“I had 90% heart blockages 4 years back but decided against a by-pass surgery,” says Deepak Khera, 53 years old, Hospitality professional. Unlike most people with a heart condition, Deepak decided to take matters into his own hands and fix his lifestyle. He took his cardiologist in confidence who encouraged him to seek complete lifestyle changes while supporting him through any emergency situations. Deepak then contacted Rachna Chhachhi, nutritional therapist and cancer nutrition coach who specialises in reversal of lifestyle conditions without medication, and began his treatment. It has been four years, now Deepak is motivated to spread the message and has just begun sharing the details of his inspirational journey with others to help them make the lifestyle changes instead of going under the knife.
Heart disease is the number one killer globally and in India today. In fact, 28.1% of the total medical deaths in Indians occur due to a heart attack or stroke. As per epidemiological data, South India and Goa have the highest incidence of heart disease followed by Punjab. And better economic strata has a higher concentration of heart disease patients. “If we look at dietary patterns, this makes sense. Most of South India and Goa have rich concentration of coconut in their food and while coconut is wonderful in small quantities, in higher quantities it causes the saturated fat to deposit as bad fat in the body and leads to blockages,” analyses Rachna Chhachhi. “Along with that, there is a higher consumption of acidic foods in this region that raise uric acid levels which has been linked to heart disease and strokes.”
In fact, in the month between World Heart Day on September 29 and World Stroke Day on October 29, Rachna’s organisation, RachnaRestores is conducting a series of heart and diabetes workshops across her base of 200,000 plus followers across India on social media who will be logging in and watching the live streaming of the workshop with nutrition experts and heart specialists to spread the message of reducing the burden of heart disease in Indians. Prominent cardio metabolic specialist Dr Hemant Thacker has joined hands with Rachna to disseminate this information, and he will be a speaker at these workshops. (Quote awaited today). And MBBS doctor and mental well-being specialist, Dr Bhavana Gautam, who will be conducting the sessions on stress and heart disease, says, “Rising levels of stress often go unaddressed or unidentified as the underlying trigger for most lifestyle disorders including heart disease. The holistic approach addresses this mind-body connect and we plan to create awareness and clear steps on how to reduce disease activity by changing our lifestyles, attitudes and reducing stress levels.”
Rachna hopes to create many Deepaks. “Deepak’s case was very complicated because his blockages were too many and triglyceride levels were inhuman,” shares Rachna. “When he came to me, he was overweight, diabetic, had kidney issues, high uric acid and of course extremely high cholesterol and triglycerides along with hypertension. But it took him just 45 days of discipline in following my diet to show results in blood test reports. With people whose disease activity is lower, complete reversal is a reality.” Deepak’s case study has also been presented by Rachna at the International Conference on Healthcare and Health Management, London where she was invited as a Keynote Speaker, last August. “There were doctors and cardiologists from across the world including Johns Hopkins and they just stood up and clapped at the miraculous transformation of Deepak’s reports,” shares Rachna.
