Heart ailments causing more deaths than terrorism in Pakistan

Islamabad: No doubt Pakistan in its War on Terror has sacrificed unprecedented number of innocent lives more than any nation in the world but the figures show more horrific picture as far as the deaths due to heart ailments are concerned.
Every year more than 100,000 people die of heart attack only and figure haunts more when added with the loss of lives due to other diseases. We reckon the deaths of Pakistanis in terrorism as our major loss but why we are so ignorant to even look upon the ailing masses dying every year.
If thousands got martyred in the sixteen-year long war then more than that are dying per year of cardiovascular disease. This single disease is killing many vulnerable people mostly from poor and middle classes.
Chief Executive Officer Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) Major General (r) Azhar Mehmood Kayani, a cardiologist when contacted by APP said in South Asia particularly in this region majority suffers from cardiac diseases.
Citing reasons for this fact, he said the arteries of the people of this region are genetically slender. This genetic factor becomes more disastrous due to poverty and unhealthy lifestyle, he said.
There is no harm in accepting that our society has no concept of maintaining a balanced diet rather believe to eat all that tastes well without any restriction in turn quenching the desire of taste buds.
Dr Kayani went on saying that heart diseases are not a matter of growing age as there are youngsters of 22 to 35 years of age with heart attacks brought at RIC. The reasons are very simple and lucid because first thing we have no adequate plan in our life to lead simple and healthy life.
‘Halwa Puri’, ‘Nihari’, ‘Paey’, Biryani Masala are the typical traditional dishes those people love to eat which are not bound to occasions or festive moments. Every Sunday, news channels air special segments on traditional breakfasts available on different eateries of the city without knowing the fact that their alluring programmes may cause disastrous effects on viewers lives. People feel quite excited and relish their favourite meals.
It looks like cholesterol and junk food is proliferating everywhere. Although doctors are not asking to quit with these food items forever yet they demand from every individual to adopt safe and healthy life style. At least one can eat ‘Paey’, ‘Nihari’ and ‘Halwa Puri’ not every day but once in a week.
Dr Azhar said three young patients of 22 years of age were brought to RIC. The doctors learnt that one of the young boys developed a minor clot in the artery which further damaged his 60 per cent heart. He was a worker in a restaurant and used to work till late night. He could not manage to sleep well and also had poor quality food to eat. Similar example is of a 35 year old woman who got a heart attack and the main reason doctors came to know was unbalanced diet and lack of exercise. To our dismay there is not even a record of per year cardiac arrests happening in the country except for the deaths. The question here is and will remain for everyone to answer that where is our health policy, and institutions that are unable to develop statistics to highlight the growing diseases in the country.Where are we heading as a nation which has kept their eyes closed? God knows how dreadful it might be to discover the exact number of Pakistanis dying of heart attacks and many other diseases.
There is a huge difference between a nation and a crowd. If we want to maintain our identity as a nation we have to stand out not for ourselves but for our generations to come. This is our country and it demands our contribution so that no place of it remains engrossed in miseries and problems.