With rising prosperity in many parts of Asia, people are adopting unhealthy lifestyles. Sedentary jobs, poor diet, smoking and alcohol are all blamed for the dramatic shift in health. Lifestyle diseases are a sure threat.

THE SERIES of attacks in our cities have certainly taught every Indian that it’s only they who can protect their lives and limbs against any attack. Though leaders are blamed for these terror attacks, India is threatened by a number of invisible enemies, including lifestyle diseases. Governments have apparently been making efforts to protect us from the monstrous diseases like polio, malaria and even Aids. Health of Indians is still under threat unless taken care of properly.

 
In the wake of globalisation, our goals have changed, and so has the lifestyle. With rising prosperity in many parts of Asia, people are adopting unhealthy lifestyles that their bodies cannot cope with. Sedentary jobs, poor diet, smoking and alcohol are all blamed for the dramatic shift in health care. This may be the reason why India is witnessing a growth in numbers of heart strokes, diabetes and other non communicable diseases. Even the number of caesarian delivery has gone up.
 

"Lifestyle diseases have already become the number one killer in India," said D. Prabhakaran, a professor at the department of cardiology at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
"The important factors for lifestyle diseases are increasing consumption of tobacco, dietary consumption of fats, particularly saturated fat, lack of physical activity and inadequacy of stress-coping mechanisms," he said.
 
India leads the world in diabetes. A government study estimated the number of diabetics to be about 38 million in 2004, and it is projected to rise to 57 million in 2025.
 
By 2020, the number of deaths each year due to chronic diseases in the country of 1.1 billion people may stand at 7.63 million.
 
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 270 million people in Asia will die from chronic disease between 2005 and 2015, mostly poor people in developing countries such as China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia.
 
The deteriorating state of health is damaging the country in manifolds. The economic loss is also shocking. According to the report by WHO ’Preventing Communicable Diseases in the Workplace through Diet and Physical Activity.’ the economic loss in India, which was $8.7 billion, in 2005, is projected to rise to $54 billion, in 2015, due to a rise in lifestyle diseases like diabetes, stroke and cancer because of unhealthy workplaces.
 
The sagging health condition can be salvaged only through collective efforts of governments, organisations, corporate sectors and on the top of all by the efforts of every individual to combat the invisible threat of diseases.