Indian Army Crippled With Fitness Issues

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 05 September 2011, 16:12 IST   |    4 Comments
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Indian Army Crippled With Fitness Issues
Bangalore: Four out of 5 Indian army personnel are unfit, reveals a sample survey conducted by the Defence Ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research on 767 healthy personnel including 130 officers, Reports TOI journalist, Durgesh Nanda Jha. The poor results reveals the personnel suffer from pre hypertension, about a third were overweight and two third had low level of good cholesterol. The reasons for these problems are due to less involvement in fitness training. The bad eating habits like addition of more salt and pickle to their food, regular use of ghee and butter were found in majority of the army personnel. The terrifying results also reveal that personnel suffering from pre hyper tension are more than the general population. 40-60 percent of the general population has shown these symptoms whereas it is 80% among the army men. Pre-hypertension causes heart disease and high blood pressure of 120-139 Hg systolic pressure and diastolic pressure of 80-89. 67% of the Indian army men tend to have low high density cholesterol levels show they lack physical exercise and around 30 percent have a body mass ratio of over 23 which means they are overweight and unfit. The young army men should reduce smoking and should have control with their salt and ghee as 80 percent personnel are suffering from pre-hypertension which can lead to heart disease, says a recent survey. "Lifestyle modifications such as reducing the intake of saturated fats and salt in diet and reducing smoking can achieve a downward shift in the overall blood pressure, thus reducing the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease," says the survey conducted by the defence ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research. Most of the soldiers identified as pre-hypertensive were in the habit of using extra salt and pickles and had a lot of ghee or butter. "In the Army, we have an authorization scale for ration which includes fresh vegetables, fruits, bread, butter, rice and milk among others. But people also eat from outside. The diet differs from person to person," an Army officer said.