A survey conducted by a chain of diagnostic clinics ahead of the World Heart Day on Thursday revealed that men between 25 and 45 years in Ahmedabad have alarmingly high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which are one of the key risk factors for heart disease.
The survey conducted by Metropolis Healthcare screened over one lakh samples for four tests through enzymatic methods namely cholesterol (total) serum, triglycerides level in serum, HDL Cholesterol serum and LDL Cholesterol serum to evaluate risk factors for coronary diseases in both men and women.
Of these, 25% men were found to be suffering from high or abnormal levels of cholesterol and triglyceride in their blood stream. This prevalence is alarming as a study conducted by the South Asian Health Centre among Asian Indian men showed that half of all heart attacks in this population occur under the age of 50 years, and 25% under the age of 40.
In fact, local doctors have been reporting a higher trend of heart attacks in young people, especially men in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
As compared to men, women were found to have less problem with cholesterol with 19% of them having high lipid and cholesterol levels. “A study on fasting samples of primarily Gujarati population was done for lipid profile. All the values showed marked increase in young age group. Interestingly, triglycerides levels in females are in good control compared to males which could be because of day-to-day house-hold activities which make them physically fit. Most of the Gujarati females are housewives and their physical activities keep lipid level in control,” said Dr Bhavesh Javia, head of Sanket Metropolis, Ahmedabad.
Dr Javia said that sedentary lifestyle, erratic eating habits including higher consumption of fast food and stress render men more prone to high cholesterol. He said that such surveys would help identify people who are at a greater risk of heart disease. “Individuals will become more aware of the fact that heart disease is not limited to the elderly, and young will be more determined in preventing the same,” he said.
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