365telugu.com online news, Hyderabad, 20 November 2025: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are no longer just an elderly concern in Telangana. Hypertension, diabetes, and obesity are now being diagnosed in people as young as their 20s and 30s, creating a looming public-health crisis, experts warned today.
A recent Hyderabad survey revealed alarming figures among adults over 60: nearly 50% suffer from hypertension, over 25% have diabetes, and 44% are obese. However, doctors say the bigger worry is the rapid rise of these same conditions in much younger populations.
“Starting lifelong medication for diabetes or hypertension at age 30 instead of 60 dramatically increases complication risks and side effects over decades,” said Dr Zeeshan Ali, nutrition scientist with the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
Speaking to over 750 medical and health sciences students at MNR Medical College, Dr Ali blamed poor dietary patterns, high saturated fat intake, low fibre consumption, and sedentary lifestyles for accelerating NCD onset.
He cited a five-year clinical study of 48 heart disease patients that showed remarkable results from a low-fat, whole-food plant-based diet combined with mild exercise:
- Artery blockage reduced by 1.75% in the first year and 3.1% after five years
- Patients on standard medical care without dietary changes saw disease progression
“Evidence clearly shows that a plant-based diet can halt and even reverse chronic diseases,” Dr Ali told students.
He urged medical colleges to make evidence-based nutrition a core part of the curriculum, stressing that general physicians, often the first point of contact for NCD patients, must be equipped to prescribe safe and effective dietary interventions.
As Telangana faces a double burden of NCDs across generations, experts say integrating preventive nutrition into routine clinical practice could be one of the most powerful and cost-effective solutions to protect the state’s future health.