The Hindu Business Line : Where health takes a backseat

From packing healthy lunches for the family to monitoring the child's progress at school to getting an annual maintenance for the car to meeting her client's stringent specifications, there's no one activity that the Indian working woman compromises on, except perhaps her own physical and psychological needs.

"Most of these women do not even realise that they are more stressed out because of the multifaceted roles they have to play," says Dr Kamini Rao, a Bangalore-based gynaecologist. She finds that these women, who because they are extremely hard pressed for time, put their health and well-being on the bottom of the priority list. And they get themselves examined or seek medical help only when things become serious.

After nearly five decades of having women employees in the government and corporate sector in the country, doctors are seeing certain trends in the health pattern of these women, some alarming and some to watch out for.

According to medical reports, the major risk factors for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) are the same for women as for men — smoking, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol levels. But there are good reasons why women should watch out for CHD: For example, blood cholesterol levels among women increase with age. After menopause, a woman's cholesterol levels are higher than those of men of about the same age. And after the age of 45, a woman's blood pressure is also, on average, higher than men's.

Obesity is linked to heart disease in women, and the number of overweight obese women is increasing in many countries, including India. Statistics show that circulatory diseases are known to be a leading cause of mortality in both sexes in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

According to Dr Kamini, there is a rise in the number of women taking to alcohol and smoking, possibly for social reasons. "But the truth is that our level for alcohol and nicotine tolerance is much lower than that of men. And we just cannot afford to binge," she warns.

Dr Venkatesh, Intervenal Cardiologist, KMC Hospital, Mangalore, says that though it's true that women are generally at a lower risk at heart disease in the pre-menopausal period, there are other cardiac problems that are commonly seen, which are recent ones and are lifestyle-related: Primary among them are hypertension and obesity. "A lot of women eat out these days. Obviously, there is no control on the intake and the kind of food they eat. And of course, sedentary jobs add to the problem."

He also explains why working women are more prone to these disorders. There are two types of people: Type A personalities who are achievers and highly ambitious. The stress tells on them and thus they are more likely to have heart attacks and strokes than the Type B who are more easy-going.

Another signal that developing countries like India should pay heed to is the increase in the number of diabetic cases. "Earlier, it was one in seven cases, now the figure is higher, maybe one in five or six. Definitely, women are more prone, more so the working woman," says Dr Venkatesh.

Dr Kamini, who's also the Medical Director, Bangalore Assisted Conception Centre Pvt Ltd, says that strict deadlines and targets are taking their toll on the Indian woman's fertility rate. Infertility is the single largest `disease' that is affecting younger people in their peak years. It stands at an estimated 10-15 per cent, compared to another high incidence ailment, diabetes, which stands at 3-5 per cent. "Can you believe that infertility is a Rs 1500-2000 crore business in India?" she asks increduously. At her conception centre, she finds that one out of every three patients is from the software industry. The problem could be true of any other professional whose life revolves around hectic schedules, but the woman IT executive is more vulnerable and is more stressed out than the rest, according to her finding.

"It's also true that sex takes a back seat for many of these women." Stress does play havoc on the entire system manifesting itself in many ways, she says. Sedentary or desk jobs have their own impact on the body. "More often than not, the posture is not right, resulting in backaches and orthopaedic problems."

An increasing number of osteoporosis cases is another fallout of the new lifestyle that the Indian woman has adapted herself to. According to Dr Amarnath, Orthopaedic Surgeon at the KMC Hospital, Mangalore, "Because of the sedentary nature of work that modern Indian women opt for, there is hardly any exposure to sunlight. This leads to a higher incidence of osteoporosis." The more a person is up and about and generally active, the lesser the chances of osteoporosis. "And air-conditioned cars, offices and homes have only added to the problem," he feels.

Thanks to late hours, busy schedules, long hours spent in travelling to office and back, more and more mothers are depending on takeaway joints and frozen foods to feed their families. "These are low fibre, highly refined foods that deny our bodies the nutrition content we need," says Sheela Krishnaswamy, a diet and nutrition consultant in Bangalore. Her organisation, NICHE, has helped several leading corporates in the city work out a health menu and evaluate their cafeterias. Sheela, who has counselled employees on diet and nutrition, points out that even though women work full time outside the home and realise that responsibilities should be shared, traditional male-female roles remain intact in India.

"In addition, women expect themselves to continually achieve at an outstanding level on all fronts," she says, adding, "In this scenario, they tend to ignore their diet and nutrition." She finds that most women who come to her have a weight problem: They are either underweight or overweight, both of which are due to poor eating habits and lack of time and knowledge about nutrition.

Hyperacidity, which is stress-related, is another ailment increasingly seen among working women. "Most of them skip breakfast due to lack of time or eat the ready-to-eat type of foods that have hardly any nutrition." Then physical activity, which is actually a stress buster, is almost absent because of the nature of their jobs at offices. Points out Dr Kamini, "Women are seen to have lower tolerance levels to even headaches and pop a pill even at the slightest discomfort. In short, we're becoming a nation of pill poppers."

Sheela's advice to working women is try to eat around five times a day (three meals and two snacks). "Women should get into the habit of stowing snacks in their workbags or bring healthful munchies like fresh fruits, dry fruits, vegetable sandwiches, salads, boiled or roasted corn to work. About half an hour's physical activity like walking or exercise should make a lot of difference too," she says.

As Dr Kamini says, invest at 25 what you can reap from 35 onwards. This strategy will work well in companies, she feels. "What they would spend on the curative health of one employee may be equal to the preventive health cost of a hundred of them. Early signals can save many younger professionals from diabetes, hypertension, bypass surgeries, osteoporosis or cancer, diseases that are striking today's professionals at least 10 years earlier than their parents or grandparents."

Picture by G.R.N. Somashekar

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