How Lifestyle Diseases are Burdening Kashmir’s Health System

Credit By: DR ZAHID FAROOQ

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• 04 Apr 2026

Lifestyle diseases did not appear overnight. They crept up on us as our lives changed. Confronting them will also take time, patience and perseverance

In the popular imagination, lifestyle diseases – diabetes, hypertension, heart disease – are still seen as problems of big metros like Delhi or Mumbai. But the reality in the Kashmir Valley is very different. In outpatient departments from Kupwara to Anantnag, doctors now see more patients with raised blood pressure and blood sugar than with fevers and infections. Lifestyle diseases, or non-communicable diseases (NCDs), have silently become one of the biggest burdens on our fragile healthcare system.

Over the last decade, Kashmir has witnessed a sharp rise in diabetes, hypertension, obesity and related conditions. Recent national and regional studies show that the prevalence of diabetes in Jammu & Kashmir is now around 12–13%, higher than the national average, with the Kashmir region itself around 11–12%. In urban pockets like Srinagar, roughly one in ten adults is already diabetic, and a similar proportion hovers on the edge as pre-diabetics.

This is not an abstract number. It means that in almost every mohalla, every office, every extended family, there are people who either inject insulin, swallow tablets daily, or live with the constant worry of “borderline sugar”. Health system data from government screening programmes suggest that lakhs of people have already been registered in Jammu & Kashmir for diabetes care, placing a chronic load on primary health centres and hospitals.

Hypertension tells a similar story. The ICMR–INDIAB study reports that more than one in ten adults in Kashmir has high blood pressure, with rates higher than neighbouring Ladakh. Given what we know from national surveys, this may even be an underestimate; many people never get their blood pressure checked until they land in hospital with a stroke or heart attack.

Then there is the question of weight. Perhaps the most alarming figure to emerge from recent research is that more than half of adults in Kashmir are now classified as generally obese – about 55%, far above many other parts of India.

Obesity is not just a question of appearance; it is the fuel that feeds diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and even certain cancers. Studies from the Valley have also found a high rate of metabolic syndrome among diabetics – a dangerous clustering of high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol and central obesity that sharply increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

How lifestyle is changing – and harming us

What has brought us to this point? The answer lies in how our everyday lives have changed. First, our diet has shifted dramatically. Traditional Kashmiri food was not perfect, but it involved more home-cooked meals, seasonal vegetables and physical labour to balance rich dishes. Today, many households rely more on refined flour, packaged snacks, fried foods, sugary tea and cold drinks. High salt consumption – including through multiple cups of noon chai – adds another layer of risk, especially for blood pressure.

Second, physical activity has dropped. Urbanisation, desk jobs and screen-based entertainment mean that large sections of our population – from schoolchildren to office-goers – spend most of the day sitting. Where earlier people walked long distances, worked in fields or did manual household chores, now bikes, cars and gadgets do part of that work for us.

Third, tobacco in all its forms remains a serious problem. Both smoking and smokeless tobacco are common, particularly among men, and they amplify the damage caused by high blood pressure and diabetes.

Many studies have also repeatedly pointed to the role of chronic stress in raising blood pressure, worsening blood sugar control and triggering unhealthy coping behaviours like overeating, smoking or alcohol use.

The cost to our hospitals – and to families

Unlike infections, lifestyle diseases do not come and go with a five-day course of antibiotics. They are chronic. Once a person develops diabetes or hypertension, they usually need lifelong medication, regular tests and repeated consultations.

For the healthcare system, this means that outpatient departments are increasingly crowded with follow-up cases. Doctors, nurses and lab technicians spend much of their time checking blood sugar, writing prescriptions, adjusting doses, and managing side effects. Primary health centres, already short-staffed, struggle to run screening camps, maintain records and ensure that patients keep coming back for refills.

At the secondary and tertiary level, the burden shows up in the form of complications. Heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, diabetic foot ulcers, and blindness from diabetic retinopathy – these are the tragic endpoints of poorly controlled lifestyle diseases. Cardiology wards, dialysis units and ophthalmology clinics in major hospitals in Srinagar and Jammu are seeing a growing share of such NCD-related complications, echoing national trends.

The pressure is not only on beds and machines. It is financial. Insurance coverage in Jammu & Kashmir remains limited, and many households pay out of pocket for medicines, investigations and procedures over the years. For a middle- or lower-income family, one member with uncontrolled diabetes can mean a constant drain on savings. A single heart attack or stroke can wipe out what a family has built over decades.

