World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates 7^th of April every year, as World Health Day to mark the anniversary of WHO founding. This day provides us with an opportunity to spread awareness about a specific health topic of concern amongst people all over the world and take some action towards it.

Depression: The Theme for 2017

Depression is characterized by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that a person normally enjoys, along with an inability to carry out daily activities. In addition, people with depression normally experience the following symptoms:

• Anxiety
• Lack of energy
• Loss of appetite
• Changes in sleeping patterns and habits
• Decrease in concentration
• Restlessness
• Feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness
• Thoughts of self-harm or suicide

Depression may affect people from all walks of life, irrespective of their age group, gender and ethnicity or geographical location. Depression causes mental anguish and inhibits people’s ability to do the simplest tasks in day-to-day life. It may sometimes lead to devastating consequences for relationships with family and friends, and affect the livelihood of a person causing financial damage. At worst, depression can develop suicidal tendency in a person, making it the second leading cause of death among teenagers and young people.

Depression has spread its pangs into our society and grown into a worldwide problem. Looking at the gravity of this psychosocial disorder, the theme of 2017 World Health Day campaign is “Depression: Let’s Talk”.

It’s Okay to Talk About Depression and Seek Help

Talking about depression is the first step towards its treatment. Aim of this WHO campaign is to:

• Make people more informed about depression, its causes and possible consequences, and what help can be given for prevention and treatment
• Motivate people with depression seek help
• Support and help family, friends and colleagues of people having depression

It is most important to make the people with depression feel that they are not alone, and that you care for them. Without having this intention and will, one can never help their friends or loved ones get out of depression. People who are facing this problem need great courage and moral support to cope up with this condition.

The more distant one gets from the family, the closer they get to depression. So, it is important to break the silence and speak about it. Let everyone be a part of the war against this mental illness. Turacoz Healthcare Solutions extends its support and cooperation to all those who are fighting depression.

Know About the DASH Plan

“DASH” or the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) is an eating plan which can reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure, and also manage existing hypertension.

1. The first DASH diet research showed that it could lower blood pressure as efficiently as the first line anti-hypertensive medications, even with a sodium intake of 3300 mg/day.
2. Other than hypertension, DASH diet reduces the risk of many diseases like stroke, heart disease, heart failure, kidney stones, diabetes, and even some kinds of cancer.
3. It can be considered as an Americanized version of the Mediterranean diet, and owing to its specific guidelines it is easier to follow.

 Advise to Follow the DASH Plan

1. Seek Advice From Experts: The number of servings that is right for you may vary, depending on your caloric need. Hence, it is advisable to consult a nutritionist before adopting DASH diet.
2. Track Your Diet Plan: A good way to start with the DASH eating plan is to keep a diary of your current eating habits to track down the time where you tend to eat high-fat food, or when you skip meals. Later, make necessary changes in your diet.
3. Go Slow: Increase your servings of fruits, vegetables, and grains gradually, as DASH diet is high in fibre, and may temporarily cause bloating and diarrhoea.
4. Know What’s Best for Your Tummy: If you have trouble digesting dairy products, try lactase enzyme pills or drops, or buy lactose-free milk or milk with lactase enzyme added to it.
5. Look Before You Leap: Carefully read the food labels to compare fat content in packaged foods, as items marked low-fat or fat free are not always lower in calories than their regular versions.
6. Beat Sugar Cravings: Limit foods with lots of added sugar, such as pies, flavoured yogurts, candy bars, ice cream, sherbet, regular soft drinks, and fruit drinks.
7. Eat it Right: Instead of snacking on chips or sweets, eat unsalted pretzels or nuts, raisins, low-fat and fat-free yogurt, frozen yogurt, unsalted plain popcorn with no butter, and raw vegetables.

“DASH”is a dietary plan which is clinically proven to reduce blood pressure, and the risk of developing hypertension. We, at Turacoz Healthcare Solutions, consider it our corporate social responsibility to share the dietary approaches that can save you from the pangs of hypertension and many other diseases associated with it. Know how to manage hypertension with the DASH plan.

