This article is a part of World Heart Week series in association with Kauvery Hospital.
When 27-year-old Vinod (name changed for privacy) left for work that morning, he felt tired and anxious but in fine health otherwise. He had been working late into the night and was forced to skip breakfast to get to office on time. As he walked down to the cab, he ignored the tightness and discomfort extending downwards in his left arm, figuring that he had just slept badly.
Soon after he reached office, he collapsed and appeared breathless, and was rushed to the hospital. There, the doctors broke the news to him, telling him the last thing he expected – he had suffered a heart attack.
Until a decade or two ago, cardiac arrests were a danger only for older adults, with doctors advising heart health screenings after the age of 50. However, in recent years, Indians have grown into one of the most heart-unhealthy populations in the world.
The numbers are truly sobering, says Dr T Senthil Kumar, Chief Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgeon at Kauvery Heartcity in Trichy. Today, 28% of deaths in India result from heart disease. And Indians suffer heart attacks at least 20 years earlier on an average than those born in the West.
The particular morphology of Indians put them more at risk for heart disease, explains Dr Senthil. “Generally, Indians are much smaller built than the western population, they also have smaller hearts, and their coronary arteries are also significantly smaller. Added to this is a very high incidence of diabetes in Indians which leads to more widespread disease in the coronary arteries,” he says.
While genetics play a role, doctors point out that multiple lifestyle factors are also to blame for the rising levels of heart disease among young Indians.
Tobacco use is one of the biggest risk factors for developing heart disease, with 26% of cardiovascular diseases among people in the 30-44 age group resulting from tobacco use. 16% of the total deaths due to cardiovascular disease each year are the result of smoking. Tobacco can affect the levels of different types of fats in the blood, increase the risk of clots, and damage or thicken and narrow blood vessels and cause build-up of plaque in them.
The rise in prevalence of diabetes is also a cause for concern, says Dr Senthil. “Diabetics are three times more prone to developing heart disease than the normal population,” he explains.
But it’s not just egregious habits like tobacco that play a role, points out Dr S Aravindakumar, Chief Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Kauvery Heartcity. Stress as well as patterns of sleep, diet and exercise all contribute to heart disease.
“Indians are more stressed, they have bad food habits, and they don’t sleep properly,” says Dr Aravindakumar.
What we eat plays a major role in heart health, particularly the levels of sugar, salt, and different kinds of fats in our diet. Excessive sugar and saturated fats contribute to developing obesity and increase the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. Excessive salt consumption contributes to developing hypertension, which increases the workload on the heart and leads to damage and disease.
But just as importantly, most young Indians aren’t getting the kind of exercise and physical activity that they need. Studies have found that lack of physical activity can increase the risk of heart disease as much as being overweight.
Finally, poor sleep patterns and stress worsen the situation, as they affect the body’s ability to control several biological processes such as blood pressure, glucose metabolism and hunger, among others. Lack of sleep, therefore, can lead to hypertension, diabetes and obesity, all of which increase the risk of heart disease. And lack of sleep or high levels of stress also pave the way for poor habits such as excessive smoking which further increase the risk of heart disease.
It’s never too early to start thinking about heart health, says Dr Aravindakumar. “Prevention basically boils down to minimising risk factors in a vulnerable individual,” he says.
For Vinod, his near brush with death was a major wake-up call, and he promised himself that he would make the best of the second chance he’d got. He has now incorporated better diet, sleep and exercise into his life, and ensures that he keeps stress levels low. “But I can’t help thinking that I may not have ended up here if I had done all of this before,” he says.
To take good care of one’s heart, it’s important to pick a good cardiac care centre when in need, says Dr Senthil Kumar. “When your heart is in distress, the best thing you can do is go to the right hospital,” he observes.
The right cardiac hospital should combine cutting-edge technologies and strong foundations of patient care. It should also include comprehensive expertise, from diagnostic, surgical and rehabilitative specialists to cardiac nurses and technicians.
Kauvery Heartcity, for instance, is a dedicated cardiac centre with 100 beds dedicated to cardiac care. “The best treatments are available here and our goal is to send you home safe and healthy,” says Dr Senthil.
This series was produced by TNM Brand Studio in association with Kauvery Hospital.