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October 12, 2006
How young is your heart?
Our heart functions like an engine for the body. It is the size of a fist that beats 100,000 times a day, pumping over 2000 gallons of blood. Over a 70-year life span it beats 2.5 billion times without ever stopping, except during bypass surgery, writes Dr Aamir Hameed
Youth is a marvellous time as the body is at its prime physically. Some people are able to extend their youth for years by keeping their bodies fit and healthy. For the body to stay young, the heart needs to be fit and young. Thus the theme for the World Heart Day 2006 is, “How young is your heart?” And the prime target –– to keep our heart young and healthy in order to help fight cardiovascular diseases that have become the major killers in the new century.
Pakistan is a developing country with multiple problems. Potable and clean water is not available to all and spreading diseases are among the foremost issues. In the past, Pakistan has had to fight infectious diseases but with industrialisation and large scale migration from the villages to the cities, other severe problems have also crept into the society.
The last National Health Survey that was conducted in the mid `90s highlighted a problem now known as “double burden” of disease. Pakistan does not only have to deal with infectious diseases but also with chronic non-communicable diseases. Heart disease tops the list with risk factors like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and emerging obesity in addition to the menace of tobacco use.
The current health care delivery system, well meaning but ill planned, seems quite adequate on paper, but at the grass roots level, there is lack of primary care facilities and logistical problems, which bar patients in need of primary care from visiting the basic health care units and the rural health centres. The majority of the patients then go to the scores of tertiary care facilities in the cities. This causes an overload on these establishments with dilution of the existing care.
Our heart functions like an engine for the body. It is the size of a fist that beats 100,000 times a day, pumping over 2000 gallons of blood. Over a 70-year life span it beats 2.5 billion times without ever stopping, except during bypass surgery. No conventional engine known to man works that efficiently, nonstop over such a long period of time. How can we keep this most marvellous engine fit?
There are muscles in the heart which function as a pump. These muscles are supplied with arteries that supply them with blood. The muscles can get damaged directly by an extra load in the form of high blood pressure. Lack of blood supply which happens when arteries get narrow due to cholesterol (fat) deposition, also damages the muscles. A number of diseases like diabetes mellitus, increased blood fats (dyslipidemia) and obesity cause fat deposits.
The strategy to remain young at heart requires one to maintain a balanced body weight. Abdominal obesity is very common in Pakistan and is a risk factor for heart disease. To keep a check on heart diseases, screening for cardiac risk factors is extremely important which is known as primary prevention.
It has recently been discovered that all the risk factors like diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia etc, are interdependent. It means that people who are diabetic, develop more hypertension and vice versa. Therefore, the best approach is to prevent these diseases. There is a good evidence that if one maintains a healthy lifestyle then he or she can prevent most of the risk factors from appearing early.
In an age where science has provided solutions for everything, with a little attention to daily habits, people can avoid heart diseases and save themselves and their kith and kin from a lot of trouble.
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