Digital detox – Need of the hour for good health

As we get increasingly trapped in a digital cloud and clutter in our lives via smart phones, internet and screens of computers, games and televisions we are getting wired and addicted to them rapidly. At subconscious level this is activating out hypothalamic and brain centers in pre-frontal cortex to make this a chronic addiction akin to many other substance abuse like drugs, tobacco or alcohol.

As we try to tap digital health to improve health and diseases, we are clearly seeing humans across planet earth entrapped in modern gadgets, especially to social media tools .The increasing 5G networks and 24×7 Wi-Fi connectivity has made this even worse .In fact before even you know some habits are being formed like checking messages once you get up and before sleeping. Many humans find it tough when the Wi-Fi connection or electricity power failures occur we see acute anxiety and panic attacks if the duration is long standing .

This global digital ecosystem has addictive potential which now health experts have started investigating especially in vulnerable groups like working class, children and its impact on NCDs(non communicable diseases) like Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, Fatty liver, Hypertension ,heart diseases and even neuropsychiatric  health conditions like memory loss, anxiety and mood disorders. Usually the internet addiction syndrome has a vast clusters of manifestations but fundamentally impact physical activity and sleep apart from food and eating behavior. Digital Device addiction promotes sedentarism. Prolonged sitting is hailed as the next smoking a bad health habit and the gadgetised world promotes it. “Sit less and Move more” is the new mantra for good health .Sitting leads us to defective posture and it’s critical that we pay attention to the way we sit and the chairs we use or the modes of sitting .The ergonomics of sitting can simply adversely   impact health ,as they lead to explosion of sprains and musculoskeletal concerns of spine from neck to back .So seeking expert advice on posture, pillows, beds and chairs needs more focus. Our traditional habits and yogic postures have clear cues for better spine architecture which can be healthy .

Food and eating behaviours are adversely impacted by digital device  additions as one tends to order via smartphone apps eat to order food which one tends to eat in excess .Eating too much which leads to calorie excess and not eating home cooked food also has health impact .the adverse weight promoting impact of fast food on health is well known. Digital additions promote impulsive behaviour and vice versa and make us order impulsively. Cook at home ,healthy food in less oil, blend oils or reduce or eliminate fried food. Eliminating trans fats from diets is crucial and many health food claims also currently are increasingly being scrutinized by regulators. It’s time we go back to nature and have simple organic fruits and vegetables not juices and beverages which can hurt health in long term .

Eating slowly, eating on time, eating patterns and avoiding feasting around fast in equally crucial apart from eating right. In this area of food and nutrition science the internet world is full of non-evidence based, Quasi Scientific myths which often leave people at large confused and should seek advice from government approved qualified experts or see authentic validated evidence-based websites which are peer reviewed.

It’s time we eat sensibly and control our portions for better health.

The biggest disruption due to Digital device addiction is sleep both quantity and quality and its impacted our sleeping patterns big time. Gadgetisation has shortened our sleep ,distracted quality of sleep and made us sleep late. Late night TV channel addiction in adults and gaming in children and adolescents are modern age addictions which will be soon documented disorders in medical books and will need counselling and specialized help.

Embracing good sleep needs digital hygiene and one needs to do digital fasting which few have termed it as ” Dopamine Fasting ” .It’s good digital discipline and hygiene for better health and decluttering our brain for excessive clutter of information and marketing overload .AI based algorithms actually now predict such human behaviour and make these addiction worse. In fact we need to use AI based applications to actually get diseases remission early by Lifestyle changes. All these overload of digital bombardment clutters our brain, disrupts sleep and health seeking behaviours generates fear ,negativity and stress apart from anxiety and panic.
It’s important that digital fasting methods like dopamine fasting which means following at least one hour of digital detox per day can actually improve health ,generate positivity and happiness.

Anger and irritable behaviour, rage attacks, impulse control behaviour and biological additions have crept up due to such digital device addictions. It’s important to embrace nature ,do walks and practice traditional practices like yoga, or other forms of meditations to de addict form such entrapments. New age preventive health mantras need to incorporate digital detoxification or fasting or deductions methods as a part of lifestyle advice especially around eating, activity, sleep and substance abuse so that we can see better health and happy outcomes. It’s important that we practice some digital hygiene by having daily or weekly digital health techniques which will promote better health.

As we speak of digital device addictions let’s not forget digital health has made huge strides with AI in medicine especially in screening, diagnosis, drug discovery as well as digital health care and Telemedicine and robotics. Harnessing any new innovation or discovery is an art to be masters like nuclear weapons now are replaced globally and nuclear science is being so effectively used in generating power and in medicine for diagnosis and therapies including cancer etc. Similarly we have digitization being effectively used for for telehealth including the governments e-sanjeevani schemes, digital Health cards and records are not far away and all this will yield large repositories of data sets of health and medical research. Virtual reality and robotic surgery have already finding space in some areas of medicine .

Simple mantra is to develop device free Yoga, focus on posture ,eating habits, activity and sleep apart from happiness, Gratitude and serenity. Real smiles and warmth need to replace emojis of devices and its time to draw a laxman rekha (line of control) to prevent excessive, impulsive use of this digital habit which threatens mankind.

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