewhat succeed in feeding the children with few of our own food choices. Despite such attempts and efforts our children still grow up hating vegetables, making enemies with fruits and befriending junk foods. This leads to an imbalance in nutrient intake in these little ones who are in a stage of life where the food they consume is extremely important for their growth and development.
Unbalanced Beam Balance Parents spend hours sometimes to feed their kids a small bowl of food devoid of vegetables and pulses. Every child needs to consume a well-balanced meal to support his/her cognitive, physical and emotional development and well-being. We might give heed to our kids avoidance not wanting a tantrum in the house every day, neglect their veggies and fruits intake as we cannot afford to go behind them every day right before leaving to office and satisfy our little ones with little treats to compensate for our absence at home. Whatever might be the reason, low or no consumption of fruits and vegetables can result in health problems such as constipation, obesity and chronic diseases apart from insufficient micronutrients in our body. There are aplenty nutritional interventions cropping up every now and then to help our kids increase their vegetable consumption. Ecological models suggest four broad influences including personal, social, physical and macro-level environments to affect eating behavior. Attitude, preferences and demographic factors are included in personal factors, social influences include family, friends, neighbors and others whom the child interacts with, physical environment includes availability and accessibility of vegetables in places where the child spends time-at school, home or daycare, and macro-level environment includes policy and economic price structures. While physical, social and environmental factors dominate a child’s preferences taste was the most dominant factor that determined vegetable consumption in children aged between 6 and 12 years. Veggiecation A child feels much more obligated to eat something when he/she is involved in cooking the food, preparing the ingredients or deciding upon the menu for the day. Asking for the child’s opinion in deciding upon the menu, assigning simple chores such as washing vegetables, making the table or mixing the ingredients and involving them in cooking have seemed favorable to increase their vegetable consumption. We do have results showing that cooking programs have a positive effect on the child’s vegetable choices, attitudes and behaviors. This prompted the development of a nutrition education program called veggiecation which is an evidence-based culinary nutrition education program that promotes and educates communities about health benefits of vegetables and their preparation in simple, inexpensive, nutritious and tasty ways. The main aim of the program was to establish an environment that makes kids inclined towards eating vegetables and have a positive attitude when it comes to choosing them. Already established in the United States the program also finds itself becoming popular in South Korea as a part of globalization of Veggiecation. The study was created with two main aims in mind:
The study comprised of second-grade children from two elementary classes participating. One class (35 children) was the intervention group and the other class (36 kids) was the control group. Children in the intervention group participated in a four-session cooking program and were also asked to fill a questionnaire before and after the program. They were also asked to fill a questionnaire after every session while the parents too were asked to fill a questionnaire after the intervention about their child’s behavioral changes and activities at home. Kids in the control group were also given questionnaires to complete before and after the sessions that they were not a part of. Each session was for 40 minutes, two new vegetables were introduced during each session and the kids were given a hands-on experience on cooking activities. The first 10 minutes was spent on introducing the two vegetables to kids and explaining their nutritive composition. The next 30 minutes was spent on cooking the recipes along with the teacher and finally tasting their own preparation. The 8 veggies included were zucchini, bell pepper, daikon (radish), tomato, sweet potato, spinach, cucumber and oyster mushroom. A self-report questionnaire was prepared to measure vegetable consumption behavior. Four statements were used to measure consumption and they include: I eat vegetables at breakfast, I eat vegetables at school lunch, I eat vegetables at dinner and I eat more vegetables than my friends. Every statement was measured on a four-point scale with options including often, sometimes, rarely and never. Attitude towards eating vegetables was measured using three statements on a five-point scale: eating vegetables is hard/easy, not enjoyable/enjoyable and not good/good for health. Preferences and self-efficacy were also measured likewise. Physical-environmental factors included previous exposure, availability at home and availability at school. Previous exposure was measured by scoring the experience of eating 8 vegetables that were included in the program, availability was assessed by scoring the statement ‘I always have vegetables available at home/school’ on a four-point scale. A total of 71 kids (36 boys and 35 girls) participated in the study and surprisingly showed a 100% response rate. 62% children came from homes where their moms worked and in 81.7% cases it was the mother who prepared the meal for the child. Results showed that:
