Stress, Junk Food, Pollution Among Reasons For Rising Cardiac Arrests Among Youth: Dr Naresh Trehan

New Delhi [India] : In a worrying trend, heart attacks, which were previously believed to affect only older individuals, have been equally prevalent among younger people in recent years.

In fact, heart diseases contribute significantly to global deaths and their prevalence has risen in India in the recent past.

Leading health experts have attributed the rising cardiac arrests and related issues to fast-paced modern-day living and subtle alterations in habits in keeping with the changing times.

In a conversation, Dr Naresh Trehan, a world-renowned cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon, said the stress around everyday living and pollution are taking a toll on people and contributing to a significant spike in cardiac events, including among younger people.

‘There are multiple reasons. We know that India is the capital of coronary artery disease. As part of our modern-day lifestyle, we struggle to avoid the consumption of junk or fast food and beverages with high sodium content. Such habits are contributing majorly to incidents of cardiac arrest. The stress of daily existence and the pollution are taking their toll on us,’ Dr. Trehan, who is also the chairman and managing director of Medanta Medicity, told.

Dr. Trehan said several factors, including the toxic air and runaway pollution levels in the national capital, are contributing significantly to health risks.

‘…So all these things put together, we know that people who are living in an environment like Delhi where the AQI is very poor, are at greater risk of high blood pressure and lung diseases. When such cases go up, heart-related ailments aren’t far behind,’ he added.

‘We need to understand that in this current environment, we cope with the different elements that are producing higher incidents of heart disease, especially among the younger populace. Several young people are falling prey to cardiac events. This is a matter of concern for us,’ Dr. Trehan added.

On the steps being suggested by the Medanta Hospital for preventing heart ailments, Dr. Trehan said the doctors at the hospital are working on predictive medicine to ensure protection from increasing heart, diabetes and cancer-related problems.

‘So there are a lot of things that we can do to keep people from falling prey to such ailments. We call it personalised medicine or predictive medicine. This is what we are working on at Medanta very intensely.

We are helping many of our patients today by telling them what the risk factors are, what the chances are, how they need to modify their lives and avoid stress,’ he said.