There is also an emotional cost that rarely gets counted. Caregivers – often women in the family – spend hours accompanying patients to hospitals, collecting medicines, and monitoring diets. Young adults, who should be building careers, may find themselves tied to the long shadow of parental illness.

Why Kashmir cannot afford to ignore this

Kashmir’s health system already operates in a challenging environment, with difficult terrain, harsh winters and periodic disruptions. Adding a massive and growing load of lifestyle diseases on top of infectious diseases is like placing a second mountain on an already strained bridge.

Ignoring this trend is no longer an option. Left unchecked, lifestyle diseases will:

Crowd out other healthcare needs – NCDs will consume more and more of the system’s time, beds and budgets, leaving less room for maternal health, child health and infectious disease control.

Reduce productivity – A generation living with chronic illness cannot contribute fully to the economy. Absenteeism, early retirement due to illness, and premature deaths all weaken our social and economic fabric.

Deepening inequality – The poor are hit hardest. They are more exposed to cheap, unhealthy food, more likely to delay care, and less able to afford long-term treatment.

Strain social cohesion – Long-term illness in a family can trigger cycles of debt, migration and social stress that ripple through communities.

From hospital-based treatment to community-based prevention

The good news is that lifestyle diseases are, to a large extent, preventable and manageable. But prevention cannot happen from hospital beds alone. It must begin in homes, schools, workplaces and Mohallas.

At the policy level, Jammu & Kashmir has adopted national programmes for screening diabetes, hypertension and common cancers at health and wellness centres. This is a welcome step, but screening is only one piece of the puzzle.

Three broad shifts are urgently needed:

Put prevention at the heart of health policy

Public health campaigns in Kashmir must now speak as loudly about salt, sugar and sedentary life as they do about vaccination and sanitation. This means:

• Simple, repeated messages in Kashmiri and Urdu about checking blood pressure and blood sugar after the age of 30 or even earlier for those at risk.
• Clear guidance on what a healthy Kashmiri plate looks like – less fried and refined food, more vegetables, pulses and fruits.
• Targeted campaigns around tobacco, especially among youth.

Make healthy choices the easy choices

It is unfair to tell people to “eat healthy” and “be active” without changing the environment they live in. Urban planning in our towns and cities must consciously create space for walking and physical activity – footpaths, parks, playgrounds and safe public spaces.

Schools can play a transformational role by:

• Restricting junk food in and around school premises.
• Ensuring daily physical education is not treated as a formality.
• Screening older students for obesity, high blood pressure and early signs of diabetes, with counselling for families.
• Workplaces, including government offices, can encourage regular health check-ups, healthy canteen options and simple initiatives like walking meetings or short activity breaks.

Strengthen primary care for long-term management

For those who already live with lifestyle diseases, the aim should be to keep them stable and complication-free. This requires strong, accessible primary care:

• Health and wellness centres must have a reliable supply of essential NCD medicines and trained staff for counselling.
• Digital health records can help track patients over time, alerting health workers when someone misses follow-up visits.
• Nurses, ASHA workers and community volunteers should be empowered to deliver basic education: how to monitor blood pressure or blood sugar, why medication adherence matters, and what red flags to watch for.

The role of society – and of each one of us

It is easy to look at lifestyle diseases and see them solely as a matter of “personal responsibility”. But individual choices are shaped by culture, economy and community norms. That is why the response has to be collective.

Religious leaders, teachers, media and civil society in Kashmir can all help reframe the narrative around health. Community events can include health check-up camps. Masjids and community centres can host talks on diet and exercise alongside spiritual guidance. Local markets can be nudged – and regulated where necessary – to offer healthier food options.

At the same time, there is no escaping the fact that each of us has decisions to make. Choosing to walk instead of ride when possible, cutting down on salt and sugar, resisting one extra cup of salty tea, saying no to tobacco – these are small acts, but multiplied across the Valley, they amount to a powerful public-health intervention.

A call for a healthier future

On one side lies a future in which our hospitals are overwhelmed by preventable heart attacks, strokes and kidney failures; on the other, a future in which we bend the curve of disease through timely prevention and humane, organised care.

Lifestyle diseases did not appear overnight. They crept up on us as our lives changed. Confronting them will also take time, patience and perseverance. But the first step is to acknowledge the scale of the problem and to treat it with the urgency it deserves.

For a Valley that has endured so much, building a culture that protects the health of its people is not just a medical imperative; it is a moral one. The choice is ours to make – as policymakers, as doctors, as communities, and as individuals – before this epidemic claims an even greater share of Kashmir’s future.

(The Author is an MD in Medicine, Health columnist working in the UAE)