By: Dr. Shazia Israr, Associate Editor-ICN
The 2018 theme ‘My Heart, Your Heart’ is set at asking people all over the globe to make a promise – ‘a promise as an individual to make healthier choices and lifestyle decisions, a promise to cook and eat more healthy, a promise to do more exercises and encourage your children to be more active, a promise to say no to smoking and help your loved ones quit, a promise as an healthcare professional to save more lives, and most of all, a simple promise for your heart, for my heart and for all our hearts’.
World Heart Day is a campaign established to spread awareness about the health of heart among common people all through the world. This initiative was founded in the year 2000 to inform people to take care of their heart. It is celebrated annually all over the world on 29th of September.
A huge percentage of common public in the society is suffering from the heart diseases like stroke, heart attack, heart failure, etc. Heart problems are the leading causes of death in the world.According to the WHO, cardiovascular diseases are the reason of around 30% deaths of all global deaths.
Some of the most dangerous risk factors leading to the heart disease and stroke are high blood pressure, high level of bad cholesterol, increased glucose level, smoking habit, inadequate intake of diet, fruit and vegetables, increased weight, and obesity.
According to the World Heart Federation, at least 80% of the premature deaths (because of cardiovascular diseases) can be protected by controlling four main risk factors such as unhealthy diet, tobacco use, lack of physical activity and use of alcohol.
Your heart beats about 100,000 times every day, pumping about 2,000 gallons of blood. Your heart pumps blood that can flow through the 60,000 miles which is almost 10000 km of blood vessels.
There are many ways people can be involved in the celebration such as planning their own ways, sharing healthy heart selfies on Twitter, Facebook pages and other social media sites to boost the campaign, keep an eye on the website of world heart federation regularly for current updates and information.
The World Heart Federation (WHF) was originally formed in 1978 and is now recognized by the World Health Organization as its leading NGO partner in CVD prevention. The WHF’s main aim is to reduce premature deaths from CVD by at least 25% by 2025.
Heart disease is very susceptible to lifestyle modifications, and simple interventions like monitoring and controlling high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels; managing diabetes appropriately; encouraging good nutrition, and modest exercise; and stopping smoking have been shown to reduce heart disease significantly.
