Depression is an illness or disorder that will cause persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Depression is closely related to the hormone in your body. A hormone named Serotonin is a major hormone or neurotransmitter that regulates mood and sleep. When your serotonin level is too low, it can lead to depression. There are some of the ways that you could try to help with your current conditions. 

1.Eat the right nutrition 

Many people might not know but the food you take in could be closely related to the depression condition. Having balance and healthy diet is especially important for your mental-health and well-being. You can consume more selenium-rich food such as beans and nuts. Brazil nuts are high in selenium and high selenium intake could aid in improving mood. Omega-3 has also showed to improve depression conditions. Salmon and tuna are some of the examples of omega-3 rich food. There are also some foods that you should avoid eating in excess such as alcohol, refined sugar, caffeine and deep-fried food. 

2.Exercise 

Exercise is a good way to release stress and make you feel lighter and refreshing. Exercising can boost the level of endorphins in your body. Endorphins are one of the hormones that could contribute to the happiness feelings and studies has showed that endorphins level are closely related with depression condition. You can set an exercise routine such as starting with 3 times a week. Even simple exercise like jogging could make a difference. 

3.Get adequate sleep 

Lacking of sleep could make the depression condition worsen and vice versa, depression could lead to insomnia. Insomnia could increase your stress level or might even lead to the occurrence of anxiety. If you are having insomnia problem, you can try some of the ways to fight for insomnia such as drinking warm milk before sleep, listen to relaxation music or placing lavender oil in your diffuser.

4.Seek for social support 

Try not to keep everything to yourself. You might think that it is very hard for you to speak up or you might worry to burden others but it is very important to open up yourself instead of keeping everything to yourself. You may try talking to your friends, family members, counsellor or anyone that you are comfortable with. You might realise that you will feel much lighter when you share your thoughts with someone and having someone by your side can give you motivation. 

5.Boost self-confidence 

Depression is hormone induced disorder, it could affect your feeling and your thoughts. In a long term, depression could destroy your self-confidence bit by bit. You can try to write down a list of things that you want to do and find back your passion from executing the things in the lists. By fulfilling every one thing, it can help to boost your confidence bit by bit and increase your self-appreciation. Besides, you can also express yourself through different ways such as writing and singing. Writing journal or diaries is a good way in terms of self-confidence and stress management. You can make it a habit to note down 3 things you are grateful for or 3 things that make you smile everyday before you sleep. This could help to slowly rebuild your self-esteem and also it allows you to end your day with a positive note.

CHEVIN Nutritionist Ke Qi:

Having depression is not your fault. Depression is an illness and no one should be ashamed of having any kind of illness or disorder. You should not blame yourself for having depression, instead, you should seek help from mental health professionals to aid with your conditions. If your family or friends are depressed, try to support them without shaming or blaming them. Just be there for them and let them know that you care about them is a big support for them. Try to spend more time to care for your family and friends, sometimes, you will never know who is secretly having hard time themselves without sharing with the world.

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, besides family reunions and festive celebrations, good foods are definitely one of the best thing we can enjoy during the CNY, and we tend to overindulge on our favourite CNY snacks, yee sang and scrumptious dinners. However, changes on diet could also cause changes on body shape. Still worrying about eating too much on CNY which may lead to weight gain? Let’s take a look at some of the foods that you should avoid!

High-calories foods: 

Most of the Chinese New Year snacks are high calories and unhealthy. Binge eating could lead to overindulge and weight gain. Examples of Chinese New Year’s cookies that are high in calories:

10 pieces of Peanut cookies 500kcal 

10 slices of Honeycomb biscuits 500kcal

10 slices of Kuih Kapit 525kcal

Deep-fried food: 

Fried treats are definitely one of our favourites during Chinese New Year. Although we can’t deny that they are tasty, however, excessive consumption may lead to digestive problems and increased cholesterol levels. Shrimp rolls, spring rolls and fried seaweed snacks and other common CNY snacks should be consumed in moderation. 

High sugar foods: 

Desserts such as rice cakes and candies are popular during the CNY. Sugar not only affects cellular health, but also damages our collagen and accelerates our aging process. Therefore, you can try to limit your sugar intake during the CNY, food and beverage such as pineapple tart and soda are high in sugar.

High salt foods: 

Some dishes such as Chinese sausage, preserved foods, salted fish and different types of sauces are high in salt. Excessive salt intake may lead to high blood pressure, so it shouldn’t be ignored. The jerky which we call it “bakgua” is not only high in salt but also high in calories. 1 slice of jerky is 370kcal, which is equivalent to 3 bowls of rice.

