Shweta Dayal

About Shweta Dayal

Shweta is a Guest Writer at JoyScore. She loves to write on varied topics and is passionate about bringing Joy to the people around her.

How to Manage Diabetes Effectively

November 18, 2020 by Shweta Dayal

I got my facts corrected a little late when my father was diagnosed with diabetes. I had assumed consuming sweets and chocolates was the reason for high “sugar” levels in the body. After doing a little research out of curiosity, I found out that diabetes occurs due to increased glucose levels in the blood cells, either caused by insufficient insulin in the body or the ineffectiveness of insulin on our blood cells.

What is Diabetes?

Diabetes has become the most common chronic disease in the current lifestyle. In 2019, diabetes patients worldwide were estimated to be 9.3% (463 million people), and it is predicted to rise by 10.2% (578 million) in 2030. These statistics consist of three types of diabetes patients.

Know your Diabetes

In the first type, the body produces no insulin or a very little amount. The immune system, responsible for fighting off viruses and diseases, attacks and destroys the secretion house of insulin, the pancreas. Instead of diffusing the insulin in the cells, the sugar in the bloodstream builds up. Although weight is not a reason for the first type, a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors is believed to trigger the disease. The second type, the most common form of diabetes, can be caused due to lifestyle factors or genes. When our body is inactive, as it does not get physical exercise, it starts putting on weight leading to obesity or being overweight. This causes insulin resistance, the inability of the blood cells to utilize the insulin transported from the pancreas. Extra weight around the belly develops when our body lives in a prolonged sedentary position, which has become a lifestyle in the pandemic. Also, a bad diet can be a reason. This can link to insulin resistance and heart and blood vessel diseases too. Prediabetes is the initial stage of type 2 where blood sugar is high but not as high to be turned into type 2 diabetes. The last type is Gestational diabetes. It can be activated during pregnancy as pregnancy leads to insulin resistance. Though gestational diabetes is temporary, if not taken necessary precautions, it can result in further complications.

ABCs of Diabetes

Tensed you might have one of these factors in your routine?

You need to know your ABCs if you have diabetes. A firm control on your ABCs can lower the risk of strokes or heart attack, since a diabetic person is more likely to counter them compared to a non diabetic person. The American Diabetes Association and the American College of Cardiology have teamed up to raise awareness of “ ABC of diabetes”. A stands for A1C test which shows an average of your blood glucose level from the last 3 months. Your number should be below 7. It is advised to take this test at least twice a year. B stands for blood pressure. The heart works harder with higher blood pressures. Keeping the blood pressure under control in case of diabetes, can prevent the risk of heart attacks, strokes or kidney diseases. Many people aim for the blood pressure levels to be below 140/90 or lower in some cases. C stands for cholesterol. Cholesterol is the waxy substance produced by the liver to protect nerves, make cell tissue and used to secrete certain hormones. LDL or bad cholesterol should be below 100. HDL or good cholesterol should be 40 or higher. Higher amounts of bad cholesterol can also be a striking factor for heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.

How to live with Diabetes

Keeping the ABCs numbers checked and doing every possible thing to manage diabetes, the question now is will it ever fully cure. Studies suggest that type 2 can be reversible in some cases. There is no cure yet but through proper diet and regular exercise, one has a chance to reverse it. Living with diabetes needs an iron will to make lifestyle changes. While making these changes you can face a lot of stress which may affect your glucose levels. Your body responds with fight or flight mechanisms when you are experiencing stress. This increases the hormone levels in the blood and consequently elevated glucose in the bloodstream. Your body may not act on this glucose if you have diabetes, giving rise to high sugar levels. Hence, it is important to manage stress in the day to day life. Starting your day with 15 mins meditation can set a tone for the rest of your day. You can simply sit in a chair and recite mantras like “I will have a good day” or “today is the best day of my life”. You can also focus on your breathing, naturally resisting the unwanted thoughts in your mind. Regular practice of meditation will definitely give you peace of mind and also keep you calm in times of stressful situations. The major changes with the most effective results are eating habits and exercise. Higher intake of fatty fish, leafy greens, eggs, avocados, beans, etc become a great source of nutrients, protein, vitamins, and fiber to lower complications of diabetes. A proper diet must be followed by regular exercise. Yoga is a real stress reliever which also makes you flexible and stabilizes your blood glucose level. All you need is a mat and some open space. If you already have a bike, hitting the road in the morning can make your heart rate go up, burn calories, and also lose weight. If not, a simple 30 minutes walk in the morning can put your body in motion and lower your stress. Putting a habit of using stairs instead of elevators or walking to the grocery store in case of buying a few items also can work up your heart and lungs and regulate the glucose levels.

Conscious choices constitute a greater change. Download JoyScore app to help you manage diabetes effectively by suggesting activities that contribute to changing your lifestyle. Let’s live a mindful and healthy life together.

Hand Hygiene: Need Of The Hour

October 18, 2020 by Shweta Dayal

Scrolling down, are you? Did you know? The screen you’re scrolling on has about 8000 germs per square inch. And this same screen is dirtier than your kitchen counter. I’m not trying to scare you, but everyday you’re exposed to about 60,000 bacteria. Some of these bacteria are infectious while others, not so. So how do you keep infections at bay, especially in this pandemic hit year? Hand Hygiene.

