Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 27: Elaborating upon the public health dimension of the harmful effects of alcohol on cardiac health, Dr. Sushil Sharma HoD Cardiology, GMC Jammu today held a day long camp with the residents of village Kot Bhalwal, Jammu in continuance of his campaign for making the common populace aware about the incidence of Cardiovascular diseases. More than 250 people were screened, evaluated, diagnosed and free medicines were given as per the requirements.
During his interaction with the locals, he informed that alcohol abuse is a major public health problem globally. “It is the third largest risk factor for disease and disability in the world. It is a causal factor in more than 60 major types of diseases: these majorly include several types of cancer, hemorrhagic stroke, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, liver cirrhosis and neuropsychiatric diseases. Alcohol addiction can increase the risk of heart attack, atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure. These increased risks were similar in magnitude to other well-recognised modifiable risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.”
“It has been observed that even if one has no underlying risk factors, abuse of alcohol still increases the risk of these heart conditions. Drinking too much can affect the elasticity of the arterial walls (arterial stiffness) and prematurely age the arteries, interfering with blood flow and causes myocardial depression. The greater the velocity of drinking the greater the stiffness in arteries,” he added.
Raising his concern over the seriousness of the problem he referred to the recent data by World Health Organisation, according to whom, about 30% of Indians consume alcohol, out of which 4-13% are daily consumers and up to 50% of these, fall under the category of hazardous drinking. Another worrying trend is that the average age of initiation of alcohol use has reduced from 28 years during the 1980s to 17 years in 2007. “Nearly 25% of the road accidents are under the influence of alcohol and it is also a significant risk factor for increased domestic violence.” He said that keeping in view the havoc created by alcohol abuse it is advisable to stay away from its use at the earliest.
Others, who were part of this humane effort included Dr Dhaneshwar Kapoor, Dr Kewal Sharma and Dr Chakshu Mahajan. Paramedics and volunteers included Kamal Sharma, Raghav Rajput, Gorav Sharma, Vikas Kumar, Akshay Kumar, Snehial Gupta, Suresh Baigra, Jagdeep Singh and Raj Kumar.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
