Reduce work stress, say cardiologists

Chennai: Cardiologists in the city say that work-related stress contributes to more than 50 per cent of cardiac problems. This includes the pressure of meeting deadlines, working with a disinterested or unskilled employee and the absence of interpersonal relationships with seniors. They say that identifying capabilities before assigning work, flexible working hours, a work-at-home option during an emergency, making exercise mandatory, removing coffee machines and providing time for recreation could help provide a heart healthy environment at the workplace, which is the theme for ‘World Heart Day – 2014’, to be observed on September 29.

“Stress at the workplace makes the person with obesity, diabetes, BP and high cholesterol more vulnerable to a cardiac arrest situation by 20 per cent,” said Dr Asha Mahilmaran, senior interventional cardiologists, Apollo Hospitals.

Banning smoking will reduce most heart-related problems, said Dr P Moorthy, professor of cardiology, SRM Medical College. He said that there was a 15-20 per cent chance of passive smokers contracting cardiac problems due to the exposure to the smoke.

Noting that cardiac problems had doubled in the working population in the last five years, Dr Priya Chockalingam, cardiologist, Cardiac Wellness Institute, said, earlier, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels would begin at the age of 50 and end with cardiac problems at about 65 and 70 years. But now, cholesterol and diabetes were starting to show at 25 years and people were having cardiac problems at 40, she added.

Some of her suggestions to reduce the incidence of heart problems included conducting workshops on healthy dietary habits for the staff and giving employees breaks to walk around the office, conducting health check ups and putting up notices on the need for people to make lifestyle changes.

A three-year study, conducted by Saffolalife, in 12 metro and non-metro cities across the country on over 51,000 women reveals that three in five women in India are vulnerable to heart disease at as early an age as 35 years.

“Not only are pre-menopausal women with diabetes at risk; even non-diabetic women have CVDs. In the past five years, our hospital has done angiograms on 400 women. Of the total, 30 per cent of women below 50 years have coronary artery disease,” said Prof. Dr. Pradeep G.

Nayar, director, department of cardiology, Chettinad Hospital. Hypertension, cholesterol and smoking apart, the non-conventional causes were low HDL (good cholesterol) and genetic factors, he said.

The study also points out that 69 per cent women in Chennai lead a sedentary lifestyle and 55 per cent are obese. More than half the respondents in Chennai consume less than two servings of vegetables/salads in a day.