Save your sight

Diabetics are at a higher risk of developing blindness than non-diabetics. Hence, it is important for them to regularly check their eyes, and monitor their blood sugar levels. Just doing these things can save up to 90 per cent of their vision.

However, people often have doubts about the diabetes-eye connection. Here, we clear some of the most common ones:

How does high blood sugar affect one’s eyes?

Uncontrolled diabetes can affect your eyes in many ways—frequent fluctuations in vision, glaucoma, decreased vision and temporary paralysis of the muscles of eyes are some of its effects. However, the most significant complication is diabetic retinopathy; it causes blindness.

What is diabetic retinopathy?

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that affects the blood vessels of the retina. In early stages of diabetic retinopathy, the damage is minimal and doesn’t affect vision.

However, in the absence of timely care, it may eventually lead to closing of the blood vessels. In such cases, as the disease progresses, new blood vessels are formed, which are fragile and bleed into the eyes, thus causing vision problems and blindness.

How can I know that I am suffering from diabetic retinopathy?

Periodic eye check-ups by an ophthalmologist will reveal it to you. Often, the retina can get damaged before you experience any noticeable change in vision. And examinations help doctors detect retinopathy at an early stage, when it is still treatable.

Pregnant women with diabetes need to get a comprehensive eye examination in the first trimester, then follow it up regularly till term.

What can one do to prevent diabetic retinopathy?

• Maintain your blood sugar levels within normal range and test for HbA1c levels [amount of glucose that attaches to red blood cells] at least twice a year; HbA1c levels should be less than seven per cent.
• Work with your physician to plan your medications, diet and physical activity. The landmark Diabetes Complications and Control Trial has proved that each 10 per cent reduction in average blood glucose levels, lowers your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy by roughly 60 per cent. It also prevents worsening of pre-existing retinopathy by 43 per cent.
• Take care not to miss your doctor’s appointments.
• Don’t smoke or drink alcohol.

Although modern insulin delivery devices and home blood glucose delivery devices have made diabetes management really convenient and hassle-free for diabetics, keeping diabetes under control helps minimise complications associated with diabetes.

How about getting wealthy? By HEMANT Rustagi in WealthDiscuss | 01 Dec 2010 woman putting money in piggy bank One of the key ingredients to create w

One of the key ingredients to create wealth over time is to have an investment plan in place and a strategy to implement it. An ideal way to make an investment plan is by considering certain key factors like current financial situation, investment objectives, attitude towards risk and the time horizon.

Understand the risk-reward connection

It would help to know that risk is an inherent part of investing and that there is a direct co-relation between risk and reward. The level and the type of risk one takes depends on one’s time horizon i.e. the length of time one has to achieve one’s investment objectives. For a short-term investor, volatility is a bigger risk than inflation.

Therefore, a short-term investment strategy should focus on capital protection through a portfolio consisting of interest-bearing securities.

Conversely, for a long-term investor, the annualised rate of return is key. That’s because volatility tends to work itself out with the good years offsetting the bad years. Besides, for a long-term investor, compounding plays an important role, as it helps in making money on the money already earned.

Spread your eggs

All of us have our own definition of risk and most of us equate risk with the potential to lose a part of the capital. However, there are risks such as inflation that don’t allow money to grow in real terms.

For a long-term investor, it is crucial to earn positive real rate of returns i.e. returns minus inflation to take care of escalating costs.

The real issue, therefore, is to find and maintain your balancing point that can ensure success at a risk level you are comfortable with. This is where an asset allocation strategy has a role to play. An asset allocation strategy aims at spreading the money across different asset classes such as equity, debt, real estate and commodities, thereby reducing portfolio risk.

As we all know, different asset classes perform differently in different market conditions. For example, the stock market does well during an economic boom, and loses ground during recessionary times. The bond market, however, behaves in the opposite manner—it does well in recessionary conditions, and not so well in a booming economy.

Stay committed

Remember, creating wealth is a process that requires discipline and commitment to invest on a regular basis. Therefore, you shouldn’t allow short-term turmoil in the markets to block your vision for a better financial future.

The right way to proceed is to look around for appropriate and tax-efficient options rather than invest in a state of fear and miss out on opportunities to make the money grow at a healthy rate.

Choose wisely

Thankfully, there are various investment options to suit the needs of investors with different risk appetite and temperament. Let us analyse a few of these and see what role they can play in the process to create wealth:

Equities

Equity as an asset class is potentially better than other options. But if you invest in equity, your probability of facing higher volatility in the short-to-medium term goes up too. You can tackle this risk by investing on a regular basis.

Investing in equities is an on-going process and not a one-time activity. If you do not have a lump sum and would still like to invest in equities, investing through a Systematic Investment Plan [SIP] in an equity fund is perhaps the best way for you to create wealth.

It is important to consider the level of exposure to equities vis-à-vis the overall portfolio size. Remember, it is this level of exposure to equities that decides the likely impact on the overall returns and the level of risk.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is whether one should invest directly in the stock market or choose a diversified investment vehicle like a mutual fund [MF]. Many investors find investing directly into the stock market more exciting as they get to hear about a lot of success stories.

However, direct investment can be quite risky, if the stock selection and the investment process followed is faulty—like if you rely on tips and invest aggressively to make a quick buck.

If you are a serious and genuine investor, you are likely to do better by focusing on overall growth of your portfolio rather than looking for excitement.

MFs can be a better option as they are not only diversified in nature, but also offer many other benefits such as professional fund management, high-level of liquidity through open-ended funds, transparency, flexibility, variety of options and tax efficiency.

While investing in MFs, it is always advisable to focus on diversified equity funds. Though some of the aggressive funds, like sector and thematic funds, can be tempting, one should avoid investing in them at least in the initial phase of portfolio building.

Remember, there will always be bull and bear markets and it will always be nearly impossible to predict the movements of the stock market. The best one can do is to take an informed decision and adopt a sensible approach by investing for the long term.

Debt and debt-related options

For conservative investors, the traditional investment options like bank deposits, bonds, small savings schemes and debentures have been the mainstay of their portfolios for years. Although these instruments do address their concern for the safety of their hard-earned money, most of these do not play a role in the wealth creation process.

That’s because they not only offer low returns but also are not tax-efficient, barring PPF [Public Provident Fund]. Besides, lack of liquidity in most of these instruments can be a major hindrance in the flexibility required to make changes in the portfolio from time to time.

The time has come to look beyond these for at least a part of the portfolio and explore options like debt and debt-related funds offered by MFs. These are not only tax-efficient and flexible, but also have the potential to provide better returns.

MFs offer various types of funds in this category to suit the requirements of investors with different time horizons and risk profiles.

These are ultra short-term income funds, short-term income funds, income funds, gilt funds, Fixed Maturity Plans [FMPs] and other debt-oriented hybrid products such as Monthly Income Plans. Investing in the right options can go a long way in improving returns without getting exposed to higher risk.

Gold

Notwithstanding the recent volatility in the prices, gold continues to remain one of the effective investment options. Considering that it would take some more time for the global economies to recover fully from the setbacks of 2008, an alternative asset like gold will remain an attractive investment option.

However, as the gold prices are likely to be volatile going forward, you would be better off buying periodically rather than investing a lump sum.

Remember, the ultimate role that gold plays in a portfolio is that of hedging against the inflation. Therefore, one needs to restrict the exposure to gold to around 10 – 15 per cent of the portfolio.

In today’s times, the better way to invest in gold is through Gold Exchange Traded funds [GETF], rather than buying physical gold, which has many risks and logistic issues. GETFs allow investment in gold in small denominations thereby allowing retail investors to participate. In a GETF, one unit represents one gram of gold. These can be bought on a stock exchange through a stock broker.

Insure your wealth

As is evident, the process to create wealth requires an investor to not only adopt a disciplined approach, but also choose the right options and in the right proportion. More importantly, our dreams for our near and dear ones are attached to the wealth that we create over our life time.

Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to ensure that in case of any eventuality, the lifestyle of family members is not compromised. To ensure this in today’s uncertain world, it is essential to have sufficient life insurance cover.

Of course, the quantum of insurance cover would depend upon one’s personal situation. It is equally important to opt for a suitable insurance product. For example, term policies are the cheapest and the most effective ones among all the insurance products.

Then there are products like Unit Linked Insurance Plans [ULIP], which can be suitable for someone who is looking for a product that can take care of his multiple needs and has a time horizon of at least 10 – 15 years. Ideally, it pays to keep insurance and investment separate as the objectives and expectations are different from each of these.

Last but not the least, take the help of a professional advisor to guide you through the maze of investment world. However, it is equally important to know that you, yourself, have an important role to play in the decision-making process.

