Lack of healthy lifestyle choices compound over time and affect the underprivileged more adversely
CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, heart attacks are not confined to the affluent, who have the riches to revel in indulgent lifestyles. Indeed, in many high- and middle-income countries it is the poor who have heart attacks more frequently than the rich. In India, heart attacks have become more common among the impoverished and less-educated in recent years.
The main reason for this phenomenon is that the risk factors of heart disease have become more common among the poor, as social change tends to accompany economic development in evolving societies. Global experience vividly demonstrates these health and nutrition transitions. Initially, the epidemic of coronary disease, which causes a spate of heart attacks, manifested most prominently in the wealthier sections of high-income countries. But, over time, it evolved into a major threat to the poor among countries and the poor within countries. This followed changes over a period in the pattern of risk factor exposures in different population groups.
Most of the risk factors of heart attack are related to external elements that alter our physiology. Tobacco and diet are prime examples—even the levels of physical activity and stress are influenced by our environment. As societies develop economically, the social gradient of risk factor exposure reverses with time, with the rich purchasing protection and the poor becoming increasingly vulnerable.
Bu hikaye Reader's Digest India dergisinin January 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Reader's Digest India dergisinin January 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
BOOKS
Books review
STUDIO - Off Lamington Road by Gieve Patel
Oil on Canvas, 54 x 88 in
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE
FOODS THAT FIGHT DEMENTIA
TO HELL AND BACK
The Darvaza crater in Turkmenistan is known as the Gates of Hell. I stood on its edge - and lived to tell the tale
THE SNAKE CHARMERS
Invasive Burmese pythons are squeezing the life out of Florida's vast Everglades. An unlikely sisterhood is taking them on
Sisterhood to Last a Lifetime
These college pals teach a master class in how to maintain a friendship for 50-plus years
...TO DIE ON A HOCKEY RINK
ONE MINUTE I WAS PLAYING IN MY BEER LEAGUE, THE NEXT I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL
Just Sit Tight
Broken, battered and trapped in a ravine for days, I desperate driver wonders, \"Will anyone find me?\"
Allow Me to Mansplain...
If there's one thing we know, it's this: We're a nation of know-it-alls
THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR (AND SUGAR SUBSTITUTES!)
It's no secret that we have a serious addiction. Here's how to cut back on the sweet stuff, once and for all.