Exclusive: Sidharth Shukla succumbed to heart attack - can smoking, diabetes be possible reasons?

Actor Sidharth Shukla died of a heart attack at the age of 40. Hypertension, type 2 diabetes, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, excess stress, genetic history of cardiovascular diseases are some of the reasons younger people are getting heart attacks.

New Delhi: Actor Sidharth Shukla died on Thursday (September 2) at the age of 40. A heart attack was reported to be the reason behind his sudden demise. However, doctors at the Cooper Hospital have said the reason behind his shocking death will be established after the post-mortem. Earlier, actress Mandira Bedi’s director husband Raj Kaushal died due to a cardiac arrest at the age of 49. Gujarati film actor Amit Mistry also succumbed to a heart attack in April this year at the age of 47. The death of celebrities who are in their 40s due to heart attack points to a larger trend of relatively younger people suffering from cardiac arrest. It was earlier believed that heart disease is a problem suffered by senior people - who are already weak and often have comorbidities. But not anymore. Research presented at the 2019 conference of the American College of Cardiology states that in the United States, 20 percent of people who have a heart attack are 40 years old or younger; a rate that has risen 2 percent a year for the last 10 years. The study also observed that young patients with heart attacks are at a similar risk of dying as compared to their older counterparts. The trend of decrease in the age group suffering from cardiovascular diseases is observed in other countries as well.