At BEAT 2025: National Cardiovascular Summit and Awards, the panel “The Heart of the Matter - Uniting Against Diabetes & Obesity” highlighted the importance of lifestyle management, early detection, and community engagement in tackling cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Experts discussed how digital tools and apps can support healthy habits while emphasizing the need for responsible use to complement personal awareness and proactive care. The panel was moderated by Dr. Manisha Khurana, Founder - NextEdge and Editor in Chief - VOH - Moderator and Lead.
Dr. Prof Aditya Kapoor, Head, Dept of Cardiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow said, “I believe diabetes and obesity are, in many ways, cardiovascular diseases disguised as metabolic disorders. They leave a lasting impact on the population. If you look at the numbers, diabetes is staggering—we have the unfortunate distinction of being the diabetes capital of the world.
Obesity, on the other hand, is often underestimated in India. Many think it’s not a major problem, but the data tells a different story. Indians often present a unique phenotype: the ‘thin-fat’ Indian, or someone who is metabolically obese without being visibly overweight. This means we become metabolically unhealthy at lower BMI levels due to differences in visceral fat distribution and insulin resistance.
For cardiologists, this is evident: diabetes can be silent and not phenotypically obvious, while overweight or obesity is visible, yet many are unaware of the risks. The danger is that these conditions often remain undetected until a serious cardiac event occurs—like a heart attack, heart failure, or high blood pressure—after which we discover underlying diabetes or metabolic obesity.
Understanding diabetes and obesity as cardiovascular diseases can change the entire paradigm. It can transform our clinical practice, influence public health policies, and allow us to detect patients much earlier—before complications arise. These conditions are silent killers, and it’s time we address them proactively."
Dr. (Prof) Hemant Madan, Senior Director & Program Head- Cardiology, Narayana Hospital, Gurugram stated, “Community education and engagement are extremely important. We need to encourage people to exercise, to check their health, and to understand if they are diabetic before complications arise. It’s easy to detect heart or kidney failure after an event, but the real challenge is identifying these issues in the community before a cardiac complication happens.
Diabetes itself is a major risk factor, and complications like heart failure can develop if it’s undetected. There are many tools we can use to bring awareness to communities. For example, in schools, report cards rarely mention a child’s physical activity or fitness. Simple tools like this, or alerting teachers during health exams, can help detect risk factors early—whether it’s for school, employment, or general check-ups.
But this cannot be the responsibility of healthcare providers alone. There aren’t enough of us, and our reach into the general public is limited. Even if you combine all doctors, paramedics, and private hospitals, we can’t do it alone. The community itself must participate, creating a cascade of awareness.
Ultimately, it’s about penetrating the community with education and awareness. We also need to address the stigma around obesity and diabetes, helping people see them not as weaknesses but as conditions that can be managed with the right care.
Awareness alone isn’t enough—it has to be coupled with acceptance. In India, we are not raised to take ownership of our health. Just as a person would admit if they dropped a glass, we need to teach people to take responsibility for their lifestyle and health.
We also need measurable ways to track these things. For instance, if a 12-year-old has a BMI of 31, we should identify it numerically and intervene, rather than just labeling them ‘healthy’ because it looks normal externally. Giving these conditions a clear, measurable value helps people understand the risks and take action early."
Dr Mohit Dayal Gupta, Professor of Cardiology , Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital Government of NCT of Delhi emphasised, ““You know, we really have to move beyond just using Western models. Let me give you an example: we conducted a simple registry and collected data on 6,000 patients with acute myocardial infarction. To my surprise, 44% of them had a BMI over 37, and 35% were diabetics. When we followed them up, we saw that these patients were more likely to be hospitalized for heart issues, had a shorter lifespan, and a poorer quality of life.
Then we tried something simple: we helped them reduce their weight by just 5% and managed their hypertension properly. And you’d be surprised—within a year, their mortality and morbidity decreased, and their quality of life improved. This shows the power of simple lifestyle transformations.
In India, we have to recognize that healthcare is still limited. Care is not available to everyone, and even when it is, it may not be accessible or affordable. To provide great care, we need all three: availability, accessibility, and affordability.
So, we started a simple lifestyle intervention: changing diets, encouraging movement. We didn’t ask for anything extreme—just small steps. Move 1,000, 3,000, 4,000 steps a day. That alone decreased mortality by 14–15%. Exercise is crucial because these are lifestyle diseases. Moving 40 minutes a day can literally add 40 minutes of healthy life to your day, and if you don’t, you’re losing 40 minutes. That’s why our government emphasizes daily movement—whether it’s 3,000, 5,000, or 10,000 steps.
Now, coming to registries and national studies: we are still relying on Western models to predict mortality in Indian heart attack patients, like the standard risk scores. So we developed our own AI-based model in collaboration with IIT, called the MERGE model. Using Western data, the sensitivity to predict death was about 60%, but with our Indian data, it jumped to 80–85%—and this is just with 6,000 patients. We still need to validate it further, but this shows the importance of registries.
Indian and South Asian populations behave differently, so we need customized tools and approaches. Real-world data shows nuances—females, for example, are more likely to die and less likely to come to the hospital after a heart attack. By comparing preventive tools with Indian data, we see that sensitivity using Western tools can be below 50%. That’s why a customized approach is essential for effective treatment and prevention."
Dr. Satyavir Yadav, Associate Professor, AIIMS ( All India Institute of Medical Sciences) said, “Lifestyle management is key. Digital tools and apps can definitely be helpful in supporting healthy habits, but over-reliance or addiction to them can sometimes diminish our own judgment and awareness. So while these tools are useful, we should be careful not to let them replace our intellectual engagement with our own health. A thoughtful policy approach could maximize their benefits."