“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease"- Lord Buddha

Sonal Bothra, 19, has a series of medical problems that would make writer Jerome K Jerome and his pals George and Harris of Three Men in a Boat — the book by Jerome in which the three friends compete each other to share their list of maladies — look pale in comparison. Siddhartha Dutta, 21, has a recurring back problem and an annoying knee joint pain that just won’t go away. They are just two people of Generation X  who suffer from a series of medical problems that are usually not associated with the youth.     

Lifestyle has changed drastically for the young Indian; so has the pattern of disease. Nowadays, a heart attack in 20s is not so uncommon. Similarly gastro-intestinal diseases are also taking its toll on people due to erratic food habits.

Dr Sinha, associate professor of Cardiology in a city medical college hospital, states that earlier it used to be news when someone in the 20s had heart ailments. But nowadays it is not so uncommon. This syndrome has increased by leaps and bounds in the last few decades.  While Big Mac, Kentucky Fried Chicken and many similar internationally fast food chains are counting their annual turnovers with a overflowing cash register, many more are making rounds to the doctor's chamber for various ailments arising from the fast lifestyle and the fast food they indulge in every day.

"All these gastro-intestinal diseases start making their presence felt from the time a person turns 25,” says Dr Indraneel Saha, head of Gastro-intestinal department, AMRI Hospitals, Kolkata.

According to him, dyspepsia is common among the youth. This often happens due to excessive work pressure, stress and food habits.

Stress is an unavoidable factor in the present lifestyle. But food habit is mostly self-induced. Youngsters usually like to gobble the lip-smacking fast food instead of low calorie and hygienically prepared  home-prepared food.
These habits usually lead to obesity and at times even to infertility. Obese kids and youngsters are quite common these days. If one does not take care at an early stage, the result could be fatal.

WHO warning
Stress leads to many other diseases like Diabetes Mellitus. This is increasingly attacking the young Indian population. The diabetic census of  India in 1995 showed 19.4 million suffering from it; the projection for 2025 is 75 to 80 million. Chennai is the diabetes capital of India. Metropolis Health Services,  a well-known diagnostic chain, found through a survey based on blood samples of 535 women and 735 men that Indians are more prone to diseases such as heart ailments, asthma, cancers, nervous and circulatory disorders, diabetes, hypertension and obesity.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has projected that by 2020, India will be the Diabetes Capital of the world. It also predicts that by 2010, India will have 100 million heart patients.

WHO has alerted that in the coming days hypertension will start spreading like epidemic if not controlled now. "Hypertension, diabetes and obesity are the three modifiable risk factors.

They are the harbinger of many other diseases in human body. This trend is not only seen in urban areas, it is equally perceptible in rural areas. We often don’t hear about it from that zone because the awareness level among the rural population is less and the medical assistance available is very limited," says Dr Sinha. Due to these ailments at an early age, “we are also losing many talents early,” he says,  adding that a little consciousness on the part of the patient can increase his longevity. All these modifiable risk factors overtly or covertly leads to coronary arterial diseases in the long run.

Stress, diabetes and hypertension increases the possibility of coronary arterial disease by 360 per cent. Dr Sinha advises doing physical exercise regularly, be it yoga or free hand, among people of all age groups. Indians in general do not have the habit of exercising to shed that extra flab.

He especially mentions Indian women who are homemakers;  they should allot some time for exercising because household work, however much backbreaking it is, does not help to remain fit.

Excessive smoking and drinking among the younger generation add to causes for developing heart diseases at an early stage. Drinking on a regular basis adds up the calories in one’s body. Hypertension and smoking increase the lipid profile in the body, which is also called cholesterol. High cholesterol also accelerates cardiac problems. Fatty food lead to high cholesterol level.

Air-conditioner woes
Another inseparable part of modern urban India is the air-conditioner which in turn stokes many diseases. Too much exposure to air-conditioning has a snowballing effect on the body.

Often people complain about backache and sinus problems due to continued exposure to the air-conditioner. People also complain about eye problems like dry-eye or burning eyes or eye irritations. Exposure to air-conditioners and constant work at the computer are some of the  causes for these problems.

Though we cannot really do away with the modern gadgets today, at least we can take some corrective measures that will help us to reduce these problems. Like wearing a specially coated spectacle while working a computer, sitting in the right posture while working and taking care of our spinal cord can prevent us from orthopaedic diseases.

Eating healthy food can reduce diabetes and blood pressure level.
To reiterate, just remember the words uttered by Lord Buddha that human beings are authors of their own health and we should take care of it to lead a happy and healthy life.
TWF