Heart Diseases a glance on young India

Indians have one of the highest rates of coronary artery disease in the world. Indians also tend to get heart disease 5-10 years earlier.

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Heart Attach Risk Calculator:

1) http://www.everydayhealth.com/publicsite/ha_calculator.aspx

2) http://www.prolipid.com/tips-and-tools/heart-attack-risk-calculator.html

3) https://www.heartagecalculator.com/HeartHealth/HeartAgeCalculator.aspx?hostID=1503

What is a heart attack?

A heart attack, known as a myocardial infarction in medical terms, occurs when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood to a coronary artery. Coronary arteries are blood vessels, which supply blood to the heart muscle. This interruption of blood flow to the muscular wall of the heart causes that part of the wall to become ‘damaged and destroyed’ and stop pumping blood.

Why Indians are at a higher risk

Indians have one of the highest rates of coronary artery disease in the world. This rate is thrice that of a Caucasian living in the US. As a result, Indians get coronary artery disease 5-10 years earlier than Caucasians and the disease is typically more aggressive. This results in Indians between the age group of 35-65 being the most affected, thus presenting a major strain on the productive workforce as the “younger” working population is the one at risk. Another significant reason that renders us Indians vulnerable is the fact that we have narrower arteries than our Western counterparts.

Various factors that contribute to higher rate of heart attacks include:

• Urbanization of rural areas
• Large-scale migration of rural population to urban areas
• Increase in sedentary lifestyle due to hectic work schedules
• Abdominal obesity (belly fat)
• Metabolic syndrome
• Diabetes and high blood pressure
• Inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables
• Increased use of fried, processed and junk food, owing to the fast food culture
• Increase in tobacco usage
• Poor awareness and control of coronary artery disease risk factors
• Low HDL-cholesterol (good cholesterol levels)
• Genetic predisposition

Indians will require specific lower cut-offs and stricter goals for treatment of various risk factors than is currently recommended for western populations, one example of this being practiced is: The upper limit for BMI (body mass index) that decides whether an individual is considered obese has been lowered from 25 to 23 for Asians, as they are at a higher risk of obesity and cardiopulmonary arrests at marginally high body mass indexes.

A strategy involving prevention of cardiovascular diseases long before their onset will be more cost-effective than providing interventions at a stage when the disease has already set in.