Are South Asians at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases and complications?
Yes, it is due to our lifestyle; also it is genetic. We have incidence of diabetes and that’s co-related with cardiac complications. There’s no question the highest rates of heart diseases are in India. Indians, even in North America, are at a higher risk than the Caucasian population. There are multiple reasons for that; we don’t know all of them but we certainly see some of them could be genetic. Also lack of activity is a big problem in heart diseases. People who become active can reduce their risk of getting heart attack significantly. People say women don’t have heart diseases. That’s not correct. Another factor of heart diseases is our eating habits, our diet. We South Asians say we are vegetarians. We forget that food may not always be healthy. We use a lot of saturated fat and everything else combined does make it a serious cocktail for heart diseases. We are starting to change our lifestyle. We are getting more active. One of my next projects on which I am focusing my attentio
