October 17, 2025 : Even with a healthy lifestyle, heart issues can occur. Regular exercise isn’t enough if you want to live a long and healthy life; incorporating movement throughout the day is crucial. Home-cooked meals are also essential, and considering factors like stress management, sleep, and nutrition are equally vital for overall well-being.
In an October 15 piece he wrote for The Times of India, Bengaluru, Karthik Srinivasan, a communications professional, highlighted these as he shared his fitness journey and the lessons he learned after undergoing angioplasty and getting two stents. Despite running 5 km every day, sleeping on time, avoiding unhealthy food and following a healthy lifestyle, Karthik experienced chest discomfort, which led to the discovery of two blockages in his arteries.
Even with healthy lifestyle, unexpected health issues can arise
Karthik’s story highlights that even with a healthy lifestyle, underlying heart issues can arise, and it’s essential to be proactive about our health. He narrated his health journey from 2011 to 2015, sharing he went from ‘discomfort in the chest, angiogram, no blocks and all clear’ to ‘discomfort in the chest while running at a higher speed, angiogram, two blocks, angioplasty and two stents’.
Karthik wrote that he was puzzled after the angioplasty: “’Why me?’ I have been running 5 km regularly (almost 290-300 days every year). I sleep predictably early and on time. I am generally careful about what I consume. I do not smoke. As far as I know, I have no family history of heart conditions. I have experienced limited stress on a day-to-day basis since 2018, when I started working from home, on my own, as an independent communications professional.”
Expressing his gratitude for not having a heart attack and his daily running habit ‘leading to the need for an angiogram without any emergency’, Karthik shared how his routine has changed after his ‘second chance at life’. He said, “I have started doing everything better. I have started running gradually again, daily. I have become even more conscious about what I consume. This includes drastically cutting down on food from outside. I now firmly believe that food from outside is not a luxury. Home-cooked food is the real luxury. I do eat out and order food from outside, but that is on specific ‘cheat days’ only. Not on a whim. I have also completely eliminated ultra-processed (most packaged) foods from my diet.”
Summary :
Despite running daily, avoiding smoking, and having no family history, a Bengaluru man needed two stents, highlighting hidden heart disease risks even among seemingly healthy individuals.