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Great leaders – tugging ailments
As an admirer of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s statesmanship, oratory and broadmindedness, while I joined millions in mourning his death, I also wondered if we could have had more of him.
Although the chronological age at which he died was 93, a number that most would grant as adequate, we hardly saw or heard him over the last 9 years.
His health story, of what I could find in the public domain, indicates that he had suffered a stroke in 2009. It had caused paralysis of half his body and had affected his speech. His memory and mind had thereafter been failing over the years: he was not able to recognize people.
The sharp mind that had produced such great wit, poetry and speeches had slipped into a condition called dementia.
What had possibly played a significant role in his deteriorating health was his diabetes. He had a sugar problem for many years. It is now known that long standing diabetes, especially if poorly controlled, can cause narrowing of the arteries to all parts of the body, and increase the risk of heart, brain and kidney problems.
Interestingly, the two other great politicians and leaders whom we lost recently, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa had suffered from the same ailment: Diabetes. Although Karananidhi lived till his mid-nineties and had a reasonable life-span, his physical quality of life (QOL) could not have been good in the preceding few decades. He had looked physically weak and infirm for the last several years on TV. He was confined to a wheel chair and required a special van for transportation.
As for Jayalaitha, a distant observer could not have helped but worry that the combination of increasing weight and diabetes would make a recipe for disaster. Her end was rather quick, but I guess that her organs that had been weakened by her diabetes tumbled down the cascade of infection along with renal, lung and heart problems that often come together. She died before reaching 70.
Diabetes is eroding the health, performance and lives of our politicians. Two of our cabinet ministers have had to undergo transplantation of their kidneys that were damaged by long standing diabetes.
The health stories of our leaders are a reflection of what is happening to us as well. Diabetes is becoming more rampant by each day and taking the form of a major adverse player in our lives. India, as you must have heard many times, is heading towards becoming the diabetes capital of the world.
It is time we woke up and took daring steps to prevent the epidemic, especially for our next generation. Let us first get a few things straight: while “stars” and “genes” may have roles to play, what is triggering the present wave is our faulty life style.
The three keys to the kingdom of prevention are: Eat right, exercise adequately and maintain a slim healthy figure. And, the fourth: No excuses please!