Desktop dining has now become a common phenomenon with approximately 65% of working professionals typically having lunch at their desks on a regular basis. Pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, muffins, momos, and doughnuts are the most preferred meals of this group of busy workers who generally, in order to clock-in extra working hours, avoid extra spends and get hooked to these high fat, sugar and salt diets because of lack of options. This increasing trend of consuming quick-tasty-junk at desk when combined with compulsive snacking, caffeine overdose, and minimal water intake plays a massive havoc on our body.

This unhealthy food habit in sedentary office life is a risk factor for several lifestyle diseases such as:

• Obesity
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Stroke
• Lipid disorders
• Depression
• Anxiety

Since our body switches-off the fat-burning process when sitting for a longer period of time, we really need to mind the calories and correct our eating habits while at work.Though we require less calories during this period of minimal physical activity, our body needs a well-balanced and proper nutritional diet to function optimally and prevent malnutrition.

The initial area of focus should be on giving our diet a complete makeover by planning in advance for healthy meals and snack options for the entire week. This proactive planning would limit our urge of compulsive binging and thus,help in controlling the habit of going for unhealthy meal options.

Foods to Include in Daily Diet:

• Complex carbohydrates (whole grains, cereals, pulses, beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables etc.)
• Good protein sources (eggs, lean meat, poultry without skin, fish and low fat dairy products)
• Healthy forms of fat (yogurt, cheese, skimmed milk, nuts, olive oil etc.)
• Dietary fibers and nutrients (dry fruits, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, granola bars etc.)
• Sufficient quantity of water

Foods to Avoid in Daily Diet:

• Processed foods (white flour bread and pastas, chips, candies, processed meat, canned food etc.)
• Food with high-cholesterol content (egg yolk, bacon, butter, seafood, red meat, sausages, cheese, cakes, pies, and cookies)
• Unhealthy fat (foods rich in saturated fats like beef, lamb, pork, coconut oil, palm oil etc.)
• Empty calories (foods with no nutritional content like sweets, soft drinks, and high fat salad dressings)

A nutritious and balanced meal gives us a sustained energy flow and optimizes brain oxygen level without getting too hard on our digestive system. This provides fuel to our brain and energy to our body, improves our cognition, and helps us stay focused – all of which increase our productivity and performance at work.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions understands the need to make smarter diet choices while sitting for longer working hours. We aim to increase awareness about the negative health impact of unhealthy eating and suggest the ways to healthy eating. Let’s improve our eating quotient and make the right choice.

What is Triclosan?

Triclosan is commonly used as a disinfectant or an antiseptic to reduce and control the bacterial contamination. It is an organic compound with a slight phenolic smell. It is a very well-known biocide for over 40 years. Although its main application is in cosmetics (maximum allowed concentration 0.3%), triclosan is also ubiquitously usedinanti-bacterial soaps and toothpastes (even upto the concentration0.46%). About 75% of liquid anti-bacterial soaps and 30% of bars use triclosan as an active ingredient. The drug, which was originally used strictly in hospitals and healthcare centres, was adopted by manufacturers of soaps and other home products in course of time.

Triclosan Causes Memory Loss

Triclosan is believed to cause endocrine disruption; even low levels of triclosan may disrupt thyroid function. Poor thyroid function, in turn, may lead to depression, weight gain, fatigue, and memory loss. Also, triclosan degrades to dioxins in the body, which can destroy brain cells. As a result, neurological disorders and emotional distress might happen.

Triclosan attaches itself to the receptor molecules on the surface of brain cells and leads to increased calcium levels inside the cells. As a result, cells become over-excited, leading to cellular death. Over-excitation of brain cells may lead to developmental delays and autism in children.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) research, along with countless independent studies, have shown that triclosan does not provide any health benefits as compared to the old-fashioned soaps. Using triclosan-containing anti-bacterial soaps does not give any added advantage over triclosan-free normal soaps in providing antimicrobial protection.

The U.S. FDA has issued a proposed rule requesting additional scientific data to support the safety and effectiveness of such active ingredients used in topical antiseptic rubs (including hand sanitizers) marketed over-the-counter (OTC).

