Unhealthy changes in lifestyle must be countered: Experts

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 7

Today is World Health Day and the theme of the day this year is ‘Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere’. Experts discussed the importance of the day and core points in taking care of one’s health.

Dr Gautam Aggarwal, senior consultant of medicine at SPS Hospital, Ludhiana, laid stress on preventive healthcare and said it should be considered an investment or personal insurance, with keeping the retirement nest egg as the return on investment.

He added, “When you are sick, you have no choice but to think about your health. It’s right there in your face – you feel awful. Preventive healthcare must be planned and executed ahead of time, even when illness is absent. You must build healthy habits even when it’s not convenient. You must believe that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important enough to make a few sacrifices. Eating right, doing regular exercise and avoiding destructive substances, such as tobacco, alcohol and excessive amount of sugar and salt are crucial, as is getting enough sleep each night.”

Healthy habits are an ‘automatic’ defence against most illnesses and can provide a long, healthy and thus happy life, he said.

“Another aspect of preventive healthcare is finding and treating a disease as soon as possible. Some sort of illness hits everyone eventually, but many diseases, when caught early, can be nipped in the bud and full health returns quickly,” Dr Aggarwal added.

Dr SS Sibia, director of Sibia Medical Centre, said unfortunately, there has been a rise among the young population coming with cardiovascular diseases. “Major contributing factors that increase the risk include diabetes, hypertension, habit of smoking and being overweight. This can be completely attributed to the poor and unhealthy lifestyle with lack of physical activities,” he said.

“With women empowerment and long erratic working hours, both men and women are highly susceptible to stress. Poor eating habits, sedentary lifestyle, drinking and smoking have also attributed to the rise in the number of health ailments. Complications leading to obesity and untimely snacking on junk foods have shown a rising trend of infertility among most of the corporate couples,” said gynaecologist Dr Bakul Kapoor.

World Health Day was observed at Ludhiana Mediways Hospital. On this occasion, Dr Karmaveer Goyal, director of the internal mediation department, said many diseases occurred due to continuous sitting, but by adopting exercise, they can be avoided.

He said the best formula to avoid long illness is the “Prevention is better than cure”.