The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Kalam concerned over high risk of stroke among country's youth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 19, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Kalam concerned over high risk of stroke among country's youth

Staff Reporter

He suggests lifestyle changes to prevent heart ailments

A NEW LANDMARK: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (second from left) going through information at a laboratory at the inauguration of Thrombosis Research Institute at Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore on Monday. Accompanying him are Governor T.N. Chatruv edi (left), institute chairman V.V. Kakkar and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Expressing concern over the increasing cerebro and cardio vascular diseases in the country, President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Monday said that lifestyle intervention should be a part of research seeking simple and effective prevention and management of cardio-vascular diseases that would help the needy patients.

Dr. Kalam was inaugurating the Thrombosis Research Institute (TRI) at Narayana Hrudayalaya here.

He said, "The mortality and morbidity resulting from cerebro and cardio vascular diseases were a major and increasing public health problem in India. Stroke continues to be a common cause of death and disability in India."

He said recent community surveys from many regions of India showed the crude prevalence rate of stroke to be 200 per 1,00,000 population. Stroke in the young was more common in India compared to the West. The prevalence varied from region to region. For example, in the south, the prevalence of stroke in young was as high as 40 per cent, he added.

The President spoke on different issues including prevention and management and development of newer drugs for cerebro and cardio vascular diseases. He stressed on the need to change the lifestyle to prevent the diseases.

The President said, "A similar lifestyle intervention programme launched by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Global Hospital and Research Centre, Mt. Abu, had shown marked improvement in the health of patients. "The lifestyle suggested to them was simple and rudimentary, and marked improvement was found among the patients after it was introduced." The major component of the intervention was stress management through meditation.

The main efforts were to empower patients with information and education on heart disease and how they could control and reverse it themselves.

Among the suggestions the President made included development of a simple and cost-effective test for identifying individuals most at risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease at an early age to allow intervention to prevent long-term disability and undertaking population genetics and gene expression studies in the early onset of coronary artery disease in the Indian population to gain deeper understanding of the inter-relationship between the genetic and environmental risk factors.

Besides, seeking development of a vaccine against heart disease or stroke, Dr. Kalam said there was a need to design unique vaccine to prevent infection and changes in blood vessels.

Further, he called for creation of a centre of excellence for developing the human resource needed for advanced molecular biology of cardiovascular diseases through a multi-institutional joint post-graduate education programme. He suggested that the research institute could work with NIMHANS, AIIMS, CARE Foundation and other leading medical research institutions in the country and abroad.

Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and the former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma were present.

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