Krishna urges medical fraternity to formulate new ideas

Mumbai, Sep 28 (UNI) Stressing the fact that millions of people in India live below the poverty line and cannot afford expensive surgeries, Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna today urged the medical fraternity to help the government by formulating ideas in this regard.

He was addressing the second International Conference on 'Newer Frontiers in Cardiology' at the S P Jain Auditorium at Bombay Hospital here, which began today.

The three-day scientific programme offers the best in cardiology and includes plenary sessions, interactive sessions, discussion on controversies, state-of-the-art lectures and live demonstrations.

Dr B K Goyal, Director, Interventional Cardiology, Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Center said, ''The incidence of coronary heart disease is increasing with a galloping speed and unless active preventive and curative measures are taken it will soon assume epidemic proportions.'' With the view to creating awareness about the symptoms, preventive measures and methodology of management of coronary heart disease, Dr Goyal presented some facts of the disease.

''Some of the symptoms are by no means due to the coronary heart disease and could be harmless or due to other medical conditions.

You can see your doctor if they are angina, unusual breathlessness, palpitations, fainting, discomfort in upper abdomen, fluid retention or puffiness, bluish tinged fingernails or around lips, fatigue, and severe crushing chest pain,'' he explained.

The risk factors are divided into two categories - major and contributing. Major risk factors are those that have been proven to to increase your risk of heart disease while contributing risk factors are those that doctors think can lead to increased risk of heart disease.

Major risk factors include hypertension, diabetes, obesity and being overweight, smoking, physical inactivity, heredity, age and gender. Many people think of coronary heart disease as being a male problem. However this is far from being the case. While some of the contributing risk factors are stress, sex harmones, birth control pills and alcohol.

''It is never too late or too early to begin improving heart health. Some risk factors can be controlled while others cannot. But by eliminating risk factors that you can change and by properly managing those that you cannot control, you may greatly reduce your risk of heart disease, added Dr Goyal.

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