75 senior citizens attend awareness talk on healthy heart in Mohali

Chandigarh, July 30, 2019: As many as 75 senior citizens attended an awareness talk on ‘how to keep heart healthy’ at Gem Public School, Mohali.

The talk was organized by Ivy Hospital, Mohali in collaboration with Mohali Senior Citizen Association.

Addressing talk, Dr.Harinder Singh Bedi , Director-Cardiovascular said that today India is home to one out of every 10 senior citizens in world. With life expectancy increasing to 75.5-yr, octogenarians constitute about 3% of the population. The older population in India, which was 56.7 million in 1991, 72 million in 2001, is expected to grow to 137 million by 2021, he informed.

He said, age is a risk factor for the development of coronary artery disease the incidence of symptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD) requiring coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in the elderly is bound to increase. Around 40% of all octogenarians have symptomatic cardio vascular disease and a significant number of these may benefit from surgery, he asserted.

According to Dr Bedi, recent studies have shown that elderly patients can undergo CABG with morbidity and mortality rates only slightly higher than their younger counterparts. Continuous refinements and advances in cardio-pulmonary bypass techniques, myocardial protection, improved anesthesia, improved peri-operative and post-operative care, a better understanding of the patho-physiology of disease and probably most importantly the use of off pump (beating heart) techniques have led to improved safety, he maintained.

During talk, Dr.Bedi also gave tips for healthy heart by incorporating stress management, exercise, diet , avoidance of tobacco and regular checkups besides stressing on the importance of yoga .

Among others, S. Chaudhary, president of association was also presented.