'Chandigarh is considered as the diabetic capital of India'

CHANDIGARH: Dr Sanjay Kumar Bhadada, professor, department of Endocrinology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, on Thursday said chronic kidney disease (CKD) is now progressively increasing because of mortality and morbidity. He was delivering a public lecture on 'Increasing Menace of Non-Communicable Disease: How to curb it' as a part of the Chandigarh Science Congress (Chascon-2019) here at Panjab University on Thursday.

He said the month of March is marked as the 'World Kidney Month' and second Thursday of March is celebrated as 'World Kidney Day'. He added that non-communicable diseases (NCD) are the most common cause of mortality and morbidity in the world now. Mortality caused by NCD increased from 37.9% in 1990 to 61.8% in 2016 citing cardiovascular and respiratory illness and cancers as the most common causes of non-communicable diseases.

He added that even though diabetes is not in the top three causes, it is the major feeder for rest of these other illnesses. Chandigarh is considered as the diabetic capital of India and as per the recent study by the department of Endocrinology, high incidence of pre-diabetes (15%) and diabetes (40%) have been indicated, the professor added. "It was also a matter of concern that chronic kidney disease is now progressively increasing because of mortality and morbidity. Incidence of CKD is directly proportional to hypertension and diabetes. Hypertension correlates with salt intake and he advised ideally, salt intake should be restricted to less than 5g per day, he added.

Dr Bhadada said ideal body weight can be achieved by balanced diet and optimum exercise with restricted salt and calorie intake. He advised for minimum 45 minutes per day exercise for at least five days a week. But he cautioned that with Indian ethnicity, there is a genetically predisposed risk for insulin resistance and thus optimum time for exercise would be 1 hour per day for five days a week.

Devendra Dalai, IFS, chief conservator of forests, and chief executive officer, Chandigarh Renewable Energy, Science & Technology (Crest) in his address appreciated the efforts of organising Chascon. He informed the gathering about making efforts for developing the city as a leading solar city of the country.

As part of the congress, section events were carried out at various Science departments. The invited talk 'Building resilience in young adults' was delivered by Prabhjot Malhi, professor in child psychology at department of pediatrics, PGIMER. She discussed cases of attention deficient hyperactive disorder.

She described many cases of children suffering from mental health issues due to addiction to pornography. According to her, vulgarity, objectified music, early exposure to sexual content are main reasons for such addiction in young children. For building resilience in young adults, she emphasised encouraging them to adopt hobbies take up physical exercise, do community work and have patience to achieve goals.

Dr Asher Minns, executive director, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, delivered a lecture on 'Science of Climate Change Communication and Climate Change Trends', which was organized by department of geography, dean international students and the department of geology.