Verified By Apollo General Physician December 9, 2023
3710Meet Ritika – A 26-year-old working professional working from home for over a year due to the COVID pandemic. She takes pride in being fit, works out twice a week, and spends an hour in the sun every day to keep her Vitamin D levels up. Despite being young and doing all the right things to keep herself healthy, she would fall prey to common illnesses such as cold and flu with alarming frequency.
After one particularly severe bout of flu, Ritika decided to opt-in for the Apollo ProHealth program on the advice of her close friend. She wanted a personalised program, so she started her ProHealth journey filling in a ‘personalised Health Risk Assessment’ (pHRA) questionnaire.
Apollo ProHealth’s pHRA covers 4 aspects of an individual’s health:
Once the pHRA was completed, she was recommended a comprehensive whole-body program.
Ritika considered herself generally healthy and did not expect any major surprises in her assessment report. Well, she was in for a rude shock!
When Ritika’s doctor walked her through her report, to her surprise, she found that her immune system was weak. She was also at risk of developing a variety of lifestyle diseases, even though she did not smoke, was a teetotaler, and followed a vegetarian diet!
It was difficult to believe that a young working professional, who had healthy habits, would have a weak immune system.
The first thing her ProHealth physician asked her to do was not to panic. He explained to her that every individual’s body is a set of unique and complex biochemical reactions. Therefore, while it was great that she did the basic things right such as exercise regularly, not smoke, etc., but to truly be healthy she needs to first understand the unique demands of her body and then follow a health program tailored to her needs and lifestyle.
As we delve deeper into Ritika’s journey, let’s also understand how immunity plays a vital role in keeping us healthy and safe.
Two weeks later, Ritika received a call from her ProHealth Mentor to check in and help answer any questions. The mentor explained to her that immunity refers to the body’s ability to resist pathogen invasion. When an individual is exposed to pathogens (foreign disease-causing substances such as bacteria and viruses), antigens (proteins that are linked to the infections’ surface) trigger an immune response tofightsuch pathogens.
The human body’s immunity is divided into three categories:
In her case, Ritika learnt that her active immunity was low. As a result, her mentor suggested she make changes to her lifestyle and diet to improve her active immunity. We will dive deeper into these changes in the following sections.
From her assessment report, it was clear that Ritika was not getting enough sleep, and her work-related stress was high. As a result, her immune system’s response was impaired.
An individual with a weak immune system is more prone to contract infections than the general population, and these infections may be more severe or difficult to treat comparatively. Such infections include:
Ritika displayed early symptoms of gastrointestinal problems, but she didn’t pay heed to them, causing her immune system to deteriorate.
During her consultation session, Ritika’s mentor explained to her that all cells, including immune cells, require sufficient nutrients to function perfectly. Essential micronutrients are required at every stage of the immunological response in the body, and these are as follows –
During her review, the ProHeath physician explained that any diet that’s high in refined sugar, high salt, can cause disruptions in good intestinal microbes, resulting in persistent gut inflammation and reduced immunity.
The growth and maintenance of beneficial gut bacteria is also promoted by a high-fibre plant-based diet that’s rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
Fibers are important because they are prebiotics that break down food into short-chain fatty acids through beneficial microorganisms, which have been discovered to promote immune cell activation as they feed bacteria.
Ritika’s diet was low on fiber. Therefore, her diet lacked the necessary nutrients for her intestinal microorganisms to function properly.
On further reviewing Ritika’s assessment report, her ProHealth physician informed her that she was also deficient in Vitamin C. This was one of the reasons why she was susceptible to seasonal flu.
During the follow up call, Ritika’s health mentor explained that to boost her micro-nutrient levels, she had to add probiotic and prebiotic food items into her daily diet, along with foods rich in Vitamin C.
Ritika’s health mentor explained the importance of including 5 activities in her daily schedule:
After a comprehensive consultation session with her Apollo ProHealth physician and continuous monitoring and advice by her health mentor,Ritika understood the various factors affecting her immunity and the benefits of following a mentor-driven, proactive healthcare program to rebuild her immunity with proper care.
Download the Apollo ProHealth App or call us at 1-860-500-0707 to subscribe to a comprehensive & mentor-driven personalized healthcare program and take your first step towards the road to wellness now!
ProHealth is a unique personalized proactive health management program that brings together predictive risk analysis, cutting-edge diagnostics with physician evaluation, paving a path to wellness and designed to make positive shifts. The program has been created based on 22 million health checks, building upon Apollo’s pioneering efforts in preventive care for over 37 years.
ProHealth offers the following comprehensive and specialized health solutions:
Our expert general medicine specialists verify the clinical accuracy of the content to deliver the most trusted source of information, making the management of health an empowering experience.