Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that lifestyle diseases call for integrated healthcare approach with optimum synergism between non-pharmacological and pharmacological measures as well as adjuvant combination of different streams of medicine.
Addressing the inaugural session of the International Conference of Unani Medicine, commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of legendary Unani physician, Late Ajmal Khan, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the importance of integrated healthcare approach is many times more today than ever before because of the recent shift of India’s disease spectrum from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
With an increase in the average lifespan of Indians on the one hand and with diseases like Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, heart attack, hypertension and other metabolic diseases on the other hand appearing in younger age groups, Dr Jitendra Singh said, everything cannot be left to only one single system of medicine. Optimum results are possible by supplementing allopathic system of medicine with alternative measures like Yoga, lifestyle modifications, etc, he added.
It goes to the credit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Dr Jitendra Singh, that he realized the importance of integrated healthcare approach and sought to give it the respectability that it deserves. It is the Modi Government, he said, which took the decision of setting up an exclusive and separate Ministry of AYUSH. Again, it was on the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that within a few months of the formation of the government, a resolution was proposed in the UN and unanimously passed to observe International Day of Yoga on 21st of June.
With a majority of India’s population today below the age of 40 and at the same time, progressively increasing population of elderly as well, Dr Jitendra Singh said, a holistic approach will have to be sought in the interest of the health of the nation. He said, a more wholesome healthcare approach is needed to constructively channelize youth energy and elderly experience, instead of allowing these to go waste.
On the occasion, a pictorial album of legendary Unani physician, Late Hakim Ajmal Khan was also released. Dr Anil Khurana, DG Unani Medicine, Prof. Rais Ur Rahman, Advisor (Unani), Padmashree Hakim Khalithullah, Joint Secretaries P.K. Pathak and Roshan Jaggi were present, among others.
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