Balanced diet, exercise stressed to avoid heart disease

LAHORE:Pakistani men are having ‘sudden cardiac deaths’ relatively at an early age for having all classical risk factors for heart disease including dyslipidemia or high cholesterol, leading experts said here on Tuesday.

They advised people to modify their lifestyle by eating healthy and balanced diet and doing exercise for 30 to 40 minutes daily and take medicines on the advice of their physicians.

Speaking at the launch of ‘National Lipid Programme’ on World Lipid Day 2022, experts including leading cardiologists, endocrinologists and physicians said over 70 to 80 percent people diagnosed with diabetes early in their lives had dyslipidemia or high cholesterol, which was a leading cause of sudden cardiac deaths as well as large strokes in relatively young men in the country. The National Lipid Programme is a brainchild of leading healthcare professionals from different healthcare institutions in Lahore including senior endocrinologist Prof Dr Abbass Raza, University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore’s Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Javed Akram, Executive Director Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) Lahore Prof Dr Bilal S Mohydin, Prof Dr Noman Naseer and Dr Mujtaba Hasan Siddiqui. On the occasion, organisers announced that cholesterol screening camps were organised at 400 locations throughout the country where hundreds of young men and women were screened for the dyslipidemia or high cholesterol on the occasion of World Cholesterol Day 2002, which is being observed for the first time in Pakistan.

National Lipid Programme adviser Prof Dr Abbas Raza said over 80 percent of newly-diagnosed diabetics have dyslipidemia, which means that they are not only treated for the diabetes but also for the high blood pressure, which is the second leading cause of cardiovascular disease and deaths in Pakistan.

“Only 10-15 percent people with high cholesterol get treatment for their health condition in our country. People need to know that high cholesterol can’t be seen with eyes as it is a silent health condition and only come to surface, when a person gets his or her lipid profile done or have heart disease”, he maintained.

Prof Raza said the objective of the launching National Lipid Programme was to create awareness about damage caused by high cholesterol and added that people would be apprised of benefits of eating healthy diet, exercising on daily basis and taking medicines regularly if they are diagnosed with dyslipidemia.

UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Javed Akram while announcing Rs10 million grant for initiating research on dyslipidemia in Pakistan said pharmaceutical companies should come forward and match this grant to conduct the local research as the Pakistani population has different cut off range for the high cholesterol including LDL and Triglycerides as compared to rest of the world.

He also announced establishment of Pakistan’s first preventive cardiology centre by the UHS at PIC Lahore, saying the only way to reduce deaths due to cardiovascular disease was through prevention. “We are now spending hundreds of billions of rupees on treatment of cardiovascular disease but it is multiplying at a rapid pace in Pakistan. We can never treatment such a growing number of patients with cardiovascular disease”, he said, adding that launch of National Lipid Programme was the need of the hour and the right step in the right direction. Executive Director PIC Lahore Prof Bilal Mohydin said due to early onset of cardiovascular disease, now men and women in their 20s and early 30s were having heart attacks and urged people to immediately modify their lifestyle and stop eating junk food.