Healthy Heart

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in India, and it arrives earlier here than in most of the world - often a full decade earlier than in Western populations. South Asians carry higher risk at lower body weights, which means the usual reassurances do not entirely apply.

Know your numbers

Blood pressure, cholesterol including LDL, blood sugar or HbA1c, and waist circumference. All four are silent. All four are cheap to measure. Most people reading this do not know all four, and that is the single most fixable thing on this page.

What moves them

Stop smoking. Nothing else on the list comes close.

Move most days. Around 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, which is a brisk half-hour walk five times.

Cut salt, most of which arrives through packaged food, pickle and papad rather than the shaker.

Eat more fibre and fewer refined carbohydrates. In India the biggest single dietary lever is usually reducing refined flour and sugar rather than reducing fat.

Waist size predicts heart risk better than weight does, particularly for South Asians. Measure the one that tells you something.

Call for help immediately

Chest pain or pressure, pain spreading to the arm, jaw or back, sudden breathlessness, cold sweat, or unexplained nausea with any of these. Do not drive yourself. Do not wait to see whether it passes. In a heart attack, minutes of muscle are lost permanently.