Apollo Hosp Group Celebrates World Yoga Day
21 June, Chennai
Apollo Hospitals, Asias foremost integrated healthcare services group, today celebrated International Yoga Day by holding yoga sessions across 55 of its hospitals. Over 2500 employees participated in these sessions, held by reputed yoga masters from across the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, first mooted the idea of Yoga Day and spoke about the benefits of yoga during the UN General Assembly last year.
Speaking about the benefits of yoga, Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman and Founder Apollo Group of Hospitals said the occasion of International Yoga Day is a clear indication of the acceptance of Yoga across the globe”. ”Yoga is a wonderful health system given us by our gurus and we in India need to appreciate Yoga and the benefits it gives us in keeping ourselves healthy in mind and body”, he added.
Stating that the country was burdened with the threat of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) such as Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Cancer, which were already causing havoc, and were further poised to create greater harm, Dr Reddy said it was imperative to take proactive measures to maintain good health and practice a healthy lifestyle.
Currently as much as 60 per cent of global deaths are due to NCDs, and the number is expected to rise to 75 per cent by 2030, he said, according to a hospital release. India accounts for 17 per cent of these deaths, and holds the dubious distinction of being the diabetes and cardiac disease capital of the world and would soon become the cancer capital of the world too.
A majority of the NCDs, which are lifestyle related are more prevalent in urban areas and can be prevented by targeting risk factors such as unhealthy lifestyle, physical inactivity, use of alcohol and tobacco products, raised lipids, stress”, he said. ”At Apollo Hospitals we continue to believe that prevention is better than cure. It is time for each and every individual to take charge of ones own health”, he added.
Urging the people to live healthy, he said this could be done by eating the right type of foods, doing regular exercise, quitting smoking, reducing stress by doing Yoga, and by doing a regular health check.