Hence, veggiecation does seem to affect the child in a positive way. Providing a vegetable-friendly environment at school and home encourages children to eat more vegetables. When this concept is globalized there are chances that kids might start eating more vegetables without inhibitions. Developing simple recipes that the kids enjoy preparing and eating are the key for expansion of the program. While including school-based cooking programs does need time and efforts the benefits are worth it! We are in a competitive world but eating too requires attention as a healthy body forms the base for a healthy mind. When efforts are made to introduce culinary nutrition education in school curriculums this helps to increase food preference, attitude and eating behavior among children thereby improving their overall health and quality of life. References Impact of a school-based culinary nutrition education program on vegetable consumption behavior, intention and personal factors among Korean second-graders: https://e-nrp.org/search.php?where=aview&id=10.4162/nrp.2018.12.6.527&code=0161NRP&vmode=FULL Veggiecation Promotes Kid-friendly Vegetable Preparations: https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org/veggiecation/ Rahul is busy doing his homework while his mom is busy surfing the Internet on her latest smartphone. She answers his queries, encourages him on his good work and motivates him to do faster, all of these without looking away from her mobile. Dad comes back from office and the first thing he does is to settle on the couch and flip open his phone to check out latest updates! Friday nights are movie nights and the entire family sits in front of the television to see their favorite movie. Weekends too are spent watching interesting TV programs and chatting over WhatsApp. This is the life of today’s parents who fail to realize their own mistakes and addiction to electronic devices. Screen-based sedentary behavior is increasingly seen in most families all over the world and so is the concern about the effects of prolonged screen time on the health of kids and families. Children nowadays are exposed to a vast variety of electronic gadgets and grow up in a digital world, toddlers and infants as young as 6-month-olds are exposed to televisions and mobiles and this exposure is not restricted to their use of digital technology but is also affected by parent’s screen time behavior and routines too! Screen-based sedentary behavior that includes doing activities involving low energy expenditure such as playing on mobiles and watching television is growing to be one of the biggest public health concerns in adults as well as kids. This is also a major contributor to the growing obesity crisis in all ages of the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) states childhood obesity as a growing epidemic which is around 41 million in kids aged under 5 years. We do have intervention and observational studies showing that increased screen time engagement, mostly involving watching television, is a serious threat for rise in obesity rates in kids. It is also a serious risk factor for cardio-metabolic diseases, physical health problems and psychological diseases in kids and teens. Screen-time also has the potential to ruin self-esteem of kids, take away precious time that could be spent on other useful activities such as exercise, mental wellness and one’s personal improvement, associated with poor social skills and pave way for unrealistic body ideals and poor body satisfaction. Standing Up to Your Ideologies & Dreams It isn’t news that parents are a child’s first role model and, in this regard, too, parents play a critical role in affecting their child’s weight-related behavior and that includes screen time. Media parenting practices is the methods enforced by parents to help the child with restricted media use which finally determines overall screen time. While television viewing dominated screen time viewing decades back now it’s the era of smartphones and tablets which have overtaken TV viewing. Parenting practices mostly involve only mothers and fathers are rarely even a part of studies. An analysis of 103 studies found that only 57 of them included fathers and even these took up the combined efforts of media practices of both mother and father rather than treating their behavior exclusively. This is of great concern here as one study found that kids with an obese father and a normal-weight mother were 10 times likelier to be obese after 4 years than kids whose both parents were healthy and normal-weighted. Surprisingly, the same trend was not observed when the situation was reversed. Parents’ Media Practices & its Effect on Child’s Screen Time The study included data collected from the Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS) which was actually carried out to identify risk factors for obesity and chronic diseases earlier in the life of children. Families that had kids aged between 1.5 and 5 years were eligible for participation in the study and totally 39 families participated of which 25 families had data from both parents (totally there were 64 parents and 69 children), 92% families were two-parent households and the remaining 8% was single-parent households. Media parenting practices followed by parents was assessed using questionnaires which included those mentioned below: “When I am with my child I use a screen based device; Our family often watches a screen during mealtime; family members are allowed to use screen-based devices during meals; my kid falls asleep while using a screen-based device; I keep track of my kid’s screen time during weekends; I limit my child’s screen time during the week; and I gift my child with screen time as a reward for good behavior/I take away screen time away from my child as a punishment for bad behavior.” Parent one, defined as the first parent to enroll in the study, reported on the kid’s total recreational screen time during weekdays and weekends. Screen time, according to the questionnaire, is any time that is spent on screens such as television, cell phones, tablets, iPads and videogames. Two questions were asked to the parent:
The response options given were none, less than an hour per day, 2-3 hours per day, 4-6 hours per day and 7 or more hours per day which were coded as 0, 1, 2.5, 5 and 7 respectively. Parent and child weight, height and BMI details were collected after meticulous measurement of the same. Kids were aged around 3.5 years, parents were aged around 37 years, children had a BMI of 0.7, mothers had a BMI of 28 and fathers had a BMI of 27. Results showed that:
The study clearly shows that parents’ media parenting practices influence the amount of time children spend in front of the screen. Mealtime screening practices of both mom and dad showed that children spent more time in front of the screen during weekdays. So, steps taken to reduce mealtime screen time can help reducing overall screen time of kids. Also, using screen time to control behavior was positively associated with kid’s screen time. Fathers affect weekend screen time of their kids compared to weekday screen time as they are available only 58% times compared to a mother on weekdays and almost 86% times that of mothers during weekends. Limiting Screen Time Children whose parents have the ability to limit and mentor screen use reap benefits that are not possible in families due to both parents working or other financial constraints. Its been shown that parents who view programs along with their kids enable better learning abilities in children, positively affect their social interaction skills, sleep patterns and behaviors especially when they set time limits on permissible screen time during a day. Reinforcing positive habits and limiting screen time also depends on the parent’s ability to say ‘No’ to their kids wishes to play games and also on the parents’ beliefs and attitudes towards media screen time. Studies show that parents who spend more time using phones in restaurants invoked kids too to do the same while another study showed that parents who allowed their 1- to 4-year-old kids to use smartphones frequently also allowed them to use the same as a reward or distraction. This leads to unruly behavior by the children when parents refuse to submit to their requests of using smartphones frequently. When parents too use smartphones frequently, they are transported to another world which makes ‘in the moment’ interaction with their kids difficult. Children younger than five years need to be involved in quality family time and active play time to improve their language skills and be open to cognitive development. Parents must monitor screen time of their kids and this helps them to monitor and optimize their own screen time too which paves way for improved opportunities to play together, read and bond over. Never use screens while you have a chance for interaction-in the car, during meals or at bedtime. If you don’t practice this, you fail in setting the grounds for developing a close-knitted family, it’s a sign that you are ok with your kids disengaging in these precious little moments of life and also makes it difficult for them to turn off screen time in future as they have been following such inappropriate practices. You start to develop the right kind of approach in kids by setting an example of yourself. Don’t engage in screen time once back from office, spend quality time with kids asking about their day and sharing your experience, keep phones in silent mode while going to sleep, turn off any electronic gadgets while having dinner or a conversation with loved ones and ensure to restrict your binge-watching sprees! This would make you and the entire family more active, happy and satisfied. References Mothers’ & Fathers’ media