Health special: Eat well to beat the heat

The fluctuating weather conditions are back, and so are your worries for your health. Keeping that in mind, the guide got some city health professionals to share tips on staying healthy

The only way to avoid the always changing October weather is staying indoors, but keeping our busy lives in mind, that’s never a choice, is it? And so, one has to find ways to beat this changing weather.

Dr Kapil Patwardhan, general practitioner at Sahyadri Hospital, says that the key is to avoid sudden changes in environment temperature, especially from closed cold indoors to hot outdoors. “Today’s working generation is constantly sitting in an air conditioned environment and when they go out, they directly get exposed to the sun. This impacts the body and decreases immunity. That helps viral infections to grow,” he says, adding, “We are observing around 15-20 patients of viral infection in a day.”

Dhananjay Damle, dermatologist and consultant at Joshi Hospital, says that in this kind of weather it is very easy to catch skin allergies as well. “Too much exposure to sun during the day can cause sunburn. Besides, the cold weather in the evening brings dryness to the skin.” Damle advises one to keep the skin moisturised, especially in a city like Pune, which has a dry climate.

And while it’s difficult to control the natural environment, changing food habits may increase your chances of putting up a good fight against infections. Malvika Karkare, dietician at Sahyadri Hospital, says that eating proper food at the proper time will make a huge difference. “Our daily Maharashtrian meal offers a balanced diet and suits all climate changes, but due to our busy life we don’t follow it properly. Having your daily meal at the right time is enough to stop any kind of disease,” she says.

Karkare warns that skipping meals can also lead to sleeping disorders and ultimately affect the digestive system. “So, to improve and stabilise our digestive system in a drastically changing climate, one should eat at least four times a day,” she signs off.

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