World Heart Day: Health experts advice yoga, exercise and balanced diet to boost heart health

Mumbai/ Delhi [India], September 28 (ANI): At a time when maintaining good heart health is extremely essential, several health experts suggest that exercising along with a balanced diet can work wonders and reduce the risk of heart diseases.
Talking about maintaining a healthy heart, Dr G Prakash, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jindal Naturecure Institute suggests that a healthy lifestyle along with exercising and yoga can help maintain good heart health.
He says, "Exercise is one of the most effective ways of protecting yourself against heart disease. Yoga has a combination of relaxing asanas, meditation and breathing techniques that have a positive effect on the respiratory system and the heart. Regular practice can help lower blood pressure, improve lung capacity and heart rate, lower blood cholesterol levels, and improve circulation."
Prakash also shared about the necessity to maintain a balanced diet along with regular exercise for a healthier heart, "Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet is equally important. Cut down on foods high in sugars and saturated fats. It will help lower the level of LDL cholesterol and prevent the onset of type-2 diabetes. Reduce salt intake to lower the risk of hypertension, which is one of the key CVD risk factors."
"In the past 5 years, the number of people coming with various degrees of heart problems has increased exponentially. Most of them are men/women in the age group of 30 - 50 years. Now that the unlock process has begun, it is important they become active for at least 30 minutes a day, if outdoors with mandatory COVID-19 safety measures i.e wearing masks and if jogging double the social distance to 12 feet and don't draft," says Dr. (Col) Monik Mehta, Chief of Cardiology, Columbia Asia Hospital, Palam Vihar, Gurugram as he talks about the necessity be active.
"Also regulate binge eating that comprises packaged snacks high on salt, sugar and trans-fat, to reduce their risk of developing heart disease," added Dr Mehta.
Meanwhile, ahead of the World Heart Day, a foundation is working towards achieving a Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) free region in Maharashtra.
As part of the mission to achieve a CHD free Raigad, Ronnie and Zarina Screwvala, co-Founders of Swades Foundation in association with Wockhardt Hospital has conducted 144 CHD surgeries on rural kids between the age group of 0-18.
The foundation has successfully operated most of the CHD cases from the seven blocks they work out of in Raigad and are now are focusing on the new-born cases.
Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs) pose huge life-threatening risks to the patient's life as a result of which it demands diagnosis and treatment in the early stages itself. CHD cases cause psychosocial & financial stress on families, as a result of which patients, especially in rural areas, fail to receive timely and effective treatment.
The program has seen a 94 per cent success rate so far and the foundation aims to focus on cases of newborn babies in the upcoming years.
Swades Foundation, along with the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) team, teachers, Anganwadi workers, and private health care providers, carry out the symptomatic screening of children in their respective geographic areas for CHDs.
Diagnosis is carried out through symptomatic screening, along with mobilisation and counselling of parents to attend the primary screening for children at Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai. After the primary screening, the diagnosed patients are provided with necessary medical and surgical intervention. For complicated cases, the 3-D printed model method is used to plan surgeries. (ANI)