The sudden death of Tamil actor Daniel Balaji, aged 48, has shocked many. Despite this, there has been a recent increase in the number of Indians under the age of 50 suffering sudden heart attacks and losing their lives or undergoing angioplasty. Actor Shreyas Talpade, also 48, also suffered a heart attack last year. In March 2023, actress Sushmita Sen, also 48, revealed that she underwent angioplasty after a similar episode. Earlier, celebrities like singer KK, Kannada actors Puneeth Rajkumar and Chiranjeevi Sarja and Sidharth Shukla also lost their lives due to sudden cardiac arrest.

Why do relatively healthy people suddenly experience cardiac arrest these days? Dr. Deepak Davidson, chief interventional cardiologist at Caritas Hospital and Heart Institute in Kottayam, explains that the conventional cardiac arrest in a normal person He explains that risk factors for the disease are blood pressure, sugar, cholesterol, smoking, and family history of heart disease. But he says the non-traditional risk factors for cardiac arrest in healthy people under 50 who don’t have the habits or health problems mentioned above are:

1) Lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle. Compared to active people, their heart disease is eight times more likely.
2) Overweight and obesity leading to metabolic syndrome. As a result, a person develops high triglycerides and insulin resistance. People who are obese are twice as likely to have a heart attack as people without risk factors.

3) Bad eating habits – Consuming junk food, salty, oily and sweet foods.
4) Psychological stress experienced by young people at work and at home. Celebrities lead extremely stressful lives even if they are physically healthy. The same is true for many young people in other professions, doctors say.

“Just because you have physical strength doesn’t mean you’re healthy.”
Dr. Deepak says it’s important to note that physical fitness doesn’t necessarily mean health. “If a person wants to stay healthy, he or she also needs to manage risk factors such as a family history of heart disease. If you have had the disease, you are living a healthy lifestyle. Even if you are active, you are at high risk of contracting the disease at that age, so take steps to reduce your risk factors. You should also check your lipid profile (a lipid profile test measures the amount of cholesterol and other fats in your blood).

He added that without looking into family history of the disease, exercising for an hour a day, lowering cholesterol levels, diet, and addressing mental stress won’t have much of an effect. “For example, there are patients who come to the hospital with a cholesterol level of around 220 to 230 and say, “My cholesterol is a little high.”However, if your cholesterol level is over 150, it is also dangerous if you have a family history of heart disease. ,” he explains.