BENGALURU: Our health conscience wakes up intermittently to the news of a young celebrity death due to a heart attack and moves back to deep sleep even as heart attacks continue to strike young individuals every day. Post such reports, there’s a sudden flurry of panic-stricken young individuals visiting hospitals seeking consultation about their doubtful, probable symptoms.
It has become more routine, yet concerning to hear young sportspersons, TV stars who are regarded as youth icons suffering a heart attack. There is no single cause but a cluster of potentially-synergistic risk factors which lead to a heart attack. Our classical understanding says that a heart attack strikes men above 45 years and women above 55 years. But there is an alarming trend of those under 45 experiencing heart attacks.
Our experience in day-to-day practice echoes the same, wherein 2-3 patients out of 10 fall in this age group. Even though countries like USA and Sweden are witnessing a drop in overall number of heart attacks every year due to increased health awareness, the rest of the world is uniformly witnessing a rising trend of heart attacks at a young age.
India is also witness to an urban-rural divide in heart attacks wherein it strikes urban youth more commonly than the rural. Some of the factors identified are increased consumption of processed, energy-dense food and dependence on machines for physical work with sedentary lifestyle, along with early age occurrence of comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity, tobacco use and alcohol use.
Adding to this, Covid only worsened it further with a sudden boost in doorstep services. Patients themselves admit that they spend almost up to 16 hours with a loss of a work-life divide. This in turn has led further to more stress, monotony and lack of recreation. Regardless of age group, early identification of a heart attack is key to survival and effective treatment.
Symptoms
Severe persistent chest pain with profuse sweating, heaviness or tightness in chest with breathing difficulty and extreme fatigue.
Contrary to popular understanding, chest pain need not be left sided
Flickering sensation on chest, lasting a few seconds at a location on chest, which they can point with one finger. The safest practice in such situation is to seek help
Key factors
Indian food is high on carbohydrates (rice, wheat) and oils (fried food), however, lacks severely on proteins and other essential nutritional content like fruits, vegetables and nuts. A balanced diet is key to changing our food habits
We need to know our vital numbers like weight, BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels
A health check at least once in 2-3 years serves the purpose of early identification of risk factors, hence early initiation of treatment measures
(The writer is consultant interventional cardiologist, Manipal Hospitals Whitefield)