Crash diets can lead to tuberculosis, warn docs

KANPUR: On World Tuberculosis Day on Tuesday, doctors warned that reducing food intake to reduce weight could trigger latent tuberculosis, especially among women.
Addressing a seminar organized in KPM Government Hospital to mark the occasion, doctors said that the quest for an hourglass figure could prove costly for women. Dr Kalpna Singh of the hospital said that in order to lose weight girls were opting for an unhealthy lifestyle by starving.This often leads to lowing of body’s immunity and triggering tuberculosis. “Women obsessed with size zero opt for crash diets. They do not realise that by adopting a sedentary lifestyle they are becoming more susceptible to TB, which is an infectious and in many cases a fatal disease. If woman contracts tuberculosis, chances of her baby getting infected from the disease too increases. Therefore, it is recommended that one follows a proper dieting plan and take care of their immunity,” she said.
The doctor said that TB was no longer an ‘old man’s disease’. People of each and every society should cautiously get themselves checked if cold and cough persisted for more than three weeks. Tuberculosis typically attacks the lungs, but could also affect other parts of the body. It is spread through the air when people who have an active TB infection cough, sneeze, or otherwise transmit respiratory fluids through the air. Most infections do not have symptoms, known as latent tuberculosis. About one in 10 latent infections eventually progresses to active disease which, if left untreated, kills more than 50% of those so infected.
Head of Murari Lal Chest Hospital Dr Anand Kumar said that early detection of the disease and full treatment could help kill bacterial infection from the root. “Since the treatment for the disease is long, around 6-months, most people stop taking drugs in between. They feel they are cured and so stop the medication. However, it is wrong. It takes four to six months to kill the bacteria completely. The bacteria has developed resistance for the medicines because of abrupt stoppage of medication. We call it Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB). According to a survey, nearly 0.064 million sufferers had MDR-TB in 2012. MDR is a challenge all over the world and it can be curbed only by increasing awareness among the people,” he said.