Youth Column10

Youth Column

When Youth Becomes Healthy, The Nation Becomes Strong

Youth is the main source of energy and power to the nation. This is a segment of society that excels in the zeal to work and shoulders the maximum responsibility. That is why there are high hopes pinned on them. However, the young generation of today is suffering from many ailments owing to their wrong food habits and irregular life style. This is adversely affecting the progress of the nation. The power of the youth is such that any situation has to bow its head in front of them. They never accept defeat. They always move forward weathering all storms. But the youth of today are neglecting their health and becoming weaker in body and mind. This is what the statistics are showing.

There is great demand for youth as workforce because of their capability. But if such a capable section of people are tormented by illness, who is to be blamed? The only organization that monitors the health of employed people is the ‘National Institute of Occupational Health’. According to their report, there has been a sharp decline in the productivity of youth in the past five years. Based on the study conducted in five main cities, it has been found that people working in the metro cities are prone to stress, sleeplessness, obesity and diabetes. The primary reasons for these are reduced immunity, irregular life style and unhealthy food habits. 31.2% of the youth in the country are affected by some ailment or the other, the prominent one being migraine. 65% of the youth are not able to sleep for at least 6-8 hours owing to their ailments. 49% of the young population has mental afflictions owing to the physical pain and as many as 13% among them are suffering from chronic pain because of which they had to leave their job. As part of the same survey, numbers have been collected for diabetes as well. 87% of the families suffering from diabetes have not got their health check-up done. 57% of the youth have no idea of how diabetes adversely affects their health. 92% youth have never approached a dietician for recommendations for healthy diet. 52% of the youth do not do any kind of physical exercise. 6.4% of the youth do not even know what causes diabetes.

Indian Council of Medical Research conducted a survey on mental health in which they focused on heart-related diseases. Hypertension and high blood pressure in youth surfaced during that study. In a survey done from 2001-2011, it was found that 36% of employed people in the age group of 30-45 years are suffering from high blood pressure.

In a recent international seminar conducted in Delhi, there was a discussion on wrong eating habits of the youth. The specialists in this

“The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to myself, ‘So that’s how God did it.’ My goal is to understand a little corner of God’s plan.” – Henry “Fritz” Schaefer 35 Akhand Jyoti November - December 2014

seminar said that the seed for falling sick is sown when the child is young. More than 33% of children in Delhi are fatter than they should be, which means that those children are more likely to be prone to a variety of diseases in the next 5-8 years. In general, physicians classify the diseases affecting the youth in two ways – one, those caused by decline in immunity and the others related to metabolic disorders of which obesity is the main cause. Hunger is very natural in the youth. Eating anything that comes your way to satiate the hunger is not the best thing for health. Unfortunately, this is what is happening. Youngsters are taking to street food whenever they feel hungry which is affecting their health adversely. With regards to this, FSSI conducted a survey encompassing more than 3000 streetfood outlets in Delhi. They looked at the quality of food served in these places. More than 87% of those vendors were not complying with safety health standards. Less than 2% vendors used gloves while preparing and serving food.

Gastroenterology specialists say that only 2% of working youth are aware of healthy diet. The habit of eating whatever comes handy has led to high incidence of colitis and digestive disorders. An example of this is a 25-year old person who continuously ate out for six months and developed digestive disorder which gradually developed into colitis. The problem is that 70% of the youth eat to fill their stomach. They are not aware of food as a medium for health.

WHO has issued a report about 114 countries on antibiotic resistance. In this study, in India and many other countries, it has been found that effectiveness of medicines on viruses causing Diarrhea, Malaria, Pneumonia and Hepatitis-B is almost coming to an end. This just means that the medicines used to treat these diseases are losing their effectiveness. Experts of Antibiotic Network Stewardship in India believe that the irregular life style and unhealthy eating habits of youth and the wrong usage of antibiotics is reducing the power of the medicines. The report released in Asia describes that medicines are no longer affecting diarrheacausing bacteria e-coli and if infection has to be curtailed, new medicines have to be developed.

Well, it is now clear that weak health in youth is mainly due to irregular life style and erratic food habits. In addition to that, extreme stress at work place, pressure to complete tasks in stipulated timelines, excessive busyness, tension to reach workplace on time, lack of physical exercise are also other challenges that the youth face on a daily basis. Such people do not visit a doctor for checkup until some serious illness comes up.

The need of the hour is for the youth to be aware of their health, maintain good eating habits, develop healthy life style and stay fit and healthy. Else they are sure to be facing health issues and thus creating problem to their family and near and dear ones. An unhealthy person can neither contribute to his own family nor render his services to society and the country. Even if they have the resolve to serve the nation, they have to first build up their health and immunity and emerge as a strong support to the society.

“It is evident that an acquaintance with natural laws means no less than an acquaintance with the mind of God therein expressed.” – James Joule

Akhand Jyoti November - December 2014

36