parenting practices associated with young children’s screen time: https://bmcobes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40608-018-0214-4 Screen time & young children: Promoting health and development in a digital world: https://academic.oup.com/pch/article/22/8/461/4392451 You might be well into your 30s and 40s but the mindset to pursue exercise as a daily physical activity might not have sunk within you until now. Diseases such as blood pressure and diabetes that were once branded as health conditions that were mostly restricted to the elderly population these days affect even adolescents. The rise of improper eating practises and abstinence from exercising exist as the basis for a number of health problems. Both men and women suffer from various health conditions and are even victims of infertility problems these days. Fertility rates are decreasing at a monumental rate and one in every four couples are unable to conceive naturally. A mother’s health condition was regarded with utmost importance for conceiving a baby. Women previously were married off at an early age and hence, also delivered babies at younger ages without suffering much from infertility problems. But now, women take time settling down-they want to be financially independent with a good job and a backup plan. Hence, marriage is delayed and childbirth is even more delayed. Despite the fact that women empowerment has not received its due respect, rape and sexual assaults are still happening at high rates and men are considered to be the breadwinners of the family the blame placed on women for infertility problems has taken a U-turn, at least in most urban areas. Women, the sole victims who bore the entire blame for infertility problems decades back heave a sigh of relief as now science and research have come up with strong evidences showing that the male gender holds almost 50% responsibility for infertility issues among couples. Such startling messages do make each of us realize now that its not only the mother’s health but also the father’s health that is important for the child’s health. In fact, the dad’s health is important from the time the dad is a small boy! Surprising? Reinstating the Fact that ‘Health is Wealth’ A study performed by researchers at a University showed that obese boys between the age of 8 and when their voice breaks are at a 2-fold risk of having children with asthma compared to other children. Obesity is already prominent everywhere and it is high time that we take appropriate interventions to curb this problem. Now, this devastating news that a boy child’s health affects his offspring’s health should be an eye-opener for all. The study showed that the future risk of asthma in offspring was applicable for future fathers only and not for future mothers and this one-sided connection was due to the development of reproductive cells during the pre-puberty years. In the case of girls, eggs are ready and not much changes happen during puberty but in the case of boys, germ cells develop into sperm cells during puberty only. Puberty is a vulnerable period for the male offspring and it is a strong indication that boys who would love to have an offspring in the future must plan for their child’s health beginning from their own childhood. This study gives a clear green signal that pre-puberty period for men is the best period for intervention and once they cross puberty it does not matter if the fathers as boys were obese before or after this specific period. But practically, while obesity might not be a concern for asthma after the period it exists as a serious threat to overall health. So, if you find your kids to be obese/overweight around the adolescent age there is no harm in meeting a registered dietitian nutritionist and getting a healthy diet plan chalked out for your kid to overcome the health hurdles that could erupt due to obesity. Courtship period is like a trial to the honeymoon period as couples enjoy each other’s company getting to know their future better half. The post-marriage period too is blissful for most couples as they lead a happy life enjoying what life has to offer before getting into family commitments. Once the couple decides to go the family way, things start taking a different turn in many of their lives. Some couples are blessed to conceive as soon as they plan but for many others, the journey is rather a long one that’s filled with emotions. But there are some couples who plan on not getting pregnant for a certain period until they settle in life and are ready for parenthood. These face another sort of emotional turmoil being in a constant state of worry of getting pregnant. Such is life with different people coming over with different set of emotions depending on their situation. Couples sometimes hit the hard path with unplanned pregnancies and abortion exists as their only option to escape from the clutches of unplanned parenthood and economic crisis. There are plenty other reasons too for abortions besides this concerning the woman involved here. For instance, when you find yourself 5 weeks pregnant at 16 years of age it doesn’t call for celebration.
