Diabetes, hypertension on the rise, says senior physician

Diabetes and hypertension are on the rise in the country including Nagaland and both are serious health conditions that can have long-term consequences if left untreated, according to a senior physician.

Although there are multiple factors contributing to this trend, a lack of a disciplined lifestyle is one of them, he said in an interaction with Eastern Mirror.

Maintaining good health includes eating a balanced diet, engaging in regular physical activity, getting enough sleep, and managing stress, the doctor said, who wished not to be named.

Unfortunately, many people today lead busy and stressful lives, and often neglect their health in the process, he said.

He, therefore, emphasised on the importance of having a healthy lifestyle, regular checkup, regular exercise, balanced diet among others.

He informed there is type 1 and type 2 diabetes while two types of blood pressure — primary hypertension and secondary hypertension.

In order to lead a healthy life, one needs to sacrifice time to get examined through health centres, the medical practitioner said, while reminding how timely checks “prevent things which may lead into more complicated problems.”

Through the nursing care plan (NCP) programme in the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare, the doctor informed that screening is done every day for different diseases including diabetes and hypertension.

“Hypertension may lead to stroke while diabetes often leads to kidney failure,” he said while explaining how the two metabolic diseases are caused when the blood vessels, which connects the heart, becomes narrow in an inactive body due to muscle contraction and leads to reduced blood flow.

“When blood flow is reduced, the lungs fail to respond normally,” he said, adding: “Though the heart wants to pump in liters of blood, the blood is not flowing to the brain very well”.

He stated how tuberculosis or HIV infected patients are doing rather well on regular medication. He opined that the common people, on the other hand, are complacent about their health.

The physician informed that now diabetes and hypertension are common not only in the urban but rural areas too. Decades ago, he recalled how India was known as “the capital of diabetes.”

He apprised how the mortality rate even in a small populated state like Nagaland is on the rise as people don’t go for regular health checkup.

While informing how cardiometabolic strokes occur due to a number of factors, including wrong modern medication, he reiterated on the need to “have your own lifestyle which is adjustable,” adding that “one should not under exercise or over exercise to be healthy.”

A citizen who has been tending to the needs of her aging parents suffering from diabetes and hypertension for about two decades said that a person can prevent such illnesses through healthy lifestyles.