How to Reduce Exposure to Triclosan

Anti-bacterial soaps and hand-sanitizers mostly contain triclosan, which is harmful for children. However, you must ensure that children clean theirhands before eating. A few tips can help you to avoid exposure to triclosan:

• Choose a safer soap or liquid hand soaps which do not contain triclosan.
• Encourage washing hands with soap and water, the best way to reduce the number of microbes in most of the situations.
• If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

Exposure to triclosan can disrupt normal brain function and cause memory loss in children. We, at Turacoz Healthcare Solutions, consider it our corporate social responsibility to raise awareness for the minimal use of triclosan-containing antibacterial hand sanitizers, especially in children. Protect your children from the toxic effects of triclosan.

Being a medical writer has a lot of allure, particularly if you are having a flexible work schedule, competitive salary package, and assured growth as a professional. However, having these advantages doesn’t insulate you from some of the hazards that you may face as a medical writer. Medical writing, being a sedentary job, requires sitting behind a desk for long hours, which over a period of time can take a toll on your health.

The Risks

• Metabolic Diseases 
  Medical writers spend their maximum awake time sitting and working. Sedentary lifestyle and reduced physical activity contribute to the excessive body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels, which are major risk factors for certain diseases like obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.

• Cardiovascular Diseases
  The sedentary lifestyle attributes to abnormal cholesterol level which is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases like atherosclerosis, stroke, angina, and heart attack. It is found that the risk of heart disease is increased by 50 per cent in a sedentary worker (who sits for 11 hours or more a day) even if exercise is performed regularly.

• Posture Problems
  Due to the nature of work, a medical writer usually works in a ‘static posture’ throughout the day that results in a faulty ergonomics. Rotator cuff disease, chronic pain in the neck, shoulder, back or hand, ruptured disks, and pulled or strained muscles/ligaments are the few disorders that might occur due to static posture. Several studies have reported that there is an increased risk of physical injuries if a worker maintains a static posture throughout working hours.

• Bone and Joint Disorders
  Spending daily 8 hours or more working on a desktop/laptop without any significant movement of the joints and muscles of limbs may result in loss of muscle mass, loss of muscular flexibility, carpal tunnel syndrome, and hand/wrist tendinitis.

• Eye Problems
  Prolonged working on a desktop or laptop and gazing the screen for hours expose eyes to undue effects of brightness of the screen that later results in eye strain, temporary blurred vision, headaches, and migraines.

• Psychological Problems
  In today’s competitive world, analogous to any other professional, medical writers also experience several psychological problems like stress, anxiety, exhaustion, depression, and disordered sleep.

The Remedies

Overall, being more physically active is the basic remedy to reduce the chances of all the potential health problems that are associated with the sedentary nature of the work of a medical writer. It is recommended that a sedentary worker (e.g. a medical writer) should spend a minimum of 10 minutes in moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise to improve circulation of blood and burn calories. Additionally, there are a few health tips which a medical writer should follow:

• Take regular breaks during the working hours. After every couple of hours, stand up from the desk and move around.
• After every 30 minutes of desktop work, do basic stretching exercises at your desk. This will help in maintaining flexibility of the muscles.
• Avoid getting locked into a static posture. Change your posture frequently by adjusting the angles of your hips, knees, ankles, and elbows while sitting.
• Be more active: take stairs instead of the lift, prefer public transport or cycle to work.
• Eat smart. Avoid binging and unhealthy eating habits.
• Keep your body well hydrated by drinking enough amount of water.
• Don’t eat while you work. Ensure you eat lunch away from your desk.
• Adjust the brightness of the screen of your laptop/desktop. Don’t gaze the screen fora long Take regular breaks to relax your eyes.
• Ensure that you spend at least an hour each week in outdoor sport or leisure activity of your choice.
• Don’t work hard, work smart.Plan well before you start to work, divide all major tasks into sub-tasks and organise your work schedule. This will help to reduce the chances of having stress and anxiety.
• Don’t be a workaholic! Make sure you spend a reasonable amount of time with your family and friends, which is important for your mental and emotional well being.

