Heart patients as young as 15

Star: PETALING JAYA: One-third of heart patients in the country are under 45 years old.
Universiti Malaya Medical Centre's (UMMC) cardiology division head Prof Dr Wan Azman Wan Ahmad said more young people were getting heart disease compared to 30 years ago.
This could be due to an unhealthy diet, higher level of stress and a change in lifestyle.
“Thirty years ago, heart patients were aged between 50 and 55 for males and 60 and 65 for females. But today, we get patients as young as 15.
“There are various factors that cause heart disease. One of them is eating unhealthy food, which young people are doing because they eat a lot of fast food and deep fried Western food,” Dr Wan Azman told reporters after the opening of the Love Your Heart forum at UMMC here yesterday.
About 200 people attended the half-day forum, which also had free health screening.
Dr Wan Azman said heart disease was now also more common among Malays.
“This could be due to the fact that more Malays have migrated from rural areas to the city, giving them more choices of unhealthy food,” he said.
He advised the public to go to the hospital for an immediate check-up if they felt pain in their chest.
“Many people who experience chest pain are afraid to go to the hospital because they would rather not know the result of the symptom, which is usually angina (chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart)
“They would rather go to a general practitioner or traditional physician to seek treatment. But when they find out (subsequently) that they have heart disease, it might be too late,” Dr Wan Azman said.