Category: Homecare

It’s Time to End Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an often-overlooked disease. Many might question the importance of learning more about this illness. However, a lack of awareness and preparedness can cause this disease to fast spiral out of control, affecting many immunocompromised communities.

So what is tuberculosis, or TB?

TB is a communicable disease brought about in people by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. It mainly influences the lung and affects other organs of the body. In the case of latent tuberculosis, TB-infected patients don’t tend to show any symptoms.

 

TB IN INDIA

In 2018, the WHO (World Health Organization) estimated that over 2.69 million people in India were affected by tuberculosis, at the rate of 199 per 1,00,000 people. Currently, India contributes about a quarter of the world’s TB patients. According to TB Facts, India also has approximately 79,000 multi-drug resistant TB patients. India falls in the list of high-burden countries, a list of countries that have higher counts of infected patients and have been prioritized on a global level.

WHY IS AWARENESS IMPORTANT

Tuberculosis still poses a great global health burden on medical facilities around the world. With over a quarter of the world infected with this disease, it is crucial to increase awareness to stop the spread of the illness. However, current surveys quantify that the degree of awareness about TB prevention is only around 63%.

 

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

The main symptoms of TB include persistent cough, consistent weight loss, loss of appetite, and coughing up blood.

THE RISK FACTORS

The risk factors for getting prone to TB infections are high due to the infectious nature of the disease. The following people are at risk:

People in close contact with a TB-infected patient

People with a poor immune response system

People  affected by habitual diseases like diabetes and kidney disorders

Cancer patients going through chemotherapy.

With the spread of this highly communicable disease on a rise, the WHO Europe, along with the UN, are working in close partnership to help countries speed up testing and response times. In December 2019, the Government of India created a national framework for a gender-responsive approach towards eradicating TB in India. As a key signatory of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, India has pledged to achieve its goal of a TB-free India by 2025. In the proposed 2020-2021 budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman advocated for expanding Jan Aushadhi Kendras to all districts of the country to provide medicines at affordable rates. If you have any more questions about tuberculosis awareness in India, you can visit the Central Tuberculosis Division’s website.

So this March 24th, on World TB Day, let’s make a commitment to reducing the stigma around tuberculosis and working towards a happier and healthier future.

 

0

Heart-Healthy Valentine

It’s Valentine’s Day, and, American Heart Month! It’s the perfect time to take stock of your heart. Due to its place as the center of your cardiovascular system, maintaining good heart health can have a positive impact on your body’s daily functions, and making some healthy choices that will help reduce the risk of heart disease in your future

 

One of the easiest things you can do for your cardiovascular health is adopting a healthier diet. Doctors suggest making the following changes:

  1. Eating healthy fats: Educate yourselves on the differences between healthy fats and trans fats. Trans fats can clog your arteries, lower good cholesterol levels (LDL), while raising the bad cholesterol levels (HDL). Trans fats are often referred to as partially hydrogenated fats, so try choosing 0 trans fats. Some examples of healthy fats are avocados, olive oil, and canola oil
  2. Go lean: Pick meats without fat or skin, and choose to cook them by baking, broiling, or roasting. Lean cuts can also be pan-fried or stir-fried, so there are enough ways to maintain the flavor while cutting down the unhealthiness
  3. Limit salt: A low-sodium or no-salt diet can be a particularly effective way of lowering the risk of heart disease. A simple way of doing so is to reduce the amount of processed or canned foods you eat on a daily basis

 

However, diet is just one way to minimize any potential risks. Doctors suggest lowering stress and increasing physical activity can be great ways of improving overall health, thus helping keep you disease-free for a long time. A start can be trying to move more, and not spending too much time sitting in one spot.

Another very important action can be to reduce your exposure to tobacco, even if it’s through secondhand smoke. People with high blood pressure or cholesterol should be especially careful, as they are at higher risk for developing heart disease, as chemical present in cigarette smoke can increase the plaque buildup in the arteries.

There are other steps you can adopt to ensure that your heart stays healthy for a long time. Focusing on your mental health, getting the right amount of sleep for your body, reducing your dairy intake, and even practicing good dental hygiene, can help you stay good at heart, both physically and emotionally. So this Valentine’s Day, commit to making your heart happier!

0

Top Tips for a Healthy Lifestyle in 2020

2020 has begun and many of us have tried to make new resolutions for the year – with fitness being a must in this new decade. Many of us tend to relate fitness with only workouts at the gym, but forget that overall health revolves around a lot of other factors related to eating, drinking, sleeping, physical activity, mental activity, and more. So, what are the things you need to do to maintain a healthy lifestyle in 2020? Let us discuss some of these healthy living tips below.

 

6 Best Ways for Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

1. Consistent Physical Activity

Going for swimming sessions or a game of football/cricket every Sunday morning may not be enough to keep your body active, especially when the rest of the week you are sitting for the whole day at work in front of your laptop / PC. Aim for consistency in any physical activity that you do. To avoid boredom, involve yourself in a variety of physical activities on a regular basis – which may be hitting the gym, or going for a swim, or going for a round on cycle, or even playing a game of cricket or football on the turf.

