Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading cause of both mortality and forgone healthy years of life among working -age adults (15-69 years) in South Asia. It is the leading cause of death in India and worldwide. For noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), common, modifiable and easily measurable risk factors could be reliably used to predict the future burden of the diseases and to measure the effectiveness of public health interventions. A casecontrol study was undertaken to examine the socio-demographic profile of IHD patients and to identify the risk factors in already diagnosed cases of IHD admitted in three tertiary care hospitals of Ahmedabad, India. We have included 100 cases and 100 controls who were group matched with the cases. The association of various risk factors with IHD was assessed. On univariate analysis it was found that 7 out of 8 risk factors were significantly associated with IHD. They are alcohol consumption (OR; 14.6, 95% CI; 6.4-33.3), smoking (OR; 13.6, 95% CI; 6.6-27.8), tobacco consumption in non-smoking form (OR;2.3, 95% CI; 0.78-7.02), hypertension (OR; 6.5, 95% CI; 3.4-12.3), Type 2 diabetes (OR; 4.5, 95% CI; 2.4-8.7), obesity (OR; 9.7, 95% CI; 4.9-19.1), sedentary lifestyle (OR; 3.8, CI; 1.8-8.4 ) and family history (OR; 5.3, 95% CI; 2.8-9.9). This study identified the significance of alcohol, smoking, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sedentary lifestyle and family history in the outcome of IHD. This suggests that the increased cardiovascular risk among the urban population of Ahmedabad city may be preventable through lifestyle interventions along with the judicious use of medicines to attain optimal levels of blood pressure, lipids and glucose among the high risk population. A total of 57 million deaths occurred in the world during 2008; 36 million (63%) were due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), principally cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. 1NCDs are the most frequent causes of death in most countries in the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific.2 The leading causes of NCD deaths in 2008 were CVD (17 million deaths, or 48% of NCD deaths) -over 80% of cardiovascular and diabetes deaths occurred in low-and middleincome countries.3 NCD deaths are projected to increase by 15% globally between 2010 and 2020 (to 44 million deaths). The greatest increases will be in the WHO regions of Africa, South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, where they will increase by over 20%. The regions that are projected to have the greatest total number of NCD deaths in 2020 are South-East Asia (10.4 million deaths) and the Western Pacific (12.3 million deaths). 4 Most NCDs are strongly associated and causally linked with four particular behaviors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and the harmful use of alcohol. 5These behaviors lead to four key metabolic/physiological changes: raised blood pressure, overweight/obesity, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. In terms of attributable

Background:Research has shown the growing importance of stress relaxation practices (SRPs) in many noncommunicable diseases. But there is little information on the prevalence of SRPs in Indian population.Objectives:To study the prevalence of different types of SRPs and their sociodemographic profile.Materials and Methods:A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in Ahmedabad city, Gujarat, India. One ward from each zone of the city was selected by stratified sampling. All individuals above 20 years were included in the study. Detailed information regarding different SRPs practiced by the participants was collected in a standard pretested proforma by house-to-house survey. Univariate regression analysis was applied to compare the groups.Results:Of 1157 persons surveyed, 904 were included in the final analysis. Of these, 310 (34.3%) were doing SRPs and 594 (65.7%) were not doing any type of SRPs. Respondents doing SRPs were compared with non-SRP group. Significant (P<0.05) differences were noticed between the two groups; in females, it was (SRP 58.4% vs non-SRP 49.8%) in the age group 40 to 59 years (44.2 vs 33.8%), those from sedentary occupation (93.9% vs 85.4%), the persons belonging to upper socioeconomic status (70.6% vs 61.8%), and living in central and western zones (66.5% vs 24.6%) and had less number of diabetes (SRP 10.8% vs non-SRP 19.7%) and hypertension (20.7% vs 34.2%). People doing SRPs were able to maintain balance between work and other activities than non-SRPs group (198/310, 63.9% vs 42/594, 7.1%). Among SRPs, majority (243, 78.4%) were involved in religious activities followed by yoga, 36(11.6%), and meditation, 15 (4.8%).Conclusion:Persons practicing SRPs in Ahmedabad are more likely to be above 40 years of age, females, college educated, in sedentary occupation, from upper and middle class, married and living in new-west and central zones, and were less likely to have diabetes and hypertension as compared with those who do not practice SRPs.

Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is an early stage of hypothyroidism and is usually detected in patients who had thyroid function testing performed due to symptoms of hypothyroidism. The elevated TSH level and decrease level of free T4 level is called subclinical hypothyroidism. This condition occurs in 3% to 8% of the general population affecting more women than men and its prevalence also increases with the age. The symptoms are difficult to diagnose and if these symptoms are noticed, it tend to be vague and general such as weight gain, fatigue, hair loss, constipation, goiter and memory problems with brain fog.A questionnaire was designed asking a set of questions which included the history of hypothyroidism, does the person suffer from any other lifestyle disorder etc. The questionnaire was filled by interviewing the patients who came for regular checkups.Out of the total 155 patients 32% of them suffered from SCH.The analysis of survey shows that females and elderly population were most affected by subclinical hypothyroidism.