In June 2023, over 200 doctors, mostly cardiologists from North India, attended the ‘Heart Failure Symposium’ to deliberate if heart failure is becoming a pandemic. In an interview with The Times of India, Dr. Sudhir Saxena believes so, and says it is “the number one cause of hospitalization in people above 65 years of age.” The concerns are not unfounded, as the number of cardiac health cases seem to have gone up significantly around the world after the COVID pandemic. In October 2022, India Today reported of a study done at Queen Mary University of London which showed that COVID patients had ‘increased risk of incident cardiovascular events’ with 118 times rise in number of deaths, 27.6 times increase in blood clots, 17.5 times more incidences of brain stroke and 10 times more probability of arrythmia (irregular heart beat). ‘Studies from China and the EU showed that at least 1/3 of the people affected by Covid hitting the heart,’ the report further added.
Even empirically, we have seen multiple and bizarre news of heart failures in the news in recent times. In August 2023, renowned Malayalam director Siddique Ismail died at 68 after a heart attack. Earlier in August 2022, 58-year-old comedian Raju Srivastava had complained of chest pain, collapsed during a workout at a gym, and later succumbed to heart attack. 53-year-old Bollywood singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, or KK, known for his superhit songs like ‘Tadap Tadap Ke Iss Dil Se’ (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam) and ‘Aankon Mein Teri Ajab Si’ (Om Shanti Om), died of a heart attack soon after his live gig in Kolkata. In May 2023, the death of exceptionally talented TV actor, Nitesh Pandey, due to cardiac arrest at just 51 years again shocked the Indian showbiz fraternity. Filmmaker Raj Kaushal, husband of Indian actress, fashion designer and TV presenter Mandira Bedi, breathed his last after a cardiac arrest at the young age of 49. Popular 46-year-old TV actor Siddhaanth Vir Surryavanshi too had passed away while working out at the gym in November 2022. In September 2021, at just 40 years, Bigg Boss 13 winner Sidharth Shukla died at an even younger age, when he went to bed at night and didn’t wake up the next morning.
But it is not just celebrities, or people above 40, who are falling prey to this new enemy. In August 2023, a 35 year old man died at a mall while going to watch a late night show of the movie Gadar-2 in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. In September 2023, a 21 year old engineering student collapsed due to heart attack while running on a tread mill in Ghaziabad, with the horrendous episode being captured live on CCTV camera! If that was not enough, May 2023 saw a 15-year-old school student in Greater Noida dying of a heart attack while playing with friends. In September 2023, 14-year-old class 9 student Atif Siddiqui fainted during chemistry class at City Montessori School, Aliganj, and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital, probably due to heart attack, despite being administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) several times.
The threat has become so significant that apex medical bodies in India and around the world have started taking note. In August 2023, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India's top health body, launched two studies to ‘comprehend the unusual increase in “sudden deaths” among young people following the Covid-19 pandemic’, targeting individuals aged 18 to 45 years.
In August 2023 itself, Scroll.in published a news report citing massive studies at Scotland and Italy showing correlation between COVID and heart attacks, but concluded that the medical opinion is divided on whether the pandemic has left our hearts weaker.
Still, the media is in a frenzy over all sorts of public awareness articles in recent years ranging from early warning signs, to tips to safeguard heart health, and even healthy snacks and nutritious diet and spices good for the heart! Reports talk about sleep deficiency, stress, high BP and even lack of awareness as possible causes, heart tests, myth busters for youth and why cardiovascular diseases are no longer limited to older people any longer.
Maharashtra has found that heart diseases incidents are on the rise in villages too, and has announced that it will set up 19 cath labs across district hospitals in the state.
In an op-ed in the Times of India Lifestyle section, Dr Aditi Singhvi, Transplant Cardiology and Advanced Heart Failure Management expert from Bangalore, cites the Global Burden of Disease Study, which found that ‘heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in India, accounting for almost 18% of all female deaths!’
From these reports, one this is clear – you cannot take your heart health for granted anymore, irrespective of your age or apparent vigour and vitality! In these uncertain times when even medical science is grappling to find out the real causes, you must pay attention to what’s happening under the hood!
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