Tending your ticker
June 2023
Many of us do not know that the heart is the most important muscle of all, working 24/7, and don’t even give it a second thought. It’s high time we had a change of heart and treat ed this hardworking organ with the care and respect it rightfully deserves, says Jamuna Rangachari
I was shocked when I heard that my cousin, 57-year-old S Dinakar, who was a senior sports journalist in The Hindu, had a sudden heart attack in his hotel room and passed away there itself. He did not have any heart condition and was quite active, so this was a shock to all of us, both family and friends. After that, I also heard of many sudden young deaths. Videos abounded on the internet of people as young as 19 dying of heart-attack, while dancing, playing, walking or simply sitting on a chair. Actor Sushmita Sen too shocked the nation when she shared that she had suffered from a heart-attack and now has a stent placed inside her heart.
The fact is that diseases like cancer, diabetes, asthma, are at least discussed and a plan of action is made to keep them in check. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the human heart, which is neglected so much that we see a lot of people, both young and old, getting sudden heart attacks. It is time we understand how to take care of this important organ that is the most essential one of all.
The habit of taking care of our heart needs to start from our youth and continue throughout our lifetime. In today’s world, this important aspect of our health is ignored by many until they reach their senior years. Thankfully it’s never too late to make changes that will improve our health, including that of our heart. We are learning all kinds of things nowadays. Should we not also learn how the heart works so that it motivates us to live a heart-healthy life and remain healthy always?
The mechanics of the heart
Our heart has an important job in keeping our body running. Using the analogy of a car, it is our engine. Its job is to pump blood through our circulatory system to nourish organs and tissues in the body. One side of our heart, the
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right one, sends blood to the lungs, picking up oxygen. The other side, the left, receives this oxygen-filled blood and pumps it through our arteries to nourish bodily organs and remove excess waste. It is truly a remarkable organ.
Factors contributing to poor heart health Dr Sanjeev Nair, an interventional cardiologist practising in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas in the USA, says, “The primary causes of early heart attacks in the Indian population appear to be bad stress, tobacco smoking, unhealthy diet, air, water pollution, and overexertion.”
Genetics also plays a role, especially in the In dian populace as it has a propensity for higher levels and more types of bad cholesterol. More over, smaller-sized heart arteries in the South Asian race may make it more susceptible to sudden heart-related deaths compared to the Western population with the Caucasian race.
When we know this, we must find a solution. Dr Nair suggests mitigating bad stress through stress management, listening to more positive news, and not comparing our life with someone else’s. Regarding exercise, he advises regular moderately intense exercise, without over-exer
tion, and listening to one’s body. In the area of diet, he favours plant-based food and less satu rated fats.
The other things Dr Nair stresses are cholesterol testing and efforts to get rid of tobacco smoking in the younger age groups (20 to 30-year-olds).
Rajeev Lochan, a cardiologist with more than 30 years of experience, who has established the first heart attack centre in the United Arab Emirates, cites many reasons as risk factors. Not eating normal low-fat high-fibre home
cooked food is the norm with youngsters. Fast food or ‘junk food’ contains an excessive amount of trans fats, which are directly related to atherosclerosis or the narrowing of arteries.
The current trend of working long, stressful hours, with the added stress of commuting for long distances, is almost mandatory in metros. Such a lifestyle doesn’t allow for enough time to take care of physical fitness by way of regular exercise, and of emotional stress by doing yoga or meditation. Unfortunately, there is a lack of inclination for such activities and more of it for entertainment through social media, the internet, or TV.
Smoking is one the commonest causes of clot formation in the heart arteries, commonly seen in young patients with no other risk factors. Blockages are often confirmed during a coronary angiography of heavy smokers. Angiography is the final test which reveals blocks in the heart arteries with 100 per cent accuracy. Vaping or the use of e-cigarettes which is almost smoke free is in vogue these days. Although smokers
are under the impression that these e-cigarettes have no adverse effect on the heart, it is not true.
Stress is not limited to the elite class alone but is prevalent in poor labourers too. They may have the stress of losing their job, caring for their family within limited means, or working double shifts or jobs.
