Medicine Cabinet
Reiner W. Gloor
FEBRUARY has always traditionally been celebrated as “Heart Month” by the Department of Health in the Philippines but is also observed in other countries. It’s almost Valentine’s too and there will be the prerequisite heart-themed songs and decor heard and seen everywhere.
So reminding everyone to take care of this very important organ is timely and really bears repeating. Heart disease awareness and the adoption of a heart-healthy lifestyle may just save you from cardiovascular disease (CVD).
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 17.5 million people died of CVDs such as heart attack or stroke in 2012 or 31% of total death. Three out of four of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries like ours. They add that non-communicable diseases contribute to 67% of total deaths in the Philippines, with 33% of those from CVDs.
CVDs among Filipinos is one of the leading cause of death, most of these due to hypertension. Awareness and prevention are still key in paving the way to better health.
There is some good news, however. Eighty percent of premature heart attacks and strokes are actually preventable. The WHO launched the “25by25” program some years back, which sought to reduce premature CVD mortality by 25% by 2025. This campaign aimed to encourage prevention and make people aware of life-saving measures to control risk factors such as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol and glucose levels, tobacco use, unhealthy diet, overweight, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and harmful use of alcohol in both adults and children.
It would be good to check and control risk factors for heart disease and stroke such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar or diabetes as diabetes is one of the major underlying causes for cardiovascular disease, cardiologists tell me. They say diabetes has almost reach endemic levels. Here are some practical tips to help you on your road to a healthy heart.
Eat a healthy diet — one that is balanced that has plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, fish and pulses with restricted salt, sugar, and fat intake. Alcohol use should also be moderated. Avoidance of highly salty and processed food such as ham, sausage, innards, and canned products for vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, fish, and legumes are better. Adding high fiber foods to one’s daily diet would be good, too.
Exercise regularly. Thirty minutes of simple walking per day helps to maintain cardiovascular fitness. Medical experts say that walking 30 minutes a day can make a world of difference. Those who do not exercise are twice as likely to develop heart disease than those who move regularly. Apart from burning calories and lowering blood pressure, exercise can also reduce bad cholesterol while boosting good cholesterol.
Stop smoking. Tobacco in any form is very harmful to health — cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or chewable tobacco. Exposure to secondhand smoke has been proven to be dangerous to everybody. The good news is the risk of heart attack and stroke starts to drop immediately after a person stops using tobacco products, and it can even drop further by as much as half after just one year.
We must also check and control our overall CVD risk. An important part of heart attack and stroke prevention is seeking an estimate of one’s CVD risk using simple risk charts and being given appropriate advice for how to manage risk factors. This involves knowing your blood pressure, your blood lipids, and also your blood sugar.
Many people do not know that they have hypertension, high blood pressure because it comes without warning sings and symptoms. Knowing one’s blood pressure is the most important among the many steps in preventing and controlling. Know your numbers and apply changes in lifestyle, where appropriate. Adopt a healthy diet with less salt intake and exercise more. You may also need medications to control blood pressure.
Raised blood cholesterol and abnormal blood lipids are also a good indicator of an increased risk for CVDs. These may also need medications and changes in diet and lifestyle.
Increased blood glucose may also be an indicator of diabetes which increases the risk for heart attacks and strokes. If you have diabetes, this also needs to be managed well so that risk of CVDs may be minimized.
Log on to www.phap.org.ph and www.phapcares.org.ph. E-mail the author at reiner.gloor@gmail.com.
