In honor of American Heart Month, we’re highlighting Community Benefit partner South Asian Heart Center, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Learn how this nonprofit offers preventive screening, lifestyle counseling, education, and ongoing follow-up specifically for South Asians, a population at much greater risk of heart disease and diabetes.
American Heart Month encourages us to learn more about heart disease and how you can keep your heart healthy. While heart disease can affect people across all communities, the risk is not evenly distributed, and ethnicity can play an important role.
For example, research shows that people of South Asian descent, including those with roots in the Indian sub-continent, tend to experience heart disease at younger ages. South Asians also have a significantly higher risk of diabetes driven by a combination of genetic predisposition, lifestyle habits and environmental influences. Ashish Mathur, co-founder & executive director of the South Asian Heart Center, stated, “Diabetes and heart disease are twin epidemics that strike South Asians severely at a younger age, despite many being vegetarians, non-smoking and not overweight.”
In 2006, El Camino Health created the South Asian Heart Center in response to the urgent need for heart and diabetes care designed for those who trace their origins to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal or Sri Lanka. This year marks South Asian Heart Center’s 20th anniversary, celebrating two decades of advancing care for heart disease and diabetes prevention for the South Asian community. Today, South Asian community members can access evidence-based and culturally tailored screenings, education, expert guidance and lifelong prevention services.
As a Community Benefit partner, the South Asian Heart Center receives grant funding to support its AIM to Prevent™ program. Staff, including health educators and health coach coordinators, offer video consultations, online workshops and coaching sessions virtually and from the Mountain View campus. Examples of their services include:
- Dietary counseling and nutrition coaching
- Intermittent and Conscious Eating workshop
- Meditation, Exercise, Diet and Sleep (MEDS) workshops
- Seminars, health fairs and community huddles
- STOP-D diabetes prevention program
These dedicated, educational services promote prevention of heart disease and diabetes, addressing top health needs identified in El Camino Health’s fiscal year 2026 Implementation Strategy Report and Community Benefit Plan.
See the complete list of fiscal year 2026 grant partners.
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