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Pain epidemic

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Photo: Big Stock
Pain: it's your intimate enemy. You can't see it, smell it, describe it, measure it, MRI or X-ray it. If you talk too much about it, doctors throw up their hands, branding you an attention-seeker, while friends avoid you. In medical textbooks, it's an "unpleasant sensory and emotional experience". It trips your vital signs: temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure. It unleashes a cascade of negative hormones that target your immune system. And it triggers a storm of teeny-weeny molecules, cytokines, that attack and inflame your body. You and your pain: it's all about winning the war within.
Also without. For, India is a nation in pain. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in six people and one in three families suffer from arthritis in India. That means, about 15 per cent to 17 per cent of the Indian population. There's more: chronic pain affects 30 per cent of the adult population, about 20 per cent to 25 per cent of which is from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) affecting joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves. Back pain accounts for another 25 per cent to 30 per cent. Add to it fractures: 50 million Indians are believed to be vulnerable to fractures, reports the International Osteoporosis Foundation. Indians have 15 per cent lower bone mineral levels than Westerners, with fractures occurring 10 to 20 years earlier. About 440,000 Indians get hip fractures every year, a figure set to hit 600,000 in 2020. The epidemic of pain is the biggest health problem facing India today, much more than the burden of diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined.

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