The last half a decade has seen rapid change in the way we live due to modern lifestyle and the trappings that come with it.
In the bargain, what public healthcare workers have observed and are worried about is the rise of three major potentially life threatening conditions, which include stroke, heart attack and cancer.
As a result of the changing lifestyle, cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, say cases of heart attacks are being reported at least a decade and half before the typical high risk age.
In western countries, heart attacks typically occur in people in the age group of 40 years and 45 years. However, now in India, the age of people at risk of getting heart attack is anywhere between 25 years and 35 years.
The proliferation of heart diseases and the decreasing age of persons who are most likely to experience heart episode, is going to be major challenge for public health institutions and even the private sector in India in the coming years, experts here believe.
Senior doctors say modern lifestyle is one of the main reasons for the present-day epidemiological pattern of heart ailments in India. Sedentary life, smoking and stress are some of the major factors that the workforce in India has to contend with.
According to public health experts, the haphazard way of living triggers hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, habits such as smoking and may lead to depression. Once professionals are exposed to high stress environments, they become vulnerable to all the above risk factors, which in turn trigger heart attacks.
Heart attacks have always existed in the country but the typical age of patients with such conditions was above 55 years. However, what is alarming is that anywhere between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of the heart attack patients today fall under the age group of 25 years and 35 years.
Unless, there is a concerted effort on making youngsters aware of the risk factors, the pitfalls of modern day lifestyle and the need to adopt an active lifestyle for a quality living, experts believe that health sector and even the society has to contend with young people succumbing to heart ailments, which are ironically preventable.
It’s not just observation of senior cardiologists and experts that have given broad indications towards rise of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as heart ailments.
Even the India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) disease burden study of Telangana between 1990 and 2016 has clearly indicated a swift rise in NCDS.
Countrywide too, heart ailments form 53 per cent of all kinds of ailments and according to ICMR, close to 16 lakh persons have died due to heart ailments in the country in 2016.
According to the study, NCDs such as cardiac ailments, pulmonary or respiratory ailments, strokes and anaemia due to iron deficiency clearly figure on top of the disease burden map of the present-day Telangana.
In 2016, the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) became the number one cause of death for the age groups between 30 years and 70 years in the State.
For the age group between 40 years and 70 years in the State, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory ailments form the largest chunk of groups that have caused morbidity in 2016.
Between 1990 and 2016, the proportion of total disease burden due to neonatal, maternal and nutritional disease was 27.6 per cent. The proportion of disease burden due to NCDs was 59.2 per cent and injuries was 13.2 per cent.
Senior interventional cardiologist, Yashoda Hospital, Somajiguda, Dr K Pramod Kumar says there is dire need for young people in Hyderabad to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Talking about a gamut of issues related to heart diseases including diagnostics, therapeutics and medications with ‘Telangana Today‘, the senior cardiologist says modern medicine has improved the outcomes of heart procedures.
Many people are unaware about their risk factors that trigger heart attacks. These factors can be identified only by examination. That’s why I believe that everyone in India who reaches 25 years of age must undergo a comprehensive health check-up.
Many don’t know that in western countries such a check-up is done for individuals when they are 18 years-old. Before taking-up a job, youngsters must undergo such a health check-up.
In the last few years, a lot of change has happened in India and new medications are available that are more effective in controlling diabetes and hypertension.
Insulin dependence free medications, which are friendly to cardiac patients, standardised hypertension and high cholesterol medications too are available.
Many have this misconception that if the ECG and ECHO are normal, then they do not have any blockages. This is wrong because these tests do not look at the coronary arteries where the blockages are present.
Persons above 40 years, especially those with high risk factors such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes, better undergo CT Coronary Angiogram to clearly find the condition of their arteries that supply blood to the heart.
There will be occasions, when a patient is undergoing a heart attack but a tertiary heart care facility if far away. In such situations, clot busters to unclog the arteries should be available in secondary healthcare facilities. After administering clot busters, patients can be brought to a tertiary care facility.
Interventions have become the mainstay of treatment during acute heart attack. Stenting is universal because the failure rate of Drug Eluting Stents (DES) has become negligible.
Even complex blockages can be treated through single and multiple stents so that complicated bypass or open heart surgeries can be avoided. With simple interventions, complicated surgeries can be avoided.
Accurate and quick diagnosis of heart condition plays a huge role in not only saving patient’s life but also giving them a shot at long term survival.
There are several instances where heart condition is not diagnosed, causing a lot of suffering to patients. A similar situation was faced by 87-year-old S Satyavathi and her family members.
In 2014, Satyavathi complained of severe backache. Given her advanced age, her attending doctors from several private hospitals recommended physiotherapy as a mode of management for her discomfort.
“She underwent physiotherapy for four years but the back ache kept returning. This January, however, the pain became severe. Doctors again advised us to take her for another round of intense physiotherapy. It did not work,” recalls Col SVS Murthy, son of Satyavati.
With physiotherapy not working, Satyavati ended-up at Yashoda Hospitals. “The surgeons ascertained that my mother had massive artery blocks. She could not survive an open heart surgery but doctors used stents to unclog the blocked arteries. She has recovered remarkably now does not have backache,” says Murthy.
Senior cardiologist Dr Pramod, who conducted the procedure, says quite often the symptoms of heart conditions are very difficult to detect, which makes tests such as CT Coronary Angiogram and traditional angiogram very important.
Major NCDs in Telangana: 1.Heart 2. Nephrology 3. Oncology 4. Trauma 5. Urinary surgeries
In 2016-17 NCDs in TS:
Diabetes:
Type 1: Occurs when pancreas does not produce enough insulin
Type 2: Occurs when body is unable to effectively use produced insulin Diabetes is a huge
Economic burden: Costs include: Care; productivity loss and disability
Burden of diabetes: Worldwide 422 million people have diabetes of 1.3 billion population, India has 60 million adults with diabetes 8 per cent of the Indian population
Hypertension:
Ideal BP: 140/90
About Dr. Pramod Kumar K –
Dr. Pramod Kumar K,Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Yashoda Hospital, Somajiguda. His expertise include complex coronary interventions such as radial angioplasty, pacemaker implantation, saphenous vein grafts with distal protection devices left main interventions, bifurcations, chronic total occlusions and primary PTCA.
This article was originally published in Telangana Today.
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Informative post
Thanks for sharing
Excellent deliberation by Dr Pramod Kumar.
Dear Dr HSR Arora, Thank you for the kind words.