Being sedentary is the root-cause of most of the health problems. Making appropriate lifestyle changes in your daily work schedule may reduce your risk of having these health problems. As a medical communication company, we at Turacoz Healthcare Solutions always encourage our medical writers and everyone to exercise daily and lead a physically active, healthy life.

As the cool showers of monsoon bring relief after the torrid summers, the warm humid weather also brings numerous skin problems in trail. Some common skin problems which may cause trouble in this season are:

• Heat rash: Heat rash is a red pimply eruption caused by sweating that leads to choking or blockage of skin pores.
• Eczema: It is aterm applied to variety of skin conditions that result from inflammation of the skindue to external and genetic factors.
• Acne:It is a common skin problem during the rainy season, mainly for youngsters. Itresults from bacterial overgrowth on the face, especially due to exposure to a lot of rainwater.
• Ringworm and folliculitis: These are bacterial or fungal infections that result from excessive sweating, dehydration, photo-toxic effects of the sun, and humidity.
• Nail infection: Infections can occur due to long nailsthat attract muck, and can make nailsdiscolored, brittle and dull.
• Athlete’s foot:It is an itchy painful infection on the feet with well defined, scaly patches caused by common fungi called Candida. The toe nails may get discolored or brittle.

Tips to Keep Your Skin Healthy

Some easy skin-care tipscan protect your skin from having bacterial and fungal itches during the rainy season:

• Control sweat: The ideal way to avoid skin problems is to keep it clean and avoid excessive perspiration. Take regular and more frequent baths. Use anti-bacterial soaps, talcum powder and face wash to keep yourself clean.
• Quick-wash after rain-wash: Children are highly prone to fungal infections during the monsoons. An immediate bath after playing in the rain and application of an anti-bacterial soap is important. Avoid using public toilets, where due to lower hygiene you are exposed to infections.
• Natural skin-care: Use anti-fungal cream or powder for nail-itches. Calamine lotion is a good option to ease skin-itching. Natural and home-made remedies such as aloe-vera, rosewater and milk can keep your skin fresh.Apply moisturizers to keep your skin hydrated.
• Check what you wear: Wearcomfortablyloose cotton and linen clothing. Wear slippers and flip-flops as they allow your feet to breathe. Avoid wearing plastic shoes, leather or canvas ones. Wash your feet regularly, and apply anti-fungal powder in shoes and socks.Wear washed cotton socks daily and keep feet clean and dry. One must never stay in wet socks for long hours.
• Watch your diet: Since the chances of infection increases during the rainy seasons, increase vitamin Cintake as it is an effective immunity-booster.Keep yourself well-hydrated with at least 6 to 8 glasses of water daily. Add the juice of a lemon to a glass of warm water and have it first in the morning. Fresh fruits, salads, sprouts, whole grains and curd must be included in daily diet.
• Skin care for diabetics: People with diabetic diseases are more prone to skin infections. They must go for a check-up when symptoms like skin rashes or redness appear lest they leave scars and turn untreatable.

Several skin ailments are the result of our ignorance and a care-free attitude towards monsoon—borne microbial infections. These infections may grow into serious problems, if not nipped in the bud. Turacoz Healthcare Solutions wants to share some basic skin-care tips this season. So stay healthy, keep your skin monsoon-proof and enjoy the rains.

Disturbed sleep and strained red eyes seem to take a back seat as we stand face-to-face with a much more alarming side-effect of the endless smartphone usage, scientifically termed as ‘transient smartphone blindness’. Cradling your smartphone and gazing at it late at night or early in the morning, while lying in bed, leads to this unusual phenomenon of temporary vision loss.

The problem: A recent report published in the New England Journal of Medicine¹ outlined the case studies of two women who suffered from impaired vision for months after regularly using their smartphones in the dark.

• The first case was of a 22-year-old woman with right eye vision loss at night.
• The second case was of a 40-year-old woman with recurrent monocular visual impairment on waking, lasting up to 15 minutes.

Investigation of both the cases revealed that these patients used smartphone for quite some time in the dark with just one eye while lying in bed and that the symptoms were always in the eye opposite to the side on which the patient was lying.

