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Tag: wellness

Wellness Wheel Assessment [WAA]
Wellness wheel assessment is a visual tool to assess, strategize and evaluate the level of wellness of individuals. It has great significance in our day today life as we are living in an environment with multiple factors detrimental to state of well-being.
Wellness is defined by various institutions across the globe in multiple ways as it encompasses different dimensions. However, it is a term often heard in relation to health.
The World health organization [WHO]has defined wellness as the optimal state of health of individuals and groups which is a positive state of being that goes beyond simply not having a disease or infirmity.The dimensions of wellness is not limited to health alone. Health related wellness is one of its strong pillars on which other aspects are standing on, but being interconnected with each other.
Let us have a glimpse on the various dimensions of wellness. Wellness encompasses emotional, physical, financial, social, occupational, environmental, intellectual and spiritual dimensions.
Why is it crucial to assess your wellness level?
Wellness can be redefined as an active & continuous life long process of making decisions by individuals to live a healthy& fulfilling life.
Wellness wheel assessment is a visual tool to assess, strategize and evaluate the level of wellness of individuals. It has great significance in our day today life as we are living in an environment with multiple factors detrimental to state of well-being. Stress is mounting in everywhere and some people commit suicide to run away from the unbearable pressure life inflicts on them ,while others fall prey to serious illnesses and morbidities overtime. Here significance of wellness assessment is crucial and there is a dire need to implement strategies and action plans to improve wellness in all realms. It has to be executed as micro-habits & lifestyle modifications which will compound over the course of time giving you a fulfilling, stress free and contented life.
Wellness is a state in which an individual achieves his or her full potential in life. It enhances the sense of well-being.
Wellness is a process and well-being is its result achieved by traversing the journey of wellness. It is rooted in making wise healthy decisions about habits and lifestyles.
Wellness wheel assessment [WWA]
This visual tool is an image wheel with 8 dimensions of wellness which may stimulate your mind in assessing your current level of wellness, strategizing making action plans and evaluating them periodically. WWA includes 8 sections portraying different categories of wellness to be achieved by an individual such as:
- Emotional
- Physical
- Financial
- Social
- Occupational
- Environmental
- Intellectual
- Spiritual
Role of wellness experts in wellness assessment
The wellness wheel assessment and strategizing &evaluation can be practiced after consulting a wellness expert who may recommend effective strategies to be implemented in every sector of your wellness journey. Once you make a progress you can practice it yourself lifelong for achieving your full potential and a fulfilling life.
A wellness expert may guide you in assessing your current lifestyle, level of your emotional wellness – your ability to cope with people and incidents in your life, your physical wellness which is the strongest foundation of wellness as health of body determines your mental state [ vice versa too] and your other realms of wellness such as intellect, occupation, finance, spiritual & social wellness etc.
A health care provider with expertise in wellness strategies can provide you with action plans to foster a lifestyle ensuring healthy body and mind in the scientific way.
Wellness assessment is carried out in a holistic and individualized way taking into account the age, sex, intellectual level, education, realm of work, occupation, ambitions& goals, state of health, lifestyle preferences and many more factors.
The wellness strategies to improve your social connections, occupational satisfaction, environmental well-being and spiritual wellness may help you reach new echelons of happiness and well-being eventually. Always remember that this is a continuous lifelong journey you can pursue yourself once you gain awareness about the strategies of wellness.
October 24, 2025
Ujjayi pranayama to de-stress
Ujjayi pranayama is a type of breathing exercise of yoga which helps to get rid of your stress, fatigue and invigorate your body and mind.
The literal meaning of “Ujjayi” is breath of victory. This pranayama technique is related with victory as the breathing in expands the chest and belly of the person doing this pranayama and the body may resemble to a victorious warrior. It is one of the important pranayama mentioned in Hata Yoga Pradipika, the ancient classical yoga text.
Ujjayi pranayama -health benefits
- It helps to de-stress
This breathing exercise helps to calm down your nervous system and remove your fatigue and accumulated stress. You may practice this simple breathing to address the stress of daily life in a positive and effective way.
- Ujjayi contributes to meditation
Ujjayi is an integral part of meditative process and it aids to enhance focus and concentration indirectly. Meditation is calming down your nervous system and body to be receptive .Ujjayi helps in this area and as an outcome you may be gifted with better focus and improved concentration.
- Helps to improve emotional stability
Ujjayi pranayama helps to reduce anxiety, agitation and impulsiveness. To get rid of this excessive mental stimulation, is crucial in achieving emotional stability with regular and consistent practice. Only an emotionally stable mind can do better decision making in your career as well as personal life.
