For All Sons Who care for their Fathers

If your father is 35+ & Indian, he is at severe risk of Cardiac problem

Indian people are suffering from facing tremendous amount of health problems today by many diseases. Indian union budget had not focused on the health system of India until 2007. There was not focus on the prevention of major diseases like cardiac, diabetes and obesity. (1)(2) Due to Indian epidemiologists' continuous effort on this sector, the preventive health care idea was welcomed. It is always better to be late than never. Today the occurrences of death due to cardiac diseases have increased to 4 folds in India in past 30 years. Indian and International health agencies have already been giving alarming notice on increasing CVD(Cardio Vascular Disease)in India since last 15 years (3).

Such cardiac problems are increasing in the young age people, which makes an economic burden to the nation's economy and especially for the fast running and progressing countries like India. Such diseases really become speed breakers of the nation's economical development. According to a report, due to the deaths of people from age 35 to 64 due to cardiac disease, India has lost potentially 9.5 million years of work in year 2000 alone. It is expected that by 2030, these count will reach up to 17.9 million of potential productive years (4). According to WHO report, due to loss of these potential years, there will be a loss of 237 Billion US dollars due to heart diseases, diabetes and stroke disease. For the country like India, this is really a huge amount of money and its more than one year's total union budget's fund of entire nation.(3)

Cardiac disease and relevant death is a worldwide problem today, but its geographical markings have really changed since one decade. It has drastically transferred from the western countries to the eastern countries and especially to the countries with low and middle income (5). South Asian countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and India are marked as danger zones for cardiac diseases. People from this geographical area suffer from cardiac disease about 10 years earlier than other western and developed countries (7). India and its neighboring countries have a big challenge of providing treatment of cardiac diseases in poor economical areas since a patient has to bear the whole burden of expenses himself. The concept of medical insurance has not reached to poor people yet in these countries. Indian hospitals have access to world's latest and best technologies but poor people can not afford it. One more big challenge to Indian heart society is pediatric cardiac care. Pediatric care is in very preliminary level and there is tremendous opportunity in this field for the development. There are very limited numbers of experts in India in pediatric cardiac surgeries. And most of them are engaged in metro and big cities only. There is no data in pediatric cardiac death in the past years due to limited sources.

According to a recent cardiac journal there will be 100 million pediatric cardiac patients in India 2020. Right now there are only 30 million existing cases.

Cardiologists are giving reasons for increasing amount of cardiac disease in India. The main reasons include change in food habits and life style of the people. Western style and high calorie food intake, increase craze of computer games instead of outdoor games and lack of regular exercise. WHO has estimated that by 2010, India will become capital of cardiac disease overloaded by 60% cardiac cases of the World. Cardiologists have warned people and government to start awareness and provide facilities for prevention of cardiac diseases in India like many western countries. They have also suggested taking extra care of children's diet and to maintain their weight constantly since obesity is the mother of all diseases starting from diabetes, kneeing joint problems, blood pressure and life threatening cardiac diseases. Indian cardiologists have also studied and proved from the data that the cardiac disease and other independent factors like stress, type II personality, smoking, snoring, occupation, life style and socio economic status are highly correlated.

Opportunities in IndiaIndia has remained center of attraction for medical tourism for Middle East countries since almost a decade. For surgeries for cataract to cardiac and appendicitis to joint replacement, a huge amount of patients from these countries have enjoyed a cheap and quality medical service since years in Indian metro cities. Maharashtra state has set up a council for development, which is a billion dollar business globally. Escort heart institute officials in Delhi have said that for countries like Britain and USA, it cost nearly $ 25,000 for an open heart surgery, whereas in India it costs $6,000 including air travel and five star facilities to the patient and relatives. Doctor of India can speak very good English and they are very well trained, so patients across the world get best treatment in best rates (5). Indian medical officials also trying to reduce the interest rates of medical insurance for western patients if patients are agree to take medical facilities in Indian hospitals.

Prevention of Cardiac disease.

Life style changes, change of food habits, to participate in leisure time activity, playing sports for most days of week, keep blood pressure in control are some of the major measures to be taken care of. Yoga is also considered as a good preventive method for cardiac disease. 'Pranayama' can help in removing blockages in the vessels and in increasing lung volume and lung capacities. Yoga has been proven as a good preventive and treatment measure for the cardiac disease (5).

References

(1), K.S. Reddy, Cardiovascular disease in India, World Health Stat Q 46 (1993), pp. 101-107. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (106)

(2) K.S. Reddy, B. Shah, C. Varghese and A. Ramadoss, Responding to the challenge of chronic diseases in India, Lancet 366 (2005), pp. 1744-1749

(3) World Health Organization, The World Health Report 2005 Preventing Chronic Diseases: A Vital Investment, WHO, Geneva (2005).

(4) S. Leeder, S. Raymond, H. Greenberg, H. Liu and K. Esson, A Race Against Time The Challenge of Cardiovascular Disease in Developing Countries, Columbia University, New York, NY (2005)

(5) Annette B. Ramírez de Arellano Patients Without Borders: The Emergence of Medical Tourism International Journal of Health Services Volume 37, number 1/2007