World Heart Day is an international campaign that aims to spread awareness about heart disease and stroke prevention. It is the day where everyone is encouraged to quit smoking, start exercising and eat healthily. All this is to keep the heart in good working order and improve the health and wellbeing of people all over.
Learn more About World Heart Day
Heart Day is celebrated on the 29th of September every year. The goal is to draw attention and awareness towards heart illness and the range of associated health issues.
This celebration was initiated by World Heart Federation way back in 2000. Since then, leaders from around the globe have participated and committed to reducing worldwide fatality from non-communicable diseases by 25% by 2025.
World Heart Day promotes preventative steps and lifestyle changes to avoid cardiovascular diseases. These include heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and any other medical condition related to it. On average, about 17 million people die from heart-related diseases every year. This is more than the fatality rate from HIV, malaria, and cancer combined.
Background
The World Heart Federation has noticed the alarming cases of heart disease and stroke, making cardiovascular diseases the world’s leading cause of death. Coronary heart disease and stroke are the top causes of these deaths. Luckily, most factors of cardiovascular disease are modifiable.
Poor lifestyle choices increase your risk of heart disease. Overeating, lack of physical exercise, unhealthy eating habits, high blood pressure, and unstable cholesterol and glucose levels are all factors that can trigger heart disease. These can threaten our own lives, including those of our loved ones. World Heart Day was created to send the important message that most heart problems can be prevented.
On this day, we encourage everyone to make lifestyle changes by promoting relevant information on ways to be good to your heart. This topic has become increasingly important as recent reports of obesity and poor lifestyle choices among young people and adults have become more common.
For starters, here are some facts on heart diseases.
Facts About Heart Disease
-
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide
Cardiovascular diseases and other condition relating to the heart remains the leading cause of death for people globally. In fact, one person dies every 36 seconds from cardiovascular disease in the United States alone.
-
Early warning signs are critical.
About 47% of cardiac-related deaths take place in an out of hospital setting. It demonstrates that many people do not know or take early warning signs seriously enough. A heart attack or stroke may exhibit these symptoms – chest pain and discomfort, shortness of breath, nausea, or vomiting.
-
Common factors of heart disease
There are three risk factors for developing heart disease: smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol (LDL). Half of the population suffers from at least one of these risks.
-
Heart disease costs all of us.
By 2030, the expected total cost of cardiovascular diseases will reach a staggering US$1,044 billion. All these will include the cost of health care services, medication, loss of productivity at work, and death.
-
Heart disease is highly preventable.
As mentioned earlier, heart attack and stroke factors are modifiable. It means that 80% of developing risks are preventable. This can be done by avoiding tobacco use, regular exercise, maintaining a healthy diet, and regular checking of blood pressure, sugar, and lipids.
Get Involved
There are many ways you can be part of the celebration aside from attending the scheduled events. You can plan your own small event, post encouraging messages on social media, or you can learn first aid for heart diseases.
Keep your heart healthy and help others in an emergency. To find out how to support World Heart Day.
Make your heart promise and learn first aid today.