Why are young people dying of sudden heart attacks?

Young people in their twenties, thirties and forties are dying due to sudden heart attacks across the country --- at movie halls, weddings, gyms, temples and even on the road. Last week, a young man from Andhra Pradesh suffered a sudden heart attack while watching the recently released Hollywood movie Avatar 2 at a local theatre. He was rushed to hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. Also listen: Heart attacks in young people: How Indians are more at riskA few weeks earlier, a 21-year-old bride in Lucknow collapsed and died while garlanding the groom. Around the same time, a bus driver in Jabalpur had a cardiac arrest and died on the wheel, ramming into vehicles and killing two others as well. In the beginning of December, an 18-year-old boy in West Bengal had a fatal heart attack while practising cricket.These deaths are among several others that have sparked off a Twitter trend on heart attacks, with many posting videos of people collapsing at local gyms, bylanes, and while dancing during festivities. What is the reason behind these sudden deaths? Is it over exercise, high cholesterol or diabetes? Is it undiagnosed blood pressure issues among the Indian populace, as a recent Lancet study has found? Or is it an after-effect of the several Covid waves? What has made young hearts so vulnerable? To answer our million questions and concerns, we have with us Dr Brian Pinto, the chief of cardiology at Holy Family Hospital, Mumbai. A senior interventional cardiologist, he has more than three decades of experience and is one of the pioneers in the field. Are heart risk factors being overlooked?Dr Pinto feels there is more awareness about heart attacks now than there was in the past and, therefore, more of these cases get reported. Having said that, the risk factors are being overlooked more often than not. Young people do not bother to check whether they are hypertensive, diabetic or have any cholesterol issues. We need to know our lipid levels even before we are 20 years old, says Dr Pinto. Besides, a lot of young people today smoke or consume tobacco in some other form. The tremendous stress of everyday life gets added to that. Then there is the issue of lack of sleep, which is a big issue which came up in the American Heart Association recommendations of risk factors, stresses Dr Pinto. You need to sleep at least seven hours a day. There is also severe pollution in our cities, which increases the risks of cardiac arrest. Too much gym, too little sleep?There is also the problem of overexercise at gyms early in the morning, even if they haven’t had a good night’s sleep. Dr Pinto says we are a very poor nation as far as resuscitation is concerned. Many of the gyms still do not have an AED or an automatic external defibrillator, which is needed. And most of us do not know how to do CPR, whereas in countries like America, Dubai, Japan, CPR is taught at the school level and the defibrillator is in every gym. So, many people actually die owing to the lack of facilities that should be available in these places. This is a complex issue that needs a lot of education. Dr Pinto explains that people need to know that more than 50 per cent of the people who have sudden cardiac death die because of a rhythm problem of the heart, and they can very well be saved through timely intervention.How to prevent sudden heart attacks?So, a balanced diet and optimum exercise, abstinence from tobacco and other drugs, adequate sleep, frequent monitoring of one’s vitals, and avoiding all the negative vibes can easily reduce the number of heart attacks and the number of sudden cardiac deaths. Audio production: Prateek Kapoor