CHEVIN Nutritionist Ke Qi:

It is indeed very difficult to avoid the temptation of good food especially during Chinese New Year. In order to enjoy festive food while maintaining health, it is recommended to choose smaller portion sizes and taste a variety of different dishes; eat more fruits and vegetables to balance out the dishes; drink more water to keep your body hydrated; and consider healthier cooking methods such as steaming or stir-frying rather than deep-frying. Of course, these are some of the suggestions that you can use as references, and we hope that you can still enjoy delicious and amazing dishes during the Chinese New Year while maintaining your health.

Free radicals are unstable atoms that can damage our body cells, creating oxidative stress. Since cells cannot be seen by naked eyes, you can imagine the process as the enzymatic browning of the apple. After we cut the apple, we can observe that the flesh turns brown, and the taste of the apple will deteriorate. That is the oxidation process when the apple flesh is exposed to oxygen. Same goes to free radical damage on cells, when the free radicals attack cells, it will lead to oxidative stress causing cell damage which will affect our health. 

Free Radicals Damage

Free radicals attack our body cells, causing cell membrane deterioration, affecting the cell structure, and damaging the DNA in cells. When the cell membrane is deteriorated, the ability to absorb nutrients and remove toxin will be affected. Cell damage will lead to the decline in organ function, which will affect our overall health. Do you know where do the free radicals come from?

Sources of free radicals

Our lifestyle habits are one of the most important factors which could lead to the generation of free radicals, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, frequent usage of electronic products, food additives, lack of sleep, being in long-term stressful condition, unhealthy diet such as fast food or deep-fried food. These are the factors that can cause free radicals damage towards our cells. Besides lifestyle factors, some of the environmental factors which are inescapable part of life also play an important role in causing free radical damage. Exposure to air pollution and ultraviolet rays of sunlight are some of the examples. Therefore, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important to reduce free radicals damage towards our body cells.

Antioxidation

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals by donating their own electrons. Therefore, it could help to inhibits the formation of free radicals, suppress and scavenge free radicals, and reduce the free radicals damage towards the cells. Antioxidants reduce the oxidative stress on cells caused by free radicals and therefore, delays the aging process of cells. There are many health consequences and diseases are closely related to cells aging or damage, such as cataracts, cirrhosis, and heart disease. It is very important to protect our cells as health begins at cellular level.

CHEVIN Nutritionist Ke Qi:

Healthy lifestyle and healthy diet are the two most important keys to health. Besides fixing your bad habits in your daily life, you could also add in high antioxidant food into your diet. There are many fruits and vegetables which exhibit strong antioxidant properties such as berries, orange, lemon, pomegranate, tomato, broccoli, and corn. Besides adding strong antioxidant food into your daily diet, you could also substitute your unhealthy snack such as potato chips and candies with nuts such as walnut and Brazil nuts which could helps in suppressing free radicals and thereby reducing free radical damage towards our cells.

Constipation is one of the common gastrointestinal problems. The usual symptoms of constipation are having trouble to defecate, belly bloating and many more. Some people defecate every 3 days and some even longer which dragged up to one week. Have you ever wondered where all these stools go? In fact, they did not go anywhere, they just keep hoarding in our intestines. And constipation might not be as simple as you think. Constipation will lead to excessive water absorption of the stool, and the toxins in the stools could affect your cellular health. Time to say goodbye to your constipation with these good habits.

1.Don’t ignore the urge to defecate

Many people tend to resist the urge to defecate due the cleanliness of the public toilet or busy lifestyle. However, if you do not react to the urge of defecate, it could lead to constipation. The toxin and bacteria in the stools could affect our health if the stools stay in the intestine for too long. 

2.Increase your fibre intake

In your daily diet, you can try to include more dietary fibre such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables including apples, broccoli and bananas. Besides increasing feces volume, dietary fibre can also help with peristalsis of the intestines. Dietary fibre helps to keep the feces hydrated, and therefore, reduce the problem of constipation.

3.Drink plenty of water

When food move through the colon, water will be absorbed while forming the stools. So, if you are having constipation, the stools will become hard and dry because the colon absorbed too much water. It could lead to haemorrhoids problems. Therefore, it is recommended to consume 2000ml of water every day. Drink a glass of water within 30 minutes after waking up can help to relieve constipation problems.

4.Simple exercise

Simple exercise can induce bowel movement and improve gastrointestinal health. If you are too busy, you may also try to do a simple move which is lying on your back and hold your knees with your hands for 5 minutes before going to bed. Repeat this action every day can help with bowel movements.

