Healthy Hearts!

While the seminar at COD had nothing to do with HR related topics, it did talk about a more serious problem of todays generation. Today a large part of the population is dying because of heart attacks and other Cardio Vascular diseases or CVD.Recently the industry lost Mr. Ranjan Das- CEO of SAP labs a very fit and health conscious person but with an imbalanced lifestyle. So CVD has nothing to do with age or how athletic you are. Its more of a lifestyle disease. The myths surrounding it that it is genetic or due to the age factor, is just that-a myth.
So here we had 2 highly eminent doctors speaking of the disease and preventive measures. The stats that they gave were scary. Apart from the death toll between the ages of 35-55 being the highest it also spoke of the billions of dollars worth of loss that the IT industry suffers every year. So its just basically the proper diet, 7 hrs of sleep and maintaining a balanced life can help keeping CVD at bay. I hear lot people saying that death has to come one day so why not enjoy what we have of life. That is one myth which needs to be busted. To all those people I have a question, Its true that death is inevitable and the only truth of life, but does it have to be slow, torturous and painful? I believe in after life and I feel death is just the beginning, But the day I die I would like to look best because I'll be meeting Mr. God himself, wouldn't want to be in a tattered condition appearing in hospital clothing in front of Him. But thats just my thought. You think about it!
Coming back to the topic of discussion, I have distilled some key points below in the hope it will save some of our lives.
Some Excerpts:

• Short sleep duration ( less than 5 or 5-6 hrs) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept for more than 6 hrs per night. Paper published in 2009. As you know High BP kills.
• Young people ( 25-49 years of age ) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.
• Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999.
• Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!
• Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease. Paper published in 2004
• Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.
• In brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM ( Rapid Eye Movement ) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times. The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type. For one to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess ( lack of non-REM sleep ), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down ( I’ve been there, done that ). Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repair the running related damage.

This should be a good news to all the people who complain that they would want to spend less time sleeping (of course doesn't imply that you spend more time in bed)

So people, Eat right, sleep right stay healthy!

BTW, I did get a chance to talk to the director and it was a delight. She recognised me and more than welcomed me into the institute. So mabe sometime in the future would definitely go through one of the trainings.