A Complex Rollercoaster Ride Despite harsh rules on abortions worldwide the rates haven’t decreased monumentally. The word still seems to be a taboo but the human community has started accepting it pretty much more than during earlier times. Abortion wrecks the pregnant woman’s mind causing a wave of emotions within herself. She is at the threshold of a hundred different feelings all happening simultaneously within her and to worsen the scenario, there are multiple other effects of abortion too that can affect the quality of life later. The most important of all is its impact on subsequent pregnancies. A study quotes that one pregnancy loss may have its effect shown on subsequent pregnancies in a woman’s life. According to this study, those women who have experienced a single pregnancy loss are at a 30% higher risk of suffering from pregnancy complications in subsequent pregnancies compared to those women who have never had a single abortion or miscarriage (https://www.indiatoday.in/lifestyle/health/story/single-abortion-may-adversely-affect-later-deliveries-and-pregnancies-women-287969-2015-08-12). Generally, though, elective abortion isn’t thought to cause fertility issues or complications in future pregnancies but there are various studies too that suggest a link between pregnancy termination and increased risk of premature birth and low birth weight. However, the risk depends on the type of abortion done-medical (medications taken to abort fetus and they mostly don’t increase risk of pregnancy complications) or surgical (removal of fetus through vagina). It is commonly abortions that are associated with complications that impact future fertility. Some of the common complications include uterine injury from the procedure, infection and serious bleeding that calls for immediate surgery. We have studies too supporting the fact that medical abortion is unlikely to affect a woman’s future reproductive health as it doesn’t increase the risk of ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, preterm birth or low birth weight babies in forthcoming pregnancies any more than surgical abortion. The Safest Bet for Complications Includes Unsafe Abortion Practices The primary reason for complications arising from abortions is due to opting for unsafe ways to abort the fetus that can later on lead to dangerous consequences while conceiving. Sometimes, the happiness of attaining motherhood remains unfulfilled as it can lead to infertility issues too. Complication rates are extremely high in those places where access to safe abortion procedures are minimal. Such unsafe procedures can lead to uterine injury, bowel injury and severe infections. Non-sterile abortions increase infertility rates and death rates too whose common causes include sepsis, haemorrhage, infection, genital trauma and necrotic bowel. Also, a non-sterile abortion causes pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) that develops in 20% women who opt for self-abortion. Sometimes, these women also need a hysterectomy to treat the individual from the complication and in due course they lose their fertility. Almost 8-11% of maternal deaths globally occur due to such unsafe abortions-such mortality is also a hindrance to future fertility. Medical abortion is the easiest way to flush off the fetus and is also the most-practiced method to abort. We have a number of abortion drugs available and the over-the-counter pills available for abortion is increasing rapidly. Also, restrictions and laws against abortions force women to use desperate practices that botches the abortion resulting in almost 8-11% (30.000 deaths annually) maternal deaths every year. But abortion-related death has indeed reduced compared to a previous few decades, by almost 42% since the 90s despite the fact that 45% abortions worldwide are still performed under unsafe circumstances. References Can an Abortion Affect your Fertility? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/well/can-an-abortion-affect-your-fertility.html Unsafe Abortions Pose Threat to Fertility: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Unsafe-abortion-poses-threat-to-fertility/articleshow/20228285.cms When Abortion is Illegal, Women Rarely Die. But they Still Suffer: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/how-many-women-die-illegal-abortions/572638/ Mankind has reached a stage wherein the prevalence of diabetes as a social health epidemic is widely understood but sadly not much steps have been taken to curb its radical proliferation among adults and kids alike. Diabetes mellitus is becoming an epidemic with diabetes-related complications accounting for 60-70% of the health-care costs related to diabetes. Almost 420 million adults suffered from diabetes in 2015 and the statistics are said to reach 200.5 million by 2040. Almost 5.1 million people died due to diabetes in 2013, one person dies due to the disease every six seconds. Besides being an economic burden due to higher morbidity and mortality rates the comorbidities associated with the disease are quite high. I am sure that we do know about many of the macrovascular and microvascular complications such as stroke, coronary artery disease, neuropathy, renal complications and peripheral vascular disease but what remains a surprise find is that altered blood glucose levels alter bone health too. This has been evident since the last 50 years with more evidence showing that diabetics are at an increased risk of bone fracture due to decrease in bone quality.