World Heart Day is an annual awareness-raising event dedicated to promoting heart health and fighting cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The World Heart Federation organizes the annual celebration. To date, World Heart Day remains the biggest awareness-raising platform that exists worldwide for CVD.
According to the World Heart Federation, world leaders convened in May 2012 and committed to reducing global mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by 2025. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is accountable for nearly half of all NCD deaths making it the world’s number one killer. World Heart Day is, therefore, the perfect platform for the CVD community to unite in the fight against CVD and reduce the global disease burden.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world’s number one killer, causing over 18.6 million deaths yearly.
CVD affects the heart or blood vessels (veins and arteries). More people die from CVD worldwide than from any other cause: over 18.6 million every year. Of these deaths, 85% are due to coronary heart diseases (e.g, heart attacks) and cerebrovascular diseases (e.g., strokes) and primarily affect low- and middle-income countries.
Did you know that your heart is the size of your fist and the strongest muscle in your body? It started beating about three weeks after you were conceived. If you live to be 70, it will have beaten two and a half billion times. However, although impressive and strong, your heart can also become vulnerable to habitual risk factors like smoking, diabetes, cholesterol, eating an unhealthy diet, or living with high blood pressure.
The system can also be weakened by a pre-existing heart condition and other physiological factors, including hypertension or high blood cholesterol. When your heart’s functions become compromised, this is known as cardiovascular disease, a broad term covering any disorder to the system with the heart at its center.
There are many risk factors associated with coronary heart disease and stroke. Some risk factors, like family history, cannot be modified, while other risk factors, like high blood pressure, can be modified with treatment.
You will not necessarily develop cardiovascular disease if you have a risk factor. However, the more risk factors you have, the greater the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease unless you take action and work to prevent your risk factors from compromising your heart health.
By increasing awareness of uncommon and neglected conditions, we can help to ensure better diagnosis rates and heart health equity – because every heartbeat matters.
While each disease is rare, rare cardiovascular diseases are collectively common, affecting approximately 5% of the world’s population. There are more than 6,000 known rare diseases, some of which affect the heart and circulatory system.
80% of rare diseases are genetic in origin and often present at an early age. Patients with rare diseases also suffer from delays in diagnosis due to a lack of medical knowledge and poor awareness of these conditions, which contributes to a considerable social and financial burden for affected individuals and their families and caregivers.
One of these is called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy or ATTR-CM, a form of cardiac amyloidosis. ATTR-CM is a rare, underdiagnosed, and fatal condition resulting in progressive heart failure. It mainly affects men over age 60 but can also affect women. Another is Kawasaki Disease, which is becoming increasingly common and is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children.
There are also conditions related to the heart which inflict great health burdens on those living in low- and middle-income countries. Chagas is a neglected tropical disease caused by a group of parasites called Trypanosoma cruzi. First discovered more than 100 years ago, the disease affects more than seven million people worldwide and is one of Latin America's most prevalent public health problems. If left untreated, Chagas can cause irreversible damage to the heart and other vital organs.
Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a condition that affects 39 million people worldwide. The disease claims 291,000 lives annually, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. RHD most commonly occurs in childhood and can lead to death or life-long disability.
You may even be able to find a World Heart Day event near you that’s offering health check services. It doesn’t get much easier than that!
Maintaining a healthy weight and low Body Mass Index (BMI) can help decrease your chances of developing heart disease. Whether you attend a gym or fitness class — or prefer to get involved at a World Heart Day event — try to make being active a priority.
Most cardiac emergencies occur near someone who could potentially help — so setting up a CPR class and learning how to resuscitate a person could save lives. Cooking demonstrations, health lectures, and fitness lessons are significant events to plan for World Heart Day.
Sources:
https://world-heart-federation.org/world-heart-day/
https://world-heart-federation.org/world-heart-day/cvd-causes-conditions/what-is-cvd/