Dr Lochan adds that unrecognised diabetes and uncontrolled high blood pressure are not uncommon.
We see both the cardiologists agreeing on the issues as well as the solutions. A similar view is held by those in other health-related areas.
Naini Setalvad, dietician and health coach, opines, “The youth today are increasingly
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The youth today are increasingly making poor food choices. Under the influence of social media, they opt for trendy foods. In the bargain, they forget traditional Indian food that they are genetically predisposed to.
making poor food choices. Under the influence of social media, they opt for trendy foods. In the bargain, they forget traditional Indian food that they are genetically predisposed to. Their fast
paced lives make them rely on convenience packaged food. Such food ends up being fried, full of additives, and low on fibre. This can negatively impact heart health.”
In addition to this, lifestyle plays a big role in maintaining heart health. Poor sleep, erratic eating patterns, and lack of physical activity can hamper heart health.
Naini adds that recent studies suggest there might be a link between gut health and heart health. Scientists believe it has to do with the compounds gut bacteria produce when they break down certain foods. Having the wrong balance of bacteria may mean more by-products that raise cholesterol levels and harm blood vessels.
To improve heart health, Naini recommends an increase in fibre intake. 50 per cent of one’s meal should consist of vegetables. Additionally, one should have whole grains like wheat, rice,
or millet; a protein source like lentils or pulses; and seeds and nuts like flax seeds, walnuts, and peanuts. She also suggests cooking in a healthy cooking medium like cow’s ghee or cold-pressed seed oil and avoiding processed foods and fried foods. Some form of physical activity, such as walking, should be done daily, she concludes.
For a long time, psychoanalysts everywhere have been crying hoarse about the negative impact of stress on health.
Ameeta Sanghavi Shah, a psychoanalyst from Mumbai says stress is a major factor as this impacts all muscles. Stronger muscles and breathwork help the nervous system and endocrine system work well, which in turn, regulate our organs. The heart is the seat and centre of our feelings, according to her, and she adds that our body is a metaphor for our mind. The heart is responsible for pumping life-giving circulation to the body. Hence, when we want to express anything with our full energy and sincerity, it is from our heart. We even qualify both congratulations and condolences, using the words ‘heartiest’ and ‘heartfelt’ respectfully.
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Stress is the unpleasant feelings, thoughts, behaviour, and body symptoms that come up related to performance or uncertainty. We feel anxiety, typified by a racing heart, palpitations, and unease. This can be accompanied by profuse sweating and become what is called a panic attack. Stress happens when our needs, goals, expectations, and wishes are unmet, leaving us feeling disheartened. The heart is where we feel our sadness and grief. Severe shock can cause the heart to stop, and a person may lose their life or it may be a passing heart attack.
Stress affects our lifestyle and behaviour. For instance, overeating leads to obesity, sleep issues, and addictions, all of which can impact heart health. Hence, attending to our emotions, and connecting and healing the original wounds can help us strengthen our hearts. Simple techniques like placing both palms on our heart, closing our eyes, and focussing on this touch can give a feeling of comfort
and stability. Tapping our energy centres and affirming ‘I love and accept myself no matter what’ can help. Apart from that, healing past trauma can be restorative to mind and body.
Ameeta quotes an example. X is very successful, yet she feels fearful when she meets with success in her own business. She finds it particularly stressful to deal with people, whether it’s meeting prospective customers, delegating work to a junior, or partnering with anyone. This manifests as a racing heart and palpitations. As we did the inner work, childhood traumatic memories came up of cousins snatching away her toys and even breaking them, just to tease and bully her. Feeling hyper-vigilant that someone will do something whenever she was playing with her toys or away from her toys was something which persisted for years. The actual feelings were now of a heavy heart, feeling sad that they didn’t love and accept her, and a tingling sensation of helpless anger all over the
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Stress affects our lifestyle and behaviour. For instance, overeating leads to obesity, sleep issues, and addictions, all of which can impact heart health. Hence, attending to our emotions, and connecting and healing the original wounds can help us strengthen our hearts.
body. Healing these memories helped release the sadness, anger, helplessness, anxiety, and fear accumulated over all the years, restoring inner peace and calm. We can say that her heart health was strengthened along with her mental health eventually helping her relate to people, both personally and professionally with confidence and trust. All over the world, heart ailments are becoming the leading cause of death for both the young and the old. We are seeing reports of even sportsmen and women having sudden heart attacks. Where are we going wrong? While we are learning about all kinds of things, why are we neglecting our own selves and health? What do we need to do? We need to stop blaming factors like genetics or pollution for our own health. This is the only way we can take control of our own lives. What then should we do?
