Ahmedabad: Renown doctors who have handled thousands of heart patients for many years today in a formal media interaction said that the number of heart attacks and cardiac arrests before and after the COVID-19 pandemic are in match and there’s no sudden rise in the number of deaths due to heart-related troubles.

In a press conference held here today, the doctors said no correlation has been found between heart related deaths and covid19 pandemic or vaccines.

Dr. Chirag Doshi, Director of U.N. Mehta Institute of Cardiology & Research Centre said, “9.5% out of total youngsters who came to us in year 2020 were Covid positive. Today the ratio is 5.5%. Out of them only 3.5% had required hospitalization during covid while only 0.5% were in need of oxygen during covid infection. The number of cases of heart attack are almost similarly before and after covid.”

He further said “no long term impact on heart has been seen due to covid beyond a year. There was a short impact of increase in clot when covid was there. He said there are three types of vaccines, MRNA, Vector and Inactivated and there have been many studies including those from ICMR that have time and again said that there’s no correlation of heart related issues with covid vaccine.”

“CVD (cardio vascular disease) trend is overall increasing worldwide due to lifestyle and other issues. 30 to 35 percent youths are not active or having ill habits. Diabetes and hypertension are also contributing factors,” he added.

Dr. Milan Chag, Consultant Senior Cardiologist in CIMS hospital said, “the proportion of younger persons coming to us with heart issues was 9.6% during 2010-20 while after 2020 it was 9.7%, so there’s no major difference. There’s fear spreading in society, believing that covid and heart illness are related, but that’s not correct. Covid was kind of a flu and we have been taking vaccines against flu for long.”

He also said,”sudden cardiac death is not always a heart attack. Cardiac arrest and heart attack are different things. Heart attack is a circulation issue that arises due to jam. 3 to 4 percent patients of heart attack actually die, as rest of them reach hospitals where blockages are removed eventually. Cardiac arrest on the other hand happens due to muscle disorder or uneven heartbeats. If heart beat goes upto 150 or 200 or 250 instead of normal range of 60 to 100, then pumping will not happen and a patient would faint. If they are not given massage immediately or electric shock by doctor to regularize heart beats then such patients of cardiac arrest would die in 3 to 4 minutes. The deaths misreported as heart attack in younger age are mostly actually the cases of cardiac arrest. If we go into the history of such patients, they might have chakkar, heartbeat, sudden fall etc symptom history in own in in family. Only postmortem can conclude whether the heart related death was due to heart attack or due to cardiac arrest.”

He further said,”heart disease is increasing and if we can’t improve our lifestyle then this shall continue to happen. If you live tense live, consume intoxicants, tobacco, don’t take good food, don’t walk 45 to 60 minutes daily, if you consume adulterated food in increasing manner then you are at risk of developing heart issue. Lifestyle changes can save 60 percent people. Then your Blood Pressure should be around 120-80.Diabetese HP1C should be below 6. LDA should be below 70. It’s now believed it should be upto 50 MG.”

Zydus hospital’s cardiologist Dr. Bhavesh Roy said, “Gujarat has 7 crore population. A data of year 2001-2022 shows each year 5.6 per 1000 people die due to heart issues. So in each day there are 100 cardiac deaths consistently as per the data. 10 out 100 cardiac deaths are sudden. Out of sudden death 7 to 8 deaths are due to blockages but 2-3 deaths have small age victims of 15-20 years age group due to cardiac arrest. Blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, overweight are not the causes of such death, but shaken heart, irregular heartbeat and electricity abnormality are the actual causes.”

“So if 15-year old girl collapses in classroom suddenly as reported in the news media, it indicates a sudden cardiac death. Most common reason of such deaths is irregular heart beat. The actual cause can be known only once autopsy is done, whether it was muscle related or heart beat related death. Timely CPR can stop such deaths. In case of sudden collapse patients, even in interior areas of Gujarat, no high-end machine would be required. The people present around, be it a teacher, an office coworker can give uninterrupted CPR( CPR till the time the heart beat is felt). If one can reach hospital while continuing CPR, a doctor at hospital would use shock machine to resume heart beats. Till then, it has to be maintained through CPR. What has happened nowadays (due to news of heart attack deaths) is that we see daily 8 to 10 people arriving in hospital just due to fear of having heart attack. We consult them and ask to change the lifestyle,” Dr. Roy further stated.

He also added, “A data of studies show that 40% people are physically inactive. Against the requirement of daily 30-45 minutes physical activity(10,000 steps for example), they just have five to six minute exercise. They are called physically inactive. 20% are mildly active with step count of 2000-3000 steps per day. So our 60% population is either inactive or mildly active. Lifestyle is worsening. 40% people are obese. Every third person is obese. Third reason is smoking. When we perform angioplasty on young age patients, we find more clot than charbi in blockage cases. Young age patents who have clean circulation path and no blockage but still face heart attack are mostly having it due to smoking. Crack in inner wall triggers sudden shut down. Young patients refuse to reveal they consume 10 cigarette a day in presence of their parents. So for prevention , obesity, exercise and no smoking are three ways out.”

“As per a data, in 2019 and 2020 when covid was there, food delivery business emerged as an opportunity. If we compare year 2019 data to 2018, food delivery business increased from 19 million to 400 million food deliveries. In 2020-21 there was no lockdown but food deliveries increased to 600 million. It is almost one and half time increase. Most of these deliveries didn’t involve Satvik food. We have to think about our lifestyle,” said the Doctor.

“Zydus hospital started in 2015 and we had 7% heart attack patients below 40 age in 2015-17 period. In 2021 and 2022, it was 6%. So just 1% difference. There has been no increase since 2016,” he further added.

Rashesh Pothiwala from Sterling hospitals said “their data at Sterling matches with other hospitals, indicating there’s no difference in heart related cases before and after Covid. He said pre Covid it was 11% and post Covid it’s 11.2% as per data from Sterling hospital.”

Dr. Pothiwala further said, “some increase in number of heart patients is a global trend. He asked media persons not to panic the people by reporting news such as a 10-year old girl child died of heart attack(reported in today’s newspaper) because only autopsy can tell the reason of death. He said there’s not one percent possibility of such death in case of heart attack.” DeshGujarat