2. Eating at Regular Intervals

Before we dwell on what you should eat and what you shouldn’t, it is important to ensure that you eat something at regular intervals of time. Regardless of how busy you are, do not keep your stomach empty for a long duration.

3. Sleep Well

Ensure your body gets enough sleep on a daily basis. If for some reason you couldn’t sleep for at least 7 hours at night, make sure you have good sleep on the following night. A good night’s sleep will ensure you stay active the whole day and will even improve your efficiency and productivity at work and otherwise.

4. Own Your Mornings

Many of you will give the excuse of lack of time to do any physical activity or maybe to give attention to your own body. Aim to sleep early around 11 p.m. and wake up by 6 a.m. on most days of the week. Keep aside the time from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. for yourself and engage in a few minutes of walking, yoga, cycling, or even a quick yet effective HIIT workout at the gym. This habit shall ensure that your body and your mind stays active for a longer amount of time.

5. Healthy Eating Habits

Have a wholesome breakfast in the morning comprising of idlis or egg omelettes or similar hot food items, along with cereals/oats/muesli, dry fruits, and a glass of milk or fresh fruit juice. Make sure you consume at least two fruits and some salad every day. Drink 2-3 glasses of warm water immediately after waking up in the morning, and drink a minimum of 11 to 12 glasses of water throughout the day. Ensure that your dinner is the lightest meal of the day, and make sure you have it before 8:30 p.m. every day.

6. Prepare Yourself for Tougher Physical Challenges

To keep yourself motivated throughout the year to indulge in physical activities and a healthier diet, try involving your family/ friends in your fitness journey. Try group activities like marathons, hikes, or treks to bring an element of fun and competition into fitness, so you’re always feeling engaged and challenged!

By integrating these tips into your lifestyle, you’ll find yourself loving its positive effects on your overall well-being. So try it out and start 2020 on the right foot!

1

Childcare During Pregnancy

The experiences of a woman during her pregnancy are both exciting as well as nervous. If you are someone who has gone through pregnancy or are currently going through one, you would understand the anxiety you have to just ensure everything about the baby (in your growing belly) is perfect! It is normal to be anxious, but it is also necessary to focus on the things in your hand – like eating healthy foodstuffs, keeping your body active and fit, and keeping your mind stress-free.

Let us touch upon these points in brief before we discuss ways to check the heartbeats of the baby after the initial few weeks of pregnancy.

Wholesome Diet

You will crave for different kinds of food items during pregnancy, and you may consume them subject to approval from your gynaecologist. Additionally, you need to ensure that you do consume enough fruits, vegetables, dry fruits, etc. to have an appropriate intake of protein, carbohydrates, calcium, minerals, and fats, that are required for you and the baby.

Body Fitness

Do not stop working just because you are pregnant. Keep yourself engaged in your office work and household work, as well as try and go for early morning walks to get fresh air into the body.

The well-being of the Baby

As you happen to read more about how to bond well with the baby as well as know everything is OK with the baby, you will come to know about the ability of certain devices to help you hear the heartbeats of your baby. How wonderful is that experience going to be? For the initial period of your pregnancy (before the baby starts kicking), these heartbeats will perhaps be the only way by which you identify the baby. This is when you will bump into words like ‘fetal doppler’, which is a hand-held, ultrasound device that is used by practitioners to enable you to hear the heartbeat of the baby during prenatal checkups/appointments.

How does the Fetal Doppler Work?

It makes use of sound waves to enable you to detect the heartbeats of the baby and make you hear the same. To start off, the device sends out high-frequency sound waves that get reflected from various tissues. Once the doppler is able to detect a heartbeat, it manages to convert the same into an auditory signal – so the doctor and you can hear the heartbeat. Isn’t this exciting for the to-be parents of the baby?

A reliable fetal doppler is offered by BPL Medical Technologies along with an LCD display so that the doctor can monitor the heart rate accurately. It makes sense to use the doppler under the guidance of the doctor so that he/she can guide you to look at the necessary things and hear the heartbeat in the best way possible.

0

Air Purifier: An alarming need to invest in your health

Where do you spend a major part of your day? Is it at home or in the office? Or maybe you are the third category of people who spend a lot of time on the road (travelling) if your work demands the same? Most of us are likely to belong to the initial two categories – which involves spending maximum time indoors.

You often hear people complain about the deteriorating air quality while travelling outside. But, do you know that the quality of indoor air (at home or office) is much worse than the air outside (as per EPA estimates). The indoor air is susceptible to different kinds of dust particles, germs, and similar micro-sized items, which when inhaled by you can cause allergies, breathing problems and related diseases, and even serious health issues.

This is scary – considering the amount of time you spend at the office for work, and at home for relaxation, unwinding, and getting some much-needed sleep. So, how do you ensure you breathe better quality of air indoors? Invest in a good set of air purifiers – and ensure better health for yourself, your family members, and your office colleagues.

In this post, let us find out how air purifiers can be an effective investment for your health maintenance through purification of indoor air.

What do Air Purifiers Do?

