The chill pill for your heart
We will tell you the story of Rima Saxena. This 36-year-old marketing head of a Bangalore-based software firm is on the fast track. Being bright and driven, she's got a few quick promotions and is now in line for a big leap in her career. Her job is demanding, she has a fairly busy social calendar; travels extensively, and is constantly multi-tasking. Sounds familiar?
There's more. On the surface, she seems fine. But no one in her office knows that in the past six months, she has visited her doc twice complaining of dizziness, shortness of breath, palpitations, and chest pain, convinced it was a heart attack. In fact, Rima has been lucky so far as her 'heart attack' symptoms were diagnosed simply as panic attacks brought on by stress.
According to Dr Apoorva Kanhere, consulting cardiac surgeon at Ahmedabad's Apollo Hospital, Rima has company - loads of people in their 20s and 30s, in the rush of a stressful, competitive lifestyle, fall prey to heart disease. He confirms that in the past few years, he has increasingly been treating younger people with coronary disease.
Dr Yogesh Kothari MD, consulting cardiologist at the St Philomena Trinity Heart Centre in Bangalore adds: ''What's worse, very few people get severe headaches, dizzy spells, or other symptoms that might signal heart trouble.'' Stress, it turns out, is a silent predator.
Text: Prevention
Images: Getty
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