- It improves the energy flow in human body
According to yoga principles, this pranayama invigorates you by removing energy blocks in your spinal cord. It removes the stagnation of energy and facilitates smooth flow of vital force or energy.
How to do ujjayi pranayama?
- The first step is sitting erect with your spine and head straight.
- closing your mouth and constricting or contracting the throat with slight exertion. Avoid too much contraction of glottis.
- Now try to exhale and then begin to inhale air slowly and rhythmically. Let the air pass through the constricted throat slowly.
- Continue inhaling slowly the fresh air, until a sense of fullness is achieved in the chest region. It is good to retain the inhaled air for a period of 6 seconds.
- Now exhale spontaneously. Please try to exhale slowly and it is advisable to avoid jerky or hasty movements.
- At the end of it,breath normally in a relaxing way.
How does ujjayi breathe work for human body beneficially?
This breathing technique is capable of generating body heat with in. Actually, it is the friction of the air, going down the contracted upper airway to both lungs is generating the heat. It is soothing for all vital organs & particularly aids in stimulating the fatigued brain. Therefore, Ujjayi is also referred to as “Psychic breath”.
Ujjayi is beneficial in enhancing the capacity of your lungs. The airflow through constricted throat in this type of pranayama, compels the lungs to expand fully during inhalation of air. This maximum expansion helps increased oxygen transfer to various parts of the body.
The ujjayi pranayama is done slowly and rhythmically and it calms down the para sympathetic nervous system and brings about calmness at mental level.
While doing ujjayi pranayama certain vibrations in the larynx stimulate sensory receptors and it may signal the Vagus nerve. The whole process helps to calm down the mind and body.
The contraction of glottis throat] produced in Ujjayi pranayama exerts a gentle pressure on the carotid sinuses in the neck also, which is regulating blood pressure in the arteries. This may affect to reduce stress and slow down the excessive thinking activity.
Who should not do Ujjayi pranayama?
- Individuals having high blood pressure & heart diseases better avoid doing this pranayama.
- Never over do the contraction of glottis
While doing this breathing exercise, exert only a little contraction of throat so that the air flow through channel is streamlined and a little friction is generated. This is generating the adequate heat or energy. Too much exertion is the erroneous method of doing this breathing exercise and is associated with various disadvantages and adverse effects. Be cautious to be gentle.
writtenby dr sanjana p [copyright]
References
- https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/yoga-sequences/what-is-ujjayi/
  
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0975947621001388
July 14, 2025
Health benefits of Anti -inflammatory diet – Foods to eat and avoid.
Anti -inflammatory diet is suitable to people suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases as well as food sensitivity or allergy.
The term anti-inflammatory diet is not a specific type of dietary habit suitable for all. As the term anti- inflammatory denotes it is a food choice to reduce inflammation as well as its impacts of body organs. In order to delve deeper into anti-inflammatory diet and understand its benefits one should know what is inflammation, its signs and symptoms and complications or impacts on the body.
The triggers as well as type of inflammations and their impacts vary from person to person. Therefore, while choosing an anti-inflammatory diet an individualized approach is better.
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is a key aspect of the body’s immune defenses. It can be acute or chronic. Symptoms can include swelling, heat, pain, and more. Treatment is offered depending on the underlying cause.
Inflammation may be acute as well as chronic. Acute inflammations occur abruptly and may last for a short period of time. Often acute inflammations are caused by injury, environmental chemicals and by infective agents causing infections of various kinds.
The sign s of acute or sudden inflammation include redness, pain, swelling , heat , loss of function.
Chronic inflammation & its impact on your body
Chronic inflammation means inflammation of the cells and tissues of body for a prolonged period of time. The chronic inflammatory state may cause damage to cells and body organs in the long run. It impairs the functions of organs such as heart, kidney, lung, brain etc.
For instance,metabolic syndrome, which includes type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity is a chronic inflammatory condition which needs anti-inflammatory diet as a life style and nutritional intervention.
Anti -inflammatory diet is suitable to people suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases as well as food sensitivity or allergy.
A few Chronic inflammatory diseases affecting humans are listed below:
- Crohn’s disease.
- Heart disease.
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases
- Rheumatoid arthritis.
- Type 2 diabetes.
- Ulcerative colitis.
- High blood pressure.
- Irritable bowel syndrome.
- Multiple sclerosis.
