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OCTOBER 2009
 		Ask the Doctor
Dr Taher Kudrati & Sveta Bhassin

I have oily skin

My skin is very oily. If I stand in the sun or any place where there’s no fan or A.C. just for a minute my whole face becomes very sweaty. What should I do?
Shrishti Singh (15) / Mahoba, U.P.

Dear Shrishti,
Excessive sweating or perspiration is different from oily skin. To a certain extent, perspiration depends on body types. People with a high body fat percentage tend to sweat more. Regular exercise and proper diet will help to reduce your body fat percentage which in turn may help in reducing perspiration.
With regards to oily skin, at the age of 15, your body is undergoing a lot of hormonal changes. This leads to over functioning of the oil glands (sebaceous glands). Again, not much that we can do about it. It depends on age, heredity, body fat percentage, lifestyles and stress levels.
Age and heredity factors we cannot modify. However we can work on the modifiable entities.
You can reduce your body fat percentage by regular exercise and proper diet. Lack of sleep or irregular sleep timings can trigger hyper functioning of the oil glands. Get adequate sleep for about 7-8 hours and have regular and dedicated sleep timings — ideally early to bed and early to rise. Lead a healthy and disciplined lifestyle, eat well and on time.
Increased stress levels also trigger over functioning of the oil glands. You may have observed that in and around exam days when your sleep and eating schedules are erratic, your skin becomes oilier and you tend to have more acne breakouts. We all have our proportion of stress in life. We cannot eliminate it, but by following a healthy lifestyle we can at least ensure that stress does not give rise to any physical illnesses.

My weight keeps increasing

I’m 5’6” tall and weigh 64 kgs. How can I lose weight? I eat very little but still my weight keeps increasing day by day.
Komal Mishra / Ranchi

Dear Komal,
The answer to your query is a long and detailed one. But I’ll try to be as short and simple as possible. By eating less, you will not lose weight. On the contrary after some time you will start gaining more weight. You are pushing your body to function under the Starvation Mode.
To understand this, take the example of a camel. A camel drinks huge quantities of water at one go and stores each and every drop of it to tide over periods of drought not knowing when it will get its next refill.
This is what you are doing to your body by CRASH dieting. Your brain sends a signal to your body that there is not enough fuel (nutrition) coming in, so the body tries to store as much as possible for the future. In the process, the body uses as little as possible for its day-to-day functioning and converts more and more into fat, storing it as a future energy reserve.
So by eating less, you are actually slowing down your body (reducing your Basal Metabolic Rate BMR). You are eating less but your body is using even less and storing most of it. This is the reason for rebound weight gain after crash dieting — the yo-yo effect as we call it. You lose, you gain. You again lose and you again gain much more.
This vicious cycle can be broken by following a proper diet. Eat 3-4 small meals per day. Reduce intake of dietary fats. Cut down on processed food, junk food, deep fried foods, fatty food, aerated drinks and sugary snacks. Moderate your intake of butter, cheese, ghee and other saturated dietary fats. Most importantly, EXERCISE. This will help you to consume more calories and will also help increase your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) which will ensure that you burn more calories even at rest than what you were earlier burning.
Since you have not specified your age, it will be difficult to prescribe a diet plan for you to follow.

I have lice and split ends

I am very fat around my tummy and I want to go on a diet, please help me plan a schedule. Also how can I keep my hair free of lice and split ends?
Rhea Datta (12) / Chabua, Assam

Dear Rhea,
Regarding your weight: You are only 12 years old. You’ve probably put on weight just 2-3 years ago because of the hormonal changes that take place between 10 to 15 years of age. The best advice would be to get into some exercise regime in a gym or walk an hour daily or start playing a game like tennis. As far as diet is concerned please do not go on any crash diets. They will make you deficient in nutrients. You are in the growth spike period right now and need a nutritive diet.
For example:

  • Breakfast with a boiled egg and some toast or cereal with milk. Two hours later a fruit.
  • Lunch with some roti and sabzi with curd.
  • In the evening you can have another fruit or fresh juice without sugar or a glass of skimmed milk.
  • Dinner of roti and sabzi and dal or roti with vegetables and a piece of chicken made with less oil.
  • Avoid all junk and fried food, aerated drinks, papads, pickles, sweets and chocolates and desserts.
  • With an hour of any exercise and this diet it will not be difficult for you to lose weight.

    Lice
    These are small wingless parasites commonly found in hair and around genitalia and hairy parts of the body. We get this infection by coming into contact with an infected person or with clothes, brushes and combs of affected people. Poor hygiene especially regarding skin and hair is also responsible.
    Symptoms include itching of the scalp or that part of the body where the lice are present leading to redness and formation of raw skin which is likely to get infected. Constant itching leads to reduced work concentration and disturbed sleep. In severe cases, neck lymph nodes can get enlarged.

    Dos and Don’ts

  • Have a bath daily.
  • Wash hair regularly and maintain good hygiene of the hair and scalp.
  • Maintain hygiene of private parts.
  • Do not scratch. Trim your long nails.
  • Do not exchange clothes, hair brushes and combs with other friends.
  • Change clothes daily. Wear only clean washed clothes.
  • Stay away from people infested with lice.
  • Make sure you get rid of the nits or lice eggs along with lice.

    Treatment

  • Use a PERMETHRIN based shampoo which is available as an over the counter product on alternate days for one month.
  • Soak all your combs, brushes, head bands and hair accessories in a solution of this shampoo and water once every week for 2 hours.
  • Dry clean or thoroughly machine wash all your pillow covers, bed sheets, head scarves etc. Remember, it is easy to treat lice but the difficult part is to prevent recurrences. If after one month of using this shampoo and taking all the necessary precautions, there is still no considerable relief or the problem recurs after a few weeks, consult a skin specialist.

    Split ends
    As the name suggests, split ends are nothing but splitting of the tip of the hair. Hair is made up of a protein called keratin which gives the hair strand its structure. Damage to this protein or its deficiency gives rise to split ends. Damage occurs due to excessive use of cosmetics, excessive colouring, straightening, excessive heat treatments and other styling processes.
    “Food for one maybe poison for the other” — this age-old adage applies to hair also. Some people are naturally gifted when it comes to hair. No matter what they do to their hair, nothing happens, while some have very delicate and sensitive hair. If you fall into the latter category you are better off staying away from cosmetic hair treatments. Deficiency of keratin is also caused by low protein diets and crash dieting. This can be corrected by having a wholesome protein-rich diet. Good sources of dietary protein are milk, eggs, paneer, fish and chicken.

    DR TAHER KUDRATI, a flourishing practising homeopath and SVETA BHASSIN, a successful and well-known nutrition and diet consultant, will answer your health and nutrition-related queries in each issue.
    E-mail your queries to editorial@theteenagermag.com with the subject line ‘ASK THE DOCTOR’.
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