I chanced upon an interview did today in Astro Awani channel (in Malay language) on the heart attack amongst the younger generation. Younger people are getting heart attacks and require a heart bypass compared to 20 years ago when mostly the patients are above 60 years old.
A professor at HUKM (Hospital University Kebangsaan Malaysia) who also perform these operations mentioned that the heart attack that struck young people have a different pattern compared to the older adults.
From his observation from operations he performed in younger people (about 40 years of age), the blockage is acute. And it had the tendency to when block, the entire blood flow is sort of cut off without much warning.
Whereas for older folks, the blockages come in a gradual stage- means the blockage took time to form- and as the blockages slowly form, the blood flow still have means of flowing like towards the unblocked path.
Most of us hold on to stressful jobs and find it hard to relax. Our minds are often preoccupied in how to make more money. The ‘relaxing’ stuff we tend is to probably be engrossed in our Smartphone playing games or watching a 3D movie where it engages our senses and get our adrenaline pumping. Commuting back and forth at work, being often stuck at traffic jams and working late chronically increase our blood pressure. The matter is compounded by unhealthy dietary habits- processed food high in fat, sugar, salts and other chemicals. Increasingly more are turning to food for comfort eating.
These combination causes a person’s body to be a living time bomb- at risk of having heart attack, the number one killer in the world.
Anyway, what struck me to write this brief post is the fact that for young people, the attack is often acute and sudden. In fact, just a few days ago, the son of my mom’s friend had died of a heart attack. He was probably slightly older than me- his mom was away for more than 10 years working overseas to earn more money. She had just been back for a few months break and it is sad to see her losing her beloved son just like that.
No one who get a heart attack had thought it would have happened to them. Even for us, we would never know- what we can do is to do our best to take care of our diets and ensure we get enough physical activities (meaning don’t just overeat without exercising).
Another thing is to find time to relax and probably just do and think about nothing. Relax our body and mind- even if we try it for 15 minutes a day, it can do wonders. Which reminds me, I will log off now and head on for relaxation before sleeping. Good nite.
