Sleep well to improve immunity

Dr Sarika Rakshe, Paediatrician highlights the importance of sleep. Getting enough sound sleep helps boost immunity in humans. Sound sleep ensures our body has different paths of protein synthesis which improves the natural defence system agains bacteria and virus.
Another important aspect is a good diet. Avoid junk food and instead give Vitamin C and A rich fruits and vegetables like Guava, lemon, oranges, sprouts, spinach, carrots, leafy vegetables which help build the build the immune system.
Adding a small amount of lemon grass, tulsi leaves, ginger in regular tea or daily cuisine also boosts immunity.
Fluids are also important to replenish the water in the body of the child. If there is sufficient water, the dehydration effect will be less and the child will feel less tired, thus stronger against viral attacts

How to make children eat healthy snacks

Dr Babu Joseph, Director of National Institute of Naturopathy highlights the importance of Snacks as an important part of child's diet.To ensure that children snack is appropriate and healthy and with interest, the parents need to prepare and make delicious and nutritious dishes. Making it decorative in shapes, colours, appealing smell and tasty will ensure that the child will eat it with enthusism.
There are lots of different food itemts which give different colours, smell and taste to the food that will impress the children. For example
Carrots give a orangish hue.
Beetroots give a reddish hue
Coconuts give a distinct flavour
Spinnach or palakh give a greenish hue
Oranges give a tangy flavour.
Visual appeal of the food decides whether children will eat the food with interest. Dates stuffed with coconut mixed with jaggery syrup can be given since it is high in nutritional value. If a nut(dry-fruit) is added, it gives more nutritious value as it contains maximum minerals and glucose, proteins, fat and omega 3 and 6 factors can be derived through this.
Another easy food are ladoos such as mixed nut ladoo, mixed cereal millets ladoo, mixed fruits sweet and many more natural items that are rich in nutritional values. These can be added to children’s tiffin boxes for eating in their snack time.
The children will grow/ develop strong muscles and pure blood. They will also develop positive habits and positive thinking.
if we prepare healthy nutritional snacks then the habits of junk/ fast food will reduce promoting healty kids

Boost immunity with dry fruits by

Dr Anand Pandit is a leading Pediatrician in Pune. He suggests dry fruits to boost immunity.
The common dry fruits that are available are almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashew nuts, pistachios and chestnuts. The children tend to enjoy the nuts while keeping them healthy as the nuts are rich in proteins, mono saturated fatty acids and important nutrients.
They are especially good to reduce the hyperactive hormones of the hyperactive children. The dry fruits also help reduce heart diseases.
Omega 3 and fatty acids present in the nuts are useful in modifying neuro transmitters which are necessary for the development of the brain.
For those with a tight budget can switch to peanuts for proteins. Almonds are also a good source of Vitamin E, B1, B2, B3 apart from proteins and mono saturated fats. Cashewnuts contains Selenium which helps boost the immunity.
Raisins, dates and figs have high fibre and excellent lactation value.
Dr also recommends 4 almonds or 4 walnuts or 25 peanuts mixed in Dates / raisins or figs to form a laddu. This makes the dry fruit snack portable and can be given in a tiffin while building the immune system.

How to make cleanliness a habit (Fit for Life)

Dr Dilip Sharda (President of Indian Medical Association) tells us how the H1N1 virus showed how poor our immune system is.
As prevention is better than cure, if we have clean environment we can have a better health
To change the society to be more clean, we need to start from the children. If we are successful in making cleanliness a habit into children. They will question elders when they are making the place dirty. Sadly there is poor civic sense in our society. We see people spitting on the road, blowing horn at the red lights, talking on the cellphone while driving, etc without thinking for a second whether they are doing something wrong.
If we instill spitting on the road is a bad habit into these young minds then this unhealthy practice will reduce.
Since most of the toilets in the municipal schools are dirty, children avoid going to the toilets. This tends to cause Urinary tract infections. School authorities should ensure that the toilets are clean.
Anaemia is rampant in the poor strata of the society while obesity is rampant in the
well to do strata of the society.
Its the responsibility of the parents to instill personal hygiene into children. Simple habits like taking a clean handkerchief goes a long way. Prevention costs little but still people then to pay through the nose for the treatment rather than prevention.
Simple tips on health and hygiene will provide an insight into the need for creating healthy surroundings to keep our children fit.
Parent should not install the habit of instant gratification into the children as later the children try different tactics to get their demands fulfilled.
A healthy child is one who is physically fit and also mentally and socially fit.
As Swami Vivekanad said a healthy mind leaves in a healthy body.

Fit for life initiatvie

DNA newspaper recently started a fit for life initiative involving a number of doctors/ parents and teachers.
The series brings across different ways to improve the fitness and increase your immunity. We welcome the initiative and we will bring across the points raised in this series for our readers.
Imparting cleanliness as a habit to your children
Boosting immunity by dry fruits
Making Snacks Healthy
Sleep well for enhanced immunity

Lose your licence for talking on your cellphone

If you are caught in a traffic jam or itching to talk to a friend, Well, don’t. Starting today, calling, sending a text message or even listening to music through earphones while in the driver’s seat will cost you your driver’s licence – forever! It doesn’t matter if your vehicle is stationary at a traffic signal, you’re still culpable. What’s more, you cannot use your hands-free, play games, take photos or shoot videos on your phone either. A circular sent out by State Transport Commissioner Deepak Kapoor to all 45 divisions of the Regional Transport Offices (RTO) and other transport offices in the State, including the Mumbai Traffic police, says that those caught using mobile phones while driving will stand to forfeit their licence for good. Kapoor said that drivers in a stationary vehicle in a traffic jam or at a traffic signal also come under the rule.
He added, “For the first time such harsh punishment has been decided upon for those using mobile phones while driving. The circular has already been dispatched to all concerned departments and we have clearly laid down the rule that once the driver sits in the car, he cannot touch his mobile phone until he leaves the driver’s seat. If he flouts the rule, he will be liable for the punishment decided upon.” However, Kapoor clarified, this rule only applies to the driver and not to other occupants of the vehicle. The move came following a letter sent by the Central Government to the transport commissioner indicating that use of mobile phones while driving motor vehicles carried a potential risk of accidents and had been proved to distract the driver, increasing the probability of accidents.
According to the letter, the special committee set up to look into the petitions by Rajya Sabha members on the issue, had taken a very serious note of the fact that use of mobile phones in motor vehicles was on the rise, leading to accidents.
Kapoor said, “Acting on the letter, we recommended that the use of mobile phones while driving be banned in any form and in any manner. We have now directed the officers to disqualify a driver under Rule 21 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, as per the procedure laid down in Section 19 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988’ (see ‘Road Rules’).”
Kapoor added that implementation of the punishment would depend on the traffic police officer. “If the driver hangs up before the officer reaches him, he may only have his licence suspended for three months. But if the driver is using the phone when the officer nabs him, he will lose his licence forever,” Kapoor said. He said he would review the cases every month.

Force Download a file with filename using PHP

To force download a file and specifying a filename we need to send the header as below
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="somefile.someextn"');
if we do not specify the content disposition the the file tends to open in the browser.
hope it helps