No one will know about your objectives, needs and risk profile better than you. While an advisor can help you in terms of determining the course of action and selection of investment options, you have a big role to play in defining the parameters.

5 super foods for women

A woman's body has unique nutritional requirements, which can be easily met by choosing the right kinds of food. And there are plenty of foods that are packed with nutrients specifically beneficial to women. Here we list five of them.

1. Soy

Soy contains isoflavones and has an antioxidant property. It is also a rich source of proteins and therefore extremely healthy for vegetarians. Soy also has good amounts of vitamins B-complex, minerals like calcium and iron and fibre.

Soybeans are versatile and can be used in the form of whole beans, sprouts, milk, tofu, tempeh [soybean patty], sauce, flour or miso [soybean paste].

Soy milk, readily available in the market, is easy-to-use and comes in different flavours—the most common being the chocolate flavour. Soy milk is lactose-free [milk sugar] and therefore can also be consumed by people who are lactose intolerant.

Tofu or soy cheese/curd/paneer is a bland-tasting product, which absorbs the flavour of other ingredients. There are three types of tofu available—firm, soft and silken. Tofu can be stored up to three months in the refrigerator but the texture becomes more chewy and harder.

Soy flour is rich in calcium, proteins and fibre along with the isoflavones. Overall, soy lowers cholesterol, prevents cancer [especially breast cancer], regulates female hormones that are beneficial during menopause and prevents osteoporosis.

Preferred intake: 25g of soy daily.

2. Nachni/ragi

Also known as finger millet, ragi is rich in proteins, essential amino acids, vitamin A, B, fibre and phosphorous. Ragi also contains high amounts of calcium and iron having no parallel among cereals for these minerals.

Ragi is good for children, pregnant and lactating women due to its high calcium and iron content. The fibre lowers cholesterol, maintains blood sugar levels and aids in weight loss. It also regulates the digestive system and prevents constipation. It also has a high glycemic index and is good for people with diabetes.

According to ayurveda, ragi is an excellent antacid and helps in improving blood production.

Ragi can be consumed as rotis or bhakris, biscuits, khakra, chivda or cookies or as you may like.

Preferred intake: Replace wheat with ragi to make rotis

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Create eureka moments!

People who have creative power consistently make contributions of incredible value to our world, whether they start a business, choose a certain profession, or decide to pursue a career in a company or organisation.

This ‘creative power’—the power to create from scratch—is the most important skill in this world today.

Creative power defined

‘Creative power’ generally refers to the ability to make something and it has a meaning that is similar to the word ‘imagination’.

Those who live creative lives can add 10-fold, or even a 100-fold, to the value of their lives. In terms of money, for example, it is impossible to become wealthy without creativity, so being creative is the way to become rich.

Creativity can save marriages

Creativity plays a role in more than just the invention of machines. It affects every aspect of life. Take, for instance, marital problems. Arguments sometimes lead to divorce, but nine out of ten of those marriages could be saved if people exercised a little creativity.

From time-to-time, couples have conflicting opinions about a matter neither person is willing to compromise on. At times like these, they should try to be creative and come up with creative solutions or new ideas, just as they would do if they had come up against an impasse at work. Then the couple would be able to prevent their marriage from falling apart.

Furthermore, you should put your imagination to work, think more about the feelings of your spouse and others involved, and figure out a plan of action.

Just as you strive to be creative at work, people should invest time in thinking about how to create a loving family. They will come up with many creative solutions, which will result in reducing the number of divorces.

The problem is not with the other

Each and every one of us is responsible for coming up with solutions to the problems that are dealt to us. However, many people do not make sufficient effort to solve their problems. In relationships, for example, people tend to push their own opinions on others and, after coming into conflict with another, quickly conclude that they are incompatible. However, the real problem is not with the other person, but with you for not making enough effort.

Making relationships ‘work’

A while ago, Harvard University conducted a study to investigate the reasons people get fired. The results showed that over 30 per cent of those surveyed were fired because of poor performance and more than 60 per cent were fired because of interpersonal problems. When unable to get along with those whom they work with, people are forced to leave their jobs.

It is evident, then, that inventiveness and discoveries are vital in harmonising your relationships with others. Since people who have relationship problems at work probably have similar problems at home, you should start using your creativity to sort out your relationships.

Think about what you can do to work well with people you come into conflict with and what you can do to work well within your company, as a part of the organisation. As you continue thinking about this and coming up with solutions, you will overcome your problems and work well within the scope of your company.

