Twenty per cent of Indian adults are obese and India ranks third in terms of the number of obese people.
So, heart diseases are rampant in the country, including in Calcutta, especially among people below 40, cardiologists say.
India has seen coronary vascular disease growing the the fastest in the world between 2005 and 2015 because of obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits and stress.
These and other findings were shared by cardiologists on the first day of the 6th Bangla Interventional Therapeutics (BIT-2016) meet at Vedic Village on Friday.
More than 500 cardiologists from India, Bangladesh, South Africa, France, Bhutan, Nepal, the US and the UK will discuss trends, treatment methods and case studies at the meet that would be on till Sunday.
"In the past, BIT meets had only Bangladesh and Bengal. Now, we can exchange knowledge and notes globally," said interventional cardiologist Rabin Chakraborty, the founder course director of BIT.
He and his Bangladeshi colleague Afzalur Rahman had conceived a common platform in 2010 to share knowledge. BIT held its first meet in Dhaka the next year.
This year, experts from the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) of New York have joined to share their case studies and global trends, Chakraborty said.
Indians are more prone to heart diseases in these times of growing economy, said Elizabeth Burke, the global marketing project manager of CRF.
"Patients are getting younger. A lot of young women, too, suffer from heart ailments - a trend that often goes unnoticed," she said. "There is a need for a global education platform where doctors can teach doctors."
Asia and East Europe are now the leaders in coronary diseases, Rahman said. "But the main issue is acceptance. Most patients don't want to accept that chest pains can be much more than a mere case of acidity. When it comes to chest pain, early action can save a life."
Graham A. Cassel, a Johannesburg-based consultant, said he planned to share the case study of a 35-year-old Indian. "He was diabetic and he approached me with complaints of chest pain. It turned out that both his arteries were blocked. Had he been late, he could have died," Cassel said. "Around 10 per cent of my patients are under 40."
Jack Lewin, the president and chief executive officer of CRF, said he planned to share a precautionary step prevalent in the US.
"The trend there is to take statins if one has a family history of heart disease. I would strongly recommend that Indians go for yearly check-ups and start taking statins on doctors' advice in case of heart problems," Lewin said.
"It is important to recognise the symptoms and seek help early."
Shop on fire
A fire broke out in a shop in Howrah's Garfa Kalitala around 8.25pm on Friday. The fire spread quickly because the shop had been stocked with inflammable materials, police said. Two fire tenders doused the flames in half an hour.
