Dr Raman Chawla, Senior Interventional Cardiologist at CareBest Superspeciality Hospital, Jalandhar, urges young adults to assess heart risks early, adopt healthier lifestyles and seek timely medical advice.Heart disease is increasingly affecting Indians in their 30s and 40s, driven by smoking, diabetes, cholesterol, obesity, stress and inactivity. Over the last 35 years of my practice as a cardiologist in Punjab, I have witnessed a remarkable transformation in heart care. We have progressed from the early era of balloon angioplasty to modern stents, intravascular imaging, complex coronary interventions and advanced endovascular treatment.But alongside these advances, I have observed another change that is far more worrying. Heart disease is no longer predominantly a disease of old age. Increasingly, we are seeing sudden cardiac deaths and significant coronary blockages in people in their 30s and 40s. During decades of clinical practice, I have seen patients who considered themselves “too young to have heart disease” presenting for the first time with an acute heart attack.Heart attack may be sudden, but disease often isn’tCholesterol deposition and atherosclerosis may progress silently for years before producing significant symptoms. That is why absence of chest pain should never be interpreted as a guarantee of a healthy heart. A person may be apparently fit, professionally active and completely functional while carrying important cardiovascular risk factors such as: high blood pressure, diabetes or pre-diabetes, high LDL cholesterol or triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, smoking or tobacco use, abdominal obesity, sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress and inadequate sleep, unhealthy dietary habits and strong family history of premature heart disease. This is like sitting on a bomb without even knowing it. The encouraging point is that many of these factors can be detected and modified before a major cardiac event occurs.Don’t wait for symptomsPreventive cardiology requires us to reverse this approach. The ideal time to assess your cardiovascular risk is before you become a cardiac patient. Blood pressure, blood sugar, lipid profile, body weight and waist circumference are relatively simple parameters, but together they can reveal considerable information about future cardiovascular risk. Depending upon age, symptoms, family history and individual risk profile, additional investigations such as ECG, echocardiography or other appropriate cardiac testing may be required especially in people.Final message young generstionDo not wait for your heart to give you a warning. If you smoke, have diabetes, hypertension or abnormal cholesterol, are overweight, lead a sedentary or stressful lifestyle, or have a strong family history of early heart disease, consider discussing your cardiovascular risk with your doctor even if you feel completely well. And symptoms such as chest pressure or heaviness, unexplained breathlessness, unusual sweating, discomfort radiating to the arm or jaw, or sudden unexplained reduction in exercise capacity should never be ignored.We cannot change our age or our genetic inheritance. But we can identify and control blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol. We can stop tobacco use, become physically active, improve our diet, manage weight and seek medical advice at the appropriate time. In my personal opinion, the future of cardiology should therefore not be measured only by how many blocked arteries we successfully open. It should also be measured by how many heart attacks we successfully prevent.