Thursday, May 27, 2021

Nutrition Diagnostics - Balancing Body Chemistry - Dr Ritessh V Raj, consultant diabetologist, Neuberg Anand Reference Laboratory

Balance is the key to our health. For the past 30 years, there has been a steady rise worldwide in chronic diseases, and around 20% of Indians suffer from chronic diseases. They occur because of a metabolic imbalance. If you are not feeling well 100% today, the chances are that your body’s chemistry is out of balance. 

That is why Nutrients play a vital role in human health. It is essential for balanced body chemistry. Additional to managing weight, blood pressure and cholesterol, a healthy diet helps prevent and manage several chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

Nutritional Diagnostics aims to identify and describe a specific nutrition problem that can heal through treatment/nutrition intervention by food and nutrition professionals.

The onset of chronic disease is a product of our actions. When we take actions, which are harmful to our body - either through a deficient diet, toxin exposure or an underlying imbalance - we develop five subclinical defects. Which are as follows:

1. Free Calcium Imbalance: It is the excess or deficit in ionized, unbound calcium (Ca++) found in cells, serum, and body fluids. An excess of free calcium, causes the body to develop calcification, bone resorption, and alterations in cell signaling, resulting in a wide range of diseases.

2.  Chronic Inflammation: Inflammation, when acute, is a healthy event, helping the body in repairing itself, fight infections, deal with cancer and handle toxic exposures. Chronic or prolonged inflammation begins to fail its intended purposes and raises the risk of infection, toxicity, and all disease conditions, especially heart disease, arthritis and cancer.

3. Acid stress: It occurs when the body is more acidic than alkaline. Our body makes every effort to remain alkaline, but it can be interrupted by the excessive volume of acid produced by normal metabolism. 

4. Oxidative stress: It occurs when protective antioxidant status falls short of what is needed to handle the output of damaging free radicals. An excess amount of them leads to uncontrolled oxidation that destroys cell components and damages healthy cell functioning, laying the groundwork for disease, infection, disability from ageing, and toxicity. Eating a balanced, healthful diet rich in fruits and vegetables, limiting the intake of processed foods, explicitly those high in sugars and fats, working out regularly and leaving smoking reduces oxidative stress and slow-up the ageing process.

5. Connective tissue breakdown occurs when the body is incompetent to make repairs or build new tissue and often manifests itself as osteoporosis and arthritis.

Prevention of these subclinical defects can prevent birth-defects, thereby increasing the chances of having a healthy baby. Managing health conditions and adopting healthy behaviors before becoming pregnant gives the baby a healthy start to life. This is possible through balancing body chemistry - the idea being that when the body is in balance, it is healthier and resilient.

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