By Swpana Tarafdar
Avoiding the Sun as you feel the heat unbearable? Then be ready to land soon at the cardiologist’s clinic.
Cardiologists attribute sunxiety over a period of time as the common cause of patients visiting the cardiology OPD with severe chest pain similar to a heart attack.“Majority of the cases which we get in the OPD is not a heart attack but a case of costochondritis. Patients with costochondritis come with sharp, piercing, shooting chest pain right over the heart. The pain is so bad, so intense and located in the chest that they feel they had a heart attack. Thousands of patients every day rush to the emergency room or our OPDs fully convinced that they are having a heart attack, only to find out their heart is absolutely fine.” Medical Director and Director of Critical Care at White Lotus International Hospital & Research Center in Navi Mumbai said.
“In costochondritis, the pain is in the cartilage and the ribs that connect to your breastbone. When the cartilage gets swollen, we get costochondritis.”
Diagnosis is easy. “If you push your fingers directly onto your chest bone and it causes a sharp ache then it is the inflamed cartilage. It just does not happen all of a sudden. It is a result of a lifestyle we are leading these days. We rarely step out to walk. We are most mostly confined indoors.”
“People have forgotten how it feels to be out in the Sun. Sunxiety is the new trend. People are so much into skincare and are influenced by social media experts that they have developed a fear for the Sun.”
Doctors say that these days people don’t even step out to buy daily essentials. They order them online. “A majority of people only step out to go to offices. You board a cab or an auto and reach office. You even drive to your office. The culture of walking is slowly dying. Rather than going to play outdoor games, we remain hooked to our phones during our free time. Then, we have ACs everywhere. Also, the skin care cosmetics block the UV rays. So, we are rarely exposing ourselves to the Sun.”
Sun or Vitamin D has a major role to play in the treatment of costochondritis. Sun exposure reverses the metabolic weaknesses causing chest wall inflammation. “When your skin absorbs sunlight, it initiates a chain reaction that targets the root structural and neurological causes of this sharp chest pain.”
Doctors say that when ultraviolet rays hit your skin, “they trigger the production of Vitamin D3”. “This helps our body to absorb calcium and phosphorus, which strengthens bones and teeth, boosts immune function, and prevents painful chest wall conditions like costochondritis.”
(The Writer had worked in PTI, Muscat Daily, The Statesman, Metro Now and Today of India Today Group)
