World Heart Day: Use heart for action, a mindful approach to staying heart healthy

World Heart Day theme emphasises proactive lifestyle changes to prevent cardiovascular diseases; start early, stay consistent for heart health.

This year’s World Heart Day theme “Use heart for action” is a call to action at every level from individuals to families and communities to think proactively and modify day-to-day lifestyle choices to curb the burgeoning global heart disease epidemic.

As a preventive cardiologist working with cardiac patients and at-risk individuals in India for the past decade, the main message I would like to emphasise on this day is “Start early and do it consistently”. This is the only way to stay away from cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack, stroke, heart failure and arrhythmias, which today are the leading causes of death and disability worldwide.

While people are better aware about the importance of exercise and diet in protecting their heart health, it is true that they are struggling to incorporate effective lifestyle changes on a regular basis. When work gets demanding, when household chores are spiralling, when a new role is overpowering or when a loved one needs constant care, all attempts to stay physically fit and eat healthy fall apart.

The biggest hurdle to healthy lifestyle in the current day and age across all age groups of people is addiction to gadgets. It is definitely an addiction in the true sense. You might just open your gadget for a short break from work or studies and before you realise it, you would have spent hours on social media or binge watched all episodes of your favourite show. We have learnt to associate tobacco, alcohol and recreational drugs to addictive behaviours but fail to recognise the addictive power of gadgets.

A lifestyle built with healthy blocks like regular exercise, balanced diet, healthy body weight,emotional wellbeing, adequate sleep, mindfulness and quality time for loved ones has been proven to be the best defence against almost all the diseases that are rampant today. Diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol abnormalities, cardiovascular disease, liver dysfunction, kidney ailments, chronic lung diseases, joint disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, fertility problems and some cancers and psychosocial illnesses are all caused by unhealthy lifestyle.

We now know that even individuals with a strong genetic predisposition to these diseases can prevent the “illness trap” by choosing the healthy building blocks and getting regular medical checks as these are “epigenes” and will manifest only if the lifestyle and environment are conducive.

The current international guidelines recommend getting the first cardiovascular health check at the age of 20 years. With a medical assessment that includes body mass index, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar, electrocardiogram (ECG), a detailed health history and health-related lifestyle evaluation, we are able to provide the individual with a risk profile along with an action plan to reduce cardiovascular risk through lifestyle changes, medications or both.