BackDoctor’s formula for a healthy heart
A day after World Heart Day, four cardiologists tell us how they keep their heart healthy
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These are some of the best names in the business when it comes to matters of the heart and they know what it takes to keep a heart healthy and ticking in perfect order. We asked the heads of some of the most well-respected cardiac centres in the country to tell us what they do to take care of their heart, the biggest risk factor for cardiac disease, and the newest research and treatment they are excited about.
Naresh Trehan
Chairman and managing director, Medanta—The Medicity, Gurgaon
Things I do
Relax: I start my day with 30 minutes each of yoga and cardio. This keeps me fit, lends flexibility to the body and calms me so that I can face every day with confidence. After a hard day’s work, listening to music and spending time with friends and close family are great stress-busters.
My food diary: Small, frequent meals or snacks every 3 hours, which include nuts, fruits, salads and small low-fat meals. This way I get the necessary vitamins, minerals and constant energy throughout the day. This also helps me avoid overeating.
Stay busy: An idle mind is prone to anxiety, stress and unnecessary worries. Staying busy keeps my mind sharp, brings about a sense of well-being and generally is conducive to good health. People who retire and stop working in their 50s and 60s age fast—within a couple of years—with its attendant complications.
Get checked: I get regular check-ups. Thankfully I have not developed any of the risk factors responsible for heart disease, like diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol.
Persevere: It is most important to persevere with what I have planned, to stay healthy and follow the above steps diligently. I know well enough that it is easy to get lazy, and the routine, once broken, stays broken many a times.
Biggest risk factor
Uncontrolled diabetes. India is poised to become the world’s diabetes capital. This has a great bearing on the explosion of coronary artery disease, especially among young people. Adverse lifestyle, lack of exercise, rising obesity incidence and unhealthy eating habits contribute towards this.
Watch out for
There are several new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities in treating heart disease patients. Some are likely to be available in a few years. One such is a drug called LCz, which has shown good results in treating patients with advance heart failure in a recently published mega trial. I am also hopeful that stem cell therapy and genetic modification may one day become available because they may completely change the way we treat our patients.
Ashok Seth
Chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute and Cardiology Council, Fortis Group of Hospitals, New Delhi
Things I do
Learn music: I am fond of music and regularly de-stress by listening to music. I also learn ‘ghazals’ and spend 2-3 hours a week on ‘riyaz’.
Take a break: I regularly go on family holidays. Driving around in the countryside in India or abroad and spending time with the family doing new activities transfers you to a different world—it keeps the heart young and happy. I am a PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified scuba diver, and have dived in locations like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Apart from the exercise, it provides an opportunity to witness the beauty of the world in the sea.
My food diary: I do not follow any extreme diet. I try and avoid fried food; when I do indulge, I exercise hard to burn it off. Because of my busy schedule, I prefer to have a light breakfast, eat baked and light puffed rice and ‘channa’ (chickpea) during the day as snacks and have a light dinner. I drink plenty of water and fresh lime juice with no salt or sugar throughout the day. I do not drink tea or coffee, except the early morning cup.
Biggest risk factor
I believe smoking is the most important risk factor for heart disease and heart attacks. Apart from being harmful for the smoker, it also harms those standing close by. Passive smoking is known to cause coronary artery disease and lung problems.
Watch out for
Absorbable stents are the most exciting and promising field in cardiology today and I feel proud to have worked extensively over the past five years in the process of their development, trials and clinical use—some of the techniques I have published are now being used as standard practice. Absorbable stents restore blood flow and dissolve in the body.
Ramakanta Panda
Vice-chairman and managing director, Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai
Things I do
My food diary: I follow a strict, preferably vegetarian, diet six days a week. Non-vegetarian food is consumed only on Sundays. Diet is as important as physical exercise for me. I believe in eating right and feeling light. Breakfast comprises two-three egg whites, one ‘roti’ made with a mix of three different flours—‘ragi’ (finger millet), ‘bajra’ (pearl millet) and ‘jowar’ (sorghum); this includes a lot of roughage, which helps in slow digestion and keeps you satiated for a longer period—and fruits and cereals. Lunch is three-four egg whites with some vegetables, ‘dal’ and fruits. I avoid carbohydrates as they lead to weight gain and abdominal girth, a tendency seen especially in Indians. Dinner usually is soup, salad and some fruits (mixture of dry and seasonal fruits). On weekends, I indulge in all types of foods.
Work-life balance: Better work-life balance and stress management are important factors to be considered if you want to lead a healthy life. It is crucial to love and enjoy what you do. I also like listening to music during surgery. Taking time off is important to me. I take at least two vacations a year. I love nature and prefer visiting places which are surrounded with abundant natural beauty and also like doing photography when I am on a holiday.
Biggest risk factor
Smoking is the biggest risk factor for heart disease. Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, including the heart, blood vessels, lungs, eyes, mouth, reproductive organs, bones, bladder and digestive organs. The chemicals in tobacco smoke harm your blood cells. They can also damage the function of the heart, and the structure and function of the blood vessels. This damage increases your risk of atherosclerosis, a disease in which a waxy substance called plaque builds up in the arteries. Over time, plaque hardens and narrows your arteries. This limits the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the organs and other parts of the body.
Watch out for
One of the most exciting new innovations in heartcare is transcatheter aortic valve replacement—a minimally invasive valve procedure. Here, a faulty aortic valve is replaced using a catheter inserted through the groin or through a small cut on the side of the chest wall. Traditionally, it is done through a cut in the breastbone and using a heart-lung machine. Currently it is recommended only in high-risk patients. Over time, it can be used for all patients needing aortic valve replacement.
V Subash Chandra
Head and director—cardiology and cath lab services, Manipal Hospitals, Bangalore
Things I do
Quit smoking: I gave that up long time ago. This was a conscious decision to keep my heart healthy.
Chasing calm: Staying completely stress-free is impossible for anyone, but still one must consciously try and weave in some calm in one’s life. Actually, a lot depends on one’s personality, and thankfully I am less driven, and rather cool about most things, so I feel that works in my favour.
Exercise is non-negotiable: Earlier, I used to walk every day. But because of rain or cold weather, I often missed my walks. So now I do 40-60 minutes of aerobic exercise in the morning, where I do the cross trainer, etc., at my home gym. I exercise a minimum of five, often six, days a week.
Bird watching: For me, travel means going to a bird sanctuary. I am an avid birdwatcher. In the last 10 years, I have been to places such as bird sanctuaries in south India. I began photographing them too about five years back—I am not too good at it, but I am working at getting better.
Biggest risk factor
Diabetes is truly the worst risk factor, as it is so prevalent and is mostly genetic. Smoking and diabetes together are particularly deadly.
Watch out for
There’s progress happening in every aspect of heartcare research but I am particularly enthused with so many new medicines coming out to help treat the disorder better, and also a lot of good research is happening in the field of understanding the cause (why heart disease happens), which should help us find better ways to treat it.
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