Olympian Sreejesh says when it comes to the heart, keeping away from bad habits is not enough, but must have good ones too

Olympian P R Sreejesh said he has observed that though an active lifestyle and regular exercise is necessary to have a healthy heart, one should also abstain from vices like smoking. “I know a couple of people who did have heart diseases used to smoke a lot although they lead a physically active life. And one of my relatives faced heart issues though he did not have a single unhealthy habit. But he never exercised. What I understand from these is that when it comes to matters of the heart, keeping away from bad habits is not enough, but we must have good habits as well like regular exercises,” he said. He was speaking at a webinar organized by VPS Lakeshore Hospital in connection with World Heart Day. Dr. Anand Kumar, HOD, Dept of Cardiology and Dr. Cibi Issac, Senior Consultant, Interventional Cardiology, VPS Lakeshore Hospital, who later spoke in the webinar also endorsed Sreejesh’s views.

Dr. Anand Kumar said India has four times more heart patients than the US and here people catch cardiac issues 10 years earlier in their lives. The major threats here are an increase of lifestyle diseases, unhealthy food habits and lack of exercises. “Most of us do not know what are the things to do to prevent many other diseases but almost all of us know what are the preventive measures to avoid heart problems. Despite this, Indians increasingly fall prey to cardiac diseases. We all should start testing at the age of 20 and we should undergo these tests monitoring  lipid profile, BP and diabetes every five years to avoid the occurrence of silent heart diseases, he said. 20% of Indians have heart issues – 1 in every five persons. That means each one of us runs the risk of contracting heart issues. We all should know that this affects our productive ages as well,” Dr. Cibi Issac said.

Vijay S Sakhare IPS, ADGP; Seematti’s Beena Kannan and S K Abudallh, CEO, VPS Lakeshore Hospital also spoke in the seminar which was moderated by Dr. Junaid Rahman, former President, IMA.

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