Be Heart Smart

On February 13, the in-camera event ‘How to be heart smart’ by practicing cardiologist Rtn. (Dr.) Sharukh Golwalla, and hosted by Rtn. Anil and Rtn. Ptn. Honey Harish, brought many eye-openers. Sharukh discussed relevant cardio issues with attending Rotarians.

A) Type A personality or A stressed individual:
Type A personality are the ones that are ambitious, aggressive, agitated, angry and anxious. They are hyper individuals and predisposed to heart issues. Train your brain to diffuse stressful situations.

B) Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure:
BMI tells you whether your weight is normal (below 25) overweight (25-30) obese (30-35) and if you arr beyond that then you are morbidly obese. How does this affect our heart? The cardiologists say, longer the waistline, shorter the lifeline.

C) Cigarette smoking and couch potatoes:
Cigarette smoking is any person consuming nicotine, whether he smokes it or chews it. There is always an issue of having heart related issues from nicotine. Couch potatoes are individuals who only exercise their forks and knives. Cardiology journals say that 5000 steps in 24 hours is reasonably good activity to maintain heart health.

D) Diabetics:
A good number is a three-month average called the glycosylated haemoglobin which should be below 7.

E) Environment:
Non-smokers are smoking an equivalent of 10 cigarettes a day. The recent noise pollution is potent enough to raise your blood pressure and create blockage in your arteries.

F) Family history of heart disease:
A cholesterol test called LPA is a marker that a person with family history is prone to future heart disease. Unfortunately, there is no one form of medication. All we can do is lower bad cholesterol, LDL, of the genetic cases, below 100. A change in lifestyle can be beneficial.

G) Gout:
Genetically high uric acid or factors in your lifestyle may increase uric acid. If it is high, it may harm the arteries, kidneys and cause premature thickening of arteries. A good number of uric acid is below 6, upper limit is 7. Factors that cause high uric acid are alcohol, red meat and shellfish, excess of caffeine intake and overweight individuals.

H) Hyperlipidemia:
High cholesterol and high triglycerides. Alcohol, sweet intake, lack of exercise, weight gain adds to triglycerides. HDL was considered good cholesterol a few years ago. Ten years later and after a lot of money spent by the pharma industry, it was realised that HDL did not make any difference to longevity. Homocysteine: a protein in the blood which is genetically high protein. Below 10 is acceptable. Or, it can cause premature blockages in arteries.

Holiday Heart Syndrome:
guys who consume alcohol on the weekends and binge drink, land up in the hospital with a heart condition called Atrial Fibrillation. So drink in moderation.