NewZNew (Chandigarh) : “Women would give more importance to prevention and treatment of breast cancer despite that fact that death risk due to coronary disease was 10 times higher. Coronary disease was common among diabetic women. Moreover increased prevalence of obesity among women was another factor that could make them more vulnerable to heart diseases.”
This was stated by Dr. Deepak Puri, Director-Cardio Thoracic & Vascular Surgery, Max Super Specialty Hospital, Mohali while speaking at Integrated Health Education event during Euphoria -2015, an annual cultural event at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh today. Dr. Puri was a Chief Guest at the inaugural ceremony of function.
Over 500 girl students from different colleges and schools of the tricity attended the event.
Dr Puri said that women should avoid junk foods. They should keep themselves engage in more outdoor activities, stress relieving hobbies like singing, dance or yoga. Healthy lifestyle choices including regular exercise, fruit and vegetable intake and modest alcohol consumption have been seen to provide stronger protection among women than men. Therefore if women would start taking care of these risk factors at an early age they could prevent or at least delay the onset of this disease despite genetic predisposition.”
Dr. Puri informed that symptoms like shortness of breath, nausea, indigestion, fatigue, sweating, and arm or shoulder pain were more frequent among women than men. This would make diagnosis of coronary disease much more difficult in women.
“Ironically women were also less likely to seek timely medical help. Their compliance to treatment and follow up was less compared to men because of the myths associated with this being a men’s disease predominantly. It was therefore very important to spread awareness among masses about these facts besides at same time to update the general practitioners and doctors about these aspects so that heart disease in women was not missed and undertreated.”
Talking about steps to check onset of heart diseases, Dr Puri explained that studies have shown that beyond the age of 25 years everyone have microscopic evidence of blockage in coronary arteries that supplied blood to heart. Therefore there was a need for preventive measures at a very young age. Most of lifestyle related habits were picked up early during adolescent age therefore it was essential to create awareness among the youngsters about a heart healthy lifestyle.
