Jain Study Center NC Raleigh 1999 08 Twenty Years

SR No.: 528542
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Study Center NC Raleigh
Publisher: USA Jain Study Center NC Raleigh
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 122
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, USA_Souvenir Jain Center NC Raleigh, & USA
File Size: 15 MB

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Strengthen Your Heart for Your Spiritual Journey
by J. Jina Shah
The body is a temple for the soul. It is only through healthy bodies that we can make spiritual progress. When we are ill, it is difficult to maintain our equanimity.
All of us want to be healthy. We see a doctor when we are sick to try to feel better, faster. Sometimes medicine helps, sometimes it doesn't. Some of us worry about what is really in those medicines. We worry about whether they have harmed other beings in their manufacture, or will harm us in the short or long term. As a physician, I think there is a place for medicine. But many of us don't think about prevention.
People from India have some of the highest rates of coronary artery disease in the world. Coronary artery disease leads to heart attacks. Indians in the US, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, Trinidad, have higher rates of heart disease than all other ethnic groups in these countries. Indian physicians and their families in the US have the same high rates as others. It is a growing problem in India, not only in the cities, but also increasingly, in villages. Indians seem to get the disease earlier, and in more severe forms than other groups.
There seems to be a genetic part (which, at this point, we can't change) and an environmental part (which we can change) to Indians' high risk of heart disease. There is a high level of a protein that binds to cholesterol, called lp(a), in our blood. We have a tendency to central obesity, that is the "apple shape" of fat distribution, and are at risk for diabetes. With these genetic factors that increase our risk for heart disease, we ought to be even more careful about reducing risk of changeable, environmental factors. Many Indians throughout the world are eating diets higher in fat, and getting very little exercise. There are some smokers in our population, mostly men, and especially in Indian cities, where tobacco companies are pushing their product more and more. While vegetarianism may help, to some degree, we still eat lots of fried food, paying little attention to what kind of fat the food was fried in. Most of us consume milk products, often high in fat, and the type of fat in milk can clog our arteries even more than the fat that is present in meat. Coconut milk, more common in the South Indian diet, is the worst in this regard. Some studies suggest that ghee, though traditionally thought of as healthy, is also very dangerous for the heart.
Some of us don't like to take medicine to control our risk factors, like cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure, but we don't want to change any lifestyle factors, either, so we are setting ourselves up for problems in the future.
Well, what should we do? Of course, if you already have heart disease or a risk factor for which you are being treated, continue the treatment that you are on, and follow the instructions from your physician.
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