Healthy Heart is a Misnomer until underpinned by Regular Screening
Bangaluru/ New Delhi: Of late, heart health has become kind of a veritable conundrum. We were never so unsure of our hearts, what with events of even apparently healthy youngsters collapsing and succumbing to heart attacks in the middle of some activity, say, dancing, playing, working out et al. But Narayana Health fame renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty decodes the riddle around heart attacks and counsels the way forward in black and white meaning to say ‘nothing is out of nowhere when it comes to heart attack’.
According to Dr Shetty, healthy heart is not a feeling, it is a fact, can be ascertained only by screening. He cautions saying no matter how much healthy you feel heart wise, you might succumb to some fatal flaw lurking in your heart. He emphasizes discretion is the better part of valor because there are silent heart patients. ‘Maintenance check up’ is Devi’s Mantra to keep heart attacks at bay.
As Narayana Health has entered UK, it befittingly sounds like Shakespeare whose protagonists met their tragic end due to ‘fatal flaws’ despite being absolutely virtuous otherwise. The same seem to be the case with so called healthy heart. Dr Devy Shetty, ‘The Bard’ says the ‘downfall’ of heart unawares can well be averted simply by regular screening.
Bangalore, Dr Shetty’s city, found it out the hard way, scarred by the death of power star of Kannada Cinema Puneeth Rajkumar, 46, endearingly called Appu and has grown better for it. Rajkumar died after suffering a massive and sudden heart attack while doing workout. A fitness icon as he was, no one could ever imagine that his heart would give way so. What baffled all was the fact that Puneeth Rajkumar had no prior history of heart disease, hypertension or high cholesterol. In the light of saying of Dr Shetty, it can well be inferred that Rjakumar most probably didn’t err on the side of caution. Perhaps he might have thought he owned his heart and did not feel the need of verifying its health by screening.
Talking to Medicare News in Narayana Health City (Narayana Institute of Cardiac Sciences), the Mecca of heart health, located in Bommasandra on the outskirts of the city, Dr Shetty meant to say ‘never take your heart for granted’. To the question why people are so unsure of heart health these days, he said, ‘This health journalist needed to take away a simple message for people- how fit they feel has nothing to do with how fit they are. People simply need to google FIFA cardiac arrests which will be an eye opener. FIFA Sudden Death Registry has recorded that 617 football players worldwide died of sudden cardiac arrests. This one fact speaks a volume. So, Perish the thought of feeling heart healthy unless underpinned by screening.
Dr Shetty said there is nothing enigmatic about events of heart attacks, nor have it anything to do with COVID. Only that awareness about heart attacks is much better now. He stressed the urgent need to catch up with ‘fatal flaw’ lest that led to catastrophe. According to him, it is a terrible oversight if one is confident of ‘no chance of heart attacks’ relying on feeling rather than facts emerging from screening. The perception gaining ground that heart attacks precipitate without rhyme or reason is ill founded. Only that you are not aware of the reason your heart is harboring. You can have very serious heart problem despite no symptoms to which you may succumb unawares.
Dr Shetty said, ‘50 percent of heart patients with blockage in coronary artery have no symptoms, no previous chest pain, meaning thereby are silent heart patients. Diabetes is compounding the problem. Diabetics have little sensation in heart. India being on the verge of becoming diabetics capital of the world is sitting duck for heart attacks unawares.
Dr. Shetty advocates being proactive about heart health which entails knowing numbers and being aware of core health metrics i.e. blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol (including triglycerides, ApoB, and lipoprotein A). He highly recommends regular preventive health checkups after 30 even if you feel completely healthy. After 40, comprehensive testing is essential, including blood panels, an echocardiogram, ECG, chest X-ray, and abdominal ultrasound. For those over 40, a heart calcium score to detect early blockages is advisable.
Summing up, being blithely oblivious of your heart is not an option. If you do, your heart might crash before you know it.
