Air Pollution Crisis: Docs Explain What’s Happening to Your Body

Air Pollution Crisis: Docs Explain What’s Happening to Your Body

We spoke to leading cardiologists, liver specialists, lung specialists, psychologists and more expert doctors to help break down how pollution harms each part of your body.

If you live anywhere in India at this moment, then you know there’s only one topic of conversation - pollution and what we can do about it.

FIT speaks to doctors in various specialties - from lung specialists to gastroenterologists to psychologists - to decode exactly what happens to the organs in our bodies in this pathetic, toxic air.

We know that respiratory ailments are exacerbated and incidences of asthma and even lung cancer are becoming increasingly common in younger and even non-smoking patients.

But Dr Ashok Seth, one of India’s leading cardiologists, explains that the air pollution is so bad, it can even cause heart failure over a sustained period of breathing in.

We also speak to Dr Kamna Chibber, clinical psychologist and head, mental health and behavioral sciences at Fortis who says that breathing in this hazardous air can also damage our mental health. Toxic air can cause mental stress, increased irritability and even chances of depression.

Also Read: Smog, Smog Everywhere: How To Protect Kids from Air Pollution?

Dr Ashwini Setya, senior gastroenterologist at Max Hospitals says that the severe air pollution has potential indirect effects on changing the good gut microbacteria which can cause IBS and Crohn’s disease.

Dr Arvind Soin, president of the Liver Transplantation Society of India mentions that liver cirrhosis and even liver cancr have been linked to air pollution.

Dirty air is choking us and destroying our insides, targeting our every organ. What can we do about it? For now, stay indoors and stay away from dust and pollutants around us - but to make sure this doesn't happen again we need more sustainable, long-term solutions on both a micro and a macro level.

(FIT is launching its #PollutionKaSolution campaign. Join us by becoming an anti-air pollution warrior. Send in your questions, your stories of how to tackle air pollution and your ideas to [e-mail])

Also Read: Home Remedies: Air Pollution Making the Skin Dull & Hair Brittle?