The Cause: Lying on one’s side while using the smartphone in the dark leads to differential bleaching of the retinal pigments, making the viewer eye light adapted while the other eye, being closed or covered by a pillow, becomes adapted to dark.² The eye staring at the bright screen is always the one to be temporarily blind when the smartphone is put down because it takes time for the phone eye to catch up with the dark adapted eye.

The Fix: Till now the long-term effect of this strange condition is not documented but viewing screens binocularly i.e. with both eyes, is a quick and simple solution recommended by ophthalmologists.

The global smartphone user-base is exponentially increasing each day with more people going to bed with their phones which puts them at a higher risk of transient smartphone blindness. Luckily enough, the condition is temporary and probably more distracting than dangerous.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions is a medical writing organization which provides assistance in publication of research articles and clinical research documents. We consider it our corporate social responsibility to raise awareness about transient smartphone blindness. The best vision is insight!

References:

1. Alim-Marvasti A, Bi W, Mahroo OA, Barbur JL, Plant GT. Transient Smartphone “Blindness”. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(25):2502-4.
2. BEC CREW. Science alert. 2016. Available at: http://www.sciencealert.com/smartphone-users-experience-temporary-blindnss-after-looking-at-their-screens-in-bed. Accessed on: 2^nd Aug 2016.

Humans were designed to move around and stay physically active. However, over the period of time, we evolved technologically and the levels of our physical activity steeply declined. Our environment at work, schools, homes, and public places were gradually engineered in such a way which restricted our daily physical activity and compelled us to assume a non-exercising behaviour. Steadily, we adapted the non-exercising behaviour in our lifestyle and became sedentary or negligibly active.Parallel with this major change in our lifestyle, several pieces of evidence emerged which identified sedentary behaviour as a novel risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases and all-cause mortality. Studies showed that the mediocrity begins the precise moment when we swap activity with sedentary behaviour. Therefore, it is important to understand the health risks associated with sedentary lifestyle and take timely action.

What is a sedentary lifestyle?

A sedentary lifestyle can be defined as sitting, lying down, and expending very little energy (approximately 1.0-1.5 metabolic equivalents [METs]) in a day. Due to limited physical activity and associated health risks, asedentary lifestyle is also termed as a “sitting disease”.

Who is expected to have a sedentary lifestyle?

With changing nature of our work and leisure activities, an average adult is likely to spend more than 70% of the waking time in a day being sedentary or minimally active. The levels of inactivity tend to increase with growing age, and women are more prone to inactive lifestyle as compared to men. However, recent trends have shown a surge in sedentary behaviour among children.

Health risks associated with sedentary lifestyle

Lack of physical activity has clearly been shown to be a risk factor for several physical, mental and psychological disorders. Individuals having a sedentary lifestyle are at greater risk of having cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, pulmonary embolism, diabetes, and obesity. Increased adiposity (excessive weight gain) due to sedentary lifestyle also increases the risk of certain cancers like endometrial cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer. Additionally, non-exercising behaviour also results in several bone and muscle disorders like osteoporosis, back or neck pain, and muscle degeneration. An overall poor health of a sedentary individual is later accountable for developing psychological stress, depression and anxiety disorders. Worrisome is the fact that lack of physical activity and its associated conditions account for about 3.2 million deaths a year across the globe.

Tips to overcome sedentary lifestyle

Sedentary lifestyle can be easily avoided by making few smart choices at work and leisure, such as:

• Go NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), i.e. set an alarm after each couple of hours which reminds you to stand up and go on your feet. This can include simple stretching, taking a walk around the office, or a 10-minute brisk walk. It is an ideal option for those who can’t manage to go to the gym after work.
• Walk n Work:Schedule walking meetings with your team, walk while having a telephonic conversation, pick up your lunch instead of ordering delivery, walk to the market for picking up daily grocery, and take stairs instead of elevator whenever permissible.
• Rearrange the workplace: Install treadmills or stationary cycles to encourage physical activity at work, schedule regular exercise sessions at workplace for your team, and relocate water coolers and trash cans so that people have to move from their workplace to use them.
• Commute differently:If possible, try to commute with public transport or use cycle instead of personal vehicles.
• Exercise:Try to engage yourself in a physical activity, exercise or sport of your choice. Make sure you spend at least a day each week exercising.

