Take Care Of Your Heart
Young
patients may find it hard to believe they have a cardiac problem, but you are
never too young to get a blood test
As
you enter your twenties, some of you may start developing a ‘fatty streak’
T HE TROUBLE with being
young is the feeling that you’re invincible. When your heart skips a few beats,
or perhaps races faster than normal, or even aches while your palms become
sweaty, you probably think you’re falling in love. It never occurs to you that
you might be experiencing signs of a potential heart disease. How could it
occur to you? You’re young! You’re invincible!
But tell that to
35-year-old Ankita Sharma*, and you’ll realise youth is not the same as
invincibility. After ignoring a recurring chest pain accompanied by
breathlessness and exhaustion for almost a year, Sharma was diagnosed with a 99
per cent blockage in her right coronary artery. “I never believed that it could
be a cardiac problem,” she says. “Even when I was admitted to the hospital and
briefed about my condition, I became very emotional, refusing tests till my
family convinced me to take everything step by step.”
Sharma finally went in for
an angioplasty and subsequent angiographies, followed by weight and lifestyle
management at VLCC.
DON’T LOSE HEART
“In the last 15 years of
my practice, I have seen a steady increase in cases of young heart patients,”
says Dr TS Kler, head of the cardiology department at Fortis Escorts Heart
Institute. “While the term coronary artery disease might sound intimidating, it
is purely a lifestyle problem which can be monitored and controlled. Your
personal choices have an impact on your heart.”
“Society is becoming
increasingly unkind to youngsters, who are mostly overworked and underpaid,”
says Dr Roopa Salwan, senior cardiologist at Max Hospital, Saket. “Heart
diseases in young age groups are not acceptable and are largely preventable.
Usually young patients find it hard to accept that they might have heart
disease, and by the time they come around, they’ve missed out on the critical
time for help.”
In India, on an average,
heart disease strikes people in their fifties. (In America and Europe, it’s the
seventies.) By 2020, the largest cause of death in India will be due to
cardiovascular disease, says a 2002 report by the World Health Organization.
When you do the math, you realise that most of the victims will be younger
people.
While heart diseases are
often categorised as the direct result of the modern lifestyle, that is far
from the truth. The oldest case of chronic heart disease was found earlier this
year in Egypt’s mummy of Nebiri. Dating back almost 3,500 years, the Egyptian
chief of stables showed traces of blocked arteries in the brain and backed up
pulmonary edema or fluid accumulation in the lungs. Scans of other dignitaries
revealed the prevalence of artery blockages through generations of Egyptians –
perhaps due to their sedentary lifestyle and fatty food.
“You’re never too young to
have a blood test,” says Salwan. “You should know your numbers and have the
ability to face them without presumptions. A lot of damage is being done out of
sheer ignorance.”
WHAT ARE YOU DOING WRONG?
The heart beats around 70
times a minute, or more than 2.5 billion times during an average lifetime,
carrying oxygen and pumping blood through your body. Aside from genetics, most
risk factors are lifestyle choices that can be altered and monitored as a
measure of prevention.
To successfully do this,
you must understand how your arteries function. If you were to lay out your
blood vessels in a straight line, they would run almost 95,000 kms, pumping up to
the equivalent of 7,500 litres of blood a day (even though it is recycling the
same 4-5 litres over and over again).
The walls of these blood
vessels have a certain amount of elasticity on the inside to take the pressure
of this flow without bursting – something you know as blood pressure. When
these walls start accumulating deposits, they narrow down, become less elastic
and even rupture.
To stop the bleeding, the
blood clots in the artery wall and hampers the flow to the heart and onwards.
This clot might stay where it is and cause a heart attack or move on to the
brain and cause a stroke. Either way, you lose.
As you enter your
twenties, you start developing a ‘fatty streak’, the first sign of wear and
tear in the wall of the artery. Everything that passes through your lips and
nose has a direct effect on these sensitive arterial walls. Smoking cigarettes
or sheesha is almost like setting fire to them and allowing them to play host
to unwanted fatty deposits like sticky trans fats which go on to create that
dreaded clot, with See page 48
Healthy
young people who are anger-prone are more likely to wind up in the cardiac ward
From page 18 a 25 per cent increased chance if you’re a
woman.
BUTT, OF COURSE Smoking
a cigarette is almost like setting fire to sensitive arterial walls
But because you’re young,
you’re unlikely to pay much attention to lifestyle advice. Worse, even if you
are diagnosed with a heart condition, you won’t share your experience with
others.
