Dr. Mohit Bhutani
Dr. Mohit Bhutani
Men’s Health Week: Symptoms of Heart Problems in Men
Introduction to men’s heart health
Dr. Mohit Bhutani, a consultant cardiologist working at Amcare Hospital, Zirakpur. Today I will be discussing ‘Men’s Health’ as we all know from June 14-21 it is a men’s health week. We will now be discussing all the cardiovascular factors that may affect men’s health in more than one way. It is essential to talk about men’s health as it is a proven fact that every 1 in 4 males dies due to a health disease. And men are more prone to heart-related disorders compared to women. Men show symptoms of heart problems or acquire heart disease 7-10 years earlier than women.
What are the risk factors for getting heart disease?
This men’s health week, we will be discussing the risk factors and the heart diseases that men are prone to.
- Gender One of the risk factors for heart disease is gender (male).
- Tobacco The other would-be habits like smoking and chewing tobacco.
- Health issues Obesity, high cholesterol, work-related work, or any other stress, all combined, are significant risk factors for men to get heart disease.
What are the signs and symptoms of heart disease?
The signs and symptoms of heart disease or blockage in the arteries in men would be chest pain, difficulty breathing, strain on the neck while walking, pain in the jaw and arms. This pain in the neck, jaw, and arms would stop as you stand still. In medical terms, this is called Angina. All these symptoms indicate that the person has heart diseases such as blockage in arteries or veins.
How are heart diseases diagnosed?
The tests conducted for the diagnosis of heart diseases are ECG, ECHO cardiography, TMT (if the test results for TMT is +ve, then angiography is also done). All the tests mentioned are conducted at Amcare. After diagnoses, we get an idea about the condition of the heart and arteries, which helps us treat the disease in two ways. One way is to get the angiography done and then angioplasty stenting. But if the patient has high blood sugar or other complications, then the patient is suggested to get a bypass surgery done.
The importance of men’s heart health:
Why is men’s health important? And how is men’s health different from women’s? Are the questions I will be discussing and answering today. Men are subjected to cancers that women are not, like prostate cancer, testicular cancer, or Erectile dysfunction. It is seen that men with ED are at higher risk of having heart disease or a brain stroke. So it is essential to know about all the risk factors, and other bodily issues that a male suffers from that may directly or indirectly affect that male’s heart health. And it is vital to get all of it diagnosed and treated at the earliest.
How to prevent heart diseases in men?
These diseases start affecting males during the age of 25-30. So it is important to start taking care of themselves.
Lifestyle changes
Stop tobacco and alcohol consumption, do not smoke, limit your junk food consumption and opt for a better and balanced, fibrous, protein-rich diet. Eat salads.
Physical activity
Maintain a daily schedule, add 30 mins of physical activity to your daily routine. Or do cardio exercises that increase your heart rate, and you sweat out the calories.
Regular health checkups
Regular health checkups, blood pressure checkups, normal blood sugar checkups can help you monitor your heart health. (Available at Amcare). Getting regular checkups may help you diagnose the problem at an early stage. And early diagnoses of lipids, cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, etc., can be treated accordingly.
Maintain your BMI
If the person is overweight, try to lose weight according to BMI. If you follow all these things and take precautions from an early age, this would reduce heart diseases.
Symptoms of heart diseases should not be ignored
A misconception that we all believe is that we have is that a person can only get heart disease after the age of 50, which is entirely wrong. South Asian/Indian men are at risk of heart disease from the age of 25/30. So if you feel a sudden sharp pain in your chest, do not ignore it. Do not be under the impression that a young man cannot get any heart disease.
Bottom line
You should consult a cardiologist and get yourself diagnosed early or try to prevent such heart issues. However, chest pain should not be ignored. We have all the modern equipment to check whether this chest pain has anything to do with the heart, arteries or no and so it can be treated at the earliest.
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