Chat about Heart with Dr.Devi Shetty (HeartSpecialist)

One of the best & most renowned Heart Surgeons we have in India today. 

A chat with Dr.Devi Shetty (HeartSpecialist),Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore was arranged by WIPRO for its employees .

The transcript of the chat is given below.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?
Ans: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 longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?
Ans: No

Qn: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?
Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?
Ans: Yes

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?
Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?
Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints

Qn: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?
Ans: Mother Theresa, who was my patient

Qn: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?
Ans: Extremely rare

Qn: 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?
Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart?
Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?
Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?
Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?
Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.

Qn: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower, olive?
Ans: All oils are bad .

Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?
Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?
Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position , place 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 hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?
Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: 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.
Ans: 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.

Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?
Ans: Yes.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?
Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a child

Qn: 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?
Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)?
Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti- hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?
Ans : No.

Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?
Ans : No.

Qn: How would you define junk food?
Ans : Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas, and even masala dosas..

Qn: 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?
Ans: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?
Ans : No.

Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on this)?
Ans : 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.

Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?
Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.

Qn: 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?
Ans : 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.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?
Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?
Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight.

Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers?
Ans : No.

Qn: What are the modern anti- hypertensive drugs?
Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to
reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?
Ans : No.

Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?
Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?
Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkup s if you are past the age of 30 ( once in six months recommended) ..

This has been sent to us by Dinesh Shah. We are thankful to him.

Angina Pain - Beginning of Heart Diseases

To day is World Heart Day. Currently we are undergoing various pulls & pushes in life which disturb the rhythm of our heart. We are giving below information on Angina Pain which is the first signal to getting Heart Problem.

What Is Angina?

Angina (an-JI-nuh or AN-juh-nuh) is chest pain or discomfort that occurs when an area of your heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen-rich blood. Angina may feel like pressure or squeezing in your chest. The pain also may occur in your shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, or back. It can feel like indigestion.

Angina itself isn't a disease. Rather, it's a symptom of an underlying heart problem. Angina is usually a symptom of coronary artery disease (CAD), the most common type of heart disease.

CAD occurs when a fatty material called plaque (plak) builds up on the inner walls of the coronary arteries. These arteries carry oxygen-rich blood to your heart. When plaque builds up in the arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis (ATH-er-o-skler-O-sis).


Atherosclerosis

Plaque causes the coronary arteries to become narrow and stiff. The flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle is reduced. This causes pain and can lead to a heart attack.

Types of Angina

The three types of angina are stable, unstable, and variant (Prinzmetal's). Knowing how the types are different is important. This is because they have different symptoms and require different treatment.

Stable Angina

Stable angina is the most common type. It occurs when the heart is working harder than usual. Stable angina has a regular pattern. If you know you have stable angina, you can learn to recognize the pattern and predict when the pain will occur.

The pain usually goes away in a few minutes after you rest or take your angina medicine.

Stable angina isn't a heart attack, but it makes a heart attack more likely in the future.

Unstable Angina

Unstable angina doesn't follow a pattern. It can occur with or without physical exertion and isn't relieved by rest or medicine.

Unstable angina is very dangerous and needs emergency treatment. It's a sign that a heart attack may happen soon.

Variant (Prinzmetal's) Angina

Variant angina is rare. It usually occurs while you're at rest. The pain can be severe. It usually happens between midnight and early morning. This type of angina is relieved by medicine.

Overview

Angina occurs equally in men and women. It can be a sign of heart disease, even when initial tests don't show evidence of CAD.

Not all chest pain or discomfort is angina. A heart attack, lung problems (such as an infection or a blood clot), heartburn, or a panic attack also can cause chest pain or discomfort. All chest pain should be checked by a doctor.

Other Names for Angina

* Angina pectoris
* Acute coronary syndrome
* Chest pain
* Coronary artery spasms
* Prinzmetal's angina
* Stable or common angina
* Unstable angina
* Variant angina

How Is Angina Treated?

Treatments for angina include lifestyle changes, medicines, medical procedures, and cardiac rehabilitation (rehab). The main goals of treatment are to:

* Reduce pain and discomfort and how often it occurs
* Prevent or lower the risk of heart attack and death by treating the underlying heart condition

Lifestyle changes and medicines may be the only treatments needed if your symptoms are mild and aren't getting worse. When lifestyle changes and medicines don't control angina, you may need medical procedures or cardiac rehab.

Unstable angina is an emergency condition that requires treatment in the hospital.

