How you "AGE" is in your hands

You spent nearly two decades in banking strategy and consulting before building Pathya. What was the moment you decided the problem you actually wanted to solve was women's health? 

That way of looking at problems never really left me. A lot of my work in banking and consulting had been about understanding what was really going on beneath the surface and figuring out what could be done differently. 

When I started noticing things around health, I began asking myself: when you can see something going amiss, is there something you can do early enough to prevent the deterioration? And can you do that in a way that is science-backed and research-backed? 

That was really the spark for Pathya. I started with women's health because it resonated personally with me, and that is why our first set of products focused on women's hormonal health. 

There is a generation of Indian women who went from managing households and careers to suddenly being told their bodies are "changing" with no roadmap provided. How prepared, in your assessment, is the average 50-year-old Indian woman for what the whole process actually involves? 

I strongly believe that the real question is not how long we live, but how well. You can live till 80 or 90, it is very normal nowadays for people to reach 90, but if you look at the last decade of anyone's life, specifically in India, people are not really enjoying their lives to the fullest. Their mobility is restricted, and there are a bunch of other things that I find deeply disturbing. 

I believe people should be able to live fully till the very last day. They should be able to swim at 90 if they want to, do a deadlift at 90 if they want to. The narrative that with age, a certain level of degradation is simply given is not entirely correct. There is a lot you can do. A lot of how you age is in your hands. 

Specifically talking about women after 50, addressing the elephant in the room: the big thing that hits is menopause. At least the discussion around it has started happening a little more openly on social media. But we never got to know when our mothers hit that stage in life and what they experienced. Did anybody educate them on what was changing inside their bodies and how they should adjust their lifestyle to cope? 

This should almost be like curriculum knowledge that every woman goes through when she starts hitting her 40s. 

One of the key changes is hormonal. Estrogen is an extremely important hormone, not just for fertility but for so many body functions. That is the key hormone the body stops producing at menopause, because you stop ovulating, and therefore never reach the stage in your cycle where estrogen is produced. The ramifications are enormous: bone health, risk of visceral fat, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, motor function, depression, anxiety. All of it is connected. 

This should be textbook knowledge handed to every woman dealing with this transition. 

"The narrative that with age you can expect a certain level of degradation is not entirely correct. A lot of how you age is in your hands." 

There is a landmark study you reference often, the LIFTMOR trial. What did it prove, and why does it matter so much for Indian women specifically? 

Your bones are constantly being remodelled. There are cells that break down old bone and cells that build new bone. Estrogen has been clinically proven to support that building activity, so after menopause, when estrogen depletes, you end up breaking more than you build. That is why bone health becomes so important to focus on for women in this age group. 

The LIFTMOR trial was done in Australia on postmenopausal women. 101 women aged 60 to 70, average age 65. They were given two resistance and impact training sessions per week, 30 minutes each, and the researchers measured whether it positively impacted bone density. These women did deadlifts, progressively overloaded, well supervised, alongside squats and jumping exercises. Instead of losing bone density, they showed an increase. Their bone density went up by about 2.5%. 

It is remarkable to see how the body can respond to the right stimulus. 

That is why I am such a strong proponent of this: any woman after 50 must lift some weight. Resistance training is essential. Alongside that, nutrition matters enormously. Calcium, vitamin D, and protein intake, which the Indian diet is quite deficient in. At least 1 gram of protein per kg of ideal body weight, roughly 60 to 70 grams daily, is something everyone should be working toward. 

I see a lot of people focusing on walking and yoga, which is good. But if you are over 40, you must add resistance and impact training. That is the piece most Indians are missing. 

Women in this age group have been primary caregivers their entire lives. If hormones are in flux and they are not really aware of it, how does that affect their ability to respond to exercise, wellness routines, social events? 

There is so much information available now. The challenge is knowing what to trust. But there are enough reliable, science-backed sources out there. I encourage every woman to read up on what these hormonal changes mean and how to adjust their diet, lifestyle, and exercise accordingly. 

And just measure. Get an annual screening done, and include your hormones in it. Not just in menopause but in perimenopause too, so you can understand these shifts sooner and start adjusting before symptoms compound. 

The other thing I want to say is that this is also the age where most people find themselves with an empty nest. A lot of women sacrificed enormously for their children's education, stepped back from their careers. And suddenly that chapter is over. This is where cognitive health becomes so important to focus on. Depression hits here. Anxiety hits here. The sense of purpose starts to slip. 

Building social connections outside the home matters so much. Picking up a new skill, you can learn music at 50, and it does not matter what anyone thinks, it is genuinely good for your cognitive health, your mental health. Getting out of the house, meeting like-minded people, being able to share, travel together. These are not luxuries. They are part of staying well. 

At what point does a lifetime of caregiving become a clinical risk, not just a lifestyle observation? 

People need to understand that you cannot create a good environment at home if you are not fully well yourself, mentally and physically. Even if one person in the family goes through a chronic ailment, someone dealing with Alzheimer's or going through dialysis, it takes a toll on the entire family. 

By not taking care of yourself, and eventually landing up in serious chronic issues, you are doing a disservice to the very family you thought you were sacrificing so much for. A little selfishness, or call it self-awareness, is necessary just for the sake of having a healthy, stable environment for the people you love. Unless you are at your best, you cannot create that for them. If you fall physically or mentally, everybody around you suffers too. 

"Picking up a new skill, you can learn music at the age of 50. Do not bother how people will react. It is genuinely good for your cognitive health, your mental health." 

Retirement can be a very lonely time. No job, no routine, children gone. How does having a community, hobbies, something to look forward to, work psychologically at this stage? 

In India, we are basically taught that studying is the most important thing, then working, then providing. But if you have no other dimension to your personality by the time work ends, you are left with a full vacuum. 

I have seen people with hobbies, gardening, keeping an aquarium, who after retirement are completely absorbed in those things. They feel passionate. They build small communities around their interests. I know someone who nurtured his love of gardening so deeply that he is now helping his local community develop best practices around permaculture and waste management. 

You can always make a hobby more meaningful. But you also need to stay open to learning at any age. Even if you could not pick something up when you were younger, you can pick it up at 60 and give fresh purpose to your life. Teaching neighbourhood children, joining a cultural committee, mentoring someone, travelling with a group. In whichever way you can contribute meaningfully, just get involved. 

If you could change one thing about how India's healthcare system talks to women after 50, what would it be? 

I would want a shift from a band-aid approach to a root-cause-based one. When your fasting sugar is 110, a doctor will say start metformin. But what if it is 105 or 107? Who decided 110 is the tipping point? What do you do when you are seeing the amber signals? There is a clear path once you hit red, medication for life, with its own set of side effects. But what do you do in the amber zone? I would want that conversation to happen far more. 

Specifically for women's health, I would like to see more open dialogue. Hormonal health is so much beyond fertility. It is about your entire metabolism. But it remains hush-hushed. 

I know women who were diagnosed with PCOS at 30 or 35 when they were trying to conceive, but they had symptoms from the age of 18. And someone in the family told them: pain happens, irregularity is okay, do not make a big deal of it. Some of these things also carry elevated risks for certain types of cancer. There needs to be clearer, more scientific education. There needs to be more open dialogue, without the stigma. 

"Hormonal health is so much beyond fertility. It is about your entire metabolism. But it is very hush-hushed."