Recently, Recently, Nigeria and the global community observed the 2015 World Heart Day (WHD). The theme for this year’s celebration is “Healthy Heart Choices for Everyone”. The WHD is part of an international campaign to spread awareness about heart care as an imperative for the prevention of other related diseases like hypertension and stroke. According to the World Heart Federation (WHF), heart diseases and stroke are the world’s leading causes of death, snuffing lives out of over 17.3 million people yearly. These fatalities are more than victims of cancer, HIV/AIDS and malaria.
The developing world accounts for about 80 per cent of the fatalities.
The WHF’s mandate is to prevent and control cardiovascular ailment through awareness campaigns and action, physical activity at individual, community and policy maker levels. Understandably, the level of awareness is very low, despite the annual ritual that commenced about a decade and half ago. Many people living in the rural areas know little or nothing about their cardiovascular health.
Heart attacks have caused many sudden deaths among supposedly healthy looking people in both urban and rural communities. This is because in some cases, heart failures come without any signs of illness. When such deaths occur, they are attributed to attacks by witches in the village or the enemy next door.
It is also public knowledge that among the urban dwellers and even the enlightened ones, little or no attention is paid to medical examination like subjecting themselves to regular blood pressure checks. The culture of self-medication, though driven by prevailing poverty and hardships, is not helping matters. Even when symptoms like severe headaches manifest, sufferers usually reach for pain killers, while the causes are not investigated until the damage is done.
Many factors are responsible for heart ailments.
These include over-eating, unhealthy diets, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high glucose level and lack of exercise. High salt intake and cigarette smoking also contribute to the phenomenon. Available statistics show that high consumption of salt accounts for approximately 2.5m people dying annually from cardiovascular diseases.
Consumption of tobacco is another major cause of heart diseases.
While government at all levels has been making attempts at discouraging cigarette smoking especially in public places, manufacturers of the product have devised ways and means of keeping their stranglehold on smokers through aggressive marketing
and attractive packaging of the product. Statistics also show that between five and six million people die of tobacco-related diseases yearly, taking along a huge number of secondary smokers, i.e. those who hang around smokers.
In a similar vein, about 2.5 million lives are lost annually to alcohol consumption. Inhalation of cigarette smoke and excessive alcohol content in the system all rub off the heart with fatal consequences.
The WHD has been consistent in the campaign to get the world to improve its cardiac health by encouraging people to make lifestyle changes and promoting education about the ways to be good to their hearts. This awareness is becoming increasingly relevant as reports of obesity, poor diet and physical inactivity among children and young people become more and more prevalent and are inimical to the heart. The phenomenon of hypertension hitherto common among the older people is now found with the younger ones.
This trend is abnormal and should be reversed to save the future generations from unhealthy prospects.
We recognise the deliberate efforts by some government establishments and private organisations at encouraging their employees and individuals to engage in monthly road walk. Also worthy of commendation are the free medical services rendered occasionally by some Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), some of which examine the cardiac health of beneficiaries.
It is obvious that many Nigerians are walking corpses. The ordinary ones among them have gradually lost the sense of keeping fit by eating good food and doing exercises, as they toil daily just to survive. While acknowledging the health benefits of regular exercises, it is, however, advisable that individuals should be sure of the state of their hearts before hitting the road. There have been instances where people collapsed and died in an effort to keep fit.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Healthy Heart Choices for Everyone”. The WHD is part of an international campaign to spread awareness about heart care as an imperative for the prevention of other related diseases like hypertension and stroke. According to the World Heart Federation (WHF), heart diseases and stroke are the world’s leading causes of death, snuffing lives out of over 17.3 million people yearly. These fatalities are more than victims of cancer, HIV/AIDS and malaria. The developing world accounts for about 80 per cent of the fatalities.
The WHF’s mandate is to prevent and control cardiovascular ailment through awareness campaigns and action, physical activity at individual, community and policy maker levels. Understandably, the level of awareness is very low, despite the annual ritual that commenced about a decade and half ago. Many people living in the rural areas know little or nothing about their cardiovascular health. Heart attacks have caused many sudden deaths among supposedly healthy looking people in both urban and rural communities.
This is because in some cases, heart failures come without any signs of illness. When such deaths occur, they are attributed to attacks by witches in the village or the enemy next door.
It is also public knowledge that among the urban dwellers and even the enlightened ones, little or no attention is paid to medical examination like subjecting themselves to regular blood pressure checks. The culture of self-medication, though driven by prevailing poverty and hardships, is not helping matters. Even when symptoms like severe headaches manifest, sufferers usually reach for pain killers, while the causes are not investigated until the damage is done.
Many factors are responsible for heart ailments.
These include over-eating, unhealthy diets, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high glucose level and lack of exercise. High salt intake and cigarette smoking also contribute to the phenomenon. Available statistics show that high consumption of salt accounts for approximately 2.5m people dying annually from cardiovascular diseases.
Consumption of tobacco is another major cause of heart diseases.
While government at all levels has been making attempts at discouraging cigarette smoking especially in public places, manufacturers of the product have devised ways and means of keeping their stranglehold on smokers through aggressive marketing and attractive packaging of the product. Statistics also show that between five and six million people die of tobacco-related diseases yearly, taking along a huge number of secondary smokers, i.e. those who hang around smokers. In a similar vein, about 2.5 million lives are lost annually to alcohol consumption. Inhalation of cigarette smoke and excessive alcohol content in the system all rub off the heart with fatal consequences.
The WHD has been consistent in the campaign to get the world to improve its cardiac health by encouraging people to make lifestyle changes and promoting education about the ways to be good to their hearts. This awareness is becoming increasingly relevant as reports of obesity, poor diet and physical inactivity among children and young people become more and more prevalent and are inimical to the heart. The phenomenon of hypertension hitherto common among the older people is now found with the younger ones. This trend is abnormal and should be reversed to save the future generations from unhealthy prospects.
We recognise the deliberate efforts by some government establishments and private organisations at encouraging their employees and individuals to engage in monthly road walk. Also worthy of commendation are the free medical services rendered occasionally by some Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), some of which examine the cardiac health of beneficiaries.
It is obvious that many Nigerians are walking corpses. The ordinary ones among them have gradually lost the sense of keeping fit by eating good food and doing exercises, as they toil daily just to survive. While acknowledging the health benefits of regular exercises, it is, however, advisable that individuals should be sure of the state of their hearts before hitting the road. There have been instances where people collapsed and died in an effort to keep fit.
