It’s never too early to take care of your heart
MORE THAN 17 million people around the world die of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease or a stroke each year, yet there are still a lot of misconceptions surrounding these conditions: many still believe they only affect the elderly and the rich.
Saturday was World Heart Day and heart specialists and campaigners have called for more awareness around the diseases, which results in needless premature deaths.
In Tygerberg Hospital, about 400 heart operations are performed a year.
According to Professor Gawie Rossouw, head of cardiothoracic surgery at that hospital, more than 250 of these operations involved coronary heart bypass procedures, while the rest were heart replacements that were mainly damaged by childhood rheumatic heart disease.
Despite the increase of coronary artery diseases – caused by bad lifestyle choices such as smoking, bad diet and lack of exercise – a recent survey about when it’s the right time to take care of your heart revealed shocking misconceptions.
The survey, which sampled more than 4 000 adults in Brazil, India, the UK and the US, showed that the majority of people believed they only needed to take care of their heart after 30 years.
When asked what age they believed one should start taking action about their heart health to prevent cardiovascular diseases, women believed that 32 years was an appropriate age while men believed age 37 was a suitable to start taking care of their hearts.
Only 26 percent of those who participated in the survey believed young people under the age of 20 needed to take action, and all these were mothers.
Dr Vash Mungal-Singh, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation, called for people to take care of their hearts much earlier in life.
“The results of this survey reflect the reality in South Africa, too,” MungalSingh said.
“We simply don’t take action early enough in life, and believe that we can undo all our wrongs when we are older. But in fact there is no deadline for when to start living healthily. Heart health starts even before birth.”
Mungal-Singh said small changes in eating habits such as avoiding sugary foods, refined carbohydrates, consuming foods low in salt and good fats, went a long way in preventing obesity later in life.
“Being active for only 30 minutes a day is massively beneficial, as is cutting tobacco use altogether and moderating alcohol use,” she said.