Everything You Need to Know About Your Heart's Health

Your heart is the one that keeps you alive and kicking every second of your life. Here's what you need to know about that most special muscle in your body called heart

Every minute about four Indians between the age group of 30 to 40 suffer fatal heart attack. In the recent past many young celebrities of same age group lost their life due to heart attack and most of them exercise very regularly to maintain their physique. What could be the reasons behind...

1. Ethnicity: South Asians four times higher risk of heart diseases and south Asians are prone to high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

2. Lifestyle: This mainly includes bad eating habits, especially salty, sugary and fatty food which leads to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, ending up putting undue pressure on the heart. Lack of sleep and physical activity can trigger obesity, stress and diabetes which risks heart disease.

3. Diabetes. India is the diabetes among young population has increased 10 times and diabetics are three times more vulnerable to heart diseases. Increase in blood sugar in diabetes increases the chances of blood clot and inflammation in the blood vessel walls which leads to heart attack.

4. Tobacco: Tobacco consumption in the form of cigarettes and bidis is a dominant cause of heart attack in young people. High levels of carbon monoxide in cigarettes cuts down the oxygen that blood carries. And when the heart doesn't get enough oxygen it ends up malfunctioning. Tobacco also affects the blood vessels by causing plaques and fat build up which constricts the arteries, thereby affecting the passage for blood.

5. Alcohol: Alcohol causes the arteries to stiffen faster than they usually do from ageing. Lesser flexible arteries bear more blood pressure which can lead to heart attack. The habit of drinking with smoking worsens the condition.

Answer these six questions to assess your heart:

1. Is your waist size above 39 inches (Male) or 35 inches (Female)?

2. Are you Diabetic?

3. Is your cholesterol level high?