- Obesity.
- Psoriasis.
Chronic inflammations are mostly caused by genetic, metabolic and environmental factor. Food sensitivity in people is also a type of inflammatory response.
Who are at risk of chronic inflammation & anti-inflammatory diet may be helpful?
The risk for chronic inflammation is enhanced in:
- Old people
- Obese people
- In people who eat processed foods more
- In persons who smoke
- In over stressed individuals
- In people who follow erratic sleep habits
How chronic inflammations adversely affect your health?
- Chronic inflammation eventually leads to complicated Organ diseases
Chronic inflammation predisposes to complex diseases of liver, kidney, heart, lungs etc. which can considerably enhance the morbidity as well as mortality rates globally.
- Chronic inflammatory state enhances the risk for cancer.
The incidence of diabetes and obesity are rising in the global population and this chronic inflammatory conditions alarmingly increase the risk of cancer as well as other allied complications of lifestyle diseases.
How do you know you have inflammations? Signs and symptoms
Inflammation is characterized chronic pains , swelling ,redness ,tenderness of the affected parts.
Inflammation causes other symptoms also depending on the organs and tissues affected.
Anti-inflammatory diet
Anti -inflammatory diet offers guidelines to follow to eat in a way that reduces the likelihood of inflammation. In a nutshell anti-inflammatory diet is one that includes minimally processed foods and includes healthy antioxidant rich vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds ,fish with anti -inflammatory properties.
Avoid the following Foods:
- Sweets, pre-packaged desserts, ice cream and candy.
- Snacks – fried and junk foods
- Processed meats, including bacon, sausage, hot dogs etc.
- Processed cheeses
- Sugary beverages
The anti-inflammatory diet recommends the following foods to include in your diet plan:
- Brown or wild rice.
- Vegetables particularly green leafy vegetables which are rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals
- Fruits
- Chicken breast
- Eggs
- Fish (oily fish, such as salmon, tuna, herring or mackerel).
- Legumes
- Nuts and seeds.
- Oats.
- olive oil
- cardamom
- ginger
- cloves
Best types of anti-inflammatory diet patterns
- Mediterranean diet
- Dash diets
- MIND Diet
These are specific diet patterns which help to prevent and manage life style diseases and various other organ diseases of mankind.The mediterranean and DASH diets are found to be very effective in preventing and modifying diseases of heart and blood vessels .
It helps to prevent heart attack, stroke , diabetes and hypertension. Most of these diseases are associated with chronic inflammations. These diets help to reduce inflammation also. MIND diet is a combination of Mediterranean diet and DASH diet. Here processed and junk foods, excessive intake of sweet and salt intake are restricted.
Further more, the diet includes so much of antioxidants and ingredients with anti-inflammatory properties.
Mediteraanean diet includes olive oil as the prominent ingredient of foods and which are anti-inflammatory to a great extent.
Research studies show that people of Mediterranean region who consume these foods had very low incidence of heart diseases and stroke. Now mediterranean diet is accepted by the whole world as the best and practical solution for obesity and life style diseases prevention.
Both of these conditions are related with chronic inflammation and the efficacy of Mediterranean, DASH and MIND diets prove its anti- inflammatory role also.
Benefits of Anti-inflammatory diet
Improves skin health and beauty
Reduces joint pain & swelling
Improves gut health & reduces abdominal bloating from gas
Better and refreshing sleep.
Reduces heart attack and stroke
Lower blood pressure.
Lower blood sugar and helps to manage type 2 diabetes well.
Helps in weight loss.
Improves energy level.
Foods to include in anti-inflammatory diet
Berries
Fatty fish
Broccoli
Avocados
Green tea
Peppers
Mushrooms
Grapes
Turmeric
Extra virgin olive oil
Dark chocolate and cocoa
Tomatoes
Cherries
Of late anti-inflammatory diet is gathering attention world wide as a solution for obesity and many types of diseases of inflammatory nature including lifestyle diseases.
History of Indian medical heritage points out that many centuries ago herbs, vegetables and fruits were used in the treatment of various inflammatory conditions.
The Indian systems of medicine gives emphasis to prescription of food with some inclusion and exclusion criteria, for various types of clinical conditions or diseases. Recent advances in nutritional research substantiates the ancient practice with well designed dietary protocols understanding the underlying pathology as inflammation.
Everyone can achieve wellness and health through well chosen diet plans tailoring to individual needs.
Written by
Dr sanjana p. BHMS,DBRM,CDN
References
January 25, 2025