Increasing income has had a direct impact on rising heart diseases in India and even youngsters below 35 years of age are prone to heart attacks, more because of the lifestyle changes that the money has brought in.
A well-known cardiologist based in Atlanta, U.S.A., Srini Gangasani says this new trend has now a debilitating impact on Indians, who are four to five times more prone to heart diseases compared to other races due to their genetic composition. “It has become quite common even in the U.S.A. to see youngsters from South East Asian countries being affected by heart diseases,” he said.
Dr. Gangasani, who was in Hyderabad recently for a preparatory meeting of Global Health Summit to be held here in July this year, said Indians and particularly those from Telugu States are increasingly falling into this category owing to lifestyle changes related to increasing income. “People are not only eating more, but eating high cholesterol junk food compared to their previous generations,” Dr. Gangasani said.
However, on the positive side, he said a majority of them can delay the heart disease if not avoid totally by bringing in minor changes in their lifestyle, including food habits. “Cut down on carbohydrates and include more protein, which will also help in cutting down the flab,” is his advice.
Dr. Gangasani said moderate consumption of alcohol (three to four drinks of 60 ml in a week) beings no harm. In fact, it helps in lessening the plaque progression in the arteries. Red wine is better than other forms of alcohol, but he warns that excess drinking weakens the heart muscles.
Those who love non-vegetarian food can have chicken and fish in grilled form as Indians tend to use abundance of oil in meat-based food preparation. Smoking is dangerous and with Hyderabad becoming the diabetes capital, the disease is bound to explode, feels the alumnus of A.P. Residential School, Sarvail, in Nalgonda district and Kurnool Medical College.
Dr. Gangasani, who is also the vice-chair of Board of Trustees of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), said minor changes in lifestyle like walking for 45 to 60 minutes a day for four times a week and cutting down on sugar and salt can delay the disease. Youngsters who work in high-pressure jobs and those with a family history of heart diseases need to be more careful with what they eat and when they eat. Everyone has to be more proactive than reactive to the disease, he concluded.
