Ludhiana, October 30
In India, there were 20 million people who were suffering from hypertension with diabetes as both the problems co-existed with each other. Ten million of them were aware of their diseases, whereas other 10 million were unaware. This was disclosed by Dr Siddharth N. Shah, president of the Association of Physicians of India, at the fourth Joginder Pal Pandey oration which was jointly organised by the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital and Nehru Sidhant Kendra. The oration was held at Dumra Auditorium of DMCH today.

Dr Shah warned that if nothing was done to curb the disease, the day was not far when India was going to have the largest population of diabetes and the worst part was that it was very difficult to manage diabetes with hypertension.

The president said that in a mega trial by doctors, it was found that 50 per cent of diabetic had hypertension. The root cause of the problem was lack of insulin in the body.

Insulin resistant in type-2 diabetic caused problems by like obesity, blindness and various diseases of eye, hypertension, kidney, cardiac diseases, impotence, problems in pregnancy and peripheral vascular diseases. The co-existence of this disease increased the risk of micro vascular and macro-vascular diseases. He said that a recent study had shown that 47.6 per cent hypertensive men were also diabetic and 51.8 per cent of females had the similar condition. He also talked about the wide range of drugs available in the market, their use and side effects. He emphasised on the improvement in the lifestyle. Weight reduction, control over smoking and diet and exercise were helpful for healthy lifestyle.

A cheque for Rs 50,000 was presented to Dr Shah by Mr Rakesh Pandey and Mr Deepak Pandey, sons of late Joginder Pal Pandey. Mr Prem Nath Gupta, Secretary, Managing Society of DMCH, presented a vote of thanks on this occasion.