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World Heart Day on 29 September is the world’s biggest platform for raising awareness about cardiovascular disease (CVD). World Heart Day is the World Heart Federation’s biggest global awareness raising platform for cardiovascular disease. Since it was launched in 2009, it has grown rapidly and now enjoys huge global participation and support.
On World Heart Day 2016, the World Heart Federation and its partners are calling on governments around the world to strengthen monitoring and surveillance of cardiovascular health.
The World Heart Federation Global Policy Call
The World Heart Federation calls on all governments to implement reliable and fit for purpose surveillance and monitoring systems for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in order to better prevent, treat and control the world’s biggest killer.
The World Heart Federation is emphasizing the need to ensure that every country has information on the World Health Organization Global Action Plan (GAP) Targets and a set of measures or indicators on quality of care appropriate to a range of contexts including the primary healthcare level.
This call is tied to the strengthening of health systems, in particular monitoring and surveillance, by providing complementary recommendations to governments drawn from the World Health Organization NCD Global Action Plan 2013-2020 and the Health Data Collaborative, supported by the World Bank, USAID and WHO.
In establishing systems for monitoring the burden and treatment of CVD governments should prioritize the following actions:
- Strengthen vital and cause of death registration systems (to better record statistics on births and causes of death)
- Include details of CVD key interventions (for example services provided, numbers of people being treated) in existing health information systems
- Collect information on a representative sub sample of the population on the prevalence and quality of care of patients with hypertension and CVD; and undertake periodic data collection on the behavioural and metabolic risk factors (harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, tobacco use, unhealthy diet, overweight and obesity, raised blood pressure, raised blood glucose, and hyperlipidemia), and determinants of risk exposure such as marketing of food, tobacco and alcohol in a sub sample of the population. [READ MORE: www.worldheartfederation.org]
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| Kantipur (29 Sep 2016) |
Prevention of Heart Diseases:
In many cases, Heart Diseases are preventable with lifestyle factors, such as:
- Maintaining a low-fat and low-sodium diet
- Adopting a good exercise regimen
- Maintenance of a normal body weight
- Smoking cessation
- Stress management.
- In addition, early treatment of patients with prehypertension or hypertension reduces the risk of cardiovascular complications.
Key Points to be done;
· Don’t smoke
· Manage your blood sugar
· Get your blood pressure under control
· Lower your cholesterol
· Know your family history
· Stay active
· Lose weight
· Eat healthy
High blood pressure may be prevented by living a healthy lifestyle, including some of the following:
- Eating a nutritious, low-fat diet;
- Exercising regularly;
- Decreasing salt (sodium) intake, read food labels so you know the salt content before you buy a product in the grocery store or eating a meal at a fast food restaurant, and avoid adding salt to foods;
- Maintain a healthy weight and if you are overweight or obese, try to lose weight;
- Drink alcohol in moderation;
- Stop smoking;
- Get routine health assessments and blood pressure screening;
- Taking your blood pressure medications as directed, even if you’re feeling fine; and
- Reduce stress and practice relaxation techniques, physical activity will help to prevent.
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/high_blood_pressure/page12_em.htm#high_blood_pressure_prevention
