transcript of the chat with heart specialist Dr Devi Shetty

Q: What are the five thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart? A: 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 long time 3. Quit smoking 4. Control weight 5. Control blood pressure and sugar Q: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart? A: No Q: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective? A: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups. Q: Are heart diseases hereditary? A: Yes Q: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress? A: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life. Q: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart? A: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints Q: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so? A: Mother Theresa, who was my patient. Q: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?A: Extremely rare Q: 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? A: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood. Q: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart? A: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused. Q: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines? A: Control diet, walk and eat walnut. Q: Can yoga prevent heart ailments? A: Yoga helps. Q: Which is the best and worst food for the heart? A: Best food is fruits worst are oil. Q: Which oil is better - gingili, groundnut, sunflower, saffola, olive? A: All oils are bad; the so-called best oil company has the largest marketing budget. Q: What is the routine check up one should go through? Is there any specific test? A: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo. Q: How different was it in treating Noor Fatima, the little kid from Pakistan ? A: It was extremely difficult, Because of the media attention. As far as the medical treatment is concerned, she is like any other child with a complex heart problem. Q: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack? A: Help the person into a sleeping position, put 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 hr. Q: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack & that caused due to gastric trouble? A: Extremely difficult without ECG. Q: 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. A: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, sedentary 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. Q: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120 / 80 and yet be perfectly healthy? A: Yes. Q: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child, is it true? A: Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities & you may not have a software engr. as a child Q: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart? What precautions would you recommend? A: When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock. Q: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)? A: Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe. Q: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks? A: No. Q: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease? A: No. Q: How would you define junk food? A: Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds, samosas, and even masala dosas. Q: 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? A: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately; Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease. Q: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension? A: No. Q: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on this)? A: 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. Q: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low haemoglobin count lead to heart problems? A: No. But it is ideal to have normal haemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity. Q: 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? A: 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. Q: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar? A: Yes. Strong relationships since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics. Q: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation? A: Diet, exercise, drugs on time. Control cholesterol, BP, weight. Q: Are people wkg. on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers? A: No. Q: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs? A: There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs & go for natural ways of controlling BP by walk, diet to reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles. Q: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks? A: No. Q: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women? A: Nature protects women till the age of 45. Q: How can one keep the heart in a good condition? A: Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for a health check up if you are past the age of 30 for at least once in 2 years. And work very hard and enjoy your Life...

Back from my trip to Malaysia

I am just back from my trip to Bangkok and Malaysia. Taking holidays is a stress buster; I think it is very important to take one regularly. I went to Kaula Lumpur for few days. It is easy to go around in Malaysia even if you are alone and want to do a bit of sight seeing. There is a semi glass roof double deck bus with insightful on-board commentary which is perfect for having a delightful experience. This bus covers all major attractions, over 42 major sights and attractions that includes KL towers, Twin towers, Bintang walk, bird park, lake garden, and many shopping places. The route is covered in 2 hours. But we can hop-on and hop off at any place that we wish to explore and visit any place within 24 hours. I bought the ticket for 17 dollars (Malaysian) and was able to visit KL and twin towers and also went to china market for shopping. It was easy to recognize the tour stops because of its characteristic highly colorful and visible signage. On my way to Genting Highland we passed Batu caves. This massive limestone outcrop and its cavernous interior is home to Hindu deities and one will need to climb its 272 steps to fully appreciate the caves.

Lalu’s parents in-law are fined for ticketless travel

Lalu Prasad may be the railway minister and seemed to be making profit in the railway industry, but that does not exempt his parents-in-law to travel free in the first class compartment. In India, there is a custom where the father does not even drink water in his daughter’s house after marriage. Maybe that is why, they did not want to take favor from Lalo to give them free tickets from his quota and decided to travel free instead. Hello Mr Chaudary, you can boast of VIP status at your daughter's expense, but buy the ticket when you are traveling, it doesn’t cost much.Huh? Unnecessary you pay fine of Rs1870 and cause so much embarrassment to our dear Lalo Prasad.

Valentine day..so what's a big deal?

Tomorrow is the valentine day, so, what's a big deal? Everybody will make good business, souvenir stores, florists, restaurants and the red dress stores All the young couples will celebrate it with chocolates, flowers, gifts and parties going crazy trying to impress. Middle age couple will go for a quiet candle-lit dinner and the elderly couple might count the change. Singles might enjoy an undisturbed sleep. In love, they say, it's the little things that count. It's also the little things that drive us crazy: cabinet doors and drawers left open; wet towels and dirty clothes molding on the floor; clean clothes folded neatly in piles, but never put away; an already-loaded dishwasher obsessively rearranged; forgetting to flush; TV sports marathons. and what about those loud snoring that keeps us awake all night, those unkempt hair that you are too lazy to comb it? those screaming and shouting and sulking and howling? Some people just can’t change!

Sugar..Tck! Tck! yuk! not good!

Sugar is sweet and everybody loves it. We can bribe children to come and sit on our lap by just flaunting a sugar candy in front of them. But are we aware how we are harming the health of the child? Candy contain refined sugar sucrose (C12H12O11) produced by multiple chemical processing of cane or beet juice, removing all the fiber and proteins. Excess of which can cause depression, physical anxiety and nervousness. Hardly a thing that we would want our loved one to suffer.