Yoga can help Indians combat lifestyle diseases

The resolution proposed by India at the UN General Assembly, with the unprecedented support of 177 countries, which included 47 Islamic countries, declared June 21 of every year as International Yoga Day. June 21 marks the summer solstice, which is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere. Commemorating this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the International Yoga Day celebrations in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Dehradun and did yoga along with the public, youngsters, students, children and soldiers.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai practised yoga diligently in their personal lives, but they have never promoted it among citizens on a scale that is done by the Modi government. Given this, the counterpoint is that if Mr Modi is interested in yoga, let him practice it in his personal capacity like his predecessors, and leave the decision of whether to practice yoga or not to the people themselves. The moot question is that when there are so many priorities, why should the Modi government spend its time and energy on promoting yoga? Before embarking upon an answer to this question, it is imperative to review what diseases have affected Indians since Independence and how the priorities of healthcare management have changed in the last seven decades in tune with the changing pattern of diseases.

When India got independence, Indians were severely affected by smallpox, cholera, malaria, plague, polio, measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, pertussis and leprosy. Most of them are communicable diseases which led to epidemics and were caused by external infections. They killed Indians on a large scale and the healthcare mission mode of the then government was to reduce the incidence of these diseases by various means, including administering vaccines. This is how India managed to arrest the trend of untimely deaths caused by epidemics till 1990. Thanks to the reduction in such diseases, infant and maternal mortality and the expansion of better healthcare facilities over the breadth and length of the country, the average life expectancy of an Indian has reached 68 years now, from 32 years in 1950. However, the issue of healthcare is not that simple, as lifestyle diseases replaced communicable diseases as a source of concern in healthcare. Lifestyle diseases are essentially non-communicable such as heart ailments, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, cancer, stress, stroke and arthritis, arising essentially from a poor lifestyle and old age. It was even present along with communicable diseases since Independence. However, the major killer of people remained communicable diseases till about 1990, and hence the focus was to eradicate the same. With an increase in life expectancy and with poor lifestyles, lifestyle diseases increased at an unprecedented scale since the 1990s. Unlike communicable diseases, which kill people at one go, lifestyle diseases are a lifelong battle that require incessant medical care. It is not uncommon for people to get lifestyle diseases in their thirties and thereafter it saps their time, energy and money. The impact of lifestyle diseases has been extremely traumatic and makes people tired of continuous treatment till death and make them unable to contribute to the welfare of society and their own welfare at an optimal level. Lifestyle diseases now prevail among people across gender, educational, economic and social strata and geographical differences.

Having medical insurance for all is certainly a solution for people to afford treatments for lifestyle diseases, but there is a caveat. Medical insurance covers only hospitalisation expenses and not the regular expenditure on drugs and medical procedures. Moreover, when more people are affected by lifestyle diseases very often, the premium for medical insurance increases enormously. Even with universal medical insurance and medical facilities, the disability-adjusted life years, the increased premiums for medical insurance and physical and mental trauma arising out of managing lifestyle diseases only aggravate the impact of lifestyle diseases. Moreover, a comprehensive solution for lifestyle diseases cannot be found out just by increasing the number of hospitals or increasing specialist doctors or wards, hospital beds or inventing new drugs and procedures to treat various ailments either. The comprehensive solution lies in the postponing the onset of lifestyle diseases for individuals or mitigating the effect of lifestyle diseases through better lifestyles. This is where yoga plays a prominent role. It is not just enough for the government to provide public goods. The government should also provide “merit goods” that would enhance the quality of life of people. Yoga is one such merit good that the Modi government has been providing to the people.

An individual can also maintain good health by many forms of physical exercise and sports. But yoga provides the same with the least investment and infrastructure. The research outcomes time and again emphasise the role of yoga in preventing or delaying the onset of lifestyle diseases or mitigating the negative impact of diseases and improves physical and mental conditions. This is the precise reason why doctors, along with drug prescriptions, encourage their patients to practice yoga. Given this, practising yoga among other good lifestyle practices may be a better approach for Indians to handle lifestyle diseases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been promoting yoga as a “merit good” for the right reasons. This also indicates that Mr Modi does not look at just winning the next election but looks after the welfare of future generations of India and thereby provides visionary leadership to the country. The enthusiasm shown by children, youngsters and a health-conscious public when Mr Modi participated in International Yoga Day shows that people welcomed this merit good promoted by the Modi government.