The Statesman, Kolkata Editorial 25-5-06

One out of two

Only half of us may be healthy

A study conducted by a leading private hospital in New Delhi has come up with the startling revelation that only 52 percent of adult India (40-70 years) is healthy. The rest suffer from “metabolism syndrome”, a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing an individual’s vulnerability to heart disease, a stroke and diabetes. That they are by-products of an increasingly stressful lifestyle is not a coincidence. The boom in the beauty and fitness industry is hardly an indication of a fitter and healthier society. So even if the weighing scale shows the ideal body weight ratio, and you see youthful 40 and 50 somethings bounding around in gym toned bodies, it still does not eliminate their need for pills that keep their hypertension, blood pressure and diabetes under check.

World Health Organisation pressed the panic button recently when it warned that India was on the verge of plunging into a health crisis, if lifestyle diseases were not sufficiently managed. An estimated 270 million people in China , Indonesia , Pakistan and India were found susceptible to heart disease. With India already the world capital of diabetes and with obesity recognized as an epidemic, we could soon overtake the USA which till last year had approximately 50 million people succumbing to metabolism syndrome. With average working days of the urban employed growing longer, sleep patterns, eating habits and recommended exercise regimens will get erratic. Combines with this is a lack of awareness, especially amongst women who might now the exact services being offered against discounted packages at the nearest slimming centre but do not have relevant information on osteo-arthritis, breast cancer or diabetes. Undoubtedly, the government will have to accord lifestyle related diseases as much priority in terms of allocating funds for creating awareness as they have done to combat pandemics like bird flu and HIV. However, it is individual vigilance that will effect aggressive lifestyle changes with exercise, diet and medication; these alone can derail and delay the onset of the metabolism syndrome.