Active lifestyle will keep heart diseases away: Docs

Bhubaneswar: A 28-year-old software engineer from Khurda was admitted to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, recently after he complained of chest pain. He and his family were shocked when cardiologists found two blockages in his heart.
He underwent angioplasty and is doing fine now.
Doctors said the worrying factor is that heart problems are increasing among the young nowadays. And many also die. Experts suggest an active and stress-free lifestyle and proper diet to keep the heart healthy.
Stating that early onset of diabetes is a major risk factor for heart problem, Siddharth Sarangi, an Odia cardio-thoracic surgeon working in a hospital in the USA, said, “The incidence of Type II diabetes has risen manifold to the extent that one in every three to four people in the population are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. This increases their risk of heart disease”.
Other causes include a sedentary lifestyle, increased cigarette smoking in young adults, increased stress at the workplace and incidences of hypertension. “All of the four risk factors are intertwined,” he said.
Elaborating upon it, he cited the example of a young urban professional, who starts smoking after getting stressed at his workplace. He becomes hypertensive and his overzealous attitude towards work makes him sedentary and also gives rise to bad eating habits. “This goes on till he becomes obese, has metabolic syndromes coupled with hypercholesterolemia. This leads to early coronary artery disease,” he added.
It is an extremely important to address the problem early with good and healthy eating habits, regular physical exercise, no smoking policy and less stressful careers.
“Practising mindfulness has become a very important concept in allaying stress and thus keeping hypertension at bay,” said Sarangi. Debasish Das, associate professor of cardiology department, AIIMS Bhubaneswar, said many youths do not keep tab on their dietary habits and gather cholesterol (low density lipoprotein or LDL) in their body by eating fatty food, red meat and fried food. “Due to lack of awareness, they do not even undergo lipid profile tests. The cholesterol level goes up over a period of time and they come to hospital when they feel pain in the chest, shortness of breath or syncope,” he added.
Stress is a major reason behind the heart issues as it creates hormonal imbalance. High sensitivity C-reactive protein gets released in the body due to stress.
“This protein creates inflammation in the blood vessels leading to heart-related problems. If a person’s family members have heart issues, he or she should stay alert and check his other cholesterol levels at a regular interval,” he added.