For a healthy heart

The urban population has shown nine fold increase in incidence of coronary heart disease, while there is a two fold increase in rural population. But then, ensuring a healthy heart is not as monumental a task as it would seem to some. A cardiologist of PGI has made understanding the way the heart functions and minimising the risk factors simple. The book, You and Your Healthy Heart; It is not worth dying for by Dr Anil Grover focusses on how to prevent heart diseases. quot;A simple graduate can understand my book,quot; says Dr Grover. The key, he adds, is the patient8217;s participation. quot;Loose weight, cut down on alcohol and no smoking please 8211; if you want a good heart,quot; he advises. An additional kilogram of extra body mass means three kilometers additional long arteries and veins for heart pump blood into 8211; so better heed what the weighing machine tells you.

Talking about calorie consciousness among people, Dr Grover says that using the much-advertised cholestrol free cooking oils does not mean you are safe from heart attacks. The emphasis should be on consuming polysaturated fats, they do not add a thick fat layer to your body like saturated fats. The book suggests that those who are above 40 and have a history of heart disease in the family, no chest pain should be taken lightly. Even pain in the upper part of abdomen can be angina. Dr Grover feels that the most important way to prevent heart problems is to start young. Ideally the child should be checked at the age of three for heart problems. Health care at the school level is essential. Obese school kids are likely to turn into future heart patients. quot;Without a health care system at the school level a nation can8217;t progress,quot; he points out. The book, he says, will serve its purpose if it could reduce the load of 5 million patients of coronary heart diseases in India even by one percent.

Low birth weight babies are more prone to heart diseases in the later part of the life. Nine months spent in the womb of mother are more significant then 70 years spent after. A malnourished foetus put to stress leads to low birth weight babies. Early warning signs of stress should be heeded in order to avoid heart disease. These can be divided into emotional, behavioural and physical sings. The emotional signs are apathy a feeling of sadness, recreation that is no longer pleasurable; anxiety; irritability; mental fatigue and overcompensation or denial exaggerating the importance of your activities to yourself and others.

The behavioural signs are avoiding things keeping to yourself, neglecting or avoiding work; doing things to extremes viz. alcoholism, gambling, spending sprees, sexual promiscuity; administrative problems being late to work, poor appearance, poor personal hygiene, being accident-prone and legal problems indebtedness, shoplifting, violation of traffic rules, inability to control violent impulses.

The physical signs are excessive worrying about, or denial of illness; frequent illness; physical exhaustion; reliance on self medication and ailments headache, insomnia, appetite changes, weight gain or loss, indigestion, nausea, nervous diarrhoea, constipation, sexual problems.

The ideal way to go through life, says Dr Grover, is to maintain both physiological and emotional balance. People who take life in their stride instead of struggling against it can respond to a true crisis with reserves that are adequae.