On February 20-21, ISW, ICC and Desai Foundation hosted Dr. Enas and Dr. Sudesh Kannan for three very informative talks on Heart Disease among people from the Indian subcontinent. Dr. Eans took the crowd of nearly 200 people through a very telling journey of how heart disease develops, how do Indians compare to others in the world in terms of % people who develop heart disease followed by Dr. Sudesh giving tips and sharing his personal experience on how changing lifestyles can prevent this deadly disease.

Asian Indians around the world have the highest rate of heart disease. This is true even when they have low levels of traditional risk factors such as cholesterol.  Even non-smoking vegetarians under 40 who exercise regularly are often at high risk. The death rates from heart disease among overseas Asian Indians have been 50% to 300% higher than Americans, Europeans, Chinese, and Japanese, irrespective of gender, religion, or social class. Similar trends are observed in major Indian cities where one in ten Indian suffers from heart disease," said Dr. Enas.

Dr. Sudesh Kannan, who is an engineer by trade shared his personal experience with high cholesterol and how by making tweaks to his lifestyle he had turned things around and has been living a very healthy lifestyle. His mantra was to change your diet to eat delicious food with an eye towards fat contents and portions consumed. Exercise and quitting smoking can go a long way to reducing the risk of heart disease.

Dr. Enas further shared that the good news is that heart disease has become highly predictable, preventable, and treatable.  We now have the technology, diagnostic tests and medications to help combat the disease.  This, in combination, with appropriate lifestyle changes can help you significantly reduce your risk factors for this dreaded disease.  Early prevention, detection and management of heart disease are vital.

All the events were attended with people staying much longer post the talk for Q&A and general discussion with folks. The  events were organized with help from  Dr. Rakesh Kapoor and many volunteers.

You can find more information about Dr Enas and his book by clicking here.

Check out the pictures from the Event (pictures courtsey of Raj Melville) . For Excerpts from the talk check out the videos - Click Here

Dr. Enas was born and raised in Kerala, India, and immigrated to the United States in 1970, where he completed six years of training including cardiology at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He is Board Certified in Cardiology. Dr. Enas is currently the Director of the CADI Research Foundation and Advanced Heart Lipid Clinic in Downers Grove, Illinois and Clinical Associate Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Check out the excerpts from the talk on the videos below.

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