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Prevention better than cure, says cardiologist

DUBAI - People as young as 18 in the UAE have suffered heart attacks brought on by an unhealthy lifestyle, stress and poor diet, say experts.

Ahead of the upcoming 7^th Gulf Heart Association meeting to be held in Dubai from April 9-12, experts
advise people to seek prevention than
go for cure.

Dr Nooshin Bazargani, cardiologist at Dubai Hospital and chairperson of the organising committee for the conference said that between 7-8 cases of 18-year-olds had been treated at the Dubai Heart Centre (DHC) in Dubai Hospital in the past two years.

“We have also seen several cases of under 30 patients mostly from Asian backgrounds,” she explained.

DHC has already compiled registry that currently has as many as 2,600 patients over the past two years.

“We compared this registry with similar ones in Europe and found out that cases in the Gulf region were more than those in Europe,” said Dr Nooshin.

It was also found that a Gulf resident was prone to heart attack 10 years earlier than his counterpart in Europe.

“We have huge risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, stress, smoking and genes,” said the doctor.

Dr Nooshin said that the reason for increased risk was lack of prevention. “We are good at treatment but not
at prevention.

“We need to send across a strong message to the community to focus on prevention,” she added.

She also said that according to the international InterHeart study of which DHC was part, the Asian patients were most at risk of coronary diseases.

“They are diabetic, hypertensive, they smoke a lot and some blame can be laid on genes,” she said.

The annual meet is being held in Dubai for the first time at the InterContinental Hotel, Festival City.

It will be attended by more than 500 doctors from Gulf countries, Europe, and America and will feature pioneering research from all around the world.

Dr Nooshin said that the aim of the conference is to bring together cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons and other related professionals from GCC states to discuss ways to not only improve the level of care but also to discuss methods of creating awareness amongst the GCC population about the importance of lifestyle modification.

On April 11, a walkathon will also be held to promote the concept of lifestyle modification near the InterContinental Hotel from 3pm to 6pm.