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India's two faces - hunger and a lot of extreme overweight
The population in India is still often struggling with hunger, poor medical care and infectious diseases, but has added to the affluent sections of the population another health problem: overweight or obesity. As a result, there are increasing numbers of cases, including diabetes and hypertension.
According to "Spiegel Online", the US Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) recorded an increase in diabetes illnesses worldwide by 45 percent between 1990 and 2013, while India recorded an increase of 123 percent. In total, 60 million people in India would be considered overweight. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), India has at the same time a similar number of children (around 61 million) suffering from malnutrition and hunger - more than in Africa or any other country in the world. This impressively shows the double face of booming India.
In India, overweight among the middle and upper classes is a widespread problem. (Image: Creativa / fotolia.com) Lack of awareness of the health risks of being overweight
In the affluent sections of India, the typical "common diseases" of modern industrialized nations such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and the like are becoming increasingly prevalent, while tens of thousands of hunger and infectious diseases such as dengue fever, tuberculosis or malaria continue to die in the poorer sections of the population. With the increasing prosperity in many Indians the development of massive overweight was connected, whereby here almost completely the consciousness for the possible health risks is missing, reports "mirror on-line". Instead of changing the lifestyle early on, it is often followed by an operative reduction of the stomach. The Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, for example, had a corresponding intervention carried out. Previously, the 62-year-old had to keep his speeches sitting and occasionally interrupting his weight problems and the resulting back pain.
Significant increase in non-communicable diseases in India
Similar to the Minister of Finance, according to "Spiegel Online", there were also other ministers. Nitin Gadkari and Venkaiah Naidu, for example, also operated on the basis of their overweight. The examples from the Indian leadership show how widespread the weight problems in India meanwhile are. As a result, now the cardiovascular diseases are also the most common cause of death before infectious diseases and diarrhea, reports "Spiegel Online". Gradually, the relationship between the typical welfare and poverty diseases is shifting towards affluent diseases. For example, ten years ago, the risk of premature death from an infectious disease was about equal to the risk of non-communicable disease, such as a heart condition. But today, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the likelihood of death from non-communicable diseases is twice as high as for infectious diseases. In India, however, awareness is largely lacking.
Benefits of healthy diet and adequate exercise not known
Awareness programs or prevention campaigns because of the widespread weight problems in the affluent sections of the population are so far in short supply. Because of this lack of awareness of the benefits of a healthy diet and adequate exercise are hardly known, quotes "Spiegel Online" the doctor Atul Gogia from Gangaram Hospital in Delhi. "We always boast of having such tremendous manpower, but what good does it do us if our working population is sick," Gogia continues. In India, almost no middle-class or upper-class migrant in any of the metropolitan areas goes on foot. The smallest purchases would be done by phone and brought by run boys at the door, reports "Spiegel Online" on. The everyday life of many Indians is accordingly low in movement.
Surge against obesity
"Spiegel Online" also reports on the example of the brothers Vijay (16 years) and Suresh (20 years), who both had their stomach made smaller. Before surgery, they weighed 190 kilograms and 150 kilograms. The mother Sonu Lugani explains in the post of the news portal that Suresh could hardly walk a few steps and constantly gasped. High blood sugar and hypertension were found in him. Cause of the development of the overweight was, in the opinion of the son of uncontrolled junk food consumption and the constant sitting on the computer - without any form of exercise or sport. According to "Spiegel Online", the doctor who operated on the two young men did 250 corresponding operations in the past year. Only five years ago, five years ago, Vivek Bindal, a physician from Gangaram Hospital in the capital New Delhi, did only about 25 of these operations a year.
A comparable increase in surgeries is estimated for the whole of India. Addressing the weight problems with surgery is widely accepted, but these are often not considered to be a medical condition, reports the doctor Aniruddh Vij from the scientific institute Pushpawati Singhania in the article by "Spiegel Online". For many Indians, he says, obesity is more or less accepted as something normal that comes with age, or the excess pounds are even interpreted as a sign of wealth. Many people are not aware of the health problems that obesity entails. (Fp)