Gulf News

Expert: It’s not tough to build back good health post Covid

LIFESTYLE COACH LUKE COUTINHO REVEALS MANTRA OF HEALTHY LIVING

- BY SUCHITRA BAJPAI CHAUDHARY Chief Reporter

In the post Covid-19 era every human being is looking for a quick reset button to reboot and start life afresh on the health front.

Internatio­nal holistic health and lifestyle coach, Luke Coutinho who was in Dubai to educate students of the Global Indian Internatio­nal School, Dubai in healthy living at an early age, told Gulf News, the best way to do that was getting back to basics in life.

Integrated health approach

“What we need to do is take the integrated medicine approach which means every good thing, be it sunshine, music, nutrition and so on, that triggers well-being and healing is taken into account. Integrativ­e medicine does not discrimina­te between medicine, nutrition or homeopathy. Instead, it embraces all forms of medicine and healing, keeping the patient in the centre and the patient’s interest in mind,” explained Coutinho.

Lifestyle diseases

What we need to do is take the integrated medicine approach which means every good thing, be it sunshine, music, nutrition and so on, that triggers wellbeing.”

In the recent times non- communicab­le diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and cardio vascular conditions have been manifestin­g in younger people. Dubbed as lifestyle diseases, they are attributed to chronic inflammati­on in the body.

Coutinho explained why inflammati­on was being triggered. “Inflammati­on is actually a natural immune response from our body to protect us from diseases. When the immune system senses a threat, be it an oncoming cold, cough or fever, it secretes an inflammato­ry response to repel the enemy. However, in modern times we are causing so much damage with constant invasion of our mental, physical and emotional well-being with sleep deprivatio­n, wrong food choices, high stress, and overt physical workouts and so on that there is accumulate­d stress. Our immune system then responds to this with chronic inflammati­on and forgets to switch off the inflammato­ry response. Being in a constant state of inflammati­on gives rise to several diseases including cancer.”

Every individual can make some basic changes to their lifestyle to re-boot to good health.

Luke Coutinho | Lifestyle coach

“We need to align ourselves back to the natural rhythms of life to regain health. A lot of healthy choices such as breathing right, chewing food slowly, rising with the sun, having a good breakfast and lunch but a very light dinner before sunset and getting a good night’s sleep are all inexpensiv­e and easy to adapt choices,” advised Coutinho.

He specifical­ly emphasised on the need for proper sleep when the body is able heal and repair itself. “A sleep-deprived body is your biggest curse when it comes to health and wellness.

“You could have access to the best diet and exercise regimens in the world, but if you are sleepdepri­ved all the time, your body is going to fail you at some point.

When we sleep, our body takes time to heal and repair,” he said.

Keep it simple

Coutinho’s message to UAE residents is to maintain an easy to follow health routine that is designed to succeed. “It should be doable. The key is simplicity. The body is unique and so every day is different and so are its needs. Today, your body might need more carbs and tomorrow maybe less, so one needs to find out what works for them. Listening to your body and cultivatin­g mindfulnes­s is my biggest mantra. If you are mindful, you know what your body exactly needs, and that makes living a healthy life easier,” he concluded.

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 ?? Clint Egbert/Gulf News ?? Luke Coutinho at the Global Indian Internatio­nal School in Dubai on Thursday.
Clint Egbert/Gulf News Luke Coutinho at the Global Indian Internatio­nal School in Dubai on Thursday.

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