Your 30s are the time when the groundwork for heart disease begins, silently and steadily. However, by making healthy choices you can protect your heart.

Your 30s are often seen as the decade of peak health: juggling careers, families, and adventures with seemingly endless energy.

Yet beneath the surface, your heart may already be changing in ways you can’t feel. Doctors warn that this is the decade when the groundwork for heart disease begins, silently and steadily.

“In your 30s, you may look and feel healthy, but subtle changes in the heart and blood vessels are already underway," says Dr. Ameya Udyavar, Consultant, Cardiologist and Cardiac Electrophysiologist, P. D. Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Mahim.

The first quiet shift is cholesterol build-up. “Atherosclerosis – the deposition of cholesterol in the arteries, actually begins in the late teens and continues into the 30s," explains Dr. Udyavar.

Sedentary lifestyles, irregular sleep, stress, alcohol, poor diets, and lack of exercise speed this up. Over time, arteries lose elasticity and start to stiffen, setting the stage for problems decades later.

“In the West, heart disease shows up in the 60s and 70s. Among Indians, it’s a decade earlier, in the 50s. Unhealthy choices in your 30s can make it appear even sooner," he warns.

Source:News18