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Noble Zachariah
Save your Heart
Hardly a day passes without the media reporting the sad demise of a young expat due to heart attack. Can we do anything more than being helpless sympathizers?
In 2014, 559 Indians died in Kuwait out of which 237 were due to heart attack. So about half of the untimely deaths of Indians in Kuwait were due to heart attack. The average age of those who lost their life in heart attack was 45 years. None of them was born with a heart disease. They acquired it without their knowledge.
Let us look at the factors that lead to coronary artery disease and heart attack.
First and foremost modifiable risk factor is smoking. It is a relief that less people are smoking tobacco products these days. Diabetes is now the most important risk factor due to two reasons
1. It is very common, one out of 5 has diabetes and another is on the way to developing diabetes
2. If one has diabetes, the risk for death is equal to that of a person who already had a heart attack.
Having uncontrolled diabetes raises the risk enormously and this can be reduced with good control of diabetes.
High blood pressure, bad cholesterols and low level of good cholesterol are risk factors which can be modified through proper diet and exercise. If these are not sufficient to achieve normal levels, medicines are required.
The importance of good wholesome food and exercise to attain ideal weight are very important.
The role of stress in causing a heart attack or sudden cardiac death are under- recognized and under- reported. When hormones like adrenaline and nor- adrenaline are secreted into the blood by stress, the heart rate and blood pressure increase. Also the heart can develop abnormal rhythm which can be dangerous and lead to heart attack or cardiac arrest.
So proper stress management through exercise, meditation and relaxation techniques like yoga is very important in our stressful life.
Those unfortunate people who lost their lives and the livelihood of their families would not have had a checkup and did not know that they were sitting on a silent time bomb.
How about us? How many of us know our risk for a heart attack in the next 10 years. How many of us have checked our blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and ECG in the last 6 months or 1 year?
Where can we check our risk?
The risk for heart attack and stroke can be checked at the National Health Service ( UK) associated web site.
http://www.qrisk.org/index.php
Once you fill in your details, it shows your risk for heart attack and stroke. It also calculates a notional ‘heart age’ which indicates the aging of your heart due to the risk factors. A 10 year risk of more than 10% requires action.
If anyone of us is found sitting on this time bomb, should we not defuse it for the sake our dreams and our loved ones?
How can we prevent a heart attack?
In this golden star the most prominent place is for Health awareness. This is followed by proper food and healthy life style of not smoking, proper exercise and stress management. Monitoring of risk factors especially blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure is important as these are silent killers. Keep all your medical records updated and preferably in an Electronic Medical Record ( EMR), so that when needed they can be accessed from anywhere. It would be very helpful for the doctor treating you in an emergency. Last but not the least if medicines are required to reach the normal values of sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, you should take them regularly. Many people are misinformed about medicines. Some believe that medicines once started have to be taken for the rest of the life. So they do not start the medicines in spite of their high risk. It is important to have normal blood values; otherwise the harm is more than side effects of medicines. If your blood pressure and blood parameters are controlled without medicines, tablets may not be required. You should monitor your health and ensure that the harmful parameters are kept in the harmless range.
So let us join hands to avoid these catastrophes that rob families of their bread winners and loved ones.
So I entreat you to take care of your health first and if possible spread the awareness and motivate your friends and acquaintances to take care of theirs. Like the cabin crews instruct first fix the oxygen mask on yourself and then help your neighbor. Remember an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Even if the disease process has started, let us try to stop it in its track as it is ‘better late than never’ and ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.
For a free life time EMR and for any queries log in to www.drnoble.in
Specialist- Internal Medicine and Diabetes,
Dar Al Shifa Clinic, Maidan Hawally.
For map and details
www.drnoblezachariah.com