

Dr. Haresh Mehta
Dr. Haresh MehtaInterventional Cardiologist, S.L.Raheja Fortis Hospital

Alarming rate of heart diseases in Indian youth

Oct 05, 2015, 06.49 AM IST
Couple of decades ago, heart disease affected mostly men in their 50s and 60s. Now, it’s affecting more women and men in their mid-20s. This shift has been prominent and alarming.

CAD in Indians is more aggressive and it manifests at a younger age than in rest of the world population. Generally any CAD which occurs before the age of 55 years in male and before the age of 65 years is termed as premature CAD. On the other hand any CAD which occurs before the age of 40 is termed as CAD in young. In western countries the incidence of CAD is less than 5 percent whereas in Indians it is around 12-16 percent.

In one study it was found that the incidence rate of first heart attack was five times higher in Indian Men as compared to European Men, further it was observed the mean age was five years lower in Indian men as compared to European me (50 vs 55). In India of all the First heart attacks which occurred before age of 55 upto 25 % of those occur in those who are younger than 40.

India has the highest incidence of diabetes mellitus. Similar to the incidence of early CAD in Indians, diabetes also occurs earlier in Indians and it is more severe as compared to the rest of the world. This further complicates the heart disease. Diabetes is by itself an independent risk factor for heart disease. Also the symptoms are masked in patients with severe long standing diabetes mellitus.

Another important risk factor is high blood pressure. The causes of high blood pressure are various but usually most of the patients develop essential hypertension i.e hypertension in which one cannot pin point and accurate precipitating factor. The problem of high blood pressure is further compounded due to higher salt intake. High salt intake is usually caused to due to the habit of consuming processed and canned food rather than consuming freshly cooked food. Further the habit of consuming fast foods and Chinese foods have contributed substantially to the problem of blood pressure.

The problem of inactive lifestyle is totally a phenomenon of modernized and westernized India. Few decades back India was largely an agricultural nation, with most of the population earning their lively- hood working hard in the farms and fields. This kept them very active. The amount of sugar and fat consumption in diet was also low as compared to what we consume in today’s times. Due to globalization more number of Indian youth are involved in service sector and related jobs in the present time. This has led to an increase in desk and sedentary jobs with increased disposable income as compared to the past.

Another alarming trend seen in Indian youth is the habit of smoking, tobacco chewing, alcoholism and drug addictions. With westernized lifestyle more and more young Indians are taking on to the habit smoking, high alcohol intake and drug abuse. It is very well known that smoking leads to various problems. The most important of them are heart diseases and cancer. A smoker is almost 10 times more prone to develop sudden heart attack as compared to a nonsmoker. The cause of this is due the content of a cigarette and tobacco.

Cigarettes and tobacco when consumed release chemical called nicotine along with other chemicals. This causes the blood vessels to get inflamed and in turn increases the tendency of blood to clot inside them. Once blood starts forming a clot inside the vessels it leads to viscous cycle of more clot formation. Finally the whole blood vessel is choked up with a blood clot and the person gets a heart attack. Alcoholism on the other hand increases the accumulation of the fat in inside the blood vessels along with increased tendency of blood clot formation thus causing a heart attack. Another newer trend seen in young Indians is drug abuse namely those like cocaine. These drugs cause the blood vessel to get completely squeezed without any underlying cause. This in turn hampers the blood supply to the heart and the person gets a heart attack.


About Dr. Haresh Mehta

Spanning a career of over 15 years in Interventional Cardiology, Dr Haresh Mehta  has over 10000 independent interventional cases to his credit performing majority of his interventional cases from the transradial route. Dr. Haresh Mehta has trained in coronary and pediatric interventions at University Hospital Bern Switzerland and peripheral, carotid and renal interventions at s Lenox Hill Hospital, New York.

appiIMAIDAHealthcare Federation of IndiaAIMENeoCon2015