Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Friday said yoga is gaining popularity across the world as it helps in reducing mental stress and in treatment of several serious ailments.
He also said non-communicable diseases were a "deeply disturbing trend" and called upon the medical fraternity to educate the people on the dangers of sedentary lifestyles.
Naidu was addressing the annual meeting of the National Interventional Council (NIC) of the Cardiological Society of India at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS).
Highlighting the importance of yoga, Naidu recalled an incident when a man came ups to him and said that though yoga was okay, he had a problem doing surya namaskar.
"I understood his problem and told him even if he is not able to do surya namaskar ...yet he should do yoga as it is very important for mental, physical and spiritual health... it is gaining popularity the world over and yoga centres are being opened, but there are some who link it to religion, he said.
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Quoting a 2017 report of India Council of Medical Research (ICMR), he said that disease burden from non-communicable diseases had increased from 30 per cent to 55 per cent between 1990 and 2016, while the communicable diseases dropped from 61 per cent to 33 per cent in the same period.
Pointing out that factors such as high levels of stress, increased incidence of diabetes, blood pressure, smoking, excessive consumption of alcohol, lack of exercise and lack of proper sleep were contributing to cardiovascular diseases, he said that lifestyle modification was one of the key interventions needed to prevent premature heart attacks.
Naidu said that it had been proven beyond doubt that regular moderate intensity aerobic exercise like brisk walking, cycling, jogging, and swimming for five days a week would help in reducing the probability of heart disease.
Observing that India stands poised to reap the biggest demographic dividend in history, he opined that a healthy and agile youth was essential to achieve its dream of inclusive and sustainable development and occupy its rightful place of leadership in the world.
He stressed the need to encourage children to be physically active and be involved in sports and games right from school days to avoid NCDs.
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