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has low bone mineral density and 6-7-fold higher risk of fracture while type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has high bone mineral density and up to 3-fold higher fracture risk. Both T1DM and T2DM affect individuals with different pathophysiological mechanisms but both of their underlying reason for poor bone strength is not completely clear. T1DM Hyperglycaemia is the root cause for many of the disease’s complications and T1DM patients have accumulation of harmful advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs cause apoptosis of mesenchymal stem cells in individuals preventing differentiation of osteoblasts, adipocytes and cartilage. Osteoblastic synthesis of protein osteocalcin is inhibited by high serum glucose concentration paving way for poor bone formation when the patient is repeatedly victimized to this condition. We also have a study linking AGEs to osteoclastic activity which is instrumental for bone loss activation. With all this, it has been deciphered that almost 20% of T1DM patients between 20 and 56 years are at a risk of being osteoporotic. T1DM impairs bone by decreasing bone mass density (BMD) and this is evident from numerous studies. BMD occupies 70% role in bone strength related to fracture risk and BMD measurements plays a pivotal role in evaluating fracture risk. This is due to lack of absolute insulin action which in turn increases risk of fracture. Albright et al. was the first group to impart knowledge on the relationship between diabetes and bone metabolism as a loss of bone mass in diabetes patients with poor glycemic control in 1948. Meta-analysis shows that risk of hip fracture increases 6.94 times in patients with T1DM and 1.38 times in those with T2DM compared to normal individuals. T2DM Contrary to T1DM, T2DM increases BMD of patients as shown by Ma et al. which probed into 15 observational studies with more than 3000 T1DM and 19,100 T2DM patients. So, what’s wrong when BMD is higher, isn’t it? But higher BMD is linked to decreased overall bone turnover which affects overall bone health. Another reason for higher BMD could also be due to hyperinsulinemia. A study by Schwartz et al. showed that lower T-score of BMD in the femoral neck was linked to increased risk of hip fracture in older T2DM patients. Fu et al. showed that trabeculae of the distal femur was thinner and less connected while the cortical bone was more connected in mice with type 2 diabetes. Such deterioration in bone strength increases the risk of fracture. Negative calcium balance present in those whose diabetes rates are not under control experience more bone mineral content (BMC) loss. Li et al. reported higher HbA1c levels to be linked to higher risk of hip fracture un T2DM. Insulin hormone has been linked to bone remodelling and Kawaguchi et al. suggested that insulin signals are linked to bone formation. Fulzele et al. showed that mice lacking insulin receptors in osteoblasts showed reduced bone formation and bone mass. Certain proteins have also been associated with bone formation and are used as markers for bone turnover. Osteoblastogenesis is supressed by hyperglycaemia and osteocalcin levels are lower in diabetic patients. Glycemic control improved blood osteocalcin levels and this helps in maintaining BMD levels. This definitely shows the importance of maintaining blood sugar levels for preventing fracture in those with type 2 diabetes. Patients with type 2 diabetes are especially at risk for hip, wrist and feet fracture and fracture risk increases with disease duration, insulin duration and poor control of hyperglycaemia. Studies show that biomechanical integrity of the skeleton is compromised in patients with T2DM. T2DM not only affects porosity but alters bone collagen as well and one important alteration is the formation of AGEs. AGE levels increase in those with hyperglycaemia altering protein properties resulting in increased brittleness of the elastic collagen fibres. AGE also has an upper hand on affecting bone material properties and bone turnover in T2DM. Bone Fragility T2DM affects differentiation and functioning of bone cells leading to negative effects on these cells such as reduced blood flow in bone, increased presence of fat in the marrow and inflammation. Osteoblasts are needed for bone formation and its differentiation is promoted by insulin. Mouse models show that glucose acts as a critical energy source for osteoblasts to produce collagen fibres. But higher glucose presence in T2DM decreases osteoblast differentiation. T2DM also negatively impacts osteoblasts via different molecular mechanisms, encourages mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to turn into adipocytes which impairs osteoblast function, bone formation and bone mass. Effect on Bone Cells Bone marrow fat has been involved in impacting energy homeostasis and bone turnover via secretion of adiponectin. Men with type 2 diabetes and postmenopausal women show a higher marrow adipose tissue (MAT) compared to controls. MAT, in general is negatively associated with bone mineral density and positively associated with visceral adipose tissue and HbA1c values. While two studies proved MATs link with Hb1Ac and fractures two other studies on T2DM patients did not show any difference in MAT effects. Osteoporosis Studies show that the link between diabetes