Doctor’s Tips for Women to Stay Healthy During Lockdown
Working from home and managing the household at the same time can take a toll on your health – for many women in our country, this is the current reality as lockdown extend and new restrictions are being announced in several regions.
Dr Rohini Somnath Patil says, “Connecting the dots between food, exercise, and sleep can make a big difference for your health. If you can exercise and you can have a healthy nutrition program, oftentimes that’s just as effective as taking medication for high blood pressure, for high cholesterol, for diabetes, or for weight control. There are so many benefits to lifestyle therapies.”
Here are few expert tips from the good doctor on how to maintain your health in quarantine times
1. Make self care a priority: It’s natural that women tend to give all their attention to kids and family. Remember to prepare a diet for your self, drink plenty of water and sleep for 7-9 hours of sleep each day.
2. High protein diet: After the age of 35, wear and tear to the body happen at a faster pace. So, it is very important that your diet is rich in protein which helps in enhancing the regenerative metabolic processes in the body. If you eat meat, try to make sure that it is antibiotic-free and hormone-free. It’s also important to make sure you’re getting enough fibre and vegetables into your diet – at least six servings of vegetables a day, two or three servings of fruit.
Having a healthy diet also means having a healthy sleep schedule. When you sleep your body makes the growth hormone necessary to building healthy skeletal muscle. If you’re not building healthy skeletal muscle, you can’t metabolise and burn your calories.
3. Calcium and Vitamin D supplements: Bone density, calcium and Vit D reduce significantly after the mid-30s. So regular check-up of these parameters and taking the right supplements is very important to maintain strong health in 40+ women. Vitamin D supplement can be taken with or without food and the full amount can be taken at one time. While your body needs Vitamin D to absorbs calcium, you do not need to take Vitamin D as a calcium supplement.
4. Multivitamin Supplements: There are multiple nutrients our day to day diet lacks in and the best way to restore that is by taking a good multivitamin supplement. Women can ask their physician and take the right supplements. Eat 1 bowl of fresh fruits with a sprinkle of flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds on it.
5. Diet rich in antioxidants: Antioxidants are compounds produced in your body and founds in foods. They help defend your cells from damage caused by potentially harmful molecules like free radicals. Antioxidants rich foods like turmeric, garlic, berries, green tea, cinnamon, amla, nuts and seeds help you reduce the oxidative stress in your body thus slowing down the ageing process.
6. Physical health and exercise: It’s very important to be physically active. It can be anything from just a 40 mins walk every day to doing online Zumba or pilates or yoga or swimming or aerobics or just simple suryanamaskar for 30 mins daily. This will also make sure that you feel fresh, energetic, positive and happy throughout the day. Doing exercise and workout can really help do wonders for your health.
7. Mental Health: Mental health is one of the most important aspects of health in 40+ women.
Here are some things that you can do to ensure good mental health:
1) Practice meditation for 20 mins every morning.
2) Practice pranayama and breathing techniques every morning and evening.
3) Practice any of your favourite hobbies like singing, dancing, drawing etc for an hour every day.
4) Take out time to do things that make you happy.
8. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Let things go. You don’t have to be on your toes all the time. Take care of yourself and make self care a priority.