Leading Indian cardiologist tells WION preventive measures against cardiovascular diseases

September 29 is marked annually as World Heart Day to raise awareness and inform people about cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including heart disease and stroke.

CVDs are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) data revealed.

For the unversed, CVDisa group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels, including coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions.

The WHO report mentioned that more than four out of five CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes. Notably, one-third of these deaths occur prematurely in people under 70 years of age.

To know more about our heart's health, WION spoke to Dr Praveen Chandra, who is a leading Indian cardiologist and chairman, of interventional cardiology, heart institute, Medanta, Gurugram, India.

Dr Chandra said, "We know already and many people are now getting aware that the biggest killer of mankind today is the heart and cardiovascular diseases. Bigger than any disease-bigger than cancer, bigger than any war. That means, we have to fight this problem on a war footing."

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Explaining the preventive measures, Dr Chandra said, "There are many ways to handle this problem, to prevent this problem, and of course, prevention is the first step."

He said that some lifestyle modifications are among the first step we must take to prevent heart disease. In lifestyle changes, he suggested the most important things are: regular physical activity, balanced food, reducing mental stress, controlling blood pressure andcholesterol levels, and people havinga family history of heart problems have to be more careful and get regular checkups done.

Dr Chandra noted that stopping smoking is also significant. He said, "Smoking is another important factor which leads to heart and cardiovascular diseases."

"So to prevent this disease, this is the cheapest and first step we have to take to avoid any heart problems," Dr Chandra said.

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