Some say that creativity cannot be practised within the confines of an organisation or a company; this is not true. Creativity is more than just shaping clay into a work of art. There are innumerable opportunities to exercise your creativity, both in the workplace and at home.

The courage to live creatively

Creative work gives birth to great value and is a highly respected job. However, when it comes to creativity, there is what is called a ‘necessary condition.’

The condition is that a great deal of courage is needed to live creatively. Creative people are a peculiar lot; they tend to be different from the rest. As a result, they are often given the cold shoulder and ridiculed. However, once their ideas start producing results, the ridicule stops. Before this happens though, often their creativity is cut down before it blooms. So, courage is a prerequisite for creativity.

I offer you these lines so that you will remember the importance of courage. Creative people must be courageous. It takes courage to live a creative life. It takes courage to voice an unorthodox idea, put it into action, and see it through to fruition. For you must endure criticism, have courage, and fight your way through.

It is my sincere hope that each and every one of you will do work of great value for this world through free thinking and creative action.

What an idea!

Here are some hints to help you come up with creative ideas. In order to make something or create something new, you must have a new idea. However, you should know that people who are stubborn, stuck in old ways, or who simply refuse to change, will find themselves lacking in creativity.

Free yourself

Preconceptions blind you to creativity and do not allow you the freedom to conceive new ideas. Therefore, you need to avoid limiting yourself to only what your parents taught you or simply maintaining the status quo in your store or company.

Do not be limited by the customs of your city, state or country. Rid yourself of preconceptions, humble yourself, and start with a blank canvas.

Whether creativity is work related, such as developing new projects, or family related, such as solving relationship problems, it does not matter; define your problem, free yourself from preconceptions, and think of all possible solutions.

Brainstorm

Those who want to become truly creative-minded should always challenge themselves to think of ideas. Write them all down on index cards until you have completely run out—come up with as many ideas as you can because it takes quantity to arrive at quality.

This method can also be applied to problems you encounter at work. If a customer files a complaint, get out a stack of blank index cards and start writing down possible solutions. A good idea will surely come up in this process. Whenever you have a problem in life, try to come up with as many solutions as possible; you will surely come up with a good idea in the process.

Often, the first idea that you come up with is rarely the best; finding the best course of action is not that simple. Besides, your problems will not be resolved with just one or two ideas. A good idea will only pop up in the process of brainstorming five, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas.

So, come up with as many ideas as possible, to account for all possibilities and then choose the best options. Remember that when it comes to ideas, quality is proportionate to quantity.

To arrive at my final plan for lectures, I write down all the topics that I have thought of at different times. After I have come up with quite a few, I pull out a list of local branches and decide the lecture that best fits each venue. Finally, I put the finishing touches on my plans by thinking about the books that I intend to publish in the near future and decide on the order of my lectures.

Have one idea a day

Whether it is about your home-life, work or business, it is vital to keep creating ideas and inventing new things every single day.

For example, most business executives and entrepreneurs are always full of ideas; they cannot succeed in ventures if they do not keep generating ideas. Without a creative mind, they will never be able to produce something that adds value to society.

If you want to come up with ideas, you need to be aware of the problems that you are facing. In other words, you need to give yourself preparation time to equip yourself with the tools necessary to recognise and solve problems.

Let the ideas incubate

So take the time to gather all the information that you will need in order to solve a problem. Then, let your ideas sit, just like you would a fine cheese. Take a couple of nights to ponder on your ideas and they will become more and more refined. Continue to think and let your ideas incubate; it will make good ideas even better.

So, there are two things you must do: come up with as many ideas as possible and give yourself time to incubate your ideas. Do not set tight deadlines for yourself, but rather allow your ideas to develop fully and mature.

As you continue thinking about how to solve your problem, you will develop and refine many ideas. Then, at some point, you will have a flash of inspiration and be able to settle on one good idea

The 3D effect

The new digital 3D technology has made our movie-watching experience exciting. But for some, a prolonged 3D session of focussing on rich 3D images may result in an aching head. And, if it does, it could very well indicate an eye problem.

For people with normal vision, this headache or disorientation after watching a 3D film is usual because we have trained our eyes mostly to see movies in 2D. In 2D films, we see images in one plane, so the focussing efforts of the eye are minimal. No strain, no headache.

