Know your heart!!

Q: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heard?
A: Follow the following: 

* Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
* Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
* Quit smoking, if you are smoking
* Control weight
* Control blood pressure and sugar 

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

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

Q: Are heart diseases hereditary?
A: Yes

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

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

Q: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?
A: Extremely rare

Q: 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?
A: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

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

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

Q: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?
A: Yoga helps.

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

Q: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower, olive?
A: All oils are bad, but on the choices provided Olive is better.

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

Q: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?
A: 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.

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

Q: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? Off late we see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.
A: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Additionally, edentary 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.

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

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

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

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

Q: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?
A: No.

Q: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?
A: No.

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

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

Q: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?
A: No.

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

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

Q: 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?
A: 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.

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

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

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

Q: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?
A: 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.

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

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

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

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

Aren't you concerned with your health?

If you are concerned about your weight and/or health as I do, then see below.  I am sharing my experience here.

Before your age turns 30 [at least by 40] consider the below:
1. What is the criteria of being healthy?
2. Should I need to 'only' care about calories, weight, BMI?  Are there any other factors to consider?
3. How active I am?
4. How I want to be in my 40s and over 50s?

In recent past years, I was concerned about my health for 3months just before my annual Medical Checkup[MC], and will be very strict on my diet, will start walking, running etc. Once MC is done then back to normal life style.  I wasn't a couch potato, but equally not much concerned about health.

Let me re-wind my life to about 15years back...

I was 86kg in weight and 168cm in height. That was the only data I had about me in this context.  Absolutely no idea what was my Blood Pressure[BP], Cholesterol, Body Mass Index[BMI] etc. etc.  Who cares?  I was active, was able to run, walk, climb stairs as normal as possible.  Eat as shameless as possible, eat whenever and whatever I wanted.

1999: This year was my very first medical checkup.  Everything except by weight, BMI, rest everything was as normal as possible.  Its obvious that my weight = over weight hence BMI was so high.  BP? it was 87/54 [low BP].  The physician was stunned at me and asked whether I was ok, as I had to climb 4floors to get into the clinic where the MC was done [it was a 4F bldg and no lift was there].  He was checking with me whether I felt dizzy or anything strange.  As I was perfectly fine I said so too.  Now my Total Cholesterol [T-Cho] = 180mg/dl, HDL = 53mg/dl TG = 90mg/dl.  Calculated LDL = 109mg/dl [normal]

Years passed gradually the physical activity increased day by day such as walking to/from train station from/to home/office.  Walking during sight seeing, climbing stairs several times at office to switch between two floors etc.  The weight gradually reduced to 78kg.  
Note: I have not done any exercise specifically to reduce weight, the normal day to day activity helped me to reduce 8Kg.

2002: MC my Total Cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were high.  T-Cho = 260mg/dl, HDL = 51mg/dl, TG = 90mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 191mg/dl.  Wait a min in 3years why this sudden change?  After very long investigation found that the consumption of below were increased in recent years.
A. Potato fries from McDonald
B. Pizzas with double cheese topping

Now its time to keep fit as I am going to have my MC soon.  What did I do? Walked as much as possible, reduced oil consumption, totally cut consumption of potato fries from McDonald and pizzas.  Go to office in cycle [One way: 10Km].  Result: in 5months reduced 9kg and I was 68kg.  Wow this was lower than my university days.

2004: Not much change in my Cholesterol levels but my weight, waist size, BMI had improved levels.  Still I was put in danger level on the Cholesterol.

2005:  Now the life style little changed [bit eased] weight increased to 72kg.  Other stats were more or less same as previous year.  T-Cho = 225mg/dl, HDL = 53mg/dl, TG = 90mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 154mg/dl.  Wow better than 2002.  Perhaps cut on those high fat items helped?

2006:  Except weight, BMI nothing else changed much, although there was slight change in cholesterol measures.  Weight was about 76kg.  T-Cho = 221mg/dl, HDL = 57mg/dl, TG = 93mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 146mg/dl.

2007: Weight = 77.7kg, T-Cho = 242mg/dl, HDL = 53mg/dl, TG = 192mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 150mg/dl.  Increase in weight and T-Cho.  Reason: Started drinking alcohol [a social drinker, but when drink will really get drunk as though I have to crawl back home]

2008: Awareness increased did few physical activities that helped in reducing weight to 72kg, but not much difference in Cholesterol levels.

2009: Again weight gained now to 77kg.  Cholesterols increased as well.  T-Cho = 251mg/dl, HDL = 60mg/dl, TG = 179mg/dl, LDL = 172mg/dl.

