There seems to be a trend of younger patients presenting with heart attacks. The news of some young deaths due to heart attack is no longer rare. Traditionally, aging is considered one of the biggest risk factors for heart attack, typically affecting males after 55 years of age and females after 65 years. But in the last few years, people in their 20s and 30s and who are seemingly healthy, are having heart attacks.
This certainly was not the case 20 years ago. The primary cause seems to be an unhealthy lifestyle – the younger generation is too addicted to fast food which is easily home delivered now. Most youngsters don’t exercise as they sleep late and spend a lot of time on social media or watching programs such as web series. Top it up with undue stress and anxiety so commonly found today in everyday life and you have the perfect recipe for disaster. Smoking and vaping is also prevalent in a lot of college going students and young office goers. Another important risk factor of young MIs is family history of heart disease.
Importance of preventing smoking and being overweight in children and adolescents in order to reduce the likelihood of heart disease later in life cannot be overemphasized. Fortunately, our colony is blessed with so many public parks, accessible to residents of every block. These parks provide an opportunity to play games such as badminton, football, tennis and so on. But its sad not to see many children and adolescents of the colony not utilizing this facility.
Furthermore the walking tracks are laid out quite nicely in most of the parks of GK2. With the help and contribution of the park lovers, a typical walk in the park is quite rejuvenating. Even medical science has emphasized the importance of regular walking, and stressed repeatedly that walking 4-5 kms 4-5 times a week is the single most effective way to keep heart disease at bay. Besides providing health benefits, regular walking is also a great way to socialize will colony members and build camaraderie. Hence, as heart disease in the young is of extreme concern, I feel we as residents, irrespective of our age, should shed our laziness, utilize the beautiful parks of the colony and stay healthy.
