There has been a remarkable increase in the number of sudden heart attacks and the number of people affected by them in Kashmir. Every day we see queues of people at the hospitals seeking medicines for their hue of heart diseases.
While the majority get medical treatment and survive, roughly a third succumb at home or at work without ever making it to hospital.
The more lethal type, called cardiac arrest, occurs when a piece of plaque — a fatty deposit on the inside of an artery — breaks off and blocks the flow of blood completely. This is probably what happened to Flaherty.
Worldwide,we have observed that people are following a lazy lifestyle which entails sleeping late at night, obsession with mobile phones, sedentary hours at workplace and lack of exercise. Even though in Kashmir this phenomenon was unheard of some decades ago but slowly this trend caught on with Kashmir over the last two decades.
In these situations, the heart stops beating almost instantly. The only treatment is CPR followed by an electric jump-start from a defibrillating machine. But time is the killer here.
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The patient’s chance of survival drops 10 per cent with every minute that passes. If help doesn’t come almost immediately, there is only the faintest hope of recovery.
People are getting used to sedentary lifestyle and taking to lack of exercise as a normal means of living life. However, as history books will tell you that humans have lived an eternally active life as food gatherers, agriculturists, sportsmen, and carpenters.
In the female population of Kashmir the diseases like Diabetes and PCOD are picking up impairing their prospects of becoming first time mothers. The endocrinologists are attributing the increase in the number of PCOD cases to the consumption of junk food and lack of exercise.
In the male population of valley the disease of diabetes in rearing its head. Even, men as young as 20-year-olds are complaining of obesity and diabetes.
The government must conduct thorough studies to get to the root cause of sudden heart diseases in Kashmir. A group of professionals who can interact with thousands of respondents and develop insights into the root causes of such diseases need to be identified on immediate basis.
Unfortunately, the treatment of lifestyle disease is usually a hormone releasing. However, another cure to overhaul the entire lifestyle-eating habits, sleeping pattern, working hours, style of working and exercise. Let us start the latter as soon as possible.
