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Cardiovascular diseases are the world’s largest killers

25/Sep/2006: More than 17 million people die from stroke and heart diseases every year, making them the largest killers in the world, according to World Health Organization.

Eating healthy food, exercising regularly, saying no to cigarettes and alcohol are the only ways to escape from heart diseases/stroke and to stay healthy. Changing lifestyles are putting more and more people at risk to heart diseases and stroke, with the number of people dying from these diseases going up every year.

Janet Voute, head of World Heart Foundation, said that the situation in much worse in developing and poor countries, with nearly 80% of the deaths resulting from heart diseases and stroke, occurring in these countries. Poor healthcare facilities in developing and poor countries are not helping cause either. Voute opines that the global health agenda should include cardiovascular diseases and its risk factors like diabetes, hypertension and high blood cholesterol levels, to address this health crisis in middle and low income countries. She added that cardiovascular diseases are no more a problem only in developed countries, with recent studies proving that the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases is much higher in the developing world, when compared to rich nations.

Physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and use of tobacco are the main causes for cardiovascular diseases and controlling these risk factors can reduce the occurrence of heart diseases and stroke by over 80%, according to the World Heart Foundation. With countries like in India and China suffering from a host of problems like, obesity, malnourishment, diabetes, overweight, sedentary life style, high stress levels etc., it is essential to spread awareness on cardiovascular diseases and their effects in this region to control the occurrence of these diseases in future.

Even though most of the deaths from heart diseases and stroke occur in poor nations, the World Heart Foundation feels that this problem is still acute in the developed world, with the rising rate of obesity in children in developed nations leading to diabetes and heart diseases at an early age itself. This trend would negate the benefits of good health care available in these countries, which prevented deaths from heart disease and stroke to a large extent, till now.

Kesavan Siva

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