From Diabetes Capital To Now The Cancer Capital Of The World, What’s Compromising The Health Of Indians? - EXCLUSIVE With Luke Coutinho

India has among the highest number of people with diabetes worldwide, with the numbers only increasing every year. A new report stated that India is fast emerging as the cancer capital of the world with its skyrocketing cases of cancer year on year. The report further highlighted that the median age for cancer diagnosis in India is lower than other countries. But why is this happening? Is there something we can do about it? We spoke to integrative lifestyle expert Luke Coutinho to further understand the situation in a holistic manner.

Luke Coutinho: Many things are going wrong. The fact that we are the diabetes capital of the world, which is a lifestyle disease, and cancer, also a lifestyle disease, is around 94-95% caused by a bad lifestyle, with the remaining 5-6% being genetic. This indicates that India is leading a very unhealthy lifestyle. This could be due to many factors such as sleep deprivation, chronic stress levels, poor nutrition, a broken and corrupted food chain, and sedentary lifestyles. All of these factors together are contributing to these diseases.

Luke Coutinho: Absolutely yes. When patients come to consult with us and we diagnose their condition, going beyond the symptoms, in most cases (about 95%), poor lifestyle is a commonality. Many of them are sleep-deprived, which causes inflammatory issues, a poor immune response, and dysregulation in hormonal health, leading to imbalances like PCOD. Additionally, we notice the prevalence of junk and ultra-processed food, which has become an easy and convenient choice for both children and adults. People are increasingly addicted to social media and OTT platforms, further exacerbating their sleep deprivation. Furthermore, chronic stress is widespread across children, teens, adults, and senior citizens, contributing to various diseases.

Luke Coutinho: Yes. Chronic stress affects not only the mind but also every cell in the body at physiological, biological, and biochemical levels. When we experience stress, our cortisol levels spike, keeping us in the sympathetic nervous system mode. This leads to a higher heart rate, disrupted lipids, elevated blood sugar levels, and increased inflammation – all of which are our body's responses to stress, tolerable for short periods but detrimental if chronic. We are witnessing many diseases caused by chronic stress. Overthinking is also problematic when it is unregulated and unchanneled.

Luke Coutinho: It's really simple. It's the lack of discipline and consistency. It comes down to that. The most successful people have two commonalities: discipline and consistency. Discipline doesn't mean one needs to get it right all the time. You may fail today, but the next day, you are back on track. Society and social media are making people emotionally weak. People who fall off and move back to poor lifestyles mainly lack discipline and consistency. On top of that, their "Why Power" isn't strong enough, which means the driving force behind what they need to do. Why do I want to get healthy? We always prioritize what we value, and these people haven't put enough value on their health, which is why it's a constant chase, and they need motivation all the time. Motivation is short-lived. We need to move from motivation to inspiration.

Luke Coutinho: Social media, OTT platforms, and trash content are all infiltrating your subconscious mind and acting as a source of cheap dopamine kicks. We start to model these behaviors, which is detrimental to us. It's addictive and not serving us in any way. It's okay when it's mindfully done for the sake of entertainment, but be mindful of who you are following. Ask yourself: Is this serving my life or just providing a dopamine boost? Much of the entertainment today is only reinforcing bad habits—binge-watching, sleep deprivation, consuming unhealthy snacks, waking up hungry, eating late at night, craving more sugar and carbs, becoming couch potatoes, and on top of that, stressing us out because whatever we watch leaves an impression in our mind. And while we might think it's not a concern for us, it plays in our minds repeatedly, and we eventually become the content we consume.

• Limit social media and gadget time.

• Avoid having a culture at home of constantly being on gadgets or watching TV while eating meals.

• Every parent needs to understand that every child and adult requires three basic things: love, attention and appreciation, and security or a sense of belonging. No matter what else you provide for your child, if these three basic needs are not met, your child will seek them elsewhere. The same applies to adults. You may have everything you need, but if you lack any one of these, you will search for it outside.

Luke Coutinho: Society and social media have given people a warped view of happiness. It glamorizes it so much that people measure their happiness against what is portrayed and feel more depressed and miserable. Happiness is an illusion, especially as shown on social media or in movies. We are not meant to be content every time. The emotional spectrum for humans includes all emotions—anger, happiness, joy, sadness, jealousy, greed—every emotion. It's where we choose to spend our time. Everything in our life doesn't have to be great for us to be happy. That is what people think, so even if one thing in their life goes wrong, they crumble because they have focused too much on keeping everything perfect, failing to recognize the other parts of their life that are going well and the blessings that exist.

We've worked with patients who are billionaires to people who have it all, and one would believe that there is nothing in their life that would make them sad. But that is far from the truth. They are sad, stressed, and empty; not all, but there are these cases. Some people get a great promotion in their job, but they are still focusing on things they don't have.

Happiness can be there now and gone in the next moment. So, our happiness being attached to all things going well in our life can be a problem. It is our job as human beings to bring ourselves back from the negatives to the positives without becoming toxically positive too. It is okay to be sad, but we must realize not to get addicted to sadness.

Also, people need to know what makes them happy. People are under the illusion that money makes them happy. Of course, money is needed for a great life, but we need to look beyond that too.

Over the last few years, I've now moved from the word happiness to ‘fulfilment’. What are the things that fulfil us? And you’ll notice that most things that fulfil us are things that money can't buy.

Luke Coutinho: Since this is about health, every spiritual path talks about one commonality: Spirituality starts with respect toward our body—the temple of God, whether you believe in God, a higher power, or divine energy. Life is a gift, and if we do not know how to nurture this gift, every other step of spirituality is just talk. It is nice and fancy to talk about spirituality, kindness, and compassion, but what about first giving that to yourself? Respect yourself first.

If a gift is given to someone, what is expected? One nurtures it, looks after it protects it, and cares for it. You wouldn't throw it away! The same goes for respecting the gift of life, which is you—your mind and body. And because we respect ourselves, we don't abuse ourselves with binge drinking and eating, drugs, sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and everything the gift needs to grow and evolve, and then we move on to the next steps of spirituality.

One's spiritual path could just be kindness. One could be compassion. One could be service. It is different for everyone. Spirituality is also becoming a fad. Certain spiritual people try to contain spirituality in a box and encourage people to follow a particular path blindly without us understanding that there is so much to learn from spiritual books and leaders. Have an open mind, learn from everyone, but also take action because knowledge without action is practically useless, and that is why people don't feel fulfilled despite having a spiritual path.