FAISALABAD, Nov. 21: Cardiologists have stressed the need for adopting precautionary measures and control risk factors for arresting the upward graph of heart diseases.

Speaking to participants in the national cardiac conference on 'preventive and recent updates' in cardiology here on Sunday, heart surgeons and physicians, including Prof Dr. Karamat Ali Shah, Dr. A.G. Rehan, Prof Dr. Sheharyar, Prof Khalid Hasan, Dr. Muhammad Azhar and Prof Hafeez Chaudhry, said less consumption of cholesterol, exercise of preventive measures for diabetes and other maladies could play a vital role in decreasing heart diseases among the people.

They said no doubt medication and care of heart patients was very costly and there was a dire need to create awareness among the people about precautionary measures. They pointed out that during the previous years, the ratio of heart patients used to be high among elders but now the people aged between 30 to 50 years had been suffering from the disease.

They urged the people not to use tobacco in any shape as this habit could be detrimental to their health. The people should adopt simple life and spare time for walk to enjoy healthy life, they added.

Earlier inaugurating the conference, Federal Minister for Textile Industry Mushtaq Ali Cheema said that obesity and indulgence had particularly increased heart-related ailments in productive age groups of people switching over from poverty to affluence due to economic prosperity.

He urged the cardiologists to launch an effective awareness campaign for adoption of simple living and checking the increasing death rate among productive youth of urban society.

Mr. Cheema was appreciative of cloth exporters and philanthropists who were contributing to the cardiac care unit (CCU) of the DHQ hospital. Chief organizer of the conference, Dr. Javed Iqbal in his address of welcome explained various trends of cardiovascular diseases. He also spelt out his plans to expand the CCU and provide world-class facilities for heart surgery in Faisalabad.