It has been 8 years since I was diagnosed with Heart Disease (Coronary Artery Disease). My blood tests were mostly normal and there were no real red flags. And yet, there I was: at the 98th percentile of calcification of my arteries for my age.
Once I was over the initial shock, I realized I was actually incredibly lucky. Cardiovascular disease accounts for more deaths (32%) than the next 4 biggest causes of death combined (all the cancers, respiratory disease, diabetes and dementia). According to Stanford Health, among South Asians, heart attacks are happening earlier (25% of heart attacks occur under age 40, and 50% occur under age 50) and with higher mortality rates (there is a 40% higher chance of mortality from heart attacks among South Asians than the average population).
It led to me making a lot of changes to my lifestyle (food, exercise, sleep) in ways that did not require me to give up eating and doing all the things I love. To ensure my changes were medically, scientifically and nutritionally sound, I worked very closely with a number of amazing clinicians, dietitians and exercise trainers.
I am sharing a few of the improvements I have seen in my health parameters through this journey to demonstrate how effective these changes have been while being quite simple to implement. Moving forward, I will share my learnings and observations on these interventions through my GeneClinicX Instagram account and on my LinkedIn account, that I hope can help those of you that are looking for sustainable and fun ways to stay or become healthy. Your feedback and questions are very welcome!
82 comments
Harish Gandhi: Thanks for sharing. this is an amazing transformation. Congratulations! What were the changes diet/exercise/other did you make? I would love to know. In case you have written about this somewhere- pls give me a link. All the best!
Nickhil Jakatdar: Thanks. It’s a combination of exercise diet, sleep and relaxation techniques. I will be posting on FB and LI every week. I did my second post on this topic 2 days back. For some reason, FB doesn’t seem to show it unless you look for it.
Matt Bonner: You are an awesome human!!!!
Nickhil Jakatdar: Matt you are too kind. Hanging out with you, your awesomeness is rubbing off on me!!