CHANDIGARH: Bank professionals are more prone to heart disease due to sedentary lifestyle and long working hours, informed Dr. U.P. Singh, a noted cardiologist and Managing Director of Prime Heart and Vascular Institute, Mohali on  Thursday. 

Speaking at a symposium, he said that a recent study has shown that 15 percent of bank employees have cardiac risk, which is a disturbing phenomenon, while addressing the bank employees during the inauguration of the four-day special camp organized for the bank employees. 

He warned that heart disease rates among Asian Indians worldwide are 50% to 400% higher than people of other ethnic origin irrespective of gender, religion, or social class.

Inaugurating the four-day heart checkup camp for the bank employees, Dr. J. Sadakkadulla, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, said that the employees' health is an issue of grave concern for any organization which not only affects their performance and productivity on the job, but most importantly their own well being and health that in turns disturbs the entire family life. 

He said that early detection of any health problem alone could help in preventing the problem and leading a healthy, useful, and enjoyable life. 

Dr Puneet K. Verma, Executive Director of Prime Heart said that genetic predisposition of urban Indians gets further aggravated due to the lifestyle factors making them prone to high rate of heart disease. 

Though heart disease is fatal with no known cure, it is highly predictable, preventable and treatable through change in the lifestyle and reducing the risk factors like smoking, sedentary living, he added. 

Prevention and early detection is the only solution to avoid heart attack, said another cardiologist of Prime Heart, Dr. T.P. Singh.  The disease many a times does not present any symptom before the heart attack, and unfortunately more than 50 percent persons who suffer heart attack die before any medical help is available, he said. 

Dr. Puneet Verma advised general increase in physical activity and decreasing consumption of calories as well as saturated fat, avoiding abdominal obesity  are the key factors needed to prevent heart disease. 

Daily walking of 45-60 minutes is sufficient to prevent weight gain, walking of fifty-six kilometers per week is necessary for weight loss. Leisure walk has negligible beneficial effect on the heart. Interval exercise is much better. One should begin with a slow warm up for 4-5 min followed by brisk walk/ jogging for 3-4 minutes. After this, slow walk for 1-2 min and then jogging follows. These cycles should be repeated. These sudden bursts of jogging have more heart protective effect, important for the heart.