Nutrition and Dietetics expert, Parvathy Radhakrishnan answers readers’ questions on nutrition. Get your doubts cleared and see them featured on our FAQ page every Wednesday.

This week’s answers:

MY AGE IS 56+ MALE. I WAS DIAGNOSED ABOUT 14 YRS BACK SUGAR LEVEL OF 314 PP. OVER APERIOD OF TIME MY WT. HAS COME DOWN TO 74–75 KG. MY SUGAR LEVEL FASTING IS–116— PP–130—–145. I TAKE REGULAR MEDICINES LOKE GLIMY FORTE 2 AND GLIMY FORTE–I000MG, ECOSPRIN 75, REMIPRESS –5, CAPSULE–NURACT PLUS, ROSULIP F–5 AND CALICIUM CALCIA SACHE ONCE IN 15 DAYS. BUT I TAKE DIABETIC MEDICINE DAILY. MY LEGS AND MY BUTTOCKS BACK HAS SHRUNK ALOT. IS THER ANY NEGATIVE EFFECT OF THESE MEDICINES. MY ALL TESTS OF SUGAR, COLESTROL, URIC ACID LIPID, LFT ,RFT ECG ARE IN LIMITS. I WANT TO ADD ON SOME FAT ON MY BUTTOCKS AND LEGS. PL ADVISE BEC– IAM GETTING THINNER AND MY PANTS ARE LOOSE. PL ADVISE , GUIDE ME.
vinod
Vinod, you have not mentioned your height.So I am not able to say if your weight is normal or or if you are actually underweight. You can try strengthening exercises specific for buttocks and legs. If you need to increase weight then you need to eat more but then medications also may need to be increased accordingly.

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Our body warns us when we’re stressed out.

Ignoring them can cost our life because chronic stress increases risk for a host of health problems, including high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke and depression, to name a few.

Experts have revealed eight sneaky symptoms of stress that we might mistakenly chalk up to some other health problem or brush off as nothing to worry about, Huffingtonpost reported.

The first is weird and/or recurring dreams.

“Unfortunately, the stress we deal with during the day tends to follow us to bed at night and plays out in our dreams,” Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, author of Dream On It – Unlock Your Dreams, Change Your Life, wrote for DoctorOz.com.

Maybe you don’t realize you’re burning the candle at both ends until that dream comes back where you miss your bus or your house is on fire, two of the five most common stress dreams, according to Loewenberg.

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Obesity may develop when we eat too much, as a result of chronically high insulin levels, not the other way around.

This is the conclusion of a mouse study, which challenges the widespread view that rising insulin is a secondary consequence of obesity and insulin resistance.

The new study helps to solve this chicken-or-the-egg dilemma by showing that animals with persistently lower insulin stay trim even as they indulge themselves on a high-fat, all-you-can-eat buffet.

The findings come as some of the first direct evidence in mammals that circulating insulin itself drives obesity, the researchers said.

The results are also consistent with clinical studies showing that long-term insulin use by people with diabetes tends to come with weight gain, said James Johnson of the University of British Columbia.

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Fifteen embryos are made for every woman conceiving through in vitro fertilisation, and almost half of them are discarded during or after the process, new figures have revealed.

According to the shocking revelation, over 1.7 million embryos prepared with the aim of helping women become pregnant have been thrown away since records began 21 years ago.

The figures on the use of human embryos were gathered by the fertility industry regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which has recorded IVF processes since 1991, the Daily Mail reported.

Embryos are created from female eggs and male sperm during the IVF process. Some are then introduced into the womb of the prospective mother. Others, however, are put into storage, discarded as unwanted, or, in some cases, used in scientific experiments.

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Even though yoga is a highly independent and personal practice for most fans, a new book has shed light on the emerging world of the yoga competition.

Though it may sound like an oxymoron, author Benjamin Lorr says that the concept is not an impossible one, and is simply a system for determining who was demonstrating a posture best.

In an article for The Daily Beast about his new book, ‘Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga’, Lorr explains that winning is not the goal as much as allowing others to inspire us to our best.

Indeed, at the yoga competitions that have been cropping up across the U.S., the atmosphere is not one of a typical contest, the Daily Mail reported.

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A nutritionist has shared his stay-young strategies and top tips for age-proofing your body against the ageing clock.

“Research shows that every one point increase in blood sugar makes you appear five months older! Drink more water and get enough oily fish and seeds,” Fox News quoted Patrick Holford, author of ‘The 10 Secrets of Healthy Ageing’, as saying.

He starts his tips with staying smart as keeping your grey matter in shape is essential for longevity. After all, what’s the point of having a good life if you can’t remember any of it?

“Taking B vitamins will keep your memory sharp, so eat lots of folate-rich greens and beans and B12-packed fish and eggs. Get your levels of the amino acid homocysteine tested at your GP and if you score below 10, you may need to supplement with 500mcg of B12,” Patrick said.

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