Date:13/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/13/stories/2006091322310400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Young people vulnerable to heart disease'

Staff Reporter

Need for physical exercise suggested

Bangalore: Young aviators, including civilian airline pilots, are vulnerable to coronary artery disease (CAD), Wing Commander (retd) S.S. Iyengar, Professor of Cardiology, St. John's Medical College Hospital, said here on Tuesday.

Delivering a lecture at the 54th International Congress of Aviation and Space Medicine, Dr. Iyengar said: "Of the 15,152 cases of myocardial infarction studied in a survey, 90 per cent were found to have developed it at a relatively younger age." Men in the sub-40 age group in South Asian countries were especially vulnerable, he said.

Risk factors

The mean age of the Indian population, which gets heart attack, is at least 10 years younger than in the developed countries, Dr. Iyengar said. The risk factors are abnormal lipids in blood, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, abdominal obesity, psychosocial factors, alcohol consumption and lack of regular physical activity. The risk factors were almost common to both men and women, he said.

In a study in Poland, regular consumption of fresh fruits reduced the mortality rate among cardiac patients. Similar effects were found when food habits were changed with less fat consumption. Reducing blood cholesterol directly reduced risk of CAD, he said.

In the Air Force, preventive measures such as promoting lifestyle changes and more screening of pilots should be taken up, Dr. Iyengar suggested. There should be more "no smoking zones" and physical exercise should be encouraged. A regular increase of waistline could be early warning signs.

The secondary stage of correcting blood vessel narrowing could even be avoided.

Anti hypertensive measures may then have to be considered, he said.

"After going through a rigorous and expensive flying training, and embarked on an exciting career, young aviators should not become a victim of CAD. No effort can be too much to achieve this," Dr. Iyengar added.