Hookah causes stroke among GenX

Hyderabad: A 45-minute hookah session is equal to smoking 100 cigarettes. Mixing so much nicotine with beer and other forms of alcohol are some of the major reasons for strokes in young people, stated experts in the city for World Stroke Day on October 29.

A few cases from September 2015 in the city have especially caused concern among neurologists as they are seeing patients as young as 20 years coming in with stroke. A 20-year-old student had collapsed at home and when he was rushed to the hospital, doctors found multiple clots in his brain that has caused a stroke.

Similarly, another 24-year-old complained of numbness in her arms and legs and when checked it was found that she had excessive cholesterol due to which the blood supply was restricted. Both these youngsters would visit hookah parlours often and would also frequently eat fast food and energy-dense heavy foods.

Dr Alok Ranjan, senior neurologist at Apollo Hospitals said, “This is a bad cocktail of sedentary lifestyle,  high calorie foods and combination of toxic elements which tend to create an imbalance in the body leading  to stroke. Most of these patients have high cholesterol and clotting in the blood due to which the supply to the brain and heart is restricted resulting in a stroke.”

Another senior doctor in the city explained, “The perception that when water is mixed with flavoured tobacco it does not have a bad effect on the blood supply is wrong. It does have an affect and we have a strong feeling that there are other intoxicating drugs that are mixed with flavoured tobacco. Due to these addictive drugs, youngsters are going (to hookah parlours) everyday. The  damage to them is baffling as these kind of problems are seen in those who are above 50 years of age.”

Doctors have also found that most of these youngsters have heavily clogged blood vessels. Dr Vikas  Agrawal, senior neurologist at Yashoda Hospitals explained, “The genes of Indians are prone to diabetes and heart diseases. Hence, we have a particular set of people who are pre-disposed to these diseases because of their genes. If the body is further insulted due to heavy addiction, intoxication and also bad food habits, then the genes will express themselves soon and the disease will strike early.”

“This is also one of the reasons why we are seeing early stroke cases, which was not seen earlier.”