Human beings make hundreds of choices daily. Many of these decisions focus on when and whether we should quit. When do you give up? When do you persist? What makes you make these choices in any case? Every decision we make is a battle. A battle between impulse and control.
Do you know people who find it hard to connect at an emotional level? Alexithymia is the inability to recognize, describe, or express emotions. It is not a mental disorder, but a personality trait that affects emotional awareness. People with alexithymia struggle to differentiate between emotions and physical sensations. They
Fisetin is a flavonoid. A natural compound found in plants. It gives fruits and vegetables their vibrant color. But its role goes beyond aesthetics. It is a powerful antioxidant. One that protects cells from damage and supports longevity. Strawberries have the highest concentration of fisetin. Something I try and eat
How can you bullet proof your heart from the effects of ageing
Alzheimers is a condition where your memory, speech, and physical movement is impaired. Can ultrasound waves help restore some of the capacity? Before we understand that, let us first examine why we develop Alzheimers. There is more than one theory, but the popularly accepted version is that amyloid-β builds up
How Time of Day Affects Exercise Your body's natural rhythms play a big role in how effective your workouts are. Timing your exercise to align with these rhythms can make a noticeable difference. Daily Body Temperature Changes Your core body temperature fluctuates throughout the day, directly affecting your
Do you have blue veins popping all over your body? Hands and feet? Have you ever wondered why on earth are your veins blue? If you have, let us dig in and find out. For starters, let’s rule out royal lineage. Even royalty has red blood like you and
Are you someone who has low blood pressure and a high heart rate? Your heart races as soon as you stand or attempt to exercise? If you are, you could have POTS or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. What is POTS? POTS is a condition where your autonomic nervous system struggles
I could not breathe for the past few days. My nose was blocked, inflamed, and watering. This is not normal for me. At the very least, for something like this to persist for days instead of hours. The culprit was formeldehyde. So what is formaldehyde and how does it affect
I have written in the past about changes in the United States, driven by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. India, by the way, has had its own version of this for some time. Our Prime Minister recently reiterated his clarion call to reduce obesity. So should we have
Artificial sweeteners come in many forms. Aspartame, saccharine, sucralose, to name a few. So why are you having artificial sweeteners and is it good for you? Many people believe that reducing the consumption of “sugar” or “sugary” things is good for health. Of course, your intention was to reduce calories,
I am constantly surprised by the number of people I meet with gallbladder stones. So what are gallbladder stones and how can you prevent them? Your gallbladder is a small organ that stores bile to help digest fats. Depending on what you have eaten, your gallbladder will produce the bile
The world is full of people telling you what to do. It is almost as though the world is full of inept people with a handful of masters. But the best teachers are those who listen, not tell. Allow me to explain. Our method of teaching has evolved. From gurukuls
If you are among those who have high blood pressure, someone might have suggested having beetroot. So what is the connection between beetroot and blood pressure? Beetroot, among other foods such as spinach and quinoa, contains a compound known as trimethylglycine, also called betaine—a naturally occurring substance with several
Have you ever noticed how a whiff of your grandma’s curry or the sound of an old Bollywood track takes you right back to a specific moment? So what is going on? Memory driven by a stimulus is called context-dependent memory. Your brain’s way of tying memories to
It is shocking how many people walk around with a blocked nose. Thankfully, not a nose turned up, just a blocked one. But you have to ask, why is my nose blocked and what can I do? The passages of your respiratory tract respond to the environment. When they feel
A meta skill is a higher order skill that enables you to adapt and learn such that you can develop a host of other capacities. So how can you use this concept to build good health? Let us divide the human population into cohorts. Children, young adults, middle ages and
A cognitive bias is a “systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.” We all suffer from biases. The biggest bias, perhaps, is that we are unbiased. I don’t know anyone who does not like to believe that they are completely free of biases. That they have
Set point is a defined limit set by your body. Think of it as a limit on your thermostat, at which point your body changes directions. So what does this mean in the context of weight? Let me take my example. My ideal weight is sixty kilograms. I would say
The pupils of your eyes are the small dark openings that regulate how much light enters. They also respond to your emotional and mental state. Typically, pupils measure between 2–4 millimeters in bright light, expanding to 4–8 mm in dimmer settings. But do you know that your pupils
The knowing-doing gap is a common phenomenon that illuminates the difference between understanding what one should do and doing it. We all know what to do more often than not. Yet, many of us struggle to translate insights into actionable steps. At some point we have to stop and ask
A sleep study is an examination of your sleep pattern and brain activity while you are asleep also known as a polysomnogram. Typically done to understand why you might have difficulty sleeping, it studies your breath, brain, body movement, for example. Strapped to various equipment that measures these metrics, it
Brain fatigue is a condition where your brain is tired, having made too many decisions. If you tax your brain to take more decisions, chances are you might make a bad one. So how does brain fatigue play out in the context of health? Imagine you took an early morning
Vision has two components. Near and far. We don’t think about it so much, because we so instinctively switch between the two. You observe both near and far objects. Nurturing your vision is often-overlooked because you open your eyes and see without effort. A significant contributor to eyestrain is