While the West is working at keeping its young hearts beating, in India the job has been taken over by medical professionals. While lifestyles in the West are increasingly geared towards healthy living, in India life in the fast track is accelerating. While the West displays acute levels of health consciousness, in India taking the human machine for granted is just another bad habit. So, if you -- and this is especially true for persons under 40 -- survive the daily grind and you stomach the burgers, your heart is slowly succumbing to the pressures of `modern day living'.

Cardiologists in the city are keeping a wary eye on the increasing number of young professionals who display `Type-A' personality traits -- bad diet, no exercise and too much smoke, coupledwith ignorance on health issues -- for the statistics on heart disease are truly arresting. In Western countries, only three to four per cent of persons below 40 suffer from heart attacks. In contrast, 16 per cent of Indians below 40 are succumbing.

In 1997, 6,000 Indians were treated by an interventional cardiologist -- specialists who use techniques other than surgery -- for malfunctioning valves and blocked arteries. Last year, the figure rose to 15,000. Ten per cent of these patients were from Mumbai.

``The numbers are going up,'' confirms Dr B K Goyal, chief of Cardiology at Bombay Hospital. ``I predict that in five years time, there will be 2 lakh Indians who would have undergone interventional procedures. While the good news is that the figures reflect a drop in bypass surgeries, it also indicates that there is a growing population of people who have heart trouble.''

Director of Cardiology at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, Dr J H N Bett, who is attending the First World Congress onInterventional Cardiology in Mumbai, explains: ``In Australia as in the West, the biggest change has been the realisation that smoking is bad for the heart. Also, diet awareness has caught on and people now know what is good and bad for their heart. This has helped reduce the number of young patients I see. Now, doctors in Australia are spending more time treating older patients.''

Doctors attending the convention say that while the West is giving up on junk food, at home everyone is gorging on it. ``My patients don't even know how much oil they should consume every day,'' says Dr C K Ponde, a consultant cardiologist at Hinduja Hospital. ``People don't follow a regular exercise regime and all these things add up, putting pressure on the heart.''

According to Dr Christopher J White, chairperson of the Department of Cardiology at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, New Orleans: ``In the US there has been a successful movement to educate people about their well-being. The American Heart Associationspends all its time educating the public. You could stop an American on the streets and he would probably be able to tell you his cholesterol level. With grocery stores have machines where one can check one's cholesterol, awareness is high.''

White advocates that awareness should begin at school. ``It is too late when someone goes to a doctor because the person is already a patient then,'' he says. ``The need of the hour is to reach young people. Remedial action can be taken if high cholesterol levels are detected in a child. Later on, it's too late.''

Dr Corrado Vassanelli from Italy adds that while the general graph of heart patients is on the decline in Europe, the number of women being treated is on the rise.

So, while experts debate cardiac interventional techniques and pore over data that is at times heartening though sometimes depressing, cardiologists in India are shaking their heads in disapproval at the food we eat and the lives we lead. Eat right and exercise regularly, they say. And ofcourse, don't smoke, the environment is already giving you your share of poison.