and hip fracture risk is stronger in T1DM than T2DM. T2DM increase risk of nonspine fracture. One of the most famous studies, the Nurses’ Health Study with more than 1,00,000 women aged between 34 and 59 years followed up for 22 years showed that both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with an increased risk of hip fracture. Diabetic osteopathy is a general comorbidity of diabetes (both types) which is expressed with decrease in bone quality that thereby increases risk of bone fracture in both types of diabetes. Studies show that high fracture risk is more in patients with T1D than for patients with T2D compared with controls. We also have a number of studies reporting high risk of fracture in female patients with T1D and T2D compared to male patients with the disease. But age seems to be quite surprising with fracture risk being higher in those of younger age compared with controls without diabetes but lower in older age individuals. One study showed that women with T2D had increased mortality risks following fracture and both men and women with T2DM had higher number of postfracture complications compared to those without diabetes. But yet another study showed that diabetes did not increase mortality nor duration of hospital stay. But all studies showed that diabetes patients who became victims to fracture suffered from decreased quality of life. A study by Vokó showed that osteoporotic fracture victimised diabetic patients as equally as complications such as blindness and amputation. Aiding Diabetes Patients to Help them Manage Bone Diseases Diabetes treatment primarily involves prescription of metformin but when this is not beneficial the physician tries several other treatment methods such as Thiazolidinediones (TZDs). But we have studies showing the disadvantages linked to the use of TZDs-higher risk of fracture, nonspine fracture, which were resolved once the individuals stopped using the medications. There are several other drugs prescribed each of them having a safety clause on their own. Exercise has always been the best treatment course for those with elevate blood sugar levels along with a well-planned diet and we do have potential studies showing its benefits. There are few studies that show the impact of exercise on bone properties such as BMD or bone quality in diabetes mellitus. Studies by several research groups have revealed that jumping training increased BMD, cortical and total BMC in the femur and also periosteal bone formation and bone strength. A clinical research reported that resistance training and walking exercise helped preserve BMD and walking increased the BMD of femoral neck. Wu et al. showed that treadmill running exercise improved BMD of the femur while Hamrick et al. showed that it increased the BMD of the distal metaphysis of the femur. There are several other studies also supporting the fact that exercises such as jumping and walking stimulated the bones, promotes bone formation and supresses bone resorption in non-diabetics. A study by Bello et al. looking into training programs involving walking, resistance and aquatic exercise in postmenopausal women with T2DM showed an increase in BMD. Hinton et al. showed that voluntary wheel running by obese type 2 diabetes animals was beneficial to both BMD of the femur and to increased properties of the femur. Ortinau et al. showed that voluntary wheel running for 36 weeks was beneficial not only to glycemic control and prevention of body fat accumulation but also tissue-level stiffness and strength of the femur in these species. Running as an exercise prevented increase in blood glucose, HbA1c levels and insulin levels which improved glucose tolerance and this directly or indirectly contributed to BMD and bone strength in diabetes patients. Inflammation has been associated with bone deterioration and creative protein (CRP), one of the markers of inflammation, has been inversely linked to BMD and could also be considered a tool for screening osteoporosis. Kasapis et al. showed that physical activity was inversely linked to serum CRP levels while de Lemos et al. showed that swimming for 12 weeks decreased serum CRP levels compared to being sedentary. Hence, the studies above clearly prove one thing-blood glucose, insulin sensitivity, inflammation and oxidative stress are associated with bone fragility in diabetes mellitus. There are studies also confirming the fact that exercise does have a positive effect on diabetes patients suffering from decreased bone quality. Exercise with low, long duration loading and long term is effective for bone metabolism. It needs to be seen further with multiple other studies to come up with the most effective exercise program for preventing fracture risk in those with diabetes mellitus. There are also suggestions that diet could be combined with exercise as a primary treatment strategy for dealing with osteoporosis and fractures in individuals with diabetes. |
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Dr. Nafeesa Imteyaz of First Eat Right clinic, is the Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Bangalore. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Pune. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Hyderabad. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Chennai. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Mumbai. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Delhi. Best Dietitian Nutritionist in Kolkata.