Being physically active is necessary for having a physical and mental well-being. A sedentary lifestyle is a root cause for most of the modern day diseases and it can be easily avoided by making healthy choices for you and your family. Turacoz Healthcare Solutions always tries to encourage its employees and everyone to exercise daily and lead a physically active, healthy life.

Physical activity should be adopted as a behaviour in daily life, and one should remember to ‘get up and move’!

Diabetes mellitus (DM) has become one of the most challenging health problems in the 21st century. It is a serious public health problem globally, but the good news is that various advances are being made in prevention, detection, and treatment of diabetes. Though prevention is always better than cure, yet sometimes prevention is not possible and the cure seems to take ages. The interest to find a possible cure for diabetes has eventually led to exploration of various new scientific areas of research.

Volanesorsen

Volanesorsen (formerly ISIS-APOCIIIRx)is an antisense drug in development intended to treat patients with severely high triglycerides either as a single agent or in combination with other triglyceride-lowering agents.Elevation in triglycerides has always increased the risk of cardiovascular disorders as well as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have found the therapeutic effect of lipid-lowering medication sin improving insulin sensitivity in people with T2DM. Volanesorsen is an oral medication that can help to control the blood sugar levels. Itis believed to improve the insulin sensitivity and significantly decrease the patients’ overall glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). After taking the medication for 12 weeks, researchers found that adult T2DM patients receiving volanesorsen experienced 69% reduction in triglycerides, and 57% improvement in whole-body insulin sensitivity.Researchers concluded that decrease in triglycerides was strongly related to improved insulin sensitivity and improved HbA1c.

PEGylated Lispro

PEGylated lispro (LY2605541) has been developed by the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to insulin lispro, leading to its extended half-life. Early phase evaluations of PEGyalted lispro confirm its non-inferiority to glargine with a potential weight advantage when used in T2DM. Since insulin therapy is anabolic and its initiation is commonly associated with weight gain, an insulin preparation associated with a beneficial weight profile would represent a particularly valuable therapeutic entity.

Pre-clinical studies indicate that LY2605541 has low mitogenic potency, exerting a preferential hepatic effect on glucose homeostasis. However, LY2605541 appears to cause elevated transaminases and derangement of lipid profiles. On the basis of these initial observations, LY2605541 requires further extensive clinical evaluation to fully assess its risk/benefit profile in the management ofdiabetes.

Islet Transplantation

A novel technology has been developed to help treat type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and potentially negate the need for insulin injections. Islets are organoids that produce multiple hormones, including insulin, and donated islets are already treating severe cases of T1DMeffectively. Islet transplantation can transform the lives of T1DM patients, and may result in long-term freedom from insulin injections with excellent glucose control.

Natural Products

Plants possessing antidiabetic properties may be suitable as an adjunct to the existing therapies or as a prospective source of new hypoglycemic compounds. Many new bioactive drugs isolated from plants demonstrate antidiabetic activity equal to known oral hypoglycemic agents such as tolbutamide and chlorpropamide. Several plant species with terpenoids, flavonoids, phenols, coumarins, and other bioactive constituents have shown their potency in reducing blood glucose levels. Plants likeAllium sativum(Liliaceae),Gymnema sylvestre(Asclepiadaceae),Murraya koenigii(Rutaceae),Allium cepa(Liliaceae),Withania somnifera (Solanaceae), andFerula foetida (Umbelliferae) have exhibited antidiabetic properties when assessed in experimental models of diabetes. These traditional approaches might prove to bebeneficial in treatment of diabetic complications.

Great strides have been made clinically in the management of diabetes. Extensive research may lead to discovery of newer and better options for diabetes. With new technologies revolutionizing the treatment possibilities, the search for an effective medication is not far ahead.

