Mangalore, August 1: ‘The best way to prevent heart failure is for us to be aggressive in treating people exposed to the risk factors, such as those suffering from diabetes and hypertension,” said Prof. Dr Jayaprakash, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, Bangalore.
Addressing members of Mangalore Branch of Indian Medical Association (IMA) in a Continuing Medical Education (CME) programme on ‘Heart Failure Management’ on Saturday, 27th July at Hotel Ocean Pearl, he said that the greatest risk factors for heart failure are ischemic heart disease, uncontrolled hypertension and uncontrolled diabetes. Hence the general measures of treatment include lifestyle modification, weight reduction, avoiding toxins like smoking and alcohol in addition to treating existing heart disease’, he said.
Describing the heart as a vital organ, he said that the heart starts beating while the fetus is still in the womb and beats continuously till we die and the function of the heart is to receive blood at low pressure and expel it at higher pressure. “Abnormality in performing this basic function results in inefficient pumping of blood, leading to heart failure,” he said.
‘The longer we live, the greater our chances of having heart disease. 10/1000 people over 65 years of age suffer from heart failure and observing that annually about 22 million cases of heart failure are reported worldwide’, he quoted. ‘Heart failure is a chronic progressive disease. It is treatable but not curable; hence most of the treatments are palliative in nature and a way of cheating death. Once a person has been diagnosed for heart failure, observing even the best health care measures and feeling symptomatically better does not reduce the risk of the patient undergoing sudden cardiac arrest’, he said.
Dr. Narasimha Pai, Dr. Padmanabha Kamath, IMA Mangalore Branch president Dr. Manjunath Shenoy , Dr. Veena Bhagwan, Dr. Vasanthi Shetty, Dr. Amitha Bhandary and Manoj Dubey were present.
By: Satish Kapikad
