While data about such deaths are not comprehensive, heart attacks and SCDs have seen a spike over the years in India, and SCDs account for a large number of those who die from cardiac events in the country.

Dr Rao has himself attested to witnessing many cases of young people in their early 20s with no risk of heart ailments suffering SCDs while recovering from Covid-19. More than half of all heart disease fatalities in the US are due to SCDs. And this is also in line with worldwide trends.

SCDs are on the rise in India, especially after Covid-19. Puneeth RajkumarвЂ™s body at the Kanteerava Studio in Bengaluru, October 31 (Photo: AFP) Even earlier, as early as 2001, Dr Salim Yusuf, known for his pathbreaking studies in cardiac disease prevention, and others had warned about the heart-disease scourge in India and called for collection of data from across the country to devise ways to control it. He wrote, вЂњa clearly visible distinction of the SCD cohort from India compared to the western world is the predominance of economically productive younger population, which is a matter of concern.вЂќ That is, in India, those who die such deaths include a large chunk of high-earning and often crГЁme de la crГЁme of society. In a peer-reviewed study titled вЂGlobal Burden of Sudden Cardiac Death and Insights from IndiaвЂ™, Hyderabad-based cardiologist and electrophysiologist Dr B Hygriv Rao had warned as early as 2014 that not only are the number of such deaths rising in India due to a raft of factors, including change in lifestyles, stress and peer pressure, but there is also an economic burden associated with such events. Basically, these deaths are due to rhythm disturbances in the heart,вЂќ Namboodiri explains. Usually, people in competitive sports and professionals such as pilots are tested for their endurance levels.

In the process, their heart rate rises rapidly and dramatically. вЂњUnaccustomed exercises trigger a fight-and-flight response and there is an adrenaline surge in people. Dr KK Narayanan Namboodiri, a professor at ThiruvananthapuramвЂ™s Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology and a cardiologist well versed in electrophysiology, the branch that studies the heartвЂ™s electrical system and diagnoses abnormal heartbeats (arrhythmia), says sudden deaths are those in which a person dies within one hour of the occurrence of вЂњa cardiac eventвЂќ. Some others are keen to build a bulky superhero frame and gorge on protein like the Hulk.Д®verything is hunky-dory until news headlines announce that yet another relatively young gym nut has fallen dead in a phenomenon that doctors describe as вЂњsudden deathвЂќ, which is caused by a myocardial infarction or, in laymanвЂ™s terms, a heart attack. In such high-stress, high-visibility jobs, the struggle to fit in often means flaunting a perception of being fit and rocking. Transforming oneself into a lean, mean male with a wiry, striated physique is the holy grail for those in entertainment and a preoccupation with corporate honchos, most of whom are typically known to sleep less, starve, work more and work out like there is no tomorrow. THE PREMATURE DEMISE of 46-year-old Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar due to a heart attack in late October has raised uncomfortable questions about extreme workouts in non-sporting professions that often celebrate taut bodies as a mark of career success.

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