Today, UCLA launches the region’s first heart health program tailored for South Asians, who face up to four times the risk of cardiovascular disease compared with the general population.
It’s a staggering statistic that hits especially hard in Southern California, home to one of the largest South Asian communities in the United States.
Dr. Ravi Dave, the interventional cardiologist leading the UCLA initiative, says the elevated health risks are flying under the radar.
Heart disease is a major risk for South Asians. A new UCLA program wants to help
“And that came as a surprise, because the South Asian community is fairly educated,” Dave said. “They’re successful. But the awareness was not there.”
Driving factors
For decades, physicians have observed that people of South Asian descent — those with roots in countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal — tend to suffer from heart disease at significantly younger ages and with more severe complications.
“When I do angiograms on South Asian patients, their arteries are often diffusely blocked and much smaller in size,” Dave said. “They age prematurely in terms of heart health—and they’re often poor candidates for interventions like stents or bypass surgery.”
Research shows that South Asians represent about a quarter of the world’s population but account for more than half of heart disease cases.
Multiple factors are at play: diets packed with fried foods and carbohydrates and sedentary lifestyles.
‘The Thrifty Gene’?
And then there’s the burden of genetics. Dave subscribes to the debated hypothesis…
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