Skip to main content

Why do South Asians have the highest rates of heart disease in the world?



People from South Asia – India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh – have more than half of the world’s heart disease patients. Why do South Asians have the highest rates of heart disease than people from other countries? Even if they leave their country, they remain at risk. For example, South Asian immigrants to the United States develop earlier and more malignant heart disease and have higher death rates than any other major ethnic group in America (New York Times, November 28, 2015).

People don’t know why. There is a ‘knowledge gap’ regarding the reasons for the high rates of cardiac disease amongst South Asians.

Research conduced in Massachusetts over the past 70 years, known as the Framingham Heart Study, may provide the answer. It is perhaps the most influential investigation in the history of modern medicine because it established that the traditional risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking contribute to coronary heart disease. The Framingham study commenced in the 1940s when cardiovascular disease was the main cause of death in the United States, accounting for nearly half of all deaths. The aim of the study at the time was to establish risk factors for coronary heart disease. Their numerous studies (about 1,200 over the past 70 years) have shown the correlation between high blood pressure and heart disease, as well as correlations between heart disease and diabetes, high blood cholesterol levels, and cigarette smoking. However, there have been few definitive studies for non-white ethnic groups.

Risk studies in 1959 showed that the increased risk of premature heart disease in Indian immigrant males had four times the rate of heart disease compared with men in the Framingham study despite having lower rates of hypertension, smoking, and high cholesterol – and usually following a vegetarian diet. Why?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has commenced a study to find out why. It has enrolled about 900 South Asian men and women from two metropolitan areas – the San Francisco Bay area and Chicago – to participate in a study on heart disease. Researchers are focusing on novel risk factors including social, cultural, and genetic determinants. They are also focusing on malignant forms of cholesterol because previous research suggested that South Asians may have smaller and denser cholesterol particles that are more prone to causing hardening of the arteries than non-South Asians. Results will be published in the next couple of years.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/opinion/sunday/the-heart-disease-conundrum.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&moduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-1&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more