Why we need a healthier India

At present, over half the disease burden in India is on account of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, which are increasingly the result of unhealthy lifestyles and sedentary personal habits. This unfortunate trend is accelerating and continues unabated.

Against a backdrop where our hospital infrastructure is clearly overstretched and the majority of the population has little or no access to medical facilities, the practical solution for the country is to think laterally and attack the malady at its very root.

This means radically altering the paradigm for healthcare from the treatment of disease to a path of wellness and good health. For this change to occur, we need to first look at ways and means of substantially reducing the problem of ill health. In this context, the dictum that prevention is better than cure rings true. It calls for a radical change in attitude and mindset, exhorting every individual to take charge of his or her own health and accept accountability for it.

Government, businesses and society must promote an environment that encourages individuals to adopt a healthy lifestyle and propagates a regular exercise regime. The focus must be on sustainable interventions for healthy living. At least half an hour of exercise every morning, including a jog and some stretches,is recommended, as well as healthier eating habits and a move away from processed foods towards fresh, nutritious ingredients.

Consumption of sugar and salt should be moderate to low. Avoidance of alcohol, tobacco and drugs is advocated. Communities must be encouraged to make this shift, and efforts to stay fit must be rewarded and incentivized through a package of monetary and non-monetary measures. Equally, there must be disincentives like higher health insurance premiums if there is no demonstrable will to change an unhealthy lifestyle. This aspect is central to the idea of creating universal healthcare.

The benefits to individuals, society and the country as a whole are not difficult to see. The most significant one is the improvement in the quality of life itself with major savings from man-hours that may have been otherwise lost due to illness.Apart from the positive effect on productivity, a huge reduction in the sheer numbers of individuals suffering from lifestyle-related diseases will help to lower medication and treatment costs and, as a consequence, the overall expense on healthcare by the exchequer.

These real savings can be channelled in alternate projects for further improvements in healthcare infrastructure or marshalled towards other socially relevant causes such as education, improvement of sanitary conditions, clean toilets, the provision of hygienic water supplies or the building of other critical infrastructure in the country. It will also alleviate pressure on the existing medical facilities and make room for better service standards.

What are the next steps? The quintessential part is to make healthy living simple to achieve. This would be possible by involving the community at large to support these necessary changes in lifestyle; making it simple and painless and thereafter providing constant reinforcement and encouragement by rewarding affirmative behaviour. The changes must be sustainable so they become embedded into the very fabric of our existence.

Author: Malvinder Singh, Executive Chairman, Fortis Healthcare

Image: Men exercise on a sea wall along the Arabian Sea in Mumbai August 20, 2013. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui.