Matter of the heart

Kiran Yadav
Posted: 2008-09-28 23:11:09+05:30 IST
Updated: Sep 28, 2008 at 2311 hrs IST

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: A decade back you probably wouldn’t have cared enough to read any further. Today, you realise the need to. If fears come true, in another two years, India will be home to 60% of the total cardiac patients in the world. According to the recent World Health Federation report, cardiovascular diseases claim close to 20 million lives in India every year. On last count, the Federation found 60 million coronary heart patients in the country. And, if World Health Organisation estimates are correct, the Indian economy stands to lose more than 1% of GDP

by 2015!

“The economic burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is indeed massive. People in their 30s, deemed to be at their productive best, are complaining of heart ailments. One of the heart patients I recently came across was just 23-years-old. Prognosis of such young patients is the challenge we are facing today,” says Dr Suresh Vijan, visiting Intervention Cardiologist, Lilavati and Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai. Corporate houses are holding workshops for their employees in an attempt to battle the CVD epidemic.

Let us not take the escapist’s route and blame hereditary factors alone. Dr H K Chopra, Chairman, World Heart Academy and Secretary General of International Medical Sciences maintains that “95% of premature heart attack and associated metabolic syndrome can be attributed to the wrong kind of lifestyle.” If you have time to catch up with friends in the evening for a drink but no time to go for a walk, if you look up to Churchill as a role model simply because of his style of smoking cigar, if fried food on the plate cheers you up and also if you don’t remember the last time you had a whole fruit — you definitely seem to be at risk. Dr Praveen Chandra, Director, Interventional Cardiologist, Max Heart hospital, Delhi says: “One of the easiest ways to curb your risk of heart diseases is to have wholegrain products. It helps cut down total cholesterol as well as the unhealthy low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.” A recent study, published in the Cochrane Database of Systemic Review, conducted ten trials on 914 adults suffering from at least one major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Eight of the trials used whole grain oats and found a substantial reduction in cholesterol. Cholesterol is a tricky factor though. “One third of patients with coronary heart disease have normal...