Treating the Modern Scourge of Coronary Heart Disease

Hi! I'm Dr. Saurabh Juneja, Chief Cardiac Surgeon at Metro Heart Institute and Multispeciality at Faridabad.

I will be speaking today on emphasizing the importance of prevention of coronanry artery disease. As we know coronary artery disease has emerged the biggest cause of death in the entire population. It causes more deaths than cancer also. So we should know about it and how to prevent it if possible. The younger population between 20 to 40 is being seen more and more getting effected by this scourge of coronary artery disease of which is like an epidemic in India. Because of the lifestyle changes, because of diabetes, because of smoking and because of the lifestyle which the younger generation adopts the stressful lifestyles and the stress with the corporate jobs. This causes tall and the heart. So we should try to reduce the risk factors which are very important in preventing possible coronary artery disease. So we can start with a very basic test like the blood pressure test which should be less than 140 systolic and 90 diastolic. Ideal should be 130 by 80. And how to reduce blood pressure and ensure that it doesn’t increase, a healthy lifestyle of fruit and vegetables and less of processed and fast foods will ensuring a normotensive patient and regular exercise at least 30 minutes of exercise, some kind of aerobic exercise 5 days a week is important for achieving this heart rate. How will you know that what exercise you are doing is adequate? Your heart rate you should be able to feel your heart beating, it should be fast enough and you will also be sweating at that time. So that is that will be a rough idea to know that yes this exercise is what you are doing is helpful. Just strolling is not helpful, it’s better than sitting on the couch but it’s not helpful. The second figure which we should know about is Cholesterol. Cholesterol should be checked. This cholesterol should be less than 200, the triglycerides should be less than 150, the good cholesterol the HDL should be more than 40 and the LDL should be less than 130 in a normal person or if in a diabetic should be less than 70. So again a healthy diet will ensure that yes the cholesterol is within the range. If it’s more than we can identify and treat accordingly by medications. Another factor is controlling the sugar, fasting sugar should be less than 110, and also knowing your body mass index is also helpful i.e. the ration of your weight and the height which should be less than 25. If it’s more than 25 one comes under over weight and if it comes more than 28 then one comes under obese. So they are more predisposed to heart disease. Smoking is a definite know, smoking per cig increases the risk of heart attack by at least double and when stopping smoking will reduce the chances of heart attack by 50%. So the importance of smoking cannot be overemphasized. So I would like to again emphasize that yes prevention and early detection of heart disease is very important and if we can identify any risk factor which are there or any problem which is there then we can you know prevented and treated accordingly by medications or timely stenting or bypass surgery.

So we should all get our heart checked and prevention is better than cure that is our mantra.