A heart for life - Maintain a healthy heart (Health Page)

Cardiovascular diseases or diseases relating to the heart and blood vessels, are the world’s largest killers, claiming 17.1 million lives a year. In Ghana, more than 60 per cent of adult deaths annually is due to cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
Risk factors for heart disease and stroke include raised blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, smoking, inadequate intake of fruit and vegetables, overweight, obesity and physical inactivity.
In partnership with World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Heart Federation (WHF), organises awareness events in more than 100 countries during each year’s World Heart Day. The events include health checks, organised walks, running and fitness sessions, public talks, stage shows, scientific forums, exhibitions, concerts, carnivals and sports tournaments.
The day is the WHF's most important advocacy event used to promote preventive measures to reduce cardiovascular diseases and stroke through the creation of public awareness of the risk factors of heart diseases and stroke.
The event began in 1999 out of the realisation that all World Heart Federation members could collectively help curb the global pandemic of cardiovascular diseases. Since that year, World Heart Day had been celebrated on the last Sunday of September every year. The annual slogan for the Day is "A Heart for Life", but each year the Day is dedicated to a special theme.
To commemorate this year’s event which falls on September 26 on the theme “I Work With Heart: Maintaining a Healthy Heart at the Work Place ”, organisers of the local event held a press conference in Accra on September 15 to launch a series of events. The programme is co-ordinated by the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the National Cadiothoracic Centre, the Ghana Heart Foundation, World Heart Foundation and its affiliate agencies in Ghana, the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), among other organisations.
The concern of these organisations is to help people achieve a longer and better life through prevention and control of risk factors relating to heart diseases and stroke in Ghana.
The main function of the heart, according to information made available at the event, is to pump blood throughout the body. The heart, together with the blood vessels, make up the circulatory system of the body which is responsible for distributing oxygen and nutrients to the body and carrying away carbon dioxide and other waste products.
It indicated that indeed, the heart is the circulatory system’s power supply and must, therefore, beat ceaselessly because the body’s tissues, especially the brain and the heart itself depended on a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients delivered by the flowing blood.
According to health experts, if the heart stopped pumping blood for more than a few minutes, death will occur.
It was also stated that the heart beats about 100,000 times in a day and about 35 million times in a year. For this reason, during an average lifespan, the human heart is said to beat more than 2.5 billion times.
With the human body containing about 5.6 litres of blood which circulates through the body three times every minute, the heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifespan, which is enough to fill more than three super tankers. This shows how important the heart is to ones survival.
In a statement at the press conference, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Joyce R. Aryee indicated that the heart’s duties were much more broader than simply pumping blood continuously throughout one’s life.
She explained that the heart must also respond to changes in the body’s demand for oxygen, adding that the heart and the rest of the circulatory system can respond almost instantaneously to shifting situations such as sleeping, standing, lying down or when a person was faced with a potentially dangerous situation.
“This indicates that our everyday actions and inaction relate to the heart, and thus at the same time pull an influence on its proper functioning”, she observed.
Dr Aryee touched on the actions of some individuals which ended up affecting the hearts of others or their own hearts negatively and stated that if we all knew about the functions of the heart and how it could be protected, the lives of the more than 17.2 million people lost globally to heart diseases and stroke annually would be saved.
For his part, a renowned Ghanaian Cardiologist, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng said there was the need for society to lead a healthy life to avoid contracting heart diseases.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng who is also the President of the Ghana Heart Foundation said one was sure to have a healthy heart if one increased his or her physical activities, ate healthy food, avoid habits such as smoking, excessive alcohol intake, burning of fire wood indoors, as well as burning of mosquito coils indoors without following instructions.
He also advised against excessive salt and sugar intake, use of aphrodisiac but urged people to consume food close to its raw state, adequate fruits and vegetables and visit the hospital regularly for checks.