The prevalence of heart disease in India has increased four-fold in the last four decades. Predicted to become the leading cause of death and disability by 2020, heart disease currently accounts for 29% of all deaths in the country. The worst part about the disease is that in India, people are succumbing to heart disease and stroke in the most productive years of their lives, almost a decade earlier compared to the West. Both the government and the business community are waking up to this threat.
Keeping in mind the need for increased awareness about heart disease, World Heart Day was founded in 2000 to educate people globally about the dangers of heart disease and stroke, which form the world’s leading causes of death, claiming 17.3 million lives each year. The last Sunday of September, recognised as the World Heart Day, calls for collaborative efforts to reach as many people as possible for increasing heart disease awareness.
The World Heart Federation organises events to increase awareness about the disease in more than 100 countries. These events including health checks, organised walks and runs, fitness sessions, public interaction, stage shows, scientific forums, exhibitions, concerts, carnivals and sports tournaments.
In order to achieve a healthy, powerful and prosperous India, government and non-government sectors, industries, policy makers, the media, city planners and economists, everyone needs to come together, and collaboratively put in efforts along with the health sector, to engineer India’s growth through health.
To highlight each and every aspect of heart disease, each year’s World Heart Day celebration have has a different theme that reflect important issues and topics related to heart health. This year’s theme is –Creating heart-healthy environments. It revolves around, taking a look at places around our work, home and play that increase our risk of heart disease. Today, people find it hard to make heart-healthy choices due to environmental factors, such as the availability of healthy food or smoke-free zones. This year, we’ll recognise those issues and focus on transforming our environment into a heart-healthy one.
Here are our specials on World Heart Day
Things at work bad for your heart
Working in shifts: If you think accepting a job that requires you to work in shifts is a good decision to save time, you’re wrong. Shift work could instead reduce your lifespan by increasing your risk of suffering from lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes and sleep disorders that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Rotating shift employees like doctors, nurses and those working in BPOs not only report higher job stress but also show clinical signs of progression towards heart disease. A study by Wong IS and colleagues[1]showed that people who worked in shifts had increased levels of biomarkers usually found in those suffering from heart disease. They exhibit high levels of daily cortisol and a reduced function of endothelial cells lining the blood vessels.
Having a desk job: A typical 9am to 6pm job, involving hours in front of the computer screen apart from a few hours in the conference room and the rest of the time answering calls, is a perfect set up for heart disease. Desk jobs make people lethargic and ruin dietary habits in numerous ways.Nature of work: It’s not only corporate employees who should be worried about their heart health. The more stressful your job is, the greater is your risk of suffering from health problems. According to findings from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those working in the wholesale trade were identified with a greater risk of heart disease, while people working in finance and insurance sector had the lowest rate of heart disease.
Expert tips to reduce stress and keep your heart healthy
Dr Vineet Sankhala, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Care Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) and Hospital, Ahmedabad offers a few tips to reduce the risk of heart disease through a stress-free life.
Decide to change your lifestyle: Somewhere down the line, we all know we need to change our lifestyle but we don’t act upon that thought. Think about what changes you need to make and target them one by one. Changing your lifestyle in a positive way can help you cope up with the expectations of people around you.
Eat a balanced diet: Good nutrition is a powerful weapon to deal with stress. Your nutrition requirement shoot up when you’re under stressful situation. Your body needs extra B vitamins, vitamin C and zinc for building resistance against infections. Eat a balanced diet, with adequate amount of complex carbohydrates that keep you energised for a long time and prevent mindless eating along with proteins and healthy fats. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables to meet your nutritional requirement. (Read:
Women and heart attacks
Crushing pain in the chest and shortness of breath are the typical tell-tale signs of a heart attack. But the symptoms are what usually men experience. Women are at a higher risk for mortality from heart attack than men because they do not recognise the signs of a heart attack and therefore neglect it.
Both men and women may have classic heart attack symptoms such as chest pain and pressure radiating to the arms, shoulders, and neck, and shortness of breath. Stress and exertion make the symptoms worse.
With inputs from Desidieter.com
You may also like to read:
- World Heart Day 2014: 10 things that may increase your risk of heart attack
- Which of these 6 risk-factors of heart disease do you have?
- 6 heart-healthy diet tips for people with heart disease
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