South Asians have an increased chance of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. More than 60 percent of cardiovascular disease patients around the world are of South Asian descent.
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Dr. Alka Kanaya is principal investigator for the Masala study, which is looking at why South Asians have relatively high rates of heart disease. ‘If we can figure out what these factors are that really impact heart disease [in South Asians] then we can start targeting interventions specific to lowering those risk factors,’ she says.
South Asians today account for more than half of the world's cardiac patients. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and rates have risen over the past several decades.
Indian immigrant males have four times the risk of premature heart disease as compared to Framingham, despite having lower rates of hypertension, smoking, and high cholesterol, and often following a vegetarian diet.
Thirty South Asian women, all recent immigrants to the U.S., attend workouts as part of a Northwestern University study. The research aims to find interventions to lower their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
In what could hold important lessons for bringing down diabetes prevalence in India, a study published recently shows that Indians in America have been able to delay or prevent the disease largely through healthy lifestyle modifications.