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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Diseases of a lifestyle: the transition to avoid -Sunita Narain

Diseases of a lifestyle: the transition to avoid -Sunita Narain

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published Published on Dec 1, 2017   modified Modified on Dec 1, 2017
-Down to Earth

Can we not go from being poor but unhealthy to being rich and healthy? Why should we inherit diseases that can be junked?

In June 2017, British medical journal Lancet published a review of the prevalence of diabetes in 15 states of India. This study by a group of medical practitioners, funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has worrying numbers. It finds that while some 7 per cent people in India (based on 15 states’ data) had diabetes, the prevalence of pre-diabetes (early signs, particularly elevated blood sugar levels) was a staggering 10-15 per cent, depending on the criterion used. This is no small health burden on a poor country.

Their conclusion is we are undergoing an epidemiological transition. States with higher GDP—Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh—have higher prevalence of this disease as compared to Bihar or Jharkhand. Delhi and Goa, with high income levels, are still awaiting sampling. Rural areas have lower diabetes rates than urban ones. But most worryingly, the study finds that the poor in urban well-off states have higher incidence of diabetes than the rich in the same cities. In other words, the rich in rich cities have started to learn good food habits.

But the poor are now falling into the trap of bad food. The study also found that conversely, in rural areas it was the more socio-economically advanced that were falling prey to diabetes. “It is an epidemic that is in a state of transition,” the study noted. With such large numbers of poor in urban areas and such large numbers of the getting-rich in rural areas, this can easily get out of hand. We are going from lack of food or malnutrition to over-nutrition because of bad food. This is a transition that must be avoided.

This is what Down To Earth’s latest publication, Body Burden: Lifestyle Diseases* discusses. The fact is that India has what can only be described as a double burden of diseases. We have the diseases of the poor—everything from malnutrition to cholera. But we also have the diseases of the rich—cancer and diabetes. Worse, as the ICMR study shows, the poor, who can ill-afford the diseases of the rich are now afflicted by them.

But this is where the policy of prevention must kick in. We know that these diseases—called non-communicable by the health community—are connected to our lifestyles. What we eat? What air we breathe? And what environment we live in? These are part of the package of “toxic” development. A model of development where we first pollute and then think of cleaning up. A model where we first industrialise-chemicalise our food, eat unhealthy junk and then think of going to the gym to exercise or eat organic food. But the question is can we not avoid the transition?

Please click here to read more.

Down to Earth, 15 December, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/diseases-of-a-lifestyle-the-transition-to-avoid-59255


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