KARACHI, Dec 29: Coronary Health Disease (CHD) is still the number one killer in the world as 56 million deaths occurred last year due to CHD and it is feared it will remain on top as a killer disease even in 2020 , especially in South Asian countries where the population is more prone to these diseases.

High blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, diabetes and obesity are included in the top 10 modifiable risk factors to develop CHD and fortunately we can reverse the trend by adopting healthy diet and lifestyles especially from childhood.

This was stated by Prof Azhar Farooqui, Executive Director National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) Karachi, during his state-of-the-art lecture on topic of "Strategies for prevention of Ishemic Heart Diseases" at Dow University of Health Sciences on Wednesday.

He said most risk factors were socio economic and related to lifestyles that could be easily modified. "There are only few genetic and other non-modifiable risk factors including age, male sex, family history of premature CHD and South Asian origin," he added. -PPI