Srinagar, July 15: Rehte Begum, a Gujjar woman from Gurez, was reported to the SMHS Hospital, Srinagar, with general swelling throughout the body.
On examination, she was clinically found to be in heart failure. Surprisingly, her echo test (this test diagnoses problems that affect the heart) came out to be normal.
“This was her first visit with such complaints. On further evaluation, it was found that she has been visiting peripheral hospitals with complaints of getting tired easily, cold intolerance, and constipation for the last two years,” the doctor examining her said.
Subsequently, her Thyroid Stimulating Hormone test (A TSH test is done to find out if your thyroid gland is working the way it should) came out to be about 35.
The test reports showed she has been a case of long-standing hypothyroidism.
Gujjar-Bakarwal tribes have found themselves increasingly at the receiving end of non-communicable diseases. A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another.
NCDs include strokes, thyroid disorders, diabetes, heart diseases, cancers, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, and others. It has been found that life-style diseases are on a surge among Gujjars and Bakarwals in Kashmir due to various factors.
A recent study titled, `Thyroid Function, Urinary Iodine, and Thyroid Antibody Status among the Tribal Population of Kashmir Valley: Data from Endemic Zone of a Sub-Himalayan Region’ shows that 33 percent of the population suffers from various thyroid disorders and 30 percent show iodine deficiency.
The study estimated the prevalence of thyroid disorders and evaluated urinary iodine concentration (UIC) and thyroid autoantibody status among Gujjar and Bakarwal tribes of Kashmir valley.
A total of 763 subjects from the five districts– Anantnag, Pulwama, Ganderbal, Kupwara and Srinagar were evaluated for the study.
“33 percent of the tribals had some form of thyroid dysfunction, (including 24.1% subclinical and 6.8% overt hypothyroidism) while 30 percent had urinary iodine concentration less than 100 micrograms which means they had iodine deficiency in them,” the study shows.
Dr Bashir Ahmad, a dietician sajd Gujar-Bakarwals are mostly concentrated in the mountainous regions of the valley.
“Their housing, sanitation, and health care facilities are very sub-standard than other sections of the population. They carry behavioral risk factors including a less nutritious diet, skipping meals, and increased tobacco use, which makes them susceptible to non-communicable diseases,” he said. He noted that they were trying to find the prevalence of non-communicable diseases among the tribal population of Kashmir as there was no data with respect to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) like thyroid, diabetes, hypertension, and vitamin D deficiency in them.
