All health information to keep you up to date

on the eve of New Year we all make New Year resolutions. To help you make yours -- the following tips are for you.

Have regular eating times for breakfast (between 7-8am), lunch (1.30-2pm), afternoon special, and dinner (8-9pm) doesn't matter -- wherever you are!

1. Have regular times for going to sleep and getting up. Try to avoid daytime big naps. Avoid tea, coffee and tobacco at least four hours before sleep.

2. Avoid tobacco (including Zarda), too much tea /coffee and spicy, oily food and 'mishti' (sweets) as much as possible. Eat plenty of vegetables with fibres and try to avoid red meat as much as possible especially after 35. Age-reversing foods include all fruits and vegetables. Particularly spinach, cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, green leafy vegetables including lettuce, peas and beans, root vegetables.

3. Being overweight is very bad. it is desirable to lose weight (avoid fatty food, sugary and refined carbohydrates; eat nutritious food with vitamins and minerals supplements, eat less but regularly and exercise). Eat less for both cosmetic and weight related many medical illnesses. Avoid table salt specially those who are hypertensive.

4. Avoid all sorts of fizzy drinks. Milk could be your 'the drink' as well as 'the food' in everyday diet. Don't eat for at least one-and-half-hour before going to bed. To avoid indigestion, sip water slowly to dilute stomach acids.

5. Check your Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar and Lipid profile (cholesterol) and Vision if you are over 40 (if needed-electrolyte and ECG). Ask your family physician or a friend for a reliable diagnostic centre. All women, from 18 onwards, should be careful of their breasts once a month for changes. Breast ailment affects the lives of thousands of women and their families every year.

6. Cherish good friends; 'good friends are like medicine'. Scientists are discovering more ways that friendships boost our lives.

7. Practice your faith; 'prayer is a good medicine too'. Evidence is showing that being more sincere in your prayer is an effective prescription for healing illness.

8. Teach your child to behave well -- you are their model; first few years of life have always an effect for whole life. Your sons/daughters learn by watching what you say and do all the time. Anyone can be a mother/father, but it takes someone special to be a 'mum'/'dad'.

9. Exercise regularly; its duration, not intensity, which counts in fitness and weight loss is important. Walking is one of the best among all exercises.

10. Relax. Don't always expect everything to go right. Accept that things can go wrong. Stress management through exercise and relaxation is helpful for hormone balance. Stress may increase the production of adrenaline, which can interfere with your balance.

Quotation for this year:

'Let food be your medicine, medicine be your food' -- Hippocrates