Dr. Sonia Suresh- Lifestyle diseases

Dr. Sonia Suresh is a specialist in lifestyle disorders and has penned books on geriatric medicine and diabetes. She throws light on the complications of lifestyle diseases.

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.

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 have gone 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.

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 t