Srinagar, Dec 07: The cardiologists in the Valley termed the heart attacks or cardiac arrests among the youth as alarming, saying that smoking, drug menace and psycho social stress were among the main causes behind the increasing rate of deaths occurring due to the heart attacks or cardiac arrests.

, Dr Nisar Tramboo, Head of SKIMS hospital said that the heart attacks and cardiac arrests among the youth are increasing as they (youth) live unhealthy habits, which include smoking and other related things.

He said cardiac arrest and heart attack are two different things and heart attacks don’t lead to cardiac arrest mandatorily.

“In the past, we couldn’t diagnose it as there were no investigative modalities available. But now, there are both the things including investigative modalities as well as awareness,” he said.

Dr Nisar Tramboo further said that there was a need to adopt a healthy lifestyle; the youth should take a lot of fruits, lot of vegetables.

“The youth should avoid excess poultry, animal fats. They should not take too much salt as it increases blood pressure, thus can lead to heart attack as well,” he added.

Nisar said such things can prove helpful to reduce the number of cardiac arrest or heart attacks.

“At present the whole of South Asia is sitting on this issue. The reasons are the same. We are genetically prone to heart attacks if we compare ourselves with the people living in western countries. Heart attacks are an alarming situation but if we don’t take care of the environment and also don’t change our lifestyle,” he said.

Dr Irfan Ahmad, Consultant Cardiologist at SMHS hospital said that receiving patients at hospital who are suffering heart attacks was an abnormal thing before 15 years, but now it has become a normal thing as the people have changed their lifestyle by eating junk foods, smoking and other things.

“An increase in smoking prevalence, drugs, changing lifestyle was among the main reasons behind the rising number of deaths among youth due to cardiac arrests,” Dr Irfan said, adding that the other main reason behind the issue was increase in psycho social stress among the youth.

“We have changed our lifestyle. We eat food, but don’t utilize it. We are preferring facilities rather than exercising. We don’t even bother to walk,” he said, adding that it is mandatory for a person to walk at least 30 minutes in a day to stay healthy. “But, we mostly prefer vehicles and remain intact with mobile phones,” he added.

“Psycho social stress among youth has increased in Kashmir from past couple of years, which has led to an increase in heart attacks. However, in winters, the number of heart attack cases witnessed increase,” he added.

Dr Irfan further said that there was a dire need to quit smoking and taking drugs to avoid heart attacks or cardiac arrests.

“Besides, the number of drug de-addiction centres should also be increased as it will help in reducing the rate of heart attacks. Youth is our future and we need to take care of the youth at apt time. Awareness is must among the people for which camps should be organized. The schools should be used as main place to create awareness among the children so that we can reduce the rate of heart attacks,” he said—(KNO)