Dharm Dabgotra has changed his diet, does yoga every morning and goes for walks in the evenings.
He made those changes two years ago after he had surgery for a blocked artery in his heart at 67.
“I was very lucky to not have a major heart attack,” he said Monday at the launch of Alberta Health Service’s South Asian Heart Health Initiative, the second of its kind in Edmonton.
The Multicultural Heart Health Awareness Program, first launched for the Chinese community in 2009, reaches out with information through community events, health fairs, public lectures, school visits and more.
The South Asian community is Edmonton’s largest ethnic group at 50,000 people.
Dr. Sudheer Sharma said those descending from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are prone to heart disease 10 years earlier than the Caucasian population and that half the South Asian men who suffer heart attacks are under the age of 50.
“All of the findings are quite worrisome,” he said.
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