The Hidden Risks: South Asians & Heart Disease

Are you aware that South Asians represent a shocking 25% of the global population yet account for 60% of heart disease cases? This episode tackles the pressing issue of heart health within the South Asian community, featuring Dr. Akhil Taher, who shares his personal journey from a heart disease diagnosis to becoming a thriver in holistic health. 

Key discussions center around the cultural nuances impacting health outcomes, particularly focusing on dietary habits that have long been ingrained in South Asian culture. Dr. Taher discusses visceral obesity, a hidden risk affecting many people who may seem healthy based on traditional BMI metrics, but are at significant risk health-wise due to fat accumulation around vital organs. 

We explore the dietary pitfalls, such as the overuse of saturated fats and unhealthy oils which contribute to heart disease, while also addressing the critical need for tailored health assessments for those of South Asian descent. Through our informative dialogue, we provide listeners with actionable insights to navigate these challenges while respecting their cultural influences.

Whether you’re South Asian or interested in understanding cultural health disparities, this episode is packed with knowledge and strategies for promoting better heart health. Join us for an enlightening conversation that could change how you view heart disease and your lifestyle choices. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, or leave a review to keep these essential conversations going!

Content repurposed from Season 2. Listen in full here. This particular segment focuses on some of the detrimental foods people get habituated towards. Culturally Indian food(especially South Indian) is predominantly gluten free and focuses a lot on very good combinations that are inherently beneficial if cooked right and followed according to traditional methods(including how ghee is meant to be prepared!). Yet over use of certain ingredients and snacking, binge eating can be detrimental. That is the primary focus of this segment.

 

DISCLAIMER: THIS PODCAST IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A MEDICAL CONSULT NOR IS IT A SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL CONSULT. PLEASE CONSULT WITH YOUR

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Freshly Forever, a podcast that gives
you fascinating insights weekafter week.
Here's your host, vaikumar.
Dr Akhil Tahir is anexperienced physician who, until

(00:32):
2009, in his words, believedthat heart disease won't happen
to me.
To quote him, he is now aresurgent physician.
Further to a bypass surgery atthe age of 61, and he recovered
from it remarkably is now aseptuagenarian athlete, a

(00:52):
heart-healthy speaker, holistichealth and wellness consumer and
a big proponent of whole food,plant-based diet.
We had the pleasure of talkingto Dr Tahir in season two of
this podcast in a two-partepisode on heart health.

(01:13):
Here are some nuggets from thatconversation on the cultural
impact of heart disease.
Let's take a listen.
Is heart health compromisedmore in certain cultures than
others?
You think?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Absolutely.
You hit the nail on the head.
We South Asians when I saySouth Asians, we mean people
mainly from India, pakistan,nepal, sri Lanka, as far as
Bhutan and Maldives we are allSouth Asians.
We are 25% of the world'spopulation.
Roughly, we carry 60% of theworld's heart disease.

(01:51):
Oh, no, yes, in India, from2000 to 2019, our disease
increased double for heartdisease.
Now what has happened?
Even in the United States, weare four times more likely to
get heart disease than otherethnic groups like the Japanese,
koreans or Chinese.

(02:12):
We are getting our heartdisease at a younger age 25% are
getting it before they reachthe age of 40, and 50% are
getting it before they reach theage of 40 and 50% are getting
it before they reach the age of55.
Therefore, the American HeartAssociation says that being of

(02:32):
South Asian descent is anindependent risk factor for
heart disease.
Now, when we go a little bitmore into depth, why and what is
being done?
We are a small communitycompared to the whites and the

(02:52):
blacks, so what happens is we donot have too much of research
facilities.
We don't have the money forthat, but there is a study which
is called the Masala Study,that is, the mediators of South
Asians living in America andwhat they found was, when they
did a study with 40, between theages about 1,100 people I don't

(03:14):
know why they took this number,1,100, between the ages of 40
and 84,.
What they found was that peopleof South Asian descent do not
appear obese according to theWestern terminology, but they
carry fat.
They carry fat in their abdomen.
So it is called visceral obesity.

(03:35):
This visceral obesity is wherefat is deposited into your
muscles, in your liver andaround the heart.
The subcutaneous fat just belowthe skin is perfectly okay, but
this fat which is there?
So if we go by body mass indexaccording to the Western term,
we will have a problem.

(03:55):
We will not be able to.
We will be slipping through thecracks, mm-hmm.
So my point first is thataccording to the body mass index
, it's 25.
Up to 25 is normal.
We should keep it as 23.
Our obesity as South Asiansshould be 28, not 30 and above.

(04:17):
Do an abdominal girth and youwill find that 35 is supposed to
be normal in males and 30 isnormal in females.
35 is supposed to be normal inmales and 30 is normal in
females.
I would go lower for SouthAsians 32 for 33 for males and
28 for females.
But we do carry fat.
My body mass index when I hadmy heart disease was only 22.