Turacoz Healthcare Solutions aims to create awareness for such healthcare issues like diabetes mellitus which pose a serious threat to people, irrespective of race, gender, or age. We consider it our corporate responsibility to share the knowledge related to therapeutic research and development, and keep you updated with the recent medical advancements in the healthcare industry.“Being aware of a disease and its deleterious consequences”is the first-step towards its prevention. So stay healthy and stay long.

It’s again Ramadan time. Millions of Muslims fast during this period and abstain from eating and drinking. However, two main meals are taken during Ramadan: ‘Suhur’ which is served before dawn and ‘Iftar’ which is taken after sunset. It is very important that Suhur comprises of a healthy meal to provide you energy for the whole day, and Iftar is a light meal to avoid weight gain.One should take foods that are rich in complex carbohydrates and protein, fruits or vegetables, and plenty of water to maintain a healthy fasting. Here are the few tips:

• Incorporate brown rice, wholemeal bread or wholegrain noodles in diet which take longer more time to digest, and help in sustaining energy levels longer
• When preparing rice, noodles and other grains, season with herbs, spices and broths
• Include high-calcium low-fat dairy products in your diet to maintain strong bones
• Lactose intolerant persons can choose lactose-free milk or calcium-fortified soybean milk
• Eat fish as it contains the healthy fat- omega-3fatty acid
• Prefer white meat over red meat and choose from low fat meat options (like veal, chicken and fish)
• Add herbs, sliced lemon or lemon juice to white meats and fishinstead of spices and salt
• Add favorite fruits, dates, and honey to the desserts to include more fiber and make the food vitamin-rich
• Replace sweets with stuffed dates, which are rich in fibre and are healthy
• Use home-made cream for the qatayef stuffing, which cuts down almost three-quarters of the calories

When deciding what to eat during Ramadan, one must remember that consuming the right food is very important. Turacoz Healthcare Solutions is passionate to spread the awareness on such social or healthcare related issues as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity. We consider it our responsibility to share the healthy way of fasting.

Surya Namaskar or sun salutation is a way of saluting sun, the ultimate source of energy and life on earth. Our solar plexus or second brain which is located in the central part of the body, i.e. behind navel, is assumed to be connected to the sun. This rationale must be behind the gurus and rishis of ancient and current times who recommend Surya Namaskar regular practise to increase one’s creativity and intuitive abilities.

The 12 postures of Surya Namaskar are in sync with the sun’s cycles which run at twelve-and-a-quarter years. In addition to having the known health benefits, performing Surya Namaskar also makes your body ready to vibrate and breathe with the natural solar cycle.

According to Sathguru, young women are already in sync with the smallest natural cycle i.e. lunar cycle. Now if women do Surya Namaskar also every day, they will be synced to both solar and lunar cycles, and that gives a lot of energy.Probably that is why God gave the privilege to propagate the race to the women.

The 12 steps of Surya Namaskar are:

1. Pranamasana or Prayer pose
2. Hastauttanasana or Raised arms pose
3. Hasta Padasana or Hand to foot pose
4. Ashwasanchalanasana or Equestrian pose
5. Dandasana or Stick pose
6. Ashtanganamarkara or Salute with eight parts/points
7. Bhujangasana or Cobra pose
8. Parvatasana or Mountain pose
9. Ashwasanchalanasana or Equestrian pose
10. Hasta padasana or Hand to foot pose
11. Hastauttanasana or Raised arms pose
12. Tadasana

Some quick facts:

• Twelve sets of Surya Namaskar is equivalent to 288 poses and can be done in only 12 minutes.
• One round of Surya Namaskar can burn upto 14 calories for an average weighing person.
• The sets can be increased up to 108 in a day.

Surya Namaskar is a complete exercise of body and soul. Including it in our daily routine can help us enjoy better life and be more productive.

One of the pillar of Turacoz Healthcare Solutions is our people and we always try to inculcate healthy habits and life style modifications to attain a comprehensive health, enjoy the life, and God’s creations. On this #InternationalYogaDay, Turacoz team pledges to inculcate healthy habits in their lifestyle and spread the awareness as a part of their corporate social responsibility.