Wellness in the future

Health is wealth goes the adage. After all, we can only enjoy life to its fullest when we’re in the pink of health. We toil hard throughout our lives to live a better life and for a better future. Experts provide a bird’s eye view of the important aspects of health in the future.

Diabetes

Dr Pradeep Gadge, Consultant Diabetologist, Breach Candy Hospital & Seven Hills Hospital

In my practice, I see around a hundred patients on a daily basis. Out of these, I see one new patient daily who is below the age of 35. Also, the elderly are more disciplined about their health and do follow-ups regularly but it’s the young people in their 30s who are careless about their health. Now and in the future, I see an exponential increase in the number of young people falling prey to diabetes. In South East Asian countries, diabetes is the biggest killer. That’s because our genes are pre-disposed to diabetes.

With regards to research and developments in medicines, in the future, there will be better and better medicines. Many pharma companies are putting in money towards research in diabetic medications. The role of certain micronutritients and minerals are being researched and this will help in developing better medicines. The cost of therapies will come down and will be affordable to all. There will be lots of improvement in insulin delivery devices especially insulin pumps. In future, there will be pumps that will sense the glucose levels and automatically deliver insulin. In terms of surgeries, in the near future, there will be islet cell transplantation, wherein the procedure would involve harvesting pancreatic cells from a dead person, purifying it and transferring to a type 1 diabetic patient.

Yoga 

Radhika Vachani, Founder & MD, Yogacara Healing Arts

Modern day Yoga has become a completely physical practice and an exercise option offered at gyms. It is only a matter of time before one sees a shift back to the authentic practice. The commercialisation and popularisation of the Yoga industry will continue to grow. However, the key awareness emerging out of this mass popularisation is the huge amount of damage to the human body with Yoga asanas being practiced without proper technique and alignment, taught by teachers with little training and almost no experience. As a result, the currently fragmented industry will move towards a more organised market. Yoga institutes will play a much larger role in training and education with proper certification methods, moving away from the current trend of quick Yoga training retreats offered by the West.

I see India playing a much larger role in training and education, and preventing the loose use of the word ‘Yoga’. While Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Hatha Yoga will continue to remain popular, as will old and respected schools of Yoga in India such as the Bihar school, branded Yoga such as Bikram Yoga, Hot Yoga, Acro Yoga, etc. will lose popularity as education and awareness amongst people grows. Well-known and experienced teachers from around the world have already started moving towards improving their knowledge of Iyengar Yoga, and this trend will infiltrate amongst others. While Ashtanga Yoga, a highly dynamic practice, will continue to remain popular, the way in which it is taught today will change dramatically.

Cardiology

Dr Soni, Pratik Kumar, Senior Consultant Cardiology, Wockhardt Hospitals

The future holds good for cardiology. In medical management, there will be new drugs which would be free of side-effects and probably of lesser cost. Having said that, there will be an increase in the number of people with cardiac problems in the future. That’s because of their sedentary lifestyle, stress, bad food habits and pollution. 
Complex angioplasty requiring multiple stents would become safer due to robots. Robotic angiography and angioplasty is going to make the surgery safe and would be the new gold standard. The robotisation and miniaturisation of instruments will drastically reduce errors. Procedures like open heart bypass surgeries, valve replacements, closing holes in the heart will become much more safer in the future due to robotisation.

Hi-tech gadgets are already in existence. Pedometers are being worn alone. Some companies have put them in their watches. It just doesn’t count the steps but also the heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, blood sugar, body fluids contents like sodium and potassium etc.

As for trends that will fade away in the future, angioplasty and bypass surgery would be replaced by gene therapy. Heart failure patients would no longer be on medicines but would get artificial hearts or heart transplants. Those with bad lungs would be getting heart-lung transplants. And right now heart muscle and valves have already been grown in laboratory. Less patients would be dying from heart problems because of these therapies. Also, regenerative medicine would decrease the incidence of disease.

Fitness

Samir Purohit, Pilates and fitness expert, The Pilates & Altitude Training Studio

The fitness industry is evolving now, more than ever before thanks to the advent of functional training and other workouts such as Cross Fit etc. in our country. However, I feel that functional training will remain popular for some time to come. Will gyms multiply tremendously housing more hi-tech and fancy equipment? Big gym chains will of course multiply, but I feel that the smaller centres will be the way to go. However, I feel that technology will become more user-friendly for both machines and general equipment.
Just as technological advancements keep happening, will there be any fitness machines that might become obsolete? Frankly, I think workouts will become more time efficient and people will go to fitness centres which give them quicker and better results in a shorter amount of time. I don’t think there will be any machines that will go obsolete…they will only evolve. I would like to see all weight machines automatically adjust ergonomically to each individual user and guide them through each rep in a correct biomechanical way. I think we are already headed the way to fitness. The mass population will definitely get more into fitness and it will be a movement of sorts in India.

Nutrition

Pooja Makhija, Consultant Nutritionist

If you ask me where I see nutrition 10 years from now, I’d say that despite technology, despite further research, despite breakthroughs in nutrition science, people will slowly realise that they have been over complicating things all along and a new era of simplicity will start to come in. Ten years from now, I believe that people will go back to the basics.

Over the next decade, I also believe that the concept of ‘dieting’ will start to fade. No, not because there will suddenly be a miraculous solution for weight loss or weight maintenance, but because there will be a new understanding about bodies and nutrition: that in the long term, healthy food and healthy living have to be an intrinsic part of life, and that there is no wonder pill or magical solution that will deliver. The fact that there is no shortcut to good health — and the glow that comes from good health — will not only be realised but also appreciated.

What will not change is that people will continue to be invested in their health. I don’t see fitness and health ever going out of style. Having said that though, I don’t think that there will be any big changes right now. There will still be attempts to find shortcuts in the immediate future. There will still be a need to try fad diets and fad exercises. 

I already see people, including my clients, doing it. They are far more educated about trans fats, artificial sweeteners and processed foods than they ever were, and are themselves beginning to see the link between cause and effect. I believe that the food industry as well as the restaurant and hospitality business will respond to that demand and while the growth of organic food is already booming, maybe healthier ways to grow mass-produced foods will be developed.

Quite simply, I don’t see things getting worse. I see things getting a whole lot better.