The first step is to believe that it is never too late to start changing our lifestyle to work towards a healthier heart. Some of the practical and doable steps we can follow are given below.
• Maintaining a healthy diet
Paying attention to our diet does not mean
starving ourselves or having exotic, expensive food. A good diet for the heart means having a combination of different foods including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts.
With all the knowledge we have, we can see that we need to minimise or, better still, never have processed, canned, and fast food. We should avoid sweetened snacks such as doughnuts and cookies, and, instead, have fresh fruit and vegetables. When feeling thirsty, instead of sweetened beverage sodas and sweetened juices, we could have water.
• Maintaining body weight
People nowadays either build muscle mass or remain too thin. This is definitely not a good way to maintain the health of our organs. Everyone must maintain a proper body mass index of less than 25 as one higher than that is bound to lead to health issues, including that of the heart. And this is maintained through a proper diet and exercise routine, which is what all of us should aim for.
Regarding diet, we can gradually reduce foods which are oily and which induce fat. This is definitely better than going on crash diets as they can usually never be sustained and could
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cause other health issues also. This is why one needs to view weight just as a parameter linked with everything else.
• Doing some physical activity
Most of us are aware that it is important to exercise to remain healthy and fit. Our body is a machine, after all, driven by the core muscle: the heart. Specialists suggest we go through at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week. But a modern lifestyle is not conducive to being physically active; even shopping is done online. It is sad but true that the human body that requires some activity to stay fit is not getting enough of it. The impact can be seen on our blood pressure, cholesterol levels, other blood lipids, and weight.
We need not suddenly run a marathon, but we can begin by gradually having some amount of physical activity. We can start with small amounts of physical activity as a part of our normal daily activities and gradually increase the duration,
frequency, and intensity. Brisk walking, climbing stairs, dancing, gardening, or doing household chores spread throughout the week are some of the options that can benefit our heart health.
Walking seems to be a very easy form of exercise but is, in fact, the safest and cheapest way to maintain our health, especially our heart health. We can do this by taking a stroll during our lunch break or taking long walks for pleasure and health during weekends. At this time, we can tune in to music, a podcast, or talk with a friend. The greatest thing about this is its adaptability, which makes it simple for anybody to do—and to continue doing it.
We need to know that being physically active is a major step toward good health, especially of the heart.
Mental health and the heart
There is another angle also: that of stress and mental health, which also has an impact on the
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Disorders that are mental, such as anxiety and depression, may also increase the chance of adopting behaviours such as smoking, an inactive lifestyle, or a failure to take prescribed medications.
heart. This is an important part of overall health because the mind controls us, and therefore, any imbalance here impacts all parts of our life, which includes the heart. Even a child, when upset, catches fever and does not get better till their mind is set at ease. Naturally, such an issue is bound to impact an adult more as they handle many real issues. When mental health is affected, it affects a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being too. This impact everything including our most important organ, the heart. Even love failure is known as ‘heartbreak.’ This metaphor makes sense as any trauma of the mind and any failure in life does affect the heart.
Mental health problems if persistent for a long time can interfere with a person’s mood, behaviour, thinking, and ability to relate to others. The important point here is that trauma, depression, anxiety, and stress add a great amount of pressure on the human heart. Though efficient, the human heart is also a very delicate organ and needs to be handled with sensitivity and care. Nowadays, people are also given medication to handle mental issues. This affects the body and the heart, and gives rise to
conditions such as increased cardiac reactivity and calcium build-up in the arteries, metabolic disease, and heart disease.
