WELCOME OCTOBER

Well if you see closely there is a connection with the above mentioned days.

Of course no one can stop the ageing process and no one can escape ageing. The thought of growing old can make us feel low. But the fact that we can age gracefully is definitely in our hands.

The most priceless and the easiest way to make someone happy is to gift your smile.

So, keep smiling!

I take this opportunity to link the world elder’s day along with the youth and the world mental health day.

We say generation gap but if we watch closely since this gap between the youth and elders has increased, the mental health problems has also increased leading to depression, anxiety, loneliness, etc.

Elders miss the love from the youth and the youth without the elders’ guidance are also misled and misguided in their activities.

Now we have to analyse certain facts, when we are celebrating the World Elders Day. While making sure we bring down the morbidity in the elders we also have to make sure that the younger generation will also age gracefully. In today’s world with so much of stress, internet addiction, bad life style patterns, non-communicable diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension have become multi fold and the end result of life is treating Ischemic Heart Disease and mortality at an early age and cancers appearing at a very young age is becoming common.

Where are we all heading? Are we going to see anymore of healthy elderly population? Are the youth ever going to age gracefully? It’s high time we realize this.

For elders, longevity of life with loneliness is becoming the life style whereas today’s life style is making the young morbid early and also increasing the mortality rate at a younger age even before they cross their sixties. I hope that we can all work together to bring a mass change in our society.

When we can care for other species not to become extinct, why can’t we care for ourselves. Let this October be an eyeopener for everyone.

Dr. Kavitha S
Family Physician