Have a heart: 20-40 age group is at high risk

When it comes to heart diseases, the thirties, it seems, are the new fifties. If the typical heart patient until five years back was in his five years back was in his mid-fifties, doctors say this no longer holds true. Now, the man with blockages in his heart is most probably in the 30-39 age group and with another health complication such as diabetes or hypertension.

The Saffolalife Study 2009, covering 8,469 people, found that 49.1% Indians were at high risk for developing heart diseases. On the eve of World Heart Day, the multi-city survey found that this bunch’s vital heart statistic — the ratio of total cholesterol and good cholesterol (called HDL) — is too high at 4.5 to be termed healthy. The American Heart Association holds the ideal ratio between total cholesterol and HDL is 3.3. The survey also found most men in the 30-39 age group fell in the high risk category.
Men from Mumbai and Chennai were worst off (with a high risk ratio of 49.6% and 53.8% respectively) as compared to men in Kolkata and Delhi (32% and 29.7% respectively). The survey attributed the difference in the risk rates for Mumbai’s men to longer commuting time, long working hours, unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical activity and erratic eating schedules. Others had better lifestyle habits.
According to Dr Shashank Joshi, endocrinologist with Lilavati Hospital in Bandra, who was associated with the survey, “The survey only underlines what we are seeing now — abnormal cholesteral and trigylcerides in the younger age group. In fact, the 20-40 age group is the new vulnerable group as far as heart disease goes.’’ He blames the high levels of stress and disrupted sleep patterns for the development.
Dr N O Bansal, who heads the cardiology department of J J Hospital in Byculla, says, “There is no more denying the fact that as compared to a Caucasian youngster, the Indian youngster is more prone to heart diseases.’’ It is a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors, he says. Stating that the “younger phase’’ of heart diseases was apparent about five years back, he says his department — a referral center for the entire state — gets men under 30 as well.
Cardiologist Dr Manjeet Juneja, who consults at Wockhardt Hospital, Mulund, says heart diseases are happening 15 years too early for most people because of “preventable causes’’. He recalls a 23-year-old brought to the hospital from Nashik. “The boy was tense about admission to an MBA course and smoked a cigarette 30 minutes before collapsing,’’ says Dr Juneja. He was managed with medicines alone.