However, 3D images are stacked in front of or behind some other layer depending on what the filmmakers want you to see. Our eyes have a natural tendency to bring images which are closer or further away into focus.

3D camerawork frustrates this instinct as, here, you are meant to focus where the director wants you to. If you start looking elsewhere—at a creature or an animal on the side—you cannot focus on it and this gives you a disoriented, sometimes nauseous feeling. That translates into greater mental effort, triggering a headache.

A minor, short-term headache immediately after watching a 3D movie is usually not considered serious. But a long-lasting headache, nausea, disorientation could well mean an eye problem. People who do not have normal depth perception cannot see in 3D at all.

If you experience headaches after watching 3D films, you should not ignore it. It could be a red alert especially in case of children. This is like a ‘screening test’ for some eye conditions, which often go undetected like anisometropia [unequal spectacle powers], strabismus [squint] or amblyopia [lazy eye].

Many people with minor eye problems, such as a muscle imbalance remain undetected as our brain under normal circumstances adjusts naturally. Some conditions may be congenital, may develop later in life due to systemic diseases such as diabetes, thyroid conditions, myasthenia gravis or due to
nerve palsies.

Firstly, visit your eye specialist periodically to ensure that your eyes are healthy and your vision is normal.

Secondly, disregard your experience with 2D movies and stay focussed on what is right in front of you—what you should be paying attention to. Concentrate on what the filmmaker wants you to see, focussing too long on the background details is what triggers headaches and disorientation.

Nowadays, advanced movie making techniques are used to make the images easier for our brain to view and keep up with the 3D illusion. However, as 3D moves towards television, more viewers are expected to have eye problems. This is because sports such as football, which have quick movements, will be even harder to focus on for long.

If you face any of the above-mentioned discomforts for a prolonged period, report to your doctor as soon as possible.

Care for your eyes

You can avoid most eye problems simply if you take a few simple precautions:

• Have routine and regular eye check ups [which includes a dilated eye examination] with an eye specialist and don’t just visit a doctor only in situations like eye infection or blurred vision. Often people believe that they need eye examinations only after 40. This is false, as there are several asymptomatic, yet treatable, eye diseases [most notably glaucoma] that can begin prior to your 40s.
• Get your little children checked regularly. Many parents avoid testing their children, thinking that they maybe too young to answer the doctor. They are not aware that there are special charts and tests that even check vision in children as young as a few months old.
• Do not treat the optician as your primary eye care professional. The check up for spectacles according to most is equivalent to an eye check up for the health of their eyes and they never visit an eye doctor for detailed eye check ups.

Cultivate your first nature

Right from childhood, we learn to react. We observe how grown-ups react to everything around them: news, events, other people and their circumstances—even the weather! So we start to believe that reacting is natural and gradually, it becomes our second nature.

But that's what it is—our 'second' nature, implying that it is secondary or acquired, not our own. Reaction has an external connotation, meaning that something external causes us to think or act in a certain way.

A reaction, by its very nature, is unfulfilling. When we react, we either suppress our natural instincts to allow someone or something outside of us to determine our thoughts and behaviour, or we are ignorant of them.

As opposed to our second nature, which is borrowed, we would do well to cultivate what I call our 'first' nature. Our first nature is to act spontaneously or out of self-awareness. In fact, our first nature is so natural to us that it comes to us without even thinking about it.

Our physiological instincts—hunger, thirst, pain, sex, and everything else that we experience bodily—fall under our 'first' nature. Can you imagine what would happen if we lose our sense of these physiological instincts? You would have to rely on others for basic necessities such as eating and drinking.

But that's what we're doing in other aspects of our life. We live in such an over-stimulated age that our emotions have become mostly reactive. When we react, we mostly end up doing something we don't necessarily want to do—like the things that we might say or do when we get angry.

Anger is a potent, but nevertheless common, self-destructive reaction. It is NOT our first nature. Being calm and at peace is. That's why anger feels so bad and being calm and peaceful feels so good.

So, unless we live by our first nature, it's not possible for us to be happy and fulfilled. And living like that comes from awareness, not from knowledge or reason.

To be able to act out of awareness, it is important to get in touch with our instincts and our feelings—and then be guided by them. Success and happiness are by-products of acting out of this awareness. On the other hand, sadness, and a feeling of loss is always the result of a reaction.

When faced with any situation—minor or major—rely on your first nature, which is a gift of God, of nature. Because when we are guided by our instincts, we usually do what is best for us in that moment.