Sandesh Bajracharya, a thirty-one-year old banker based in Kathmandu, suffered from unusual heaviness and prolonged chest pain. Upon returning from work one day, he lost consciousness. Though he survived, the sudden blackout was diagnosed as a minor heart attack. At 31, Sandesh had never even imagined he would ever suffer from one.
Blaming his tedious work hours, Sandesh says that he hardly had time to engage in physical activities. Also a chain smoker and an occasional drinker, despite not having any history of family heart attacks, his doctors alerted him that it was his unhealthy lifestyle, including lack of physical activities and continuous abuse of his body with cigarette smoking that led to the stroke.[break]
Heart attacks, for many, seem like a problem that may affect only the older generation but sudden heart problems can occur much earlier in life, says Dr Loke Bikram Thapa, Chairman of Himal Hospital.
“There are three to four types of heart attacks but the cases of attacks led by unhealthy lifestyle like excessive drinking and consuming oily foods are increasing lately,” says Thapa who is also Professor of Surgery at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences.
While making a healthier lifestyle a part of your daily routine by eating nutritious diet, maintaining normal weight, quitting smoking and drinking can be a safe bet, you can be at a greater risk if you have a family history of heart attacks.
Dr Thapa explains that the most prevalent heart problem is congenital heart disease which is caused by birth. “When the child is in the mother’s womb, the child may inherit the disease due to the genetic link which can cause it if the mother has viral infections or diseases,” he says. The symptoms of congenital heart defects may be seen at birth, later in childhood or even adulthood.
Battling her weight issues since schooldays, Sulochana Vaidya never had imagined going through a heart problem at the age of 33. Like Sandesh, she had instances of intense chest pain at times but she chose to ignore it, as she thought that the pain would subside with time. Being overweight had been of utmost concern to her since she could feel fatigue and rapid heartbeats even while taking short walks. She often felt nauseated, dizzy and pale after such walks or after hectic household chores as well.
After a regular medical checkup, she was informed of coronary artery disease (CAD), a case when the arteries of the heart are coated with fatty deposits due to high cholesterol which further restricts the proper flow of blood to the heart.
She was then asked to lower her cholesterol level and has been taking medication. But she fears of having to go through a heart bypass surgery which many people who have worse cases of CAD are advised in order to redirect the blood flow around the clogged arteries.
Dr Thapa explains how high blood pressure, diabetes, over-consumption of high-calorie fatty foods, excessive drinking and smoking invite risks of heart attacks not only to people who have crossed the age of 60 but among those in their 30s or even younger are susceptible to cases of heart problems as well.
Sulochana is more at risk as she also has a family history of heart diseases. She’s anxious since her grandfather also died of a heart-related problem at the age of 40.
According to Thapa, heart problems caused by unhealthy lifestyle are common in England and America as well due to the soaring popularity of fast food culture. Due to a lot of awareness campaigns on the ill impact of fast food, the risks of heart attacks have been reduced to some extent in such developed countries, but in the context of South Asia, including Nepal, the trend of consuming fast food has picked up over the years.
The findings of a recent research show that even abroad, the risks of gene-defective diseases or coronary heart disease and heart attacks has been higher among the Asian communities, says Thapa.
He informs that in Nepal, proper research and studies on congenital diseases haven’t been carried out and the main issue is that many people are not even properly diagnosed. He confirms that compared to earlier days, congenital heart diseases have been reduced to some extent but cases of heart attacks and heart diseases due to unhealthy lifestyle has been increasing.
“Earlier, people had no option but to walk but now people are accustomed to the easy way out which is why overweight issues are a huge problem. People consume sugary and fatty food which has increased medical ailments like diabetes as well,” he says.
Thapa talks about a case where a person who had high blood pressure had been postponing his visit to the doctor although he was warned. Without showing any symptoms, he then passed away with a sudden massive heart attack. Such cases of carelessness and ignoring the early symptoms can be severe than expected, he says.
Dr JP Jaiswal, Senior Consultant Cardiologist at Norvic Hospital, says that it’s also important to balance the Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol and High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) Cholesterol levels of our body. Since cholesterol cannot dissolve in blood, they are transported by lipoproteins like LDL and HDL. But it’s important that the HDL and LDL levels should be between 40 and 60 mg/dl which are considered normal.
“If your LDL cholesterol is high and HDL is low, it can put you to risk for a heart attack, and for instance, if your HDL is 39 mg/dl, then there’s two percent more risk of heart attacks,” he explains.
It is therefore important to get your cholesterol levels checked, as depending on your unbalanced cholesterol levels, further treatments can reduce your chances of future heart attacks.
Dr Jaiswal is of the opinion that cases of heart attacks among youth are also high among those who are addicted to drugs like cocaine and marijuana.
According to Dr Kamal Raj Thapa, physician at Bir Hospital, 20 percent of the total population of the country is suffering from hypertension which is considered one of the major risk factors of heart attacks.
He explains that the primary causes of heart attacks can be usually unknown, but among the younger population, it is mostly caused by obesity, alcohol, smoking and lack of physical activities. The secondary causes of such attacks are due to kidney diseases, high blood pressure, thyroids or sometimes due to overuse of oral contraceptives and painkillers as well.
There are curative approaches after the early symptoms occur in both cases of mild and severe attacks where the patients can undergo treatments. But Dr Thapa advises that it is better if we follow both preventive and promotive approaches which involve enhancing your current health condition by adopting healthy lifestyle even if you don’t have any diseases.
“Young people should be active and should increase their resistance by leading a healthy lifestyle before they become victims of severe heart attack which can be totally avoided in their age,” he suggests.
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