Lifestyle Changes

Making lifestyle changes can help prevent episodes of angina. You can:

* Slow down or take rest breaks if angina comes on with exertion.
* Avoid large meals and rich foods that leave you feeling stuffed if angina comes on after a heavy meal.
* Try to avoid situations that make you upset or stressed if angina comes on with stress. Learn ways to handle stress that can't be avoided.

You also can make lifestyle changes that help lower your risk of heart disease. An important lifestyle change is adopting a healthy diet. This will help prevent or reduce high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and obesity.

Follow a heart healthy eating plan that focuses on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat or no-fat diary products, and lean meat and fish. The plan also should be low in salt, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.

Your doctor may recommend TLC if you have high cholesterol or the DASH eating plan if you have high blood pressure. Even if you don't have these conditions, you can still benefit from these heart healthy plans.

Other important lifestyle changes include:

* Quitting smoking, if you smoke. Avoid secondhand smoke.
* Being physically active. Check with your doctor to find out how much and what kinds of activity are safe for you.
* Losing weight, if you're overweight or obese.
* Taking all medicines as your doctor prescribes, especially if you have diabetes.

Medicines

Nitrates are the most commonly used medicines to treat angina. They relax and widen blood vessels. This allows more blood to flow to the heart while reducing its workload.

Nitroglycerin is the most commonly used nitrate for angina. Nitroglycerin that dissolves under your tongue or between your cheeks and gum is used to relieve an angina episode. Nitroglycerin in the form of pills and skin patches is used to prevent attacks of angina. These forms of nitroglycerin act too slowly to relieve pain during an angina attack.

You also may need other medicines to treat angina. These medicines may include beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, oral antiplatelet (an-ty-PLAYT-lit) medicines, and anticoagulants (AN-te-ko-AG-u-lants). These medicines can help:

* Lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels
* Slow the heart rate
* Relax blood vessels
* Reduce strain on the heart
* Prevent blood clots from forming

Medical Procedures

When medicines and other treatments don't control angina, you may need a medical procedure to treat the underlying heart disease. Angioplasty (AN-jee-oh-plas-tee) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) are both commonly used to treat angina.

Angioplasty opens blocked or narrowed coronary arteries. During angioplasty, a thin tube with a balloon or other device on the end is threaded through a blood vessel to the narrowed or blocked coronary artery. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to push the plaque outward against the wall of the artery. This widens the artery and restores blood flow.

Angioplasty can improve blood flow to your heart, relieve chest pain, and possibly prevent a heart attack. Sometimes a small mesh tube called a stent is placed in the artery to keep it open after the procedure.

During CABG, healthy arteries or veins taken from other areas in your body are used to bypass (that is, go around) your narrowed coronary arteries. Bypass surgery can improve blood flow to your heart, relieve chest pain, and possibly prevent a heart attack.

Your doctor will help decide which treatment is right for you.


Cardiac Rehabilitation

Your doctor may prescribe cardiac rehab for angina or after angioplasty, CABG, or a heart attack.

The cardiac rehab team may include doctors, nurses, exercise specialists, physical and occupational therapists, dietitians, and psychologists or other behavioral therapists.

Rehab has two parts:

* Exercise training. This part helps you learn how to exercise safely, strengthen your muscles, and improve your stamina. Your exercise plan will be based on your individual abilities, needs, and interests.
* Education, counseling, and training. This part of rehab helps you understand your heart condition and find ways to reduce your risk of future heart problems. The cardiac rehab team will help you learn how to cope with the stress of adjusting to a new lifestyle and to deal with your fears about the future.

How Can Angina Be Prevented?

You can prevent or lower your risk for angina and coronary artery disease (CAD) by making lifestyle changes and treating related conditions.
Making Lifestyle Changes

Healthy lifestyle choices can help prevent or delay angina and CAD. To make lifestyle changes, you can:

* Follow a healthy eating plan. (See "How Is Angina Treated" for more information.)
* Quit smoking, if you smoke. Avoid secondhand smoke.
* Be physically active. Check with your doctor to find out how much and what kinds of activity are safe for you.
* Learn ways to handle stress and relax.

Treating Related Conditions

You also can help prevent or delay angina and CAD by treating related conditions, such as:

* High blood cholesterol. If you have high cholesterol, follow your doctor's advice about lowering it. Take medicines as directed to lower your cholesterol.
* High blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, follow your doctor's advice about keeping your blood pressure under control. Take blood pressure medicines as directed.
* Diabetes. If you have diabetes, follow your doctor's advice about keeping your blood sugar level under control. Take medicines as directed.
* Overweight or obesity. If you're overweight or obese, talk to your doctor about how to lose weight safely.