Prevention is better than cure, a famous saying that’s become quite trite and over- researched. Meet the three wise ones who tell us how to keep our bodies’ ship shape and set the records straight.

It seems impossible to take care of the ‘sugar rush’, the’ heartbreaks and of course the ‘joint accounts’. Enjoy the walk of life when you get the facts straight from the doctors in the block.

Without movement there is no life. We need our joints to be healthy so that our mobility is not hampered. One of the reasons for the lack of
mobility is Arthritis. Dr. Alex Jacob has extensively worked with the disease and talks to FWD Life about what we should know about Arthritis.

What is the cause of Arthritis?

There is a common misconception that Arthritis is associated to old age. There are various types of Arthritis, though it can be divided into two main types. Osteo-Arthritis is age based and happens due to the degeneration of our joints as life progresses. Arthritis can also occur if there is any birth defect or misalignment. Rheumatoid Arthritis is an auto immune disease that can affect you at any age, even when you are a child for which the cause is unknown. This means that the body starts to destroy its own cartilage and though no cure has been found for it, it can be controlled.

Arthritis can be controlled?

Arthritis can be controlled to a certain extant depending on the stage of detection. Arthritis that occurs due to bad alignment and birth defects can be corrected surgically. There are basically two types of surgeries – joint preservation and joint replacement. If Arthritis is detected earlier, the joint can be preserved. Joint replacement is for joints that have degenerated beyond repair.

What are some common misconceptions? 

People view Arthritis as something that will have you house bound. With the right kind of medication and lifestyle, you can be active. Then there are people who visit a doctor only when the pain is intense which turns out to be counterproductive. Early detection is very important. Tests and scans are prescribed  ccording to your condition. Don’t feel afraid to consult a doctor if you are having aches and pains.

Ayurveda or Allopathy?

Both offer different modalities of treatment but combat the same issues by reducing inflammation and pain. So, I believe it has to do with what you believe in and is a personal choice. You have to have faith in your treatment.

How can you prevent the onset of this disease?

The cartilage absorbs nutrition from the fluid inside the joint. When the joint moves, the fluid gets pushed into the cartilage. Otherwise your joints become stiff and painful. So, it is very important to be as active as possible. Stretch regularly and strengthen your muscles as well. Lead a healthy lifestyle. Our bone strength reaches maximum at puberty. Children must be encouraged to play outdoors and in the sun. Milk and milk products must be consumed. Obesity and an unhealthy eating habit can possibly lead to Arthritis as well. I cannot stress the importance of being active enough. Keep your joints supple and moving.

Dr. Sonia Suresh is a specialist in lifestyle disorders and has penned books on geriatric medicine and diabetes. In a conversation with FWD Life, she throws light on the complications of lifestyle diseases.

Have these lifestyle diseases been prevalent even before we embarked on an unhealthy lifestyle?

Yes, there are mentions of these diseases in some ancient Indian texts. Though it is true that Indians are in some way genetically prone to diabetes, however, alarming cases like being diabetic in one’s early twenties have come up only after our lifestyle went awry.

What exactly do you think is wrong with urban lifestyle in general?

To start with, we consume too much food. Four full meals a day was fine when there was enough physical work in the daily routine. But life
today is heavily mechanized, calorie requirements and energy expenditure one down heavily which means you don’t really need so much food. Richness of the food that we consume is the next issue. Unlike three or four decades ago, feasting happens more regularly with mandatory parties and eat outs every week. The IT guys for instance, prefer a working lunch that is mostly a large burger and a soft drink.
Sticking to such a diet for a period of six months would make you diabetic. Yes, six months. That quick.

How do we address this issue?

Small shifts in your lifestyle would go a long way in staying healthy, like taking the stairs whenever possible, going for brisk walks; all of this would add up to make your lifestyle healthier.
thirty minutes of aerobic exercises like walking, running, and swimming will delay the onset of diabetes, even if you are in the high risk category.

Even if one goes back to the traditional diet, isn’t our diet a little too starch rich to actually help?

Yes, the traditional Indian diet is rich in starch, which is why limiting the quantity of intake is key. You could try cutting down on starch, adding more protein and fibre.Using rice with
bran would also be a good idea. Again there is a tendency to go for oats, as it has been marketed as something of a perfect diet. Though it is true that Oats has a low glycemic value, there
are other traditional alternatives like Aval and Ragi which has the similar emic value.

How hard is the life of a diabetic?

I would not want to pessimistic in saying that it is really hard to cope with diabetes. I know diabetics who have lived with it for 30-40 years. What is necessary is that once you are
diagnosed with it, you go for a drastic change in approach.

What are your views on the type of remedies for diabetes?

What has to be generally understood is there are no miracle cures or quick fixes for diabetes and other lifestyle diseases. In Kerala, we see a lot of so called alternative edical practitioners brewing up concoctions claiming to cure diabetes. There’s massive research happening to reach a breakthrough, like say the stimulation of beta cells that could help in curing diabetes. There is no miracle drug to cure the disease overnight. Ayurveda and Naturopathy are definitely a positive, but a holistic treatment has not been developed yet.

The heart of life is good when you take care. Dr. George Thayil believes that preventive medicine is the key to living life. He tells us when our heart takes a beating.

Heart diseases are so commonly associated with cholesterol, what are other intertwined factors?

Cholesterol is among the ten risk factors that cause heart diseases. It has an interesting philosophy but there are other factors according to Framingham study. In that, it mentioned smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, stress that cause 80% of heart attacks. If anyone gets a heart attack under the age of 55, then it’s prone to be genetic.

From your approach, you believe in prevention. So what’s the other setbacks apart from eating and lifestyle patterns that contribute to heart diseases?

Lack of awareness, most of my patients only understand their situation they land in the ICU and many at times, they are not instructed during the primary prevention stage (when an individual is checked intensively through checkups and instructions are given). Also, I believe many doctors do not take an effort to instruct, they are more interested in intervention rather than prevention. Doctors must look into counselling and teaching their patients, so the patients understand the gravity of the situation.

Isn’t it an irony, that even with awareness, taking care of health is still something taken for granted?

That’s true, secondary prevention the precautions you take after your first heart attack- is not looked after. Many people think when they get their angioplasties, their issue has been
rectified and the chapter has been closed. One doesn’t understand that you consume your medicines till death and you have to change your lifestyle as soon as possible. You have to
increase your budget for expenses too. When you don’t take care of yourself there’s a 40% chance for the attack to occur again. People are stressed these days too, they give priority to work rather than health.

There’s a thought that runs among the youth, eat to live when you’re young and when you grow older then control, just another misleading belief?

Guidelines by the American Pediatric Association say you can give any amount of food to a child until they are two years old. According to the Cleveland Clinic, USA. There were
two eight year old children who died in a car accident. When they did an autopsy and observed the cross section of coronary arteries, arteries ere lined with cholestrol which could have triggered a heart disease in their early twenties. These days, children in America are having cholesterol pills at the age of eight. Prevention should start from your childhood. Even pregnant woman should take a precaution in having a healthy diet, they should never starve themselves. How you eat also matters determining your child’s genetic coding – the stage that determines genetic dieseases.

In your years of practice you witness the world becoming unhealthier, what would you like to do?

Take an initiation to make people more aware and incorporate the thought in your mind it’s possible to avoid heart issues, once you are in it, you can’t get out of it.

Text: Maria John, Varun Kannan, Atheena Wilson