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Rohit Wadhwaney in New Delhi
More and more Indians are getting heart attacks because they don't live with nature and eat bad food at the wrong hour.
It is no wonder, then, that the Indians start getting heart diseases 10 years before the Americans, although the latter are known to take more junk food.
Then there are those who pass off good food to their servants thinking it is 'cheap', but end up dining at expensive restaurants which dish out lousy fare.
"That is one of the major reasons why so many people die of heart attacks in India," K K Agarwal, cardiologist at the Moolchand Hospital in New Delhi and executive vice-chairman of the Heart Care Foundation of India, said.
The foundation will launch a month-long campaign from September 1 to educate the people on these issues.
"It is basically community service. I think we owe it to the people. In the campaign we will give consultation and even do blood tests at nominal prices," Agarwal told Indo-Asian News Service.
"In India, 250,000 die of heart attacks every year and 180,000 die before reaching the hospital," he said.
"We give the servants ration rice and eat polished rice. We give them lemon water and drink Coke and Pepsi. The food that we eat is absolutely unnatural and most of it is eaten at night. In the US people eat dinner by 7 pm, which is the best time," Agarwal said.
"Of course, there are the other normal factors like blood pressure, sugar and obesity, but the main problem is that our dietary habits are appalling."
Heart disease among Indians is much more serious than in the West, and that is why 75 per cent of all patients die within one hour of a heart attack -- before any medical aid can be made available, he said.
"Live in accordance with the laws of nature," Agarwal advices.
Indo-Asian New Service
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