| One of the high points of 2023 was the TED talk by Dr Nalini Saligram, Founder and CEO of Arogya World, at TEDxPune on Nov 4. She was invited to UnBox Wellness there and she has reflected more than once on how unforgettable the whole experience was.
She made a few key points in her talk –
- Diabetes is indeed a huge challenge in India, bringing this home with rich personal and data perspectives. A key insight was that unhealthy eating is the #1 cause of death. And that while India is shining on the economic front right now, that enviable position is threatened if the country does not truly confront diabetes.
- However, diabetes is preventable, and according to landmark studies and WHO, eating right, regular exercise, and avoiding tobacco can prevent 80% of diabetes.
- She talked about Arogya World’s doorstep health model as a way to unbox wellness outside the doctor’s clinic and how the non-profit has taken this approach to reach 12.5 million people across rural and urban India in the last 13 years. She also covered Arogya City as an exciting new collaborative effort to prevent diabetes and shared the case study of the approach in Bangalore, outlining for the Pune audiences who heard her in person, what it might take to do something similar in that city.
- The talk also covered the need for collective and individual action to address diabetes and ended with goading each one of us to make important healthcare decisions as we go about our everyday lives, committing to take a little less sugar, salt, and fried food to ensure a whole lot more health.
Several points in this TEDxPune talk have resonated with people including “Diabetes is not inevitable. It is Preventable.” and “Aaj Se Thoda Kam – just a little less from today”.
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