The daily commute in Mumbai is a top contributor to stress

In the prologue of his new book, well-known cardiologist Dr Aashish Contractor takes us straight to a marathon track. The year is 2012. Runner Dhananjay Yellurkar has just reached the finish line at CST station, completing a 42.2 km-run in 5 hours 36 minutes. Soon after, cameramen surround him to capture his victory.

At the outset, there appears to be nothing unusual about his feat. It's only when Yellurkar removes his sweat-drenched T-shirt that people realise why the marathoner is at the centre of all the adulation. A long vertical scar runs across his chest. The scar, Dr Contractor writes, is a remnant of a bypass surgery that he had performed on Yellurkar some time back. In achieving the marathon glory, Dr Contractor's “warrior” patient had managed to stare his heart disease in its face.

The Heart Truth: Everything You Wanted to Know About Prevention, Treatment and Reversal of Heart Disease (Westland India), which releases later this week, draws from Dr Contractor's 18-year experience treating and rehabilitating thousands of such cardiac patients. From simplifying the purpose of the organ to learning how to adopt healthy heart habits, Dr Contractor, who heads the department of rehabilitation and sports medicine at the Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai, delves into a wide range of issues in the book. “Heart disease is the number one cause of death in our country. But, the good news is that it is preventable to a large extent. The more the awareness, the higher the chances of prevention,” says Dr Contractor on why he decided to pen this book. “Also, because of the Internet — while there is a lot of information about heart ailments out there today, there is a lot of misinformation too,” he adds.

Though the heart is an exceedingly important organ of the body, it is also the simplest in function, says Dr Contractor, who also holds the distinction of being part of the Asian Heart team that treated former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh after his redo bypass surgery in January 2009. “It essentially acts as a muscular pump, receiving blood and pumping it out. So, in principle, it appears to be far less complicated than the brain, kidney or liver,” he explains. Yet, if your heart skips a beat, the consequences can often be fatal. Let's takes it a tad more seriously, says Dr Contractor.