The perils of urban life

When you begin to compare the benefits of living an urban vs rural life, some of the first things that come to our mind are better education, job opportunities, infrastructure, medical facilities i.e. the factors that contribute to a better standard of living.

Having said that, just like there are two sides to a coin, urban life has its own share of problems too, be it the lack of open spaces, pollution, increased cost of living, hectic and stressful lives that urban people lead. And to confirm this, a recent study has opines that urban life can make its people susceptible to problems of obesity, infertility and depression as well.

General physician Dr Monica Goel totally agrees with the study saying, "People in cities are working harder and much longer compared to their urban counterparts for like 12 to 14 hours a day. This often leads to them facing a burnout, no time for exercise, eating fast food at odd hours. All these factors of the urban lifestyle are responsible for health problems like diabetes, hypertension, blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, arthritis, etc." In fact, one in five people living in cities within the 30 to 35 age group are suffering from such problems. And therefore, its no surprise that stress and depression too are on the rise.

Dr Kanan Khatau Chikal attributes the perils of the urban lifestyle to the occupational hazards that people face. "It' would be wrong to assume that people living in rural areas don't face any problems. They do but of a different nature. People living in urban areas tend to live in an organisational setup. There's more of a hierarchy that prevails in the urban social setup. People here tend to build defence mechanisms that don't let themselves be their real self.They live programmed lives constantly swarmed by smartphones, social networking, etc. which makes them impatient, says she adding that these factors lead to stress which in turn leads to physical and emotional problems as well.

Gynaecologist Dr Bela Dodiya points out that an increasing number of people both men and women are suffering from infertility problems in a city like Mumbai. She says, "Lack of exercise and proper healthy diet which are characteristic of an urban lifestyle can lead to a problem like PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome) in women. Though hormonal changes are responsible for infertility problems, stress too plays a part in giving rise to infertility problems in both men and women."

Therefore, it's time to get rid of that condascending attitude that you harbour towards rural life. You may prosper economically in cities but fall prey to the health problems that city slickers are facing nowadays. Time to ponder on 'what's wealth without health'?