Around 10 crore people in the country will be suffering from various heart ailments by 2010, said Dr. Bimal Chhajer, President, Science and Art of Living, a heart research foundation, while speaking at a seminar on "Reversal and Preventing of Heart Disease" organised by the Rotary Club of Anna Nagar. He further maintained that 16 lakh patients in the country die due to heart ailments.

Over five crore people were affected by heart attacks in the year 2001 and WHO's survey revealed that around 10 crore people would suffer from heart diseases, Dr.Chhajer maintained. He further added that the WHO survey expects the figure to double. India was ranked the highest in the percentage of heart disease, according to the survey, which further maintained that the same was mainly due to stress, food habits and other addiction.

According to Dr. Chhajer, tablet medication alone would not prevent heart ailments as they could be caused by other factors such as the food habit of the patients. He said heart patients must be made aware of the disease and the seriousness of the ailments.

He maintained that in a research conducted by him, it was found that South Indians were affected by heart ailments the most, mainly due to their food habits, which involved oil ingredients. The research showed that Kerala stands first because of the use of coconut oil and other oil stuffs in their daily food apart from increased intake of non-vegetarian foods. He said such food habits could lead to blockages, and if there were more than 70 per cent blockages it is a big problem.

The impact of the stress can be reduced to a great extent if one identifies the reason for stress and find a remedy for it. Stress leads to the production of certain chemicals such as cortisol or adrenaline, which further increase the heart rate and decrease the caliber of tubes supplying blood to heart as well as increase the release of cholesterol and triglyceride into circulation leading to the formation of blockages, which, if unchecked, could be fatal. Stress was the most vital component of life style changes required for reversal of coronary heart disease, he added.

Dr. Chhajer identified some tests, which could be done to confirm heart disease including physical check up, ECG, treadmill tests, echocardiogram and angiography.