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Ashima Sharda Mahindra • 05 Apr 2025

What Is Cushing Syndrome Anant Ambani Is Battling as He Undertakes a 170km Walking Pilgrimage?

Along with battling Cushing syndrome, Anant also has morbid obesity, thyroid, asthma, and a severe lung disease

The youngest Ambani son, Anant, is currently on a 170-km-long padyatra from his hometown, Jamnagar, to Dwarka, seeking spiritual blessings ahead of his 30th birthday. According to Reliance Industries, Anant walks 20 km for seven hours every night and is expected to end it on April 8.
Anant has faced significant health challenges, which include Cushing syndrome—a hormonal disorder since childhood. Along with that, he also has morbid obesity, thyroid, asthma, and a severe lung disease. However, despite these lifelong health struggles, they have never defined his spirit, and he has overcome his health issues with positivity and determination.

What is Cushing syndrome?

Cushing’s is a rare condition that happens when your body has too much cortisol hormone. Also known as hypercortisolism, it increases stress in your body, leading to a series of issues like:
  • Increasing heart rate
  • Increasing blood pressure
  • Spiking blood glucose
  • Causing breathing issues
  • Increasing your muscle tension.
According to doctors, while cortisol is important for managing blood pressure, regulating blood sugar, reducing inflammation, and managing your respiration, an extremely high level can cause the vital functions to go haywire. The adrenal glands, two small glands on top of your kidneys; the pituitary gland in your brain and the hypothalamus, the part of your brain above the pituitary gland, control your cortisol levels.
The people most commonly affected by Cushing syndrome are children, teenagers, and adults, mostly those ages 25 to 50 years. Those who take cortisol medication are especially vulnerable to the condition. Doctors say around 70 per cent of those with Cushing syndrome are women. Being a rare condition, Cushing syndrome affects 40 to 70 people out of 1 million each year.

Can Cushing syndrome be fatal?

Experts say Cushing syndrome can possibly be fatal if you do not get timely treatment. Without treatment, hypercortisolism leads to various health issues like:
  • Infections
  • Blood clots, especially in the lungs and legs
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Heart attack
  • Weight gain and obesity
  • Memory issues and difficulty concentrating
  • High blood pressure and high cholesterol
  • Broken bones
  • Type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, or impaired fasting glucose
If left untreated, Cushing syndrome can also result in death.

What causes Cushing syndrome?

While too much cortisol in your body causes Cushing syndrome, there are many underlying factors responsible for it, which include:
  • Use of glucocorticoid medications is used to treat many autoimmune diseases like chronic asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sarcoidosis, and many other diseases that result in chronic inflammation.
  • Pituitary tumors that make too many hormones cause 8 out of 10 cases of Cushing syndrome
  • Adrenal cortical tumours that also make too much cortisol
  • Lung, pancreas, thyroid, and thymus tumours which are typically malignant

Signs and symptoms of Cushing syndrome

Cushing syndrome has many unique symptoms apart from those that point towards a variety of other syndromes. A few of these include:
  • Rapid weight gain in the face, also known as moon face, abdomen, back of the neck
  • A red, round face
  • Wounds that do not heal
  • High blood pressure
  • Excessive hair growth on the face, neck, chest, abdomen, breasts, and thighs, or balding
  • Diabetes
  • Easy bruising on the arms and legs
  • General weakness and tiredness
  • Blurry vision and dizziness
  • Weak muscles and thinner arms and legs
  • Libido changes and erectile dysfunction
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