The soon-to-be-published study titled "High progress of cardio vascular risk factors in urban population of Chandigarh", has thrown up some interesting statistics.
According to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research's Endocrinology Department head, Dr Anil Bhansali, the study involving a sample size of 2,272 persons, reveals that women are adopting more sedentary lifestyle.
"The statistics which this study has thrown up are interesting. Most of those covered in the study fall in the age group of 20-70 years, with the exception of one male whose age was 93 years. People in the middle ages were found to be more physically active (those between 50-60 years)," he said here.
Bhansali said the study will be published shortly.
Union Territory Chandigarh, which is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, approximately has a population of over 11 lakhs, with high literacy rate and per capita income.
In an earlier ICMR study published last year, Bhansali said that Chandigarh was found to have the highest prevalence of diabetes (13.6 per cent), leaving behind Tamil Nadu (10.4 pc), Maharashtra (8.4 pc) and Jharkhand (5.3 pc), the other states covered under the study.
Meanwhile, in another Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO)-sponsored study, PGIMER used stem cells to treat a group of patients having Type II diabetes or metabolic disorder that is characterised by high blood glucose while another set of patients was given "placebo treatment" or dummy treatment.
"Eighty per cent people benefited after stem cell treatment and this group of patients have been under regular follow up for the past three years. The study showed that stem cells in one set of patients were actually working to maintain the blood sugar levels. We also emphatically showed improvement in pancreas function in the patients who were treated with stem cells.
"Significantly, another set of patients whom we gave placebo treatment or in other words dummy treatment wherein a patient feels he is being treated with medicines while actually he/she is not, also showed some reduction in insulin requirement, but that was not scientifically significant," Bhansali added.
