Often, people harbour myths about diseases either to prevent facing the truth or for want of information. But nephrologist Rajan Ravichandran dispelled such myths with facts at an event organised by Sapiens Health Foundation to mark World Kidney Day on Wednesday. The theme for this year’s WKD is kidney disease and obesity.
The first myth is exercise helps in losing weight. “Patients tell me that they have been walking but haven’t lost weight. Exercise does not help you lose weight, it only negates the complications of obesity,” he said.
Dr. Rajan, who peppered his speech with humour, said, “Obesity is a problem of our wisdom.” While animals in the wild survived on organic food, pets became obese because they were overfed, he explained to drive home the message.
“If you overfeed a child in the first year of his life, he could very well turn out to be obese,” he said.
‘Control calories’
Dr. Ravichandran called for controlling ‘black’ calories — those that we consume on the sly beyond the regular food — and avoid anti-diabetes drugs. “Anti-diabetes drugs are given to increase insulin secretion which in turn leads to increase in appetite, and increased food intake, he said.
At the event, three persons who had undergone renal transplant were honoured by actor Jiiva. Cook book author Mallika Badrinath and dramatist ‘Crazy’ Mohan also participated.
