‘Imbalanced lifestyle’ blamed for growing cardiac diseases in youth

KARACHI: Prominent cardiologists of the country on Sunday attributed the ‘imbalanced lifestyle’ of the youth to the wide prevalent cardiac diseases amongst them and stressed to avert the lethal disease with precautionary measures.

The medical practitioners evolved this consensus in the National Conference on Preventive Cardiac, held here to underscore the insidious spread of the diseases among the Pakistani populace.

Addressing the conference, Professor Mansoor Ahmed, Chairman of the National Preventive Cardiac Society and the former president of SAARC Cardiac Society, said that the heart diseases prevalent among young people were largely due to an imbalance lifestyle.

He emphasized the need to involve children in non-competitive physical activities to prevent heart diseases. “Currently we are fostering the causes of heat diseases in children since there are no outdoor playing fields in school,” he observed. “All their activities revolve around digital games, which is a matter of great concern.”

Professor Ahmed recalled that there used to be a significant number of cigarette advertisements in the media in the past, which required extensive efforts from heart disease experts to curb. However, now we are facing a challenging advertising campaign for cold drinks and soft beverages, which do not receive adequate attention for raising awareness and promoting heart disease prevention.

However, Professor Ajaz A Wahrah added that avoiding tobacco consumption, making exercise a routine, and reducing the intake of fatty foods can exert significant control over this disease.

Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences, Professor Masood Hamid, asserted that adopting a balanced lifestyle keeps an individual safe from various diseases. He highlighted that in the causes of heart diseases, tobacco consumption holds paramount importance, but junk food consumption is also a major factor contributing to heart diseases and high blood pressure. The use of low-salt diets is highly beneficial for health.

Addressing the National Conference on Preventive Cardiac, Dr Abdul Rashid, former Secretary of the SARC Cardiac Society, emphasized that the most dangerous aspect facing societies like Pakistan is the rising prevalence of heart diseases among young people, including both men and women.

He stressed the importance of taking precautionary measures to prevent high blood pressure, hypertension, mental stress, and heart diseases since the treatment of heart diseases is expensive and beyond the reach of the common man. However, precautionary measures are within everyone’s grasp, especially adopting exercise as a routine and avoiding all types of tobacco consumption.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023