2010[3/2011]: Not much change in weight. Observed reduction in Cholesterol.  T-Cho = 231mg/dl, HDL = 60mg/dl, TG = 142mg/dl, LDL = 156mg/dl.  Reason: you can see in the summary.

2011[1/2012]: Weight reduced 75kg [was 79.8Kg on 29-Sep-2011.  Observed increase in Cholesterol.  T-Cho = 261mg/dl, HDL = 50mg/dl, TG = 96mg/dl, LDL = 190mg/dl.

Summary of Observations
* When I was over weight my cholesterol was as normal as it has to be [1999]
* Even after my weight reduced, the cholesterol level has increased [2002]
* Even after few adjustments in the diet and activity there has not been much improvement in the cholesterol level

Factors to be considered to stay fit
Activities
* Keep yourselves as active as possible.
* Schedule your activities and keep it as regular as possible.  Be it walking, jogging, running or any aerobic exercise try to do it for at least 30 min a day.  Key point is to keep it as regular as possible and have to sustain i.e. continue it for ever.  Do not count the time you walk to Bus stop/Train station, Office or a Shop etc. unless you walk for 30min (continuously) and cover 3~3.5km at least. Note: This will differ according to age and capacity.
* Try to use stairs instead of lift/escalator if you want to go up/down by 2~3floors.

Food
* Never say 'No' to food, but limit intake quantity.  It is generally observed that in a day we eat at least 2.5 to 3 times than what we actually need.
* (Over) stuffing yourselves shall be allowed just once in a week, but be careful, if you don't follow other points then better not.
* Although you are free to eat what ever you want [but limit the quantity].
* Balance your diet as much as possible.  Its difficult to get everything in one meal, so plan your meal so that you get almost all nutrients that you need to intake in a week.
* Drink 'Oolong cha' [aka chinese tea], preferably warm, immediately after your meal.  This helps in digestion of the food that you had and dissolve the fat you just consumed.
* Do consider to use oils that have Mono Un-Saturated Fat [MUFA] or oils that have Poly Un-Saturated Fat [PUFA] and avoid Saturated Fat.
* Do not miss to add foods with high dietary fibre content.
* Avoid 'FAST FOODS' as much as possible.  Note: You may have in limited amounts for once in one or two months.

Others
* Make a note of your measurements (those that you can measure by yourselves such as weight, waist size, BMI) in regular intervals [Suggested interval: monthly~bi-monthly]
* Make a note of your measurements i.e. do a MC (those that you cannot measure by yourselves such as BP, Cholesterol, Body fat, etc. [Suggested interval: semi-annually(if you have abnormalities)~ annually].
Note: this is absolutely a must to stay fit so that you can find that you are deviating from normal and take corrective actions sooner than later.
* Join a gym.  I had misconceptions of going to a gym until last year.  But, after me joining this year felt that I should have done this several years ahead.  Lots of advantages in going to a gym.  Of course it depends on the facilities and type of equipments the gym can provide.

Advantages of a gym:  You have an instructor/trainer to monitor/train you.  You have equipments that can assist you to know your limits.  There are lots of difference in running/walking in a gym and on road.  On road you will have several hinderances [such as cycles, signals, dogs, others] so you cannot keep your pace.  More importantly there is a minimum level and maximum level of your heart beat when you walk/run.  If you don't reach minimum level there is no point in exercising, and if you exceed your maximum you are risking your life.  Note: this is for those who are planning to run/walk for fitness purpose not planning to run a marathon etc.

Conclusion
Above are very very easy to follow.  These are practiced and proven methods by me, but I failed to sustain.  Now I've decided to sustain going forward.  
Justification?  Usually I stop the fitness activities after my MC, but this time still continuing... 

My target for this year [2012] is to
* reduce my weight to 68kg [was 79.8kg on 29-Sep-2011 and now 73.8kg on 28-Jan-2012].  
* reduce my total cholesterol level below 220mg/dl [260mg/di on 5-Jan-2012 next measure due by Apr-2012]

Updates
As of Nov-26-2012
weight: 70.2kg
T-Cho = 230mg/dl, HDL = 49mg/dl, TG = 123mg/dl, LDL = 168mg/dl.

Eat Healthy, Be Active and Stay Fit

Disclaimer: There may be several references made in internet some are copy/paste, some are re-written.  Please do not try highlight those, but pay attention to the content and try to follow or suggest (me) improvements.  This is purely my view in my experience (and references) that may or may not suit you or you may have totally different view, so please do not to take these as things written in stone and startup a fight with me.  Any repercussions that you face is totally your responsibility.