These purifiers comprise of few internal fans that pull the air circulating in your rooms/office space. They start removing airborne germs (bacteria), dust particles, pollen, and so on with the help of well-maintained filters. The purified air is then released back into the rooms/office space. This cycle of air purification keeps repeating at periodic intervals of time – till the time the air purifier is switched ON. Thus, they keep your surroundings free from harmful airborne particles and enable you to breathe relatively fresh and pure air while you are indoors.

Benefits Offered by Air Purifiers

Prevents Dust from Settling

No matter how much cleaning you get done at your home or office, dust will find a way to accumulate and start entering the bodies of people when they inhale air. This dust may come in from the nearby road or playground, or from the nearby construction site, and cause complications like sinus, watering of eyes, pulmonary issues, breathing problems, and so on.  The air purifier will trap the dust particles and get rid of most of them before releasing the improved air back to the indoor environment.

Gets Rid of Unpleasant Odour

Apart from removing harmful micro-sized particles from the air, their purifiers also help you to get rid of bad odour coming out of the kitchen (due to specific items being cooked), or from the socks, or from wet clothes. Thus, you need not worry about that bad odour causing cough, nausea or breathing issues.

Decreases Exposure to Harmful Smoke

Smoke – be it from cigarettes or from industries or from vehicle traffic is harmful to the human body as it may cause serious diseases related to the lungs or even aggravate the condition of people suffering from Asthma and any pulmonary complications.  Most of the harmful particles that emerge out from such smoke emissions can be removed with the help of air purifiers.

Keeps You Safe from Your Beloved Pets

You may think how can your healthy pet cause health issues to you. Well, many of those furry animals release airborne dander and similar allergens into the environment that can have a negative impact on your lungs over a long period of time. By using air purifiers, you can negate the impact of these airborne allergens coming out from your pet!

The above-listed are few of the benefits offered by an air purifying device. Most importantly, you can consider themselves as a must for a healthier lifestyle in home and office environments. BPL Medical Technologies has a wide range of compact and effective air purifiers, and you can browse through a variety of them here.

0

How Can You Contribute to Make the Air Around Cleaner?

We all are alive as long as we breathe. Are you aware of the quality of air that you breathe? Is it good, average, bad, worse or worst? Considering the various ways in which human beings have started polluting the environment, most of us are breathing air that is not good!

And this impacts the health of your lungs and could be the source for many complications or diseases that can happen to you in the future. It is therefore essential that you start taking small steps towards reducing air pollution, which in turn will make the air around cleaner. Let us have a look at some of these steps in this post.

Important Measures to Keep the Air Clean

Reduce Usage of Your Car

Just because you own a car doesn’t mean you take it along with you wherever you go. Stop taking the car daily to your office and instead opt for car-pooling or use public transport occasionally. For extremely short distances, walk around or cycle your way to the destination.

Make Your Car More Efficient

Whenever you use your car, make sure it utilizes less fuel by switching off the engine at signals, as well as ensuring the tyres are properly inflated. Additionally, get your car serviced regularly so that it remains efficient and utilizes less fuel.

Reduce Consumption of Energy

Electricity and gas pollute the air significantly. So, it makes sense to use them sparingly only when required. For example, keep your air conditioner ON to cool your room for an hour or so before you go to bed instead of keeping it ON the whole night. Try to maintain the temperature of the air conditioner around 24 degrees and avoid lower temperatures.

Use that washing machine or dishwasher at home only when you have full load. Avoid burning of wood for any purpose, and make limited usage of heaters during winter by switching it ON only in the rooms where you sit (instead of turning ON the heaters in all rooms).

Plant More Trees

Develop the habit of having few plants at your home, in your building, and in your surrounding areas. Start taking initiatives of planting more trees in a group at periodic intervals. Educate your kids to do the same so that the message gets spread to many people. As plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, they help to make the air clean.

These are some simple tips to make the air cleaner. There is another way to ensure that you breathe cleaner air at home, office, and wherever you go – by making use of air purifiers. BPL Medical Technologies offers a wide range of compact air purifiers and you can choose the one ideal for your requirements by having a look at them here.

0

30 million Diabetics in India are women – Act to change

14th of November is celebrated worldwide as Word Diabetes Day and this year we are focusing on on Women and Diabetes.  Why, do you wonder? 1 in 7 births is affected by Gestational Diabetes. There are ~200 million women around the world living with Diabetes and with India being the Diabetes Capital of the World, the number of women in India living undiagnosed is even higher. In a population of 1.2 billion, women contribute to around 30 million Diabetics! It’s a staggering number but isn’t surprising considering the lifestyle Indian women adopt. Continue reading “30 million Diabetics in India are women – Act to change” →

0

WHO and Blood pressure guidelines

At this day and age, blood pressure is a household term and the awareness around maintaining a ‘normal’ blood pressure is increasing. If you’re wondering how and why, check out our article on blood pressure that would help you understand it deeper.

While 120/80 is a well known common number that is associated with blood pressure, above what range is it called ‘Hypertension’ and when is it called ‘Hypotension’?

In common practice, we consider anything below and equal to Systolic Blood Pressure 120 and Diastolic Blood Pressure 80 as normal whereas anything above 140 and 90 are considered higher. Continue reading “WHO and Blood pressure guidelines” →

1

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