Even on World Heart Day, Ebola Virus Disease managed to share the spotlight with heart diseases. Yes the Ebola menace is an international emergency but so is heart disease. Deaths from Ebola, HIV, Malaria and Cholera can still not match the rampage and carnage caused by Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs). Simply put CVDs are diseases of the heart and blood vessels and include life-changing conditions such as strokes and heart attacks.
Currently CVDs kill as many as 17.3 million people worldwide each year and it is projected that this figure will rise to about 23 million by 2030. That is definitely frightening!! World Heart Day was celebrated on 29th September as has been the norm over the past 14 years and the theme for this year is “Creating Heart- Healthy Environments; wherever you live, work and play.”
This year’s theme definitely grabs our attention; we may have been promoting heart-health when some people just don’t have the right “environment” to take part. People work in offices where their superiors smoke in the hallway, others have nowhere to even walk and many others count themselves lucky to have something to fill their stomachs; it doesn’t matter whether it is heart-healthy or not. How can we help such people to make HEART CHOICES AND NOT HARD CHOICES? A choice of a work environment where smoking is banned, at least one meal a day at school or work that is heart-healthy and a safe place to engage in physical activity.
Based on this theme I will list main five (5) risk factors for CVD. The 4 traditional ones and the 5th that deals with the appropriate environment.
1. Tobacco Use
2. Unhealthy Diet
3. Physical Inactivity
4. Harmful use of Alcohol
5. Absence of a Heart-Healthy Environment
The 5 points above just like the Ten Commandments that God handed over to Moses are no multiple choice questions where you may choose one or two or even three. To ensure heart health and to reduce our risk of dying before our appointed time, we need to practice them all. Fortunately we do not have to wait for the start of a new year to resolve to get it right. We can start now and gradually build it up. Remember “one healthy choice is always followed by another.”
For years we have blamed lifestyles but what about the environment? A heart-healthy environment is a space where people have the opportunity to make the right choices for their health. Not everyone has the choice of such an environment. Many people are faced with the naked reality:
• Unhealthy school and workplace meals
• Overwhelming advertising of tobacco, alcohol and fast foods
• Exposure to second-hand smoke in cars, workplaces and many public areas
• Absence of space to play or exercise.
Everyone should be able to make heart choices not hard choices wherever they live, work or play.
WHAT CAN WE DO NOW?
HOME
• Totally avoid smoking at home
• Be more active by limiting watching TV and engaging in more outdoor activity
• Do the relevant tests to assess your risk factors for CVD and work with a health professional to chart your way forward.
• Increase fruits and vegetables in our meals while reducing sugar, fat and oil which are often “hidden” in pre-packaged meals even when we do not add them to our food.
COMMUNITIES
• Increasing physical activity in schools, workplaces and other social centres. We need to reclaim our parks
• Healthy food should be affordable and easily accessible instead of the reverse.
Our policy makers cannot be left off the hook; advertising of fast-foods, tobacco and alcohol should be regulated and laws enforced. It is also important to make detection of CVD easy and its management affordable. We need to have policies to screen people for the risk factors.
Next time you are at work do remember to demand for a smoking ban in your workplace, ask for healthy food at your work canteen and children’s’ school and use the stairs often or spend part of your lunch break to go for a walk. For those whose jobs do not allow for lunch break, kindly make sure you squeeze in your walk before or after your meal.
It is time we appreciate the fact that CVD is an ongoing disaster. It may not be as aggressive as Ebola Virus Disease but it is causing a lot more harm. It knows no age limits: it will take the young and productive as well as the old retired one. None of us can afford to be a statistic; let us work aggressively on the 4 traditional major risk factors while we take steps from today to make our environment as heart-healthy as possible.

AS ALWAYS LAUGH OFTEN, WALK AND PRAY EVERYDAY AND REMEMBER IT’S A PRICELESS GIFT TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS (blood sugar, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, BMI)

Dr. Kojo Cobba Essel
Moms’ Health Club
(dressel@healthclubsgh.com)


*Dr Essel is a medical doctor, holds an MBA and is ISSA certified in exercise therapy and fitness nutrition.
Thought for the week – “when you know your blood pressure, blood sugar, blood cholesterol and BMI, then you essentially have a fair assessment of your risk of a cardiovascular disease.”

References:
1. World Heart Federation