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
Andy Romano: Great job! Stay healthy!
Nickhil Jakatdar: Thanks Andy! hope you have been well!
Andy Romano: Went to Thailand recently and had a full body checkup (more or less) for $1000. The best money I ever spent! Preventative screening is a wonderful thing. People from all over the world go there and afterwards spoke to 5 doctors about the results. Incredible.
Lars Markwort: Andy Romano Please share info on your experience, where you went etc.
Amol Tambe: Fascinating to see the numbers and the data Nickhil. Well done on the tremendous efforts you have put into this. Lot of learning from your own experience and how it translates into tangible health benefits for others. Look forward to your posts on this. 👍🏼
Nickhil Jakatdar: AMOL thank you very much! I’d love to get your feedback as I post further on the practicality of my suggestions.
Dinanath Kholkar: Indeed very inspiring and extremely insightful Nickhil Jakatdar. For the benefit of those who would like to hear the story, I am sharing the recording of the session you did for IEEE Pune Section EMBS / SIGHT chapters. https://ieeemeetings.webex.com/ieeemeetings/ldr.php?RCID=b5f469bbe4793f10fe47e27bfd0479d1
Nickhil Jakatdar: Dinanath thank you for being an evangelist for what I have been doing and for sharing this!
Balaji Ingole: Awesome results here.👏 It’s truly a testament to the saying that when it comes to your mental & physical health, no one else will do it for you, you got to do it by yourself.
Nickhil Jakatdar: Balaji very well said!
Ujjal K: Please share the changes you made and your current practices in diet, exercise, sleep etc 🙏🏼
Nickhil Jakatdar: Thank you Ujjal! I will be sharing that on an ongoing basis from here onwards on this forum as well as on IG and FB. It is going to be fun summarizing the thousands of experiments over the last 8 years to share what worked and what didn’t.