COMBATING LIFESTYLE DISEASES

1. The rising graph of lifestyle ailments in India and across the world, especially now with the younger generation too getting effected in a major way, is a testimony to the fact that we as a society have gone wrong somewhere, especially in the past few decades.
2. Diabetes, cardiovascular health issues, hypertension, PCOD, hypothyroidism, migraine, fatty liver, rheumatoid arthritis and the list seems to be ever increasing, has become a common household name with people across the entire cross section of society getting effected.
3. The Health and Wellness sector is a booming business today – be it mushrooming of the diagnostic centres, wellness clinics, gyms, weight loss centres, pharmacy shops, hospitals etc. And everyone seems to be mistaking these as an indicator of a prospering and developing society.
4. But should we take pride in the fact that the number of chemist shops in our neighbourhood has increased manifolds or should we be worried that the number of sick and unhealthy people around us are increasing with every passing day. It obviously boils down to simple economics of demand and supply and till the time we as a society don’t wake up and realise that these are disturbing trends we are staring at a disaster.
5. The doctors are busy treating the sick, but who will ensure that we don’t fall sick at the first place – that we don’t become diabetic or we don’t have high BP or we don’t have high cholesterol? Telling an obese person to lose weight is not a brilliant advice – he knows that already. Similarly telling a person suffering from lifestyle ailments to take medicines is fine, that’s like putting water to douse the fire, but who will address the source of fire. And with the advancement of medical science, it sounds strange to accept that these lifestyle ailments are with us to stay till our death, that we have to take medicines for the same throughout our life. But that’s what we have been made to believe and accept.
6. It’s high time that we wake up and accept our mistakes. The very fact that these health conditions have been categorised as ‘lifestyle ailments’, substantiates the fact that our wrong lifestyle is the root cause of these ailments. As far as life is concerned, this is the only life we have. So, it’s the style that we have to focus and review. Our style of eating, resting, moving, sleeping – all needs a review and retrospection. Once that starts to happen correctly, all these lifestyle ailments can be reversed.
7. Popping a few pills every morning is not cool. It’s stupidity. Let’s not go wrong any further.