Prevention of lifestyle diseases is a must in the 21st century

Prevention of lifestyle diseases is a must in the 21^st century

Lifestyle diseases have replaced traditional health risk factors resulting in an increase in incidents of disease and deaths in India in the last two decades. Most diseases and deaths are now caused by high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, alcohol use and poor diet. Old-generation risk factors like unsafe water, sanitation and child malnutrition don’t cause much sickness now, compared to what used to be the case 30 years ago.

Given this, leading National NGO – the Heart Care Foundation of India released information guidelines. Preventive health education can help reduce the increasing disease burden in our country, save a large chunk of a family’s annual budget spent on healthcare and increase a person’s quality of life.

Some of the suggests included not consuming more than 15 ml of oil, butter or ghee in a day, ensuring that one does not gain weight after the age of 18 in males and 20 in females. A weight gain of 5kg is permissible in males but any weight beyond that is fat accumulation, which ultimately is dangerous to heart.

Raising awareness, Padma Shri Awardee, President Heart Care Foundation of India and Honorary Secretary General IMA - Dr. KK Aggarwal said, “Heart attacks cannot be given or accepted as gift since one has to work against the laws of the nature for 20 years to get heart diseases. Eating white rice, white maida and white sugar along with trans fats are the main culprits for development of heart diseases in future.”

Health messages by HCFI included:

·         If BP & diabetes are kept under control, 75% dialysis and
transplants can be prevented.

·         Thirty percent of heart disease can be prevented by 2.5 hours of walking per week.

·         If salt intake is reduced to less than 2.3 grams a day, there
would be 1.1 crore fewer patients of high BP.

·         If you want to commit suicide, then start smoking early and continue. You have 50% chance of success.

·         More deaths if patients of heart attack and/or paralysis are admitted on weekends, holidays, early morning, night time or winter.

·         Smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol together
reduce lifespan by 10 years for 50-year-old men.

·         Balance diet is a mix of all 6 tastes and 7 colors.

·         Keep Hb> 12 in females and > 14 in males.

·         When going for a fasting blood test, fasting means no food, water allowed for 8 hours.

·         For rabies prevention in a case of dog bite, now only four
injections are required and not five. (0, 3, 7 and 14th day)

·         More women die of heart attack than breast cancer.

·         For every additional drink regularly consumed per day, the
incidence of breast cancer increased by 11 per 1000.

·         Most heart attacks occur in the early hours of the day.

·         If the heart pumping ejection fraction is less than 30%, one needs more investigations.

·         All asthmatics do not wheeze and all wheeze is not asthma.

·         Most CAD patients do not die of kidney disease but by heart disease.

·         Obesity is a bigger risk factor than high blood pressure for the enlargement of left atrium and atrial fibrillation risk.

·         Do not give aspirin and other NSAID in dengue fever.

·         Chloroquine has anti-viral properties.

·         Rectal temperature is more reliable for hypo- and hyperthermia.

·         Pulse will rise by 1 for every one degree rise of temperature.

·         Sense danger if there is high fever with no sweating.

·         Sense danger if a patient has hypothermia and no sweating.

·         If ESR more than 100, look for TB, pus collection, cancer or thyroiditis.

·         Fever responding to indomethacin, look for Hodgkin’s disease.

·         Nasal discharge and cough rules out rheumatic sore throat.

·         Fever with rash with lymph nodes behind ear unless proved otherwise is rubella

·         Fever less than 100.4 means no infection.