Prevalence of cardiac diseases on rise: Dr D Prabhkaran

Ludhiana, May 20, 2016: Dr D Prabhkaran, Executive Director, Public Health Foundation of India today delivered a lecture to a jam packed audience of doctors and residents on the topic ‘How do we prevent cardiovascular disease in India. During his visit, he also had an interactive session with heart patients and informed them about importance of yoga in curing heart ailments.
In his briefing with the mediapersons, Dr D Prabhkaran said In India, the prevalence of cardiac diseases is increasing day by day and so is the number of deaths resulting from cardiac ailments such as heart failure, heart attack etc. If people don’t adopt adequate preventive measures and healthy life style changes are not adopted then, chances of reoccurrence of heart attack remains very high. He also stressed that recommended medications routine should be followed rigorously as prescribed by the doctor. If all such steps are taken properly then, the quality of life of patients also improves significantly.
Dr Prabhakaran also referred to the theme “Effects of Yoga based Cardiac Rehabilitation (Yoga Care) Programme on Cardiovascular Health – A Clinical trial.” This clinical trial is being done in 25 centres across India and 4000 patients have to be enrolled in it. Under this study, half patients will be treated under the standard care (without Yoga) arm and half will be put under Yoga arm, who will be following the specially designed Yoga programme. At the end of the study, comparison of patients will be done in regards to quality of life and their survival rate. If the results are in favour of Yoga, as per the hypothesis it will be a big breakthrough and will popularize Yoga worldwide.
Dr Bishav Mohan, Prof. Cardiology DMCH, who is also the the principal investigator for the site under whose guidance Yoga Care Programme is being undertaken. informed that The study is funded by Medical Research Council (MRC), UK and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India under the guidance of Dr D Prabhakaran, Director, CCDC. Hero DMC Heart Institute is the leading centre for this study with approximately 240 patients.