In a festive season filled with celebrations, health gets relegated to the back of the mind. It also happens to be the perfect time to remind ourselves that cardiac problems have emerged as a major worry across India. We are facing the risk factors contributing to cardiovascular diseases—including diabetes, hypertension and obesity—at a higher rate and younger age than most other population groups in the world. The average age of people reporting cardiac disease symptoms in India is said to be a decade younger than those in Western countries. Apart from being a grave public health concern, the trend poses a serious question on the quality of India’s workforce.
Heart-related insurance claims have shot up from 9-12 percent of all claims in 2019-20 to 18-20 percent in 2023-24, reflecting the growing prevalence of cardiac issues. Apart from genetic predisposition, the main reasons for this are increasingly sedentary lifestyles, poor nutrition made worse by higher consumption of ultra-processed foods, liquor and sugary drinks, widespread smoking and other tobacco habits, and stress and anxiety related to work. While prevention would mean cutting down on vices, correcting dietary habits and increasing physical activity through appropriate exercises, a crucial aspect would be to establish an effective scanning system to detect heart diseases before the first symptoms show up; preventive treatments and corrective measures can follow.
Health experts and medical researchers need to constantly keep an eye out for newer methods in prevention. For instance, researchers at University of Virginia’s department of biomedical engineering have tapped magnetic resonance imaging or MRI scans of the heart to detect excessive fat accumulation in the epicardial tissue to identify individuals who could develop cardiac problems in the future and initiate non-invasive preventive treatments.
Well-structured awareness programmes for the people in every corner of the country, coupled with elaborate health scanning in general and cardiac scanning in particular can drastically cut down heart problems and mortality. The problem is staring in the face of the health machinery at the central and state levels—it’s time they tackled it head on. The stakeholders need to realise that it directly affects the quality of the country’s human resources. Any complacency on that front could prove unimaginably costly in the years to come.