CHEVIN Nutritionist Ke Qi:

There are many people who ignore constipation problem. If you are having constipation problem, time to make a difference. In fact, it is not difficult to get rid of constipation, convert the tips into your daily life so that you can easily and smoothly defecate. After getting rid of constipation problems, you will realise that besides having healthy gastrointestinal system, you skin will become smoother and healthier too.

High blood pressure, also known as Hypertension, is often called “silent killer”. The symptoms of high blood pressure are very rare in the early stages, and most patients are not aware of their elevated blood pressure level. However, hypertension or high blood pressure can lead to huge damage towards our health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that high blood pressure has become the second largest risk factor affecting death rate globally. The number of people suffering from hypertension worldwide is up to 1.28 billion, and the complications from hypertension account for 9.4 million deaths worldwide every year. In Malaysia, the proportion of adults suffering from high blood pressure has exceeded 30%, and approximately three out of five of them are not aware of their high blood pressure problems. Due to the diet choices and living habits, the trend of hypertension in adults below age of 40 are gradually increasing. Therefore, we should monitor our blood pressure level regularly, especially if you have a family history of hypertension.

What is blood pressure?

Blood pressure is created by the force of blood exerted on the walls of arteries when the heart pumps blood into the blood vessels. Blood pressure is shown as two numbers which are systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure.

Systolic Pressure measures the force of blood against your artery walls as the heart contracts and pump the blood out.

Diastolic Pressure measures the force of blood against your artery walls as your heart relaxes.

Risk Factors of Hypertension:

• Diet Choices

High salt intake, deep fried food or food high in trans-fat, and lacking of potassium in the diet could increase risk of hypertension.

• Living Habits

Besides diet, maintaining healthy lifestyle is also an important factor which can affect blood pressure. Stressful condition could lead to the increase in blood pressure. Insomnia problem or lacking of sleep can also cause irritability, mood swings, and elevated blood pressure. Some of the bad lifestyle habits such as smoking and alcohol abuse are one of the risk factors for hypertension and should be minimized or avoided. Exercise is proven helpful for hypertension, exercise can improve blood vessel elasticity and reduce the risk of hypertension.

• Family history of hypertension
• Aging 

Complications of hypertension

High blood pressure is closely related to many fatal diseases and complications. When blood pressure is not under controlled, it may lead to some of the complications of high blood pressure which includes heart failure, heart disease and stroke.

Chevin nutritionist Ke Qi:

Hypertension may have no warning signs or symptoms, therefore, it is recommended to measure your blood pressure regularly. Especially for people with high blood pressure, it is necessary to measure and record it every day to ensure that the blood pressure is maintained at a normal level and under controlled. If you notice constant increase of your blood pressure, you should inform and discuss with your doctor. Healthy lifestyle starts from ourselves, you can make changes to your life. Try to cut down on food with high salt and oil, do more exercise, and try to release stress whenever you feel congested.

There are many people who wanted to lose weight but never really exercise and take care of their diet. Are you one of them? Achieving your dream body figure is never easy, it requires determination and effort. And more importantly, you should understand your current body condition in order to lose weight efficiently.

BMI (Body Mass Index) 

BMI (Body Mass Index) is often used internationally to measure body fats.

The calculation formula is: BMI = weight[kg]÷height2[m2].

However, BMI is a general index mainly dependant on our body weight. If you are planning to Lose weight, it is important to know the number of calories that you burn every day.

Firstly, you will need to calculate you Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). The algorithm for BMR is different for men and women:

Basal metabolic rate in men:

66.47 + (13.7 x weight [kg]) + (5 x height [cm]) − (6.8 x age)

Women’s Basal Metabolic Rate:

655.1 + (9.6 x weight [kg]) + (1.8 x height [cm]) − (4.7 x age)

In addition to basal metabolic rate, the daily activity level should be taken into consideration as well.

Depending on your activity level, multiply your BMR by the number corresponding to your activity level to get the average number of calories your body burns per day.

Excess calories: will be stored as fat and muscle

Insufficient calories: use up fat and muscle

Balanced Calories: no weight gain or loss

If the calories that you consume are more than that of your daily calories burned, the excess calories will lead to weight gain. So, managing your calories consumption is very important in weight management.

CHEVIN Nutritionist Ke Qi:

You can draft your meal plan according to the calories that you wish to burn everyday. Try to reduce the consumption of deep-fried food, oily food and high sugar food and beverages. There is no shortcut to losing weight, it requires a lot of hard work and effort. High fibre food is good for weight management as it is low in calories but it can provide satiety. Protein is also very important in building our muscle tissues, you can consume more high-protein foods such as eggs, chicken breasts, dairy products, beans, etc. Exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy low-fat diet are the important steps in losing weight.