Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 18: In order to aware general masses with particular focus on children regarding the increased prevalence of childhood atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, Head Department of Cardiology GMCH Jammu Dr Sushil Sharma held a day long cardiac awareness cum health check up Camp at Jammu Sanskriti School, Ismail Kothey area of Bishnah , Jammu in which main focus was to educate the younger generation to adopt healthy and cardiac friendly lifestyle to reduce the future mortality and morbidity.
While interacting with the people Dr Sushil stated that Atherosclerosis is the hardening and narrowing of arteries due to the build up of fat and cholesterol in the arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke and cardiac arrest. Just like adults, children can be diagnosed with atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis puts children at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, high cholesterol and stroke. Typically, the disease isn’t discovered until the adolescent years (12-17 years of age). In most children, changes to the arteries are mild and can be decreased by living a healthy lifestyle.
He elaborated that an important current trend that may increase the future burden of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is a significant increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity. In obesity, many of the risk factors for CHD are clustered together. Moreover, these risk factors usually persist or track into adulthood, so that their effect on the cardiovascular system may be present and influential for several decades. The prevalence of obesity in childhood varies between countries and also according to ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
Dr Sushil Sharma told that to reduce the future burden of CHD, “we need to define prevention and intervention strategies that decrease the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in children and young adults and thereby hope to retard atherogenic processes”. He further said that atherosclerosis begins in childhood and there currently is an increasing prevalence of children in both developed and developing nations with cardiovascular risk factors.
“It is now possible to detect early evidence of arterial disease. Major gains will likely accrue from public health strategies targeting overweight, exercise and cigarette smoking. Individualised atheroprotective strategies in childhood, however, will initially focus on the highest risk children such as those with familial hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, hypertension and obesity. In the future, genotype and phenotype information may allow the targeting of interventions in childhood that might prevent clinical vascular events in adult life,” he said.
Others who were part of this camp include Dr Nasir Ali Choudhary. Paramedics and volunteers includes Ranjeet Singh, Kamal Sharma, Maneet Kumar, Faisal Rashid, Moosa Mushtaq, Vikas Sabharwal, Rajinder Singh, Maninder Singh ,Jatin Bhasin, Sandeep Pal, Arjun Ghuman, Aman Gupta and Vikas Kumar.
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