CAUSES OF HEART AILMENTS
Fortunately, Kapil Gilani,
who had a heart attack at the age of 29 (over 10 years ago) due to excessive
smoking coupled with stress, does talk about it.
“Your life is in your
hands,” he says. “I would tell you to be happy and stress-free, but above all
to stop smoking.”
Gilani’s heart attack came
out of the blue. One day, without warning, he felt a heaviness in the chest and
massive sweating, following which the blood supply to his heart stopped due to
a blockage in the artery. He underwent a procedure called Thrombosuction, where
the clot is sucked out of the system.
Now smoke free and happy,
Gilani strives towards a healthy lifestyle. He’s still on medication and swears
by his routine check-ups.
Marijuana, the allegedly
safe drug, is another threat, especially when it’s used for recreational
purposes. Sure, it’s being legalised in many parts of the world, but it is not
free from side effects. Marijuana works on the increase and decrease of the
heart rate, but so far there are no studies on its long term effects.
One in five victims of a
heart attack is a passive nonsmoker or a person living in an area with high
pollution. Perhaps some of these factors are out of your control, but if you
monitor them, you may be able to help your body as it ages.
While obesity is a
recognised cause of heart conditions, healthy young people who are anger-prone
are more likely to wind up in the cardiac ward. So it’s best to opt for a
Zen-like anger management strategy starting today.
PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE
But just as important is a
genuine regard for your health. “People spend thousands of rupees on diamond
earrings or make investments worth lakhs, but will never invest in health tests
or regular check-ups to prevent any foreseeable damage,” says 30-year-old Deergha
Shah Choudhary who, at the age of 26, developed a 100 per cent blockage in the
left anterior descending (LAD) artery, one of the three main coronary arteries.
She had no family history of cardiac diseases, blood pressure problems or
obesity.
Choudhary couldn’t walk
even short distances without taking breaks and facing breathlessness.
Ultimately, in 2012, she had robotics surgery at Escorts in place of the
conventional heart bypass. Later that year, she needed constant vigilance from
cardiologists throughout her pregnancy.
“Older people get regular
preventive health check-ups at hospitals but that’s not the case with
youngsters,” says Vandana Luthra, founder of VLCC Healthcare. In Luthra’s
experience, young people who go to medically approved lifestyle clinics for
weight loss and body treatments generally discover latent heart ailments during
the initial medical screening.
In most cases, symptoms
can be as trivial as disturbed sleeping patterns, shortness of breath and
heartburn, or as major as severe pain in the chest and a shooting pain in the
left arm. “Women and youngsters show more atypical signs than men,” says
Salwan. “They can range from gas, indigestion or discomfort in the back.”
Women, typically, tend to ignore these signs.
The good news is that you
can prevent heart problems by tweaking your lifestyle. For example, a sauna
routine helps lower blood pressure by making the body lose its salts, something
not possible in an air-conditioned environment.
Choudhary advises people
to cut down their use of ghee. Cutting trans fats is another way to reduce
risk, especially those found in cookies and baked products.
You need not run to the
doctor for every sign of indigestion, but you must acknowledge that age has
nothing to do with invincibility. Making informed choices and keeping a regular
track of your health is the least you can do to maintain a happy heart. “Sleep
one hour less and run one hour more,” says Salwan. Really, it’s as easy as it
sounds.
STRAIGHT FOR YOUR HEART
1. Your cooking medium:
Cut down on your intake of trans fat, mainly found in Dalda and Vanaspati. That
samosa might be okay, but bakery products with a long shelf life are not.
2. Your genetics: Be aware
of what yo’re at risk of.
3. Your sleep habits: When
you snore too much and at times wake up to feel like you’re having trouble
breathing, it’s sleep apnea and it needs immediate attention.
4. Your food : Educate
yourself on what is good or bad for you. You don’t necessarily have to go on a
diet. Maintain a healthy balance of fruits and vegetables in your diet. 5. The
effect of airconditioning: When you don’t sweat, salts are not excreted from
your body. So switch off the AC or go for steam and sauna sessions.
6. Your deficiencies:
Indians suffer from vitamin B12 and vitamin D deficiency. Get yourself tested
and keep them in check.
7. Your blood: Have
routine blood tests to learn what’s going on inside you. A lot can be
controlled if you know what you’re susceptible to.
Experts advise cutting
down on the use of ghee. Reducing trans fats is another way to prevent the risk
of heart ailments
HTBR27SEP15
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