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The Role of a Dietician or Nutritionist- Dr. Tarun Bharti

The real need of a dietician or nutritionist is not for losing the weight only, but to maintain the state of wellness. We need to understand the real composition of the body and the kind of food that we need to chose to make it a balanced food.

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Diverticulosis/ Potholes on the GI Tract

Problem Statement:

If you are above 50 years always bloated especially after meals, having irregular bowel movements, constipated, have incomplete evacuation of the bowels, have regular urge of going to toilet, may have to go to toilet many times a day, you may be suffering from diverticulosis.

Though people above 50 years of age are more prone to the diverticulosis but young patients are no exception they can also have the disease due to irrational diet and lifestyle.

What happens in colon?

Though diverticulosis can happen in part of intestine but sigmoid colon is the most prone part, because it tries hard to push the stool to the rectum. Because of pushing sigmoid colon becomes thickened as well as full of potholes. And stool gets stuck in these potholes for days sometimes for weeks.

This combination of stuck stool and narrowed, thickened colon makes your tummy feel really full, bloated and uncomfortable.

Why do it happen?

Meals devoid of required amount of fibre

consuming less fruits and vegetables

More consumption of red meat, chicken, and refined food

Sedentary lifestyle

Lots of medications

Medication slowing the peristaltic movements like antacids, hormones replacement, steroids, NSAIDS.

Leading a life full of stress

Too much consumption of alcohol

Solution

Though diverticulosis is considered as a natural progression of ageing in the medical fraternity but it can be minimized or even avoided given the careful watch over diet.

A few steps can be taken to help:

Reduce the animal products in the diet as you age

Fibre is a must on daily basis approx. 25 to 35g. daily depending upon your age, sex and weight.

Taking lots of fluid

Avoiding sweet sugary substances

Exercise to propagate peristaltic movement

Reducing alcohol intake

Avoiding stress

Takeaway

Diverticulosis is most commonly occurring and most ignored condition that can leave a patient irritated and debilitating. Careful observation of symptoms and investigations may help in reaching the right diagnosis.

A right diagnosis goes a long way treating a patient.

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The main problem with obesity is fat deposits in liver and pancreas.

Not all obese people are unhealthy

The data explains the fact.

Sri Lanka 's obesity rate rose only 0.1 percent from 2000 to 2010 but number of diabetics rose from 3% to 10%.

While New Zealand's obesity rose from 23% to 34% but number of diabetics reduced from 8% to 5% during the same period.

How??

The main problem with obesity is fat deposits in liver and pancreas.

The fat deposits in liver causes fatty liver and would increase fat in adipocytes, skeletal muscles, in blood and would lead to blockages in the blood vessels.

Fat deposits in pancreas leads to fatty pancreas. Which means it would interfere with its function. Low insulin and glucagon production. These are main hormones of homeostasis of glucose in the blood.

That means any abnormalities in its levels would lead to high glucose levels. If it continues to be like this for longer time permanent damage may happen to these organs and will lead to T2DM, cardiac disease, hypertension, kidney failure etc.

But it takes years before we finally have these diseases. If we stop the process before the damage, we can avoid having those problems for whole of our lives.

Takeaway

We should start planning for the healthy lifestyle before the disease process would set in.

The diet is most important part for any chronic disease, like Hypertension, Diabetes, Kidney problems, Fatty Liver etc. So before starting any medicine do consult a dietician and understand what is lacking in your daily diet that has led to the present situation.

Who knows, may be a little bit of changes in the diet and lifestyle, and you may not need the medication.