Taking care of Parents' Health

Team HealthCult

If you and/or your parents are over the age of 50, here are some tips from renowned nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar on how you can take care of health from head to toe. She also talks about some simple and time-tested principles about diet

Taking care of your parents health

What can you do to help them?

1. Physical examination head to toe
- Hair quality - look for unnatural greying or hairfall
- Eyesight - are they removing their glasses often?
- Shoulders - are they slouching from the shoulders?
- Stomach and arms - is the stomach getting bigger and arms thinner?
- Hip flexibility - can they sit down without any problem?
- Walking style - has their GAIT changed?
- Toes - are their toes curled up or open? 

2. Exercise interventions
- Yoga class once a week
- Strength training once a week. Check out simple home-based/no-equipment exercises here
- Cycling or stationary cycling yoga
- Climbing stairs and take a break after every 30 minutes of sitting
- Regular massage

3. Diet tips
- Start morning with nuts, have tea/ coffee after that
- Have fresh breakfast, if not too hungry have a banana or cup of milk
- Mid morning have a seasonal home-made sherbet like nimbo pani
- Have a chutney or pickle with lunch daily
- 20-40 min nap in afternoon on aaraam kursi
- Curd/ chaas/ lassi after the nap
- Healthy evening snack, but not after 5 pm e.g. peanuts, makhana
- Dinner latest by 8 pm
- Milk at bedtime