E-Paper
India diabetic capital of world, says expert
PROFESSOR AND Head of the Department of Cardiology of SGPGIMS, Dr Nakul Sinha said the India has become a diabetic capital of the world, as the numbers of diabetic patients were increasing at an alarming rate in the country.
PROFESSOR AND Head of the Department of Cardiology of SGPGIMS, Dr Nakul Sinha said the India has become a diabetic capital of the world, as the numbers of diabetic patients were increasing at an alarming rate in the country.
Talking to newsmen at IIT-K here on Saturday, he said that according to a medical report every third citizen of the country would become diabetic by the year 2015.
He said that irregular and unbalanced diet, which included fast food has been the main cause of affecting the metabolism of the people and they were becoming overweight in a very disproportionate manner. Bulging abdomen and hips also causes coronary diseases leading to severe heart attack.
Dr Sinha further added that so far it was believed that coronary diseases affected only the urban population in the later ages. But recent reports and experiences have shown that heat disease was prevalent even in rural areas among the young people between the age group of 30 to 35 years.
During the past five years it was found that 15 per cent of the total heart patients were in the age group of 40 to 45 years in the country, Dr Sinha said.
He suggested that daily exercise for 30 minutes and balanced diet could prevent the coronary diseases but these two precautions could not be taken as cure of the disease.
Dr Sinha expressed his concern over the low health budget of the country. He said that India spent only 1.8 per cent on the medical health, while the Britain allocated 44 per cent over the medical and health services.
Dr Sinha said that there could be possibilities of joint research with IIT-K in connection with the health matters.
Later, delivering his expert lecture on ‘Prevention of heart disease: From cradle to elderly’, Dr Sinha said that over 2.5 million Indians die of heart attack every year and people of this country were 1.5 times were more likely to suffer from coronary artery disease (CAD). He said, “CAD is a disease of life-style and it occurs because of the unhealthy way of our life style.”
He further said that major risk factors for CAD were family history heart disease, diabetes, high or low cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, tension and obesity.