(04:38):
And I was carrying a pouch.
So that is the first thing.
What are the other things thatwe South Asians have?
We're insulin resistant.
When people hear this thinginsulin resistant I tell them
very simply a lay person is thatwhen you get sugar in your
blood.
The insulin carries the sugarto the cells and it is used as

(05:01):
energy.
But if your cell is depositedwith fat, then it comes back
into the blood and you get yourblood sugar rise and therefore
you get pre-diabetic anddiabetic.
Third thing we, for some reasonand we are studying on this
calcium is very much moredeposited in our coronaries.
Number four our coronaries arevery small compared to others

(05:27):
and we have got larger lesionsin our coronaries are very small
compared to others and we havegot larger lesions in our
coronaries.
We've got multiple vesseldisease and we've got tight
stenosis.
When we have that blockage, andthen independent risk factors
are like spilling protein in theurine, which is more so in our
women.
Our women, they are more likelyto get gestational diabetes as

(05:51):
opposed to other women.
And finally, your age group isdifferent.
But my age group, the firstgeneration of Indians of my age
group, we did not know how tospell exercise and so we were
all sedentary slobs or couchpotatoes, including myself.
So, oh, and then our food habits.

(06:13):
Think about our food habits.
We have mostly saturated fats,oils, processed food, sugars,
refined foods.
All this is that you knowsomething, why they've got a
connection with oil.
You've got a culturalconnection with oil.
You've got a culturalconnection with oil.
If, in my family or otherwise,if we don't use oil means that

(06:38):
you're doing, you're showinggenerosity to a person in our
culture, which is wrong.
It's a sign of warmth.
If you have a pot of curry onyour dining table and if you
want floating of oil oil likethe Valdi slick that means
you're not being just as to youryes, and this oil is absolutely

(07:00):
new to the new Newton, you know.
So the idea is that thiscultural connection to oil is so
deeply ingrained into it that Ihave seen people use the oil
again and again.
The same oil back in India I'veseen this is that oil again and
again.
At very high temperatures itbecomes those meat products or

(07:23):
things like this, secretchemicals that become cancerous,
carcinogenic do you think thishappens only to South Asians?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
or what about the standard American diet?
And what about other Westerncultures?
And what about people, say, inthe Mediterranean region?
So how do the other culturalfolks succumb to heart disease,
even when that happens in thosecultures?

Speaker 2 (07:51):
The standard American diet is very aptly called the
SAD diet Meat, eggs, dairy sugar.
Now this is the worst diet.
But my point is this why is itthat 80% of Indians are
vegetarians 75 to 80%.
Why are we the heart diseasecapital of the world?
It's because of our dairysaturated fat and cholesterol

(08:13):
isn't there?
Because of our overuse of oiland butter and ghee.
Do you know that ghee has now?
Just two weeks back I was doingsome studies and it said that
ghee has got where you haveoxidized cholesterol, which is
terrible, worse than the regularcholesterol.
Tenfold increase in oxidizedcholesterol if you use ghee.

(08:35):
But then comes the question isso many talks have gone around
and people have asked me that,look, is ghee helpful and can we
use a teaspoonful this and that?
No, if you want, medicallyspeaking.
No, if you are talking aboutcertain, because all I'm saying
is questions that have been putforward to me.

(08:56):
The Sri Krishna Bhagwan used todrink dahi and ghee and all
that.
So I turn around and say, look,I am not a religious expert at
all, I'm only talking about fromthe viewpoint of what it is
medically wrong.
Now, in those days, do you havethe means to put a cow in your
shed and feed the grass?
Totally no, you don't.

(09:17):
Dairy in this country is liquidmeat, saturated fat and
cholesterol.
Rip Esselstyn said it veryaptly One ounce of meat is
equivalent to 2% of regular milk.
A cup of 2% milk, and look atthe milk.
How do you get milk on theshelves of your grocery stores?
You have to impregnate the cowcontinuously.

(09:40):
So you push estrogens likecrazy and this estrogen in the
milk that comes in is one of theleading causes of prostate
cancer in men.
So that estrogen that you arehaving, you're getting saturated
fat, you're getting cholesterol, you're getting a load on your
kidneys, so you get renalfunctions which are going down.

(10:00):
You get osteoporosis fasterwith your meats.
Why in the world would anybodywant to have meat and dairy, or
meat for that matter?
Then you have the question oflactose intolerant.
Do you know?
Some of the people in the worldare lactose intolerant, but we
say that because we have thebelching and distension.

(10:21):
Oh, we have enjoyed the meal.
No, that is wrong.
You have not enjoyed the meal,you are lactose intolerant.
And one final thing when mypatients, when I tell them to
give up milk, dairy, they comeback to me in six months and say
.
I ask them have you given updairy?
And they say yes.
I say what about cheese?
They say no, no, we have thecheese.

(10:41):
Why?
Because it takes a largequantity of milk to make a small
quantity of cheese and cheese.
We've got casein, a proteinwhich is found in cow's milk,
and that protein turns intocasomorphine, so that
casomorphine becomes anaddictive quality like morphine.
So the last thing people wantto give up is cheese.

(11:03):
They say I can give upeverything, but I can't give up
cheese.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, it's interesting, you pointed that
out.
It's interesting, you pointedthat out B-A-I-P-K-U-M-A-R and

(11:32):
our website, ypkumarcom.
Until next time, with yetanother interesting guest and
yet another interesting topic.
It's me Y saying so long.