Tame stress to keep heart ailments at bay

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 3

Are you a working woman and trying hard to keep stress at bay while meeting deadlines at workplace. Take a deep breath and don't overstress yourself as it may ail your heart.

City based cardiologists said there had been an increase in stress levels, with more and more working women becoming a victim of heart ailments.

Sneha Kashyap (36), who works in a bank, has just got an angioplasty done.

It is learnt that 30 working women, in the 30-50 age-group, have got angioplasty done in the past one year.

Dr Paramdeep Sandhu, senior consultant, cardiology, Fortis Hospital, said according to the OPD data, there were 10-15 working women in the 26-58 age-group, who were coming with complaints of palpitations, increased anxiety levels, breathlessness, pain in the chest, elevated blood pressure and restlessness.

"It is scary that women as young as 34 years have to undergo angioplasty because of stress and poor lifestyle," said Dr Sandhu.

"Women are more prone to heart diseases," he added.

Dr GS Wander, chief cardiologist at Hero Heart Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, said it was the overall change in lifestyle that was leading to an increase in heart diseases among women.

"Lifestyle changes like eating out or smoking and drinking are responsible for heart ailments. While meeting deadlines and doing daily chores, they tend to ignore themselves," said Dr Wander.

Dr Ajaypal Singh Sandhu, consultant psychiatry, Fortis, Ludhiana, said, “Working women are more stressed than men. Women have double the chance of anxiety than men so when anxiety levels are high their secretion of cortisone, which is a stress hormone, directly causes cardiac diseases and high BP. High level of stress gets them susceptible to cardiac diseases, high blood pressure and related complications.”