Why Preventive Healthcare Is The Need Of An Hour
The current fast-paced lifestyle of the modern world and growth in technological advancements have given birth to a lot of innovations that have improved the quality of human life, over the years. But with this fast-paced lifestyle and convenience, has come at a price. With the change in our ways of living, sleeping and eating habits, there has been a continuous increase in lifestyle or non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac ailments, and cancer.
Today, almost one in four people is a likely cardiac patient and one in ten is diabetic. Though NCDs may not appear serious in the beginning, if not managed early on, they could be debilitating and fatal. According to a recent report released by The World Health Organization (WHO), NCDs cause the maximum number of deaths in India. Nearly 61 percent of people in the country die due to non-communicable diseases, including cancer, heart disorders, and diabetes. Today, almost 63 million people in the country are suffering from cardiovascular diseases, 70 million from diabetes and cancer kills around 8-9 lakh people every year.
The reason behind the majority of these deaths is that the Indian healthcare system is strongly inclined towards curative healthcare. A large number of these deaths can be avoided if we take a more preventive approach towards our health. For instance, a non-communicable disease like cancer may be cured, if it gets detected at an early stage. Unfortunately, in most cases, it gets detected at a stage, when it becomes almost incurable. In such scenarios, the family of the patient ends up spending a lot of money and in worst cases may even suffer a loss of their loved one’s life. Similarly, if you detect an artery blockage at an early stage, it can be cured before it reaches a stage where angioplasty becomes necessary. Overall, preventive healthcare not only helps in timely detection of NCDs and saving lives but also protects an individual and his family from going through mental, financial and physical distress.
All people should get regular health check-ups, even when they feel completely fine to screen for diseases. Taking preventive healthcare measures are very crucial as a lot of non-communicable diseases like cancer, hypertension, etc. often do not exhibit any clear symptoms in the beginning. For instance, the only way to find out if you have high sugar levels is to have it checked regularly. If your busy schedule does not permit you to see a doctor for regular checkups, then you can also opt for preventive healthcare platforms like UCare which provide real-time monitoring of your fitness & health parameters.
The need of the hour is to focus on preventive healthcare to enable people to tackle non-communicable diseases before they become lethal.
