Why “Fit” 35-Year-Olds Are Having Heart Attacks 

Most people use the words fit and healthy interchangeably.

But I think that is wrong.

Fitness is a performance metric.

It measures what your body can do and how it looks:

• Strength
• Endurance
• Body composition
• Lower body fat percentage
• Visible muscle
• Strength targets
• Cardiovascular capacity
• VO₂ max

These are external outputs. They are visible and measurable in a gym or through physical performance.

Health is different.

Health is a biological state. It measures what your body is doing internally:

• At the cellular level
• At the hormonal level
• At the inflammatory level
• At the organ level

And most of this is completely invisible from the outside.

On this channel, I want to make health visible for you.

As of today, health is an abstract concept for most people. If I ask you to define health, you may struggle to give me a specific answer.

But it is possible.

Remember: only when you define something clearly and specifically can you understand it. And once you understand something, you can improve and optimize it.

Fitness, on the other hand, is relatively easy to define and measure.

A fit person usually has a lean body composition, lower body fat, visible muscle, specific strength targets, and good cardiovascular capacity such as a strong VO₂ max.

Fit people can perform.

They can lift weights in the gym. They can run a marathon. They can meet specific physical performance goals.

Fitness is about specific outputs and aesthetics.

But let’s try to define health.

What Does It Mean to Be Healthy?

A healthy person feels good all the time.

Not just in the gym.

All the time.

They wake up without needing three cups of coffee. They have consistent energy throughout the day without the afternoon crash.

Their skin has a certain quality to it. Their eyes are clear. Their mood is stable.

They recover quickly:

• From illness
• From stress
• From physical effort

A healthy person has a certain glow that a fit person often does not.

That glow is not produced in a gym.

It is produced when your biology is working the way it was designed to.

When:

• Your cortisol rhythm is healthy
• Your sleep is genuinely restorative
• Your inflammation markers are low
• Your hormones are balanced
• Your gut is absorbing what you eat

And know this: through a series of blood tests and other measurements, it is possible to define health much more clearly.

For example, you can look at:

• Morning cortisol levels
• Inflammation markers such as hs-CRP
• Hormones such as testosterone and estrogen
• Fasting insulin
• And other important biomarkers

That’s why I strongly recommend getting a full blood panel at least once a year after you turn 35.

Fit people can sometimes be in denial mode.

• They get compliments.
• Their ego inflates.
• They convince themselves they are healthy too.

But maybe they are not.

A comprehensive blood panel can tell a much bigger story the one that gets missed when you skip getting checked.

Many health problems can develop with little or no obvious symptoms in the early stages.

Things can be happening inside silently.

You dismiss the early signals:

• Brain fog
• Afternoon fatigue
• Headaches
• Sleep that does not restore you
• You call it stress.
• You call it age.
• You call it a busy season.

But these signals deserve attention rather than automatic dismissal.

You do not necessarily experience a heart attack out of nowhere. Risk factors such as elevated blood pressure and changes in the arteries can develop gradually over years, often without obvious symptoms.

Rahul trained six days a week.

Yet he still had a heart attack.

In the story, we don’t know exactly what caused his heart attack. But the larger lesson is important: looking fit does not automatically tell you what is happening inside your body.

The body is extraordinarily patient.

• It compensates.
• It adapts.
• It absorbs the damage for a long time before it stops compensating.

By the time an obvious symptom arrives, a lot may already have happened internally.

So here is what I want you to consider:

Stop chasing fitness. Start building health.

You are NOT a bodybuilder.

You are NOT a professional athlete whose income depends on how you perform.

If you are great. Chase performance.

But if you are like me, like more than 95% of the people watching this, a regular person in their thirties, forties, or fifties, your goal should be optimal health. Not fitness.

And let me say this with full confidence.

With more than 20 years of experience in this industry, after having trained and counselled thousands of individuals, and after having a following of 2 lacs+ students who have enrolled in my courses, I believe achieving genuine health is actually simpler than achieving fitness.

It does not require:

• Six days a week in the gym
• Six percent body fat
• 150 grams of protein tracked to the gram

But make note.

It requires something far more fundamental.

1. Get Enough Sleep

Not five hours.

At least 7 hours of good-quality sleep.

This is not optional.

Sleep is the foundation. Without it, nothing else works.

2. Prioritize Genuine Recovery

It requires rest.

Genuine recovery.

Your nervous system needs to downregulate and shift into a parasympathetic state throughout the day.

If you have been following this channel, you already know how central your nervous system and gut health are to everything downstream.

3. Know Your Biomarkers

You need to know what is happening inside your body.

Not just the standard panel your doctor runs.

Know the markers that actually help you understand your internal health, including:

• Fasting insulin
• Cortisol rhythm
• Free testosterone
• Inflammation markers

The goal is not to obsess over individual numbers.

The goal is to understand the bigger picture.

4. Know Your Organ Health

Get your liver and kidney function tested.

These organs are doing silent work every single day, and most people have no idea how they are performing until something goes wrong.

Rahul did not need more training.

He needed more rest.

Genuine recovery.

He needed to know what was happening inside his body instead of measuring only his waist and bicep size.

Health is your foundation.

Most people who are fit do not necessarily have that foundation.

And that is where the real problem begins.

Do not make that mistake.

Health is easy. Being fit is hard. Choose easy.

You will not only live longer, you can feel better every single day.

I am Akash. Namaste.

1. Is being fit the same as being healthy?

No. Fitness mainly reflects physical performance, strength, endurance, body composition, and cardiovascular capacity. Health also involves internal factors such as hormones, inflammation, sleep, nervous-system function, gut health, and organ health.

2. Can you be fit but unhealthy?

Yes. Someone can have visible abs, strong muscles, and excellent gym performance while still having poor sleep, chronic stress, elevated blood pressure, or other underlying health concerns.

3. How many hours of sleep do you need for good health?

The article recommends at least 7 hours of good-quality sleep and emphasizes that sleep is a foundation of overall health and recovery.

4. What blood tests can help assess overall health?

Depending on your individual situation, useful biomarkers may include fasting insulin, cortisol rhythm, free testosterone, hs-CRP and other inflammation markers, along with appropriate liver and kidney function tests.

5. Should you get a full blood panel after age 35?

The article recommends considering a full blood panel at least once a year after age 35 to help monitor what is happening internally, rather than relying only on how you look or perform physically.

6. Can you look healthy while having underlying health problems?

Yes. Many health problems can develop gradually with few obvious symptoms. That is why external appearance and fitness performance alone cannot provide a complete picture of health.

7. Do you need to train six days a week to be healthy?

No. The article’s message is that genuine health does not require six days a week in the gym, 6% body fat, or tracking 150 grams of protein to the gram. Sleep, recovery, biomarkers, and overall health foundations also matter.

8. What is the difference between fitness and optimal health?

Fitness is about performance and physical outputs. Health is about how well your body is functioning internally and how you feel day to day. The goal for most people should be to build health first, rather than chase fitness alone.