With the start of festive season, health experts have warned people with existing lifestyle diseases must take necessary precautions to ensure a healthy Diwali. They claimed that increased consumption of sweets and fried delicacies, late night celebrations with family and friends and pollution and noise caused by firecrackers can prove to be life-threatening for patients with existing lifestyle diseases.
Talking about the excessive unhealthy food consumption during Diwali, Kailash Hospital and Heart Institute senior interventional cardiologist Santosh Kumar Agarwal said, “Sweets consumed during Diwali are usually made of vanaspati ghee, which is very high in trans fats and reduces good cholesterol in the body and increases bad cholesterol.”
He added that high sugar content causes obesity and even in small amounts can be harmful for diabetics. People also tend to eat out often, and the choice of food is mostly deep-fried and high in sodium content.
The health experts said that the festivities could cause an increase in blood pressure and subsequently add stress to heart. All these can lead to an added risk of heart failures and sudden cardiac arrests in people with existing heart ailments and blockages. While celebrations are good, over-indulgence can ruin the festivities and caution must be maintained to consume a healthy and balanced diet.
The experts claimed that another major health hazard during the festival season is the increased consumption of alcohol. People tend to drink in excess quantities on a daily basis, increasing the number of road accidents and blood pressure levels, increasing the risk of heart disease.
Alcohol puts additional pressure on the heart and causes a spike in blood pressure.
Associate director and head at Max Hospital cardiac cath lab Manoj Kumar said, “Firecrackers not just cause pollution, subsequent allergies and respiratory complications, but can also be life-threatening for those with a weak heart.
“For instance, loud noise of bombs can increase the heart rate and blood pressure, forcing heart to pump faster and harder. This increases the load on the already weakened organ, leading to symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitation, accumulation of fluid in the body and can lead to a heart attack. The risk increases when there are repeated bursts of loud crackers in the same vicinity,” added Dr Kumar.
