REPUBLIC DAY OF HEART HEALTH

We are a nation of 137 crore people and our heart beats for our country . Republic Day  signifies the transition of this country from a disorganized country to an organized republic  and we all are proud of this.

In the Republic of health the engine  of our body is our heart . It beats  more than 220 crore times  on an average and pumps millions of liters of blood to every part of body till the last beat. This circulation of blood  carries  energy, oxygen, hormones , building blocks and all the blood cells  in the most democratic way to every  tissue of body .  All the toxic waste are also cleared by the same blood universally from whole body parts. No wonder our body’s constitution runs in the most effective and impartial way .

Can something go wrong in the Heart Nation ?

 Heart can also malfunction or fail and the key disease  causing this is atherosclerosis which is blockage deposition in arteries. This leads to dangerous diseases like Heart attacks, Paralytic strokes, renal dysfunction, peripheral artery disease etc.

Blockages in the heart arteries  called as coronary heart disease is the biggest killer of both men and women . It kills more than  one third of men and more than 25  percent of women making it  bigger killer of women than  cancer.

Knowing the risks of coronary heart disease

 Everyone of us know lifestyle has got a very direct link with our health . Heart health is an area which is particularly linked very  strongly with our Lifestyle choices like our exercise, diet, rest, our smoking and addictions and our stress levels.

 If you are overweight  or if you have diabetes , unhealthy diet or lifestyle , are consuming tobacco or smoking all these put you at risk of suffering from heart attack or coronary heart disease

Although coronary heart disease has got hereditary link and it happens more commonly in families but lifestyle causes major occurrence of this disease. You may have heart disease in your family  but by the lifestyle you choose you can either bring forward it by 10 or 20 years or delay it by 10 or 20 years.

Knowing the symptoms of the disease

It is important for all of us to know symptoms of coronary heart disease. These can be  breathlessness during work or exercise , chest burning or pain or  weight on your chest that makes you uncomfortable while doing exercise or while walking or while taking stairs.

Although there is increase awareness about heart disease and it’s risk factors it is occurring in  increasing numbers to people who do right with their bodies or who do wrong with their bodies. so it is very  important to screen the heart diseases and diagnose them at the right time for every one

Screening for coronary heart diseases

Screening for coronary heart disease is now very easy and convenient. After knowing your risk profile your doctor will do some basic tests like blood sugar, blood cholesterol , ECG and he may get an  echocardiogram of the heart or stress test ( TMT ) of the heart.

This test are usually sufficient to confidently diagnose or rule out coronary heart disease. Further advanced and sophisticated test like CT angiography or calcium scoring or angiography can be done

Angiography is a test in which a very thin plastic tube is inserted in your arteries and picture of heart arteries is taken in a hospital setting. This test is usually not done as a screening test but it is done by cardiologist when there is strong suspicion of coronary heart disease or when the patient has already has suffered from a heart attack .

Treatment of coronary heart disease

Treatment of heart blockages for coronary heart disease depends on the patient factors and various other factors & your cardiologist is the best judge.

Treatment can be just medicines and lifestyle improvement  or  angioplasty and stenting or doing some surgery like coronary bypass surgery. Most of the time during angiography if there are critical blockages in your arteries then the cardiologist can open this blockages just by inflating balloon and putting some stents. This is called as angioplasty. Angioplasty is now an established and very safe procedure done routinely by heart specialist in millions of Indians every year.

Some sicker  patients may require modalities like pacemaker insertion or ventricular assist devices.

Pledge on this Republic day

On this 60th republic day of India we will be taking pledge for our constitution and our nation . Let us also take  a pledge for our self , our health and  our heart  and keep our self away from the killer heart diseases.

Jai Hind, Jai Health ………