Disorders that are mental, such as anxiety and depression, may also increase the chance of adopting behaviours such as smoking, an inactive lifestyle, or a failure to take prescribed medications. This is because people experiencing a mental health disorder may have fewer healthy coping strategies for stressful situations, making it difficult for them to reduce their risk of heart disease.
Hence, essentially, stress is the most important enemy of our life and heart, and we need to do our best to keep it away from us by practising things like meditation, being with nature, and giving our own selves pep talks.
This is why even organisations have stress management workshops and events to keep their employees’ minds calm and at ease and use many techniques to make them feel comfortable and mentally healthy. After all, is health not the result of wellness in all areas? When even companies are giving stress management due attention, shouldn’t we, on a personal level, also give this factor enough importance in our life?
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Without mental health, we certainly cannot progress in life.
Sleep and the heart
Besides getting an adequate amount of exercise, we need to relax also. Every machine requires respite, especially the human body. Those of us who sleep for less than seven hours each night are more likely to get other health problems, including heart attack, asthma, and depression. The human body is a wonderful machine and to keep it in fine working order, we need complete relaxation too. Some simple things we could do is to meditate either in a group or individually to ensure good health, including that of the heart. This is possible only by balancing our routine to give our heart nourishment, exercise, and rest as much as is required.
Our elders have often told us to relax and get enough sleep to remain healthy. This is how the body is designed. Nowadays, we check all kinds of parameters like blood pressure, diabetes,
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lung health, and heart health. But how will any of this work if we do not understand the basic importance of rest and relaxation? All parameters will remain healthy only when we get sleep naturally. If we do not do this, problems with getting adequate sleep can harm the human body, so we must give this factor enough importance and adjust our routine accordingly.
Smoking and the heart
Smoking is a habit that is made to appear glamorous by the media for commercial gains. Here, we need to listen to our own common sense. That smoking is injurious to health is medical advice which is commonly known. This is something we must take seriously and never compromise on. However, nowadays, most people take a puff of smoke as a stress buster. The fact is that it creates stress by causing all kinds of health issues, including that of the heart. Avoiding direct and indirect smoke is a favour we can do to ourselves,
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especially our hearts. There are many ways of going about this, but we must have the intent. This is possible as many people have done it. It could take some time, but we need to work on it as an important mission in our life. There are some who do it gradually, some who ask their friends and family to help them in this mission, and many who join organisations that have this as their goal. And there are those who even do it immediately, taking a pledge for their health. When we say nothing is impossible, should we not do this for our own selves?
Alcohol and the heart
There are all kinds of excuses for drinking alcohol, both occasionally and regularly. However, the fact is that this is always harmful to our health, especially that of our key organ, the heart. We all know, that, healthwise, there is no safe level for drinking alcohol. Once again, to avoid alcohol, we must have the intent because that is ultimately what matters.
Checking health parameters regularly We check all kinds of things regularly including our tax records and finances. Surely we need to check our blood pressure and sugar levels too regularly. Regularity is very important as anything could change any time, and we need to revise our lifestyle accordingly. We could
maintain a health register or diary so that we do this regularly.
Laughter is the best medicine
Whether we are watching a funny movie or cracking jokes with friends, we need to indulge in laughing as it is good for our heart. Doing this regularly decreases artery inflammation, reduces stress hormones, and increases good cholesterol. This is probably why, often, social occasions have a comedy show as well.
Letting go of worry
In the chakra (subtle energy centres) system, the solar plexus is the seat where we carry our worries, which also have a connection with our heart’s health, and hence it is necessary to keep the solar plexus and ourselves free of worry. We could do this through meditation coupled with physical exercise, music, and so on.
Avoiding overexertion
Listen to your body. Do not overexert yourself at the gym or otherwise. Keeping moderation is key.
Taking good care
Ultimately, it’s all about managing our life well, keeping in mind that our life and our wonderful organ, the heart, need to be taken care of on a top-priority basis.
Jamuna Rangachari is a former assistant editor of Life Positive, has authored two books for children, and compiled and interpreted Teaching Stories-I and II for Life Positive. Write to her at sumavarughese@hotmail.com..