“How can he have a heart attack so soon? He was so fit."
In the recent past, seeing the incidents related to heart attack, everyone is asking the same question. There was a time when heart attack was considered a disease of the elderly, but nowadays people in their 30s and 40s are also falling prey to it. In the last one or two years, the sudden death of many eminent personalities like Bigg Boss winner Siddharth Shukla, playback singer KK or comedian Raju Srivastava just last week has shocked people.
It is becoming difficult for people to believe that even these celebrities who are so alert about their health and fitness can get a heart attack. People generally have a belief that heart diseases can be avoided by doing regular workouts and controlling your diet. This is also true to a large extent, but the events that have happened in the present era have forced people to think again. Gradually, people are becoming aware of the symptoms of heart attack and the ways to avoid it.
At this time, the cases of heart attacks among the youth are increasing very fast. According to WHO [1], heart diseases account for 45% of all deaths in the age group of 40-69 years in India.
Studies [2] also found that heart diseases affect Indians at least a decade earlier in life than Europeans. In fact, heart diseases account for the maximum loss of productive life years in India. Statistics related to the loss of working years show that in the year 2000 this figure was 9.2 million years, which is expected to double to 17.9 million years by 2030. [3]
So why is India's young generation falling prey to heart attacks?
Firstly, Indians have a higher genetic predisposition [4] to heart disease. Secondly, due to the change in the lifestyle of youth in our country, diseases like type-2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and bad cholesterol are increasing rapidly. These diseases further increase the risk of heart attack.
But why are people who are fit and young to see heart attack?
Rapidly changing lifestyle, relationship issues and wrong eating habits are also to some extent responsible for this. Excessive stress due to office work, not taking care of your daily routine, sleeping too little and habits like excessive alcohol and cigarette smoking can cause your heart to get sick.
Is stress the main cause of heart attack?
The way of working has changed a lot in the last few years. Most of the youth do such jobs where the competition is very high. They are always angry and tense due to the target they get every month, the continuous workload for many hours and the new challenges they get everyday.
Meanwhile, the Kovid-19 epidemic [5] also increased many difficulties in the lives of the people. Many people lost their near and dear ones in this epidemic, some lost their jobs and some themselves remained in the grip of this disease for many days. Due to these reasons also the stress level of people increased on a large scale.
These are all reasons, apart from this, social media has also become the main source of stress for many people, despite all its benefits. People start feeling jealous inside on seeing people's fan following on social media or photos related to their country-abroad trips and expensive lifestyle. Their attention shifts from their own life to what is happening in the lives of others. They start getting annoyed that they are not able to enjoy their life like their friends are doing on social media. All these things increase your stress level somewhere.
Let us tell you that when you are under a lot of stress, a stress hormone called 'cortisol' is released in the body. This hormone reduces the flow of blood going to the heart, due to which the heart does not get the necessary oxygen and nutrients.
Although it does not reach the heart immediately, but increased levels of cortisol due to prolonged stress can increase problems like bad cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure in your body. Due to these problems, plaque starts accumulating in the arteries, which in itself is a reason for heart attack.
That's why it is most important that you reduce your stress level. There are many ways to reduce stress at this time. You can take the help of a counselor or do yoga and meditation under the supervision of an expert. First of all reduce the habit of multitasking in your daily routine. Prioritize your work and do only those things which are most important.
If you do not have time left to work, then feel free to refuse the person in front of you for any kind of new work. If you are in trouble, do not hesitate to ask for help from your close friends. Remember that stress is like slow poison, so never let it dominate your life.
There is a connection between sleep and heart attack.
The jobs of many youths are such that they have to deal with their clients sitting abroad. Working with people from different time zones disturbs their own sleeping pattern. At the same time, the craze of new films and series releasing every week on the OTT platform has also made it difficult for people to sleep. Alam is that at the time when people should get enough sleep, at that time they are continuously watching 6 to 8 hours long series in the name of binge watching.
These habits gradually cause great harm to the health. Due to lack of sleep, the hormones in the body start getting unbalanced. This causes problems like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases which increase the risk of heart attack. A recent research [6] revealed that people who sleep less than 6 hours a night have a 20% higher risk of heart attack.
Watch what you eat too
Nowadays ordering food online is very much in trend. The youth feel that it also saves time and gives them a break from boring meals at home. Advertisements of soft drinks and fast-food by many celebrities on TV and social media also further promote these habits.
While the truth is that these fast food and packaged drinks contain things like refined flour, sugar, salt and preservatives in excess. By consuming these things several days a week, you are inviting heart diseases. Apart from this, the traditional diet of India is deficient in Vitamin D [7] and Omega-3 fatty acids [8] from the very beginning, whereas these are considered very important for heart health.
That's why you should include things rich in omega fatty acids such as fish, walnuts, flax seeds and green vegetables in your diet. Also, for vitamin D, walk in the sun for some time daily and take vitamin D supplement.
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Exercise: neither reduce nor too much
If you are relaxing sitting on the sofa at home all day or working for hours sitting at the same place in the office, then these are not good habits at all in terms of heart health. Avoid sitting in one place for a long time, rather take a short walk every half-an-hour. If you want to talk to someone on the phone in the office, then walk and talk, use the stairs instead of the lift.
It is true that doing regular exercise is good for heart health, but without consulting a doctor, the risk of heart attack immediately increases in those who do heavy workouts. This is true to a great extent for those people who are already at high risk of heart attack due to lifestyle or genetic reasons or due to some kind of blockage in the heart.
That's why before starting heavy workouts, get your heart checked by a doctor once and proceed only on the basis of his advice.
What to do if you already have heart patients in your family?
Genetic reasons for heart attack cannot be ignored. It is true that now you cannot change your genes or DNA, but it is in your hands to reduce some risk factors of heart attack.
It is better to have cardiac screening tests such as ECG, Echocardiogram, Stress test, Cardiac CT or Triglycerides and blood sugar test, Homocysteine at least once in a year or in two years. ) etc. must get the tests done. If there are already some people in your family who are heart patients, then start getting this test done only after the age of 30.
Are you more prone to heart diseases due to unhealthy lifestyle? Now get all the important tests related to heart health done at an affordable price, click now.
when to go to the doctor
Several days before a heart attack, your body starts giving some initial signals. Let us first know about these signs:
- feeling of heaviness in the chest
- chest pain
- pain in the throat, jaw, abdomen, or upper back
- chest tightness or burning sensation
- pain in one or both arms
- breathlessness
Many times, when the youth see any of these symptoms, they live in the misconception that they are not of the age to have a heart attack, they are the symptoms of acidity or some other disease. Do not hide the symptoms of heart attack, but if you see any symptoms again and again, go and get yourself checked.
Think of your heart health like your savings account. Whenever you are taking nutritious food, exercising or living a stress free life, it means that you are investing in increasing the quality of your life. These small changes will completely reduce the risk of heart diseases from your life.
(This article was reviewed by Dr. Rakesh Bishnoi , Medical Editor .)
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