By Mohammed Shafeeq Hyderabad, Dec 5 : Heart health of every person is in his hands and if people adopt good diet, healthy lifestyle, do some exercises and avoid smoking they can very well prevent a large number of heart diseases, says Cardiological Society of India (CSI) president Dr P.P. Mohanan. As part of its efforts to create public awareness on how to prevent cardiovascular diseases, CSI at its 73rd conference in Hyderabad has released a video featuring India's former cricket captain Kapil Dev and a book about the common things in cardiology written by 150 cardiologists. For the first time, the CSI has roped in a celebrity to come out with a video, through which it is trying to project the importance of avoiding heart attack in youngsters. "I hope it will be circulated in various forums so that people realise the importance of looking after their heart health, which is in their hands. If they adopt a good diet, lifestyle, do some good exercises and avoid smoking we can very well prevent a large number of heart diseases," the eminent cardiologist told IANS. He described the book as A to Z of cardiology. "It's all about normal heart, heart diseases, how to prevent them and if you are unfortunately developing them how to treat them. The book is in English but I hope it will be translated in every possible language." The CSI is adopting a two-pronged strategy -- public information and educating cardiologists. Stating that public awareness has been one of the fortes of CSI, he said they want to improve on it in every possible way. With 5,000 members across the country, the CSI is working towards the prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and the eradication of cardiovascular mortality to raise awareness among people about cardiovascular diseases and nutritious diets. It is making efforts to increase awareness about the correlation between cardiovascular diseases and the environment and lifestyle. CSI's president elect Dr P.S. Banerjee told IANS that prevention goes side by side with awareness. The cardiologists' body will be approaching the government in reaching out to people in remote areas. "We will write to the government. If it takes our help we can send our representatives to organise small meetings in local languages on what to do to prevent heart attack or any heart disease," he said. The four-day conclave of cardiologists, which ended Sunday, discussed issues like clinical cardiology, preventive cardiology, interventional cardiology, imaging cardiology and Artificial Intelligence and digital technology in practice of cardiology. Dr Banerjee, who was the scientific chairperson of CSI2021, pointed out that the whole subject of cardiovascular medicine was covered. Speakers selected for sessions reputed in their sub-specialties like heart failure, preventive cardiology hypertension and diabetes. There were also joint sessions with American College of Cardiology, European Society of cardiology, European Society of Heart Failure, European heart journal for exchange of views. The cardiologists met after a gap of two years. Dr Mohanon described it as a fantastic meeting where thrust was given to innovations happening. "Cardiology is one field where we embrace whatever innovations are happening for the benefit of patients," said the CSI president. "We have been trying to reach out to healthcare professionals, cardiologists, physicians, teach them newer innovations in cardiology, new guidelines for medical treatment and how best to utilise them for better care." Dr Mohanan said CSI had been trying to assimilate new innovations. "This time we have given more importance to digitization. Covid has taught us a lot of newer things. We learnt a lot of things and we unlearned a lot of things. We are trying to learn about newer things, how to incorporate every new knowledge available world over and improve cardiac care," he said. Realising the key role the government has in public education and awareness, the cardiologists' body is looking to influence the policymakers like its counterparts in the United States. "We have to influence policy makers just like we did for the smoking ban. We have to advise them about the importance of physical activity and healthy diet. Policy makers have a huge say. We will try to influence them like what other associations are doing. The American Heart Association has a huge influence on their government. The CSI will try to emulate that and come out with a solid proposal on how to live a good healthy life so that you prevent heart diseases," the CSI president said. Dr Banerjee said they have to depend on government assistance as the task of reaching out to a big population, especially in rural areas, is huge. "We need government assistance as society alone can't do it. This requires a lot of money," he said. He proposed to set up small groups of young doctors who will go to remote areas and with the help of local authorities organise seminars. They will give demonstrations on aspects like CPR, lifestyle modification, benefits of physical exercise, good diet, avoiding tobacco and alcohol. /IANS