Stay healthy at home

Staying home is the best way to keep ourselves away from the coronavirus. But leading an unhealthy lifestyle can make things worse and so one should stay healthy at home, say medical experts.

Confinement to the home and psychological distress due to the covid-19 pandemic may lead to harmful health behaviors such as overeating, sedentary lifestyle with reduced physical activity, increased screen time causing impaired sleep, and excessive alcohol and tobacco use.

"All these behaviours can reduce your immunity," says Dr Anoop Soman, Specialist Cardiologist at Al Salama Polyclinic.

While no food, single nutrients or dietary supplements are capable of preventing Covid infection, a balanced diet containing sufficient amount of macronutrients and diverse micronutrients is a prerequisite for an optimally functioning immune system.

DESIGN YOUR MENU

Regular moderate exercise, well-balanced diet including fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes, fish, and limiting fat, oil and sugar can boost your immunity levels and that will help you from developing serious complications related to Covid.

"A recent UK study showed that obese people have more cytokines in their system which can eventually cause more complications if they contract Covid," adds Dr Soman.

"This year the Covid-19 infection has changed. Because of the new variants which are infecting younger and middle-age people more, being more virulent than the older virus, now patients are getting more severe disease and more complications. Most importantly, the rapidity with which the patients’ condition gets worse has increased, and the virulence is very high and that's why it is of paramount importance for people not to drop their guard by following the Covid guidelines and wearing mask, social distancing, and hand hygiene," says Dr Dilip Singhvi, Specialist Internal Medicine, Apollo Hospital.

"These patients require ventilatory support for 24 to 48 hours and some collapse very fast. Even people having good immunity and good nutrition are ending up with severe disease which is the case with people like body builders who take good nutritious diet but still may not have adequate immunity to fight the infection."

BODY BUILDERS

Some body builders (not necessarily the above mentioned case) take hormone supplements which if not done under medical supervision, in the long run may affect some vital organs like kidney and heart and may cause underlying health issues.

FOLLOW GUIDELINES

During this pandemic time it is imperative that one follows an active lifestyle and dietary plan and maintain a positive attitude towards life. However, it's more important that one needs to be prudent by adhering to social distancing, wearing mask, hand hygiene, following healthy lifestyle and taking Covid-19 vaccine according to the guidelines.