A chat with a heart specialist.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his
heart?

Ans:

1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil

2. Exercise - Half an hour’s walk, at least five days a week;
avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime

3. Quit smoking

4. Control weight

5. Control blood pressure and
sugar

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?

Ans: No

Qn: It’s still a grave shock to hear that some apparently
healthy person

gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?

Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend
everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?

Ans: Yes

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What
practices do you suggest to de-stress?

Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for
perfection in everything in life.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive
exercise required to keep a healthy heart?

Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to
early fatigue and injury to joints

Qn: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has
inspired you to do so?

Ans: Mother Theresa , who was my patient

Qn: Can people with low blood pressure
suffer heart diseases?

Ans: Extremely rare

Qn: Does cholesterol accumulates right from an early age

(I’m currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only
after you are above 30 years of age?

Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from
childhood.

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart ?

Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular
and your body’s enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using
medicines?

Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?

Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for
the heart?

Ans: Fruits
and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.

Qn: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower, olive?

Ans: All oils are bad .

Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there
any specific test?

Ans: Routine blood test to ensure
sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill
test after an echo.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?

Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position , place an aspirin tablet under
the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him
to a coronary care unit since the
maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart
attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?

Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart
problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of
age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.

Ans: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, s edentary
lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country
where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for
heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal
range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?

Ans: Yes.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems
for the child. Is it true?

Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital
abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer
as a child

Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these
irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the
biological clock.

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other
complications (short / long term)?

Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern
anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?

Ans : No.

Qn: How would you define junk food?

Ans : Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas, and even
masala dosas.

Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable.
What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also
eat a lot of junk food?

Ans: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and
unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive
disease.

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?

Ans : No.

Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we
see a lot of forwarded emails on this)?

Ans : Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of
any description under the tongue and ask someone to take you to
the nearest coronary care unit without any delay and do not
wait for the ambulance since most of the time, the ambulance
does not turn up.

Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood
cells and low hemoglobin
count lead to heart problems?

Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your
exercise capacity.

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to
exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or
climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for
exercise?

Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half
an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going
to another chair and sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?

Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more
vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart
operation?

Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control
cholesterol, BP, weight.

Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day
shift workers?

Ans : No.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?

Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose
the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to
avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood
pressure by walk, diet to

reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk
of heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?

Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?

Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday,
do not smoke and, go for health checkup
s if you are past the age of 30 ( once
in six months recommended) ….