The contamination we are exposed to everyday, while commuting to work, or buying from the grocery store, or just surfing on the internet, is humungous. Especially among Americans, recent tests have shown that they touch the dirtiest surfaces- airport doors, public soap dispensers, airport bathrooms, etc. Following are a few germ hot-spots which have a high level of contamination, enough to spread infections and illness :

Gas pumps handle — 71%
Mailbox handles — 68%
Escalator rails — 43%
ATM buttons — 41%
Parking meters/kiosks — 40%
Vending machines — 38%

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread and little was known about the novel coronavirus, one of the World Health Organization (WHO) ‘s first recommendations was a simple, tried-and-true public health measure: Hand Hygiene. This advice persists even today as one of the most fundamental ways, alongside masks, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Just thirty seconds of scrubbing with water and soap, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, can wash away the germs—in addition to other common infectious diseases such as typhoid, cholera, and diarrheal pathogens.

Global Handwashing Day can be looked at as an opportunity to design effective and creative ways to encourage people to wash hands regularly. The theme for 2020 is ‘Hand Hygiene for all’. It reminds of the universal access and practice of handwashing with soap and water. Only 66 percent of Americans always wash up after using a public restroom when asked about their handwashing habits, even though 92 percent believe that washing their hands after a visit is essential. The figures are disturbing yet accurate.

But making hand hygiene available to everyone in the society requires a macro and multifarious approach. Especially in America, the access to sustainable hand hygiene services needs to be improved (regular water supply, handwashing facilities, steady water supply, soap or alcohol based handrub etc). Most importantly, our society needs a behaviour change. The drivers which support this change should be addressed and components such as policy reforms, coordination, financing, regulations need to be strengthened.

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This year’s Global Handwashing Day calls on countries to celebrate hand hygiene as a central part of their response to the pandemic and, at the same time start planning to create a safe and better future. Once the immediate crisis is over, strengthening the hygiene systems would be the backbone for building a better and safer future. This would help control the emerging and old diseases and infections like COVID-19, diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, etc. It is crucial for the countries to develop roadmaps for hygiene. It would allow them to leverage the attention COVID-19 has got to implement a long-lasting public health programme.

To Summarise…

We need to change our habits to live a sustainable and infection free life. And these habits can be inculcated only if you’re aware of your patterns and your responses. You can live a mindful life by downloading JoyScore, which is an scientifically backed app which has different activities to lighten up your mood and also help instil new, life changing habits.

Sleep Well, Be Well

October 7, 2020 by Shweta Dayal

A person sleeps 26 years on an average of 70 years of his lifetime. This activity may not seem so productive, as sleeping takes away the precious hours of potential when you could be getting stuff done. 34% of the adults in America barter the sleeping hours for working or catching up on emails, binge-watching on Netflix, texting overseas peers, scrolling through Instagram, and getting stuck in the loophole of the internet. After all, what else can be done in the period between 10pm – 2am, right?

This is the best time to sleep. The deepest and most regenerative sleep occurs during this time which is responsible for the feeling of freshness and zeal in the morning. Your body is ever ready to finish up the tasks of the day. After 2 am, sleep becomes superficial. This period is called dreaming sleep or REM ( Rapid Eye Movement). Your brain is twice as active as when you are awake and your eyes dart back and forth rapidly behind closed lids. This is well described as “ an active brain in a paralyzed body”. Just as deep sleep restores your body, dream sleep, or REM restores your mind by dissipating the irrelevant information. Studies have found that REM sleep eases learning and memory. After conducting a test, it was discovered that students who pulled an all-nighter to cram up before an examination retained less information than the classmates who got adequate sleep. If you refrain from sleeping before 10pm, you may wake up feeling still fatigued from the previous day. Hence, it is not important how much you sleep rather when you sleep.

Our brain is equipped with an internal clock called- the pineal gland. The pineal gland produces the hormone, melatonin, as the sunsets. Exposure to light prevents the secretion of melatonin and darkness promotes it. Parents often advise teenagers to avoid using cellphones during bedtime. This is due to the same reason that excessive screen time can allay the secretion of melatonin further impairing the sleep cycle. This can lead to obesity, a weakened immune system, hypertension, anxiety, and stress. Hence, even the adults should take the advice seriously and switch off their computers, laptops, and smartphones one hour before bedtime.

What are the other ways of improving sleep?

Avoid stimulants such as coffee after lunch or in the evening. Caffeine delays sleep. Caffeine blocks the adenosine receptor to keep you from falling asleep.
Take up relaxing activities to encourage sleep before going to bed such as meditation, reading a book, or a hot bath.
Make sure your bedroom is darker than the shades of your room.
Get yourself a comfortable mattress.
Keep your bedroom at a cool temperature.
If you are struggling to fall asleep, try a breathing activity called ‘parasympathetic breathing’, which is aimed at restoring your body to a state of calm. Or head over to JoyScore to try some breathing activities.
If you had a poor sleep at night, you can take a power nap of 20 minutes for restoring the maximum functioning of the mind as well as alleviate stress. Napping too close to your bedtime impacts your sleep time at night.

There is no such ideal total number of hours for sleeping. Your sleep requirement and sleep pattern change as per your age. You can monitor and regulate sleep by being more aware of your body needs. For more insights on living a healthy and mindful life follow JoyScore. Download the JoyScore app now to experience more joy.