Become custodian of your health, do annual checkups: Cardiologist Devi Shetty

On the occasion of World Health Day, top cardiologist Devi Shetty on Sunday advised people to become custodians of their health and take preventive health checkups every year.

World Health Day is celebrated every year on April 7 to raise awareness on health and related issues. This year's theme 'My Health, My Right' focuses on equal access to quality health care.

"You should become custodian of your health. You should feel responsible for your health and do the right things. You have only one body that God has given you. You can change your car or house, but you cannot change your body. Once you ruin, it's very difficult to reverse," Shetty, Founder and Chairman of Narayana Health, told IANS.

He said this even as India is seeing mounting cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer, among a host of others like obesity and mental health issues.

According to a recent 'Health of the Nation' report by Apollo hospitals, more younger Indians are facing the challenge of cancer. About three in four people were found either obese or overweight and, obesity incidence has increased from 9 per cent in 2016 to 20 per cent in 2023.

Hypertension incidence increased from 9 per cent in 2016 to 13 per cent in 2023, while two of three Indians or 66 per cent are in the pre-hypertensive stage. In addition, the data also showed that one in 10 people have uncontrolled diabetes and one in three are prediabetic.

"You go out in major cities around seven o'clock or eight o'clock and just look around what people are doing. Everyone is eating, and it has become an entertainment. And then you see young people struggling with obesity. The root cause of most of the problems is sedentary life and exotic food, which is available at low cost," the doctor said.

Recently, India has been witnessing a spate of heart attack cases and related deaths, ranging from school students and even among the seemingly-fit celebrities.

"The fit athletic people, unfortunately, do not know their fitness, and the heart cases have nothing to do with how fit the people are. It is because more than 50 per cent of heart patients do not have symptoms. And the first thing they know is a major heart attack and a small percentage of them even die," Shetty said.

The cardiologist said that the rising heart attack cases are not related to Covid-19 and that in most cases, the people had a pre-existing disease.

He also noted that more than 50 per cent of the heart patients in India suffer from silent heart attacks, majorly due to high blood pressure.

To prevent this "every adult Indian must go for an annual preventive health checkup".

"Preventive checkup is the only option we have. If somebody develops a heart attack that is evidence of failure of modern medicine. If individuals take the responsibility for a preventive checkup, where they can easily see their blood pressure, blood readings, haemoglobin, blood sugar, then most of the problems will be resolved," Dr Shetty said.