21ST CENTURY HEALTH CHALLENGES: CAN WE ALL BECOME HEALTHY, WEALTHY, AND WISE?

Dr maulik patel, adani hospitals, mundra

there is a relationship between these three conditions and I’d like to explore some of these connections with you.

Life expectancy

A person born in 1900 could expect to live, on average, to the age of 45.  

Today, life expectancy is nearly 80 years in developed nation and 67 yrs in India.

What may surprise you about this statistic is not that we’ve gained 35 years of longevity, but rather where these gains have come from.

What has changed .. ???

 In fact, only 5 or so of these “extra” years can be attributed to advances in clinical medicine. 

Public health can take the credit for the other 30 years, thanks to improvements in sanitation, health education, the development of effective vaccines, and other advances.  

“What would our health indicators look like if we achieved the best rates possible (and ‘possible’ is the key word) for some of the leading health problems ?”

Three major killers

TOBACCO

 There are approximately 120 million smokers in India.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers.

Approximately 900,000 people die every year in India due to smoking as of 2009

Circulatory system Increased risk in the heart

ache and blood pressure due to the blockage of the blood supply.

The chances of experiencing a heart attack in smokers are 5 times more likely than an average person who does not smoke.

On Immune System

It depresses the body’s immune response which makes the smoker’s body more toxic.

However, there is a possibility of improving your immune system if you quit within 30 days.

On Respiratory System It causes

permanent damage to the air sacs of the lungs

Smokers have far more chances of getting various types of cancers.

On Reproductive System It causes a great

genetic damage to sperm and this is due to the toxins present in tobacco smoke such as nicotine, cadmium, and benzopyrene.

Smokers have been shown to have a increased risk of getting stomach ulcers.

Cigars, cigarettes and other smokeless tobacco products contains at least 28 chemicals that have been shown to increase the risk of oral cancer, throat cancer and esophagus.

Community solutions higher tobacco taxes creative and effective anti-smoking ads smoke-free workplaces 

On the individual level, we now have better medical tools to help people quit, such as nicotine patches and new drugs that counter nicotine’s effect on brain chemicals

Second major killer

Third major risk factor

I hope I’ve provoked a sense of possibility in you -- a sense that improvements in smoking rates, obesity, and poor diagnosis and management of diabetes are truly within our reach

As I’ve tried to point out, these individual acts are greatly influenced by our public policies – whether they are smoke-free workplaces, safe walking paths and parks, or healthier menu options in groceries, cafeterias, and restaurants.  (And even in hotel banquet rooms...)

We are wealthy.  We all can be comparably healthy and certainly get healthier still.  If we do the latter, future generations will judge us as having been “wise”.

I ‘ll leave the “early to bed....” part up to you.  

DR MAULIK PATEL, ADANI HOSPITALS, MUNDRA

THANK YOU

I ‘ll leave the “early to bed....” part up to you.