HEALTH ARTICLE WORTH PONDER
UPON
心脏病常识,防范远胜於治疗
Subject:
Dr. Devi Shettry-VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
One of the best & most renowned
Heart surgeons we have in India today.
A chat with Dr.Devi
Shetty (Heart Specialist),
Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore was arranged
by WIPRO for its employees .
The transcript of the chat is given below.
Useful for everyone.
Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take
care of his heart?
Ans:
1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of
protein, less oil
2. Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a
week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit
smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and
sugar
Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?
Ans:
No
Qn: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy
person
gets a cardiac arrest.. How do we understand it in
perspective?
Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend
everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.
Qn: Are
heart diseases hereditary?
Ans: Yes
Qn: What are the ways in which
the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?
Ans:
Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in
life.
Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise
required to keep a healthy heart?
Ans : Walking is better than jogging
since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints
Qn: You have
done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?
Ans:
Mother Theresa , who was my patient
Qn: Can people with low blood
pressure suffer heart diseases?
Ans: Extremely rare
Qn: Does
cholesterol accumulates right from an early age
(I'm currently only 22)
or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of
age?
Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.
Qn: How do
irregular eating habits affect the heart ?
Ans: You tend to eat junk food
when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets
confused.
Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using
medicines?
Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.
Qn: Can yoga
prevent heart ailments?
Ans: Yoga helps.
Qn: Which is the best and
worst food for the heart?
Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the
worst is oil.
Qn: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower,
olive?
Ans: All oils are bad .
Qn: What is the routine checkup one
should go through? Is there any specific test?
Ans: Routine blood test to
ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an
echo.
Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart
attack?
Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position , place an aspirin
tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a
coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first
hour.
Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack
and that caused due to gastric trouble?
Ans: Extremely difficult without
ECG.
Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems
amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks
and serious heart pr oblems.
Ans: Increased awareness has increased
incidents.. Also, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in
a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart
attacks than Europeans and Americans.
Qn: Is it possible for a person to
have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly
healthy?
Ans: Yes.
Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead
to heart problems for the child. Is it true?
Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity
leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a
child
Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we
have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart ? What
precautions would you recommend?
Ans : When you are young, nature
protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older,
respect the biological clock.
Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs
cause some other compli cations (short / long term)?
Ans : Yes, most
drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti- hypertensive drugs are
extremely safe.
Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart
attacks?
Ans : No.
Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart
disease?
Ans : No.
Qn: How would you define junk food?
Ans
: Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas, and even masala
dosas..
Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable.
What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also eat a lot of junk
food?
Ans: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately,
Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.
Qn: Does consuming
bananas help reduce hypertension?
Ans : No.
Qn: Can a person help
himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on
this)?
Ans : Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of any
description unde r the tongue and ask someone to take you to the nearest
coronary care unit without any delay and do not wait for the ambulance since
most of the time, the ambulance does not turn up.
Qn: Do, in any way, low
white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?
Ans :
No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise
capacity.
Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to
exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the
stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise?
Ans : Certainly.
Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of
getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a
lot.
Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood
sugar?
Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more
vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.
Qn: What are the things
one needs to take care of after a heart operation?
Ans : Diet, exercise,
drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight.
Qn: Are people working
on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift
workers?
Ans : No.
Qn: What are the modern anti- hypertensive
drugs?
Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the
right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and
go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to
reduce
weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.
Qn: Does dispirin or
similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?
Ans :
No.
Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in
women?
Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.
Qn: How can
one keep the heart in a good condition?
Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid
junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkup s if you
are past the age of 30 ( once in six months recommended) ..
Send it to
all your friends whom u care about
…..
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C J Shah, Mumbai, India