Walkers Association holds 286th health lecture

Nampally: The Public Garden Walkers Association's 286th health lecture was delivered by Dr Vrinda Agarwal, Senior Consultant Endocrionology, Care Hospital, on the theme of 'You and your hormones,' on Sunday.

Gulam Yazdani, Chairman, Promod Kumar Kedia, Vice President, Prof Masood Ahmed Health Care Advisor and others were present at the monthly health lecture series at Indira Priyadarshni Auditorium at Public Gardens.

Explaining about the theme, Dr Agarwal said while diseases of the endocrine system are common, others commonly discussed may in fact be related to thyroid, pituitary or adrenal glands. Early diagnosis and treatment was the cornerstone of management of the ailments, she stressed.

Elaborating, the doctor said hormones affect many different processes in the body including growth and development, metabolism, and reproduction. Imbalances in these hormone levels can lead to a multitude of problems, like diabetes, growth retardation, weak bones, infertility etc.

She pointed out that India was home to the second largest number of adults living with diabetes and the second largest number of children with type 1 diabetes in the world. In addition, millions of people have impaired glucose tolerance and are at increased risk of developing T2D in the future.

Reasons for expanding burden of diabetes include rapid urbanization, high carbohydrate diet, and lack of exercise, delay in diagnosis, patient's compliance issues and lack of substantial guidance by physicians on blood sugar monitoring.

Mortality and morbidity associated with diabetes and its potential complications lead to a significant health-care burden on both families and society at large, she added.

"However, in the recent years, there have been substantial advances in diabetes management in terms of availability of more efficient and safe drugs, insulin preparations and insulin delivery systems along with glucose monitoring technology", she noted.

Another issue crippling our society at large, Dr Vrinda said is excess weight gain or obesity. It is a major international public health problem and creating an enormous socioeconomic and public health burden especially in poorer countries. India, otherwise known for malnutrition, is witnessing a growing epidemic of overweight, obesity, and their consequences. Obesity is a major driver for the widely prevalent metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes mellitus.

"While we talk about a growing number of people living with diabetes and obesity in our community, it is imperative to talk about the role of lifestyle changes, diet modification and physical activity in our daily routine," she added.