You’ve heard of fitness, lifestyle and food habits affecting your heart, but did you know that ethnicity could play a vital role in cardiovascular health too? South Asians, listen up! Increasingly, studies are pointing towards a correlation between ethnic origin (no matter where you live) and risk of cardiovascular or heart disease.
HOW IT ALL ADDS UP
South Asians, i.e., those from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka are at a whopping four times greater risk of heart disease vs. the rest of the population1. With heart disease being the number one cause of death in the Indian subcontinent, it’s time individuals of South Asian descent pay attention to their cardiac health.
Reports of increased heart disease risk and increased mortality due to heart disease first emerged in Singapore in the 1950s2. Further studies emerged from other countries with significant South Asian immigrants – Canada3, UK4 and USA5 – which mirrored the results from Singapore. Heart disease occurs almost a decade earlier in South Asians and heart attacks when they occur are more severe and outcomes after an event are far worse. When blockages in heart vessels are discovered during angiograms, in South Asians, the blockages are longer, found in more vessels and are more severe(6,7). As the body of evidence continues to increase, strategies are evolving to deal with this epidemic in the South Asian population.
WHY IS THE RISK HIGHER FOR SOUTH ASIANS?
From a lower rate of consumption of fruit and vegetables to frequent use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils with high trans-fat content and a greater consumption of fats, saturated fats, trans fats and processed fats; the relationship of heart disease with the South Asian diet is somewhat obvious.
But there’s more evidence against lifestyle in general. In India for instance, the average blood pressure has increased in the past two decades8, whereas in most Western nations it has declined. In the urban areas of India, the prevalence of diabetes has risen from two to 12 percent in the last 30 years!9
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