JAMMU: In a significant move to aware the common masses about the effects of cardiovascular diseases Dr. Sushil Sharma, Head of Department Cardiology GMCH Jammu held a day long camp at Hanuman Mandir near Manda, one of the Base Camp for the Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in Jammu city.
Accompanied by a team of young doctors, paramedics and volunteers, Dr. Sushil Sharma examined people of the area and Yatris for prevalence of cardiac diseases and other health ailments. More than 150 people were screened, evaluated, diagnosed and free medicines were given as per the requirements.
Dr Sushil said, “A time bomb is ticking here-and its name is diabetes. 415 million adults were living with diabetes and this number is expected to increase around 642 million by 2040. CVD is a major complication of diabetes and the leading cause of early death among people with diabetes-about 65 per cent of people with diabetes die from heart diseases and stroke. Adults with diabetes are two or four times more likely to have heart diseases or suffer a stroke than people without diabetes.
Diabetes takes over the lives of 13 million men and 12.6 million women on average. Over 60 per cent of lower limb amputation occurs in diabetes patients. This disease is also the leading cause of kidney failure. People with type 2 diabetes also have high rates of high blood pressure, lipid abnormalities and obesity which contribute to their high rates of CVD,” he added.
While interacting with the people, he stressed that the intensive glucose control reduces the risk of any CVD event by 42 per cent, and the risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from CVD by 57 per cent. Blood pressure control reduces the risk of CVD among persons with diabetes by 33 per cent to 50 per cent and the risk of diabetic kidney, eye and nerve disease by 33 per cent and in general every 10mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure, the risk for any complication related to diabetes is reduced by 12 per cent.
He further added that the improved control of cholesterol or blood lipids can reduce CVD complications by 20 per cent to 50 per cent.
He advised that diabetics must control and monitor their Blood Glucose levels regularly and to take heart healthy diet and do physical exercise or brisk walking for minimum 30 – 45 minutes at least five days a week, stay away from smoke and maintain healthy weight.
Members of the Hanuman Mandir Committee Swami Viplab Shastri , Mahant Ganshyam Dass, Pujya Sant Anand Pujari and Inderjit Khajuria applauded the efforts of Dr Sushil Sharma and his team for taking special care of the people especially Amarnath Yatris who have come all the way from various parts of the country.
Others who were part of this humane effort included Dr. Mohi Kalsotra, Dr. Dhaneshwar Kapoor and Dr Anitipal Singh. Paramedics and volunteers who were part of the team included Sukhdev Singh, Kamal Kishore, Kashmiri Lal, Sanjay Sharma, Sahil Sharma, Harvinder Singh, Lokesh Manni, Rajkumar, Aman Gupta, Akshay Kumar, Rajeev Vohra and Vikas Kumar.