Using the internet to self medicate could damage your health

When Purva Mehta started depending on painkillers to ease her chronic backache regularly, she didn’t realise that it could lead to long-term kidney damage. Similarly, when Rakesh Chhabria decided to treat his daughter’s viral fever using over-the-counter medication suggested by a random health website, he was unaware that it could cause further complications for his child. Purva and Rakesh are not alone. A recent study estimated that an increasing number of people (in India and around the globe) have no qualms about self-diagnosing and depending on the internet to answer…

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The Ayurvedic Diet to Improve Your Health and Well Being

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”The words of the 18th century French epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin hold true even today in more ways than we can imagine. From our psychology to history, from how we perceive ourselves to our class, caste and preferred identities, food has a great capacity to unravel all of these. Take a look at a man’s plate and you know exactly who he is and who he hopes to be. Amidst all this, of course, also lies the physicality…

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10 Health Benefits of Cod Liver Oil

As the name suggests, cod liver oil is a nutrient-dense oil. which is made from the oil found in the liver of cod fish. Dr. Ritika Samaddar, HoD – Dietetics and Nutrition, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket, says, “Cod liver oil is commonly taken as a dietary supplement. It is one of the best sources of anti-inflammatory Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) and contains relatively high amounts of vitamin A and vitamin D.” According to the USDA, each teaspoon of cod liver oil has about 41 calories and 4.5…

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Yoga can Improve Mental Health for Kids under Home Care

Regular practise of Kundalini Yoga — which incorporates movement, dynamic breathing techniques, meditation and the chanting of mantras — can potentially help improve the health and psychological well being of children as well as the workforce in residential care homes, a study has found. The results showed that the yogic technique has the potential to encourage togetherness and mutuality and improve health and psychological outcomes for children as well as the staff. “The findings are very exciting as they suggest that the practice of Kundalini yoga, involving both staff and…

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Pokemon Go’s Health Benefits are Moderate, Short-Lived: Study

Claimed to boost physical activity levels and promote public health, augmented reality game Pokemon Go’s health benefits are just moderate as well as short-lived, researchers say. Pokemon Go is a smartphone-based game that projects graphics onto the real world and has been downloaded over 500 million times since its launch in July 2016 in many countries. The findings showed that the game improves physical activity such as walking only moderately, and the effect is lost in a matter of six weeks. The first week of installation saw that the daily…

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Health Benefits of Cloves (Laung): A Spice That Deserves More Attention

One of my favourite winter spices, cloves are often pushed to the edge of your plate. They are mostly used to flavour dishes but seldomly eaten whole. But if you’d know about their impressive qualities, you’d agree they deserve more attention. Looking back, cloves were probably first used by Chinese emperors to hide bad breath. Over the years, cloves grabbed a prominent place in traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda to treat nausea, digestive disorders and flu. The clove tree which is native to Indonesia bears dry, aromatic flower buds which…

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