India sees 50% increase in heart diseases

Madurai: There is a 50% increase in the prevalence of heart disease and stroke in India in the last 25 years said doctors at Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research centre.

According to a press release, senior cardiologists, Dr N Ganesan, Dr RM Krishnan, Dr Sampath Kumar, Dr Selvamani and Dr S Kumar have said that cardiovascular diseases have emerged as the number one cause of death in humans, accounting to 31% of all deaths globally. Out of 17 million premature deaths (under the age of 70), due to noncommunicable diseases worldwide in 2015, nearly 82% were in the low and middle-income countries, and 37% of them were because of cardiovascular diseases.

But, most of the cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by addressing the risk factor, such as tobacco, unhealthy diets, obesity, physical inactivity and alcohol. The number of prevalent cases of cardiovascular diseases has increased from 2.57 crore in 1990 to 5.45 crore in 2016. They said that the prevalence was highest in Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, among others. TNN