A combination of medical care and self care is the only route to health, according to Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal and Bihar.
To drive home this message, he took his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi, as an example. “On January 30, 1948, the last day of his life, Mahatma Gandhi was 5.5 feet tall and weighed 109 pounds. His Body Mass Index should have been ideal. He would have lived 90 years and more had he been allowed to do so,” he said at the inauguration of the fifth edition of Dr. Mohan’s International Diabetes Update 2018 on Friday.
“His last meal was something that Dr. Mohan and all of you present here would approve of. It comprised a bowl of cooked vegetables, 12 ounces of goat’s milk, four ripe tomatoes, four oranges, one glass of juice of raw carrot and finally, a small glass of decoction of ginger, sour lime and aloe. I think he had no knowledge of things like lifestyle changes to prevent diabetes. But he had the instinct that he must eat this to keep diabetes at bay,” he said.
He pointed out that freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak, who developed diabetes, died on August 1, 1920, a year before insulin was discovered.
Mr. Gandhi said that it was important for instinct to trigger scientific investigation. He added that humility in an organisation and in an individual in the field of medicine was hugely important.
O. P. Gupta, senior diabetologist and founder president of Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India received a lifetime contribution award on the occasion.
Speaking at the inauguration, V. Mohan, chairman of Dr. Mohan’s Group of Diabetes Institutions, said they have slashed the price of testing for monogenic diabetes to make it affordable.
Over 100 national and international faculty working in the field of diabetes are taking part in the three-day conference. Among others, A. Muruganathan, governor-American College of Physicians, India Chapter, R.M. Anjana, managing director of Dr. Mohan’s Group of Diabetes Institutions and Ranjit Unnikrishnan, vice chairman were present.
