World Heart Day is being held on 29 September and the Heart Foundation of Australia is encouraging participation to “use heart to beat cardiovascular disease”.
The foundation says that across the world, cardiovascular disease (disorders of the heart and blood vessels, including heart attack, stroke, heart defects at birth) exacts a heavy toll, taking almost 18 million lives in 2016.
According to 2019 Australian Bureau of Statistics data, every day in Australia, about 115 people die from cardiovascular disease.
This World Heart Day people around the world are being encouraged to:
Use heart to beat cardiovascular disease
The biggest contributors to the burden of heart and the blood vessel disease are high blood pressure, poor diet, and high cholesterol. People can learn more about how these factors their heart health by completing the Heart Foundation’s online Heart Age Calculator
Eating healthy to protect your heart
Eating a poor diet is the largest contributor to the burden of cardiovascular disease. World Heart Day is the chance to think about the simple changes you can make to your diet to help protect your heart and reduce your risk of developing heart disease. There’s no “one size fits all” heart-healthy diet; instead, it’s important to focus on the different foods that you regularly eat over days, weeks and months. Keeping your blood cholesterol at a healthy level can help you reduce your risk of heart disease and eating a heart-healthy diet can help to manage your cholesterol.
Quitting smoking and e-cigarettes
Smokers have more heart attacks, strokes and angina (chest pain or discomfort caused when your heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen-rich blood) than non-smokers. They also experience these impacts at a much younger age. levels.
Getting plenty of exercise
Not doing enough exercise is a major contributor to heart disease and research shows nearly 60 per cent of adults are not active enough for good heart health. Australia’s physical activity guidelines recommend that adults should:
- Be active on most, preferably all, days of the week
- Get between150 to 300 minutes (2 ½ to 5 hours) of moderate physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes (1 ¼ to 2 ½ hours) of vigorous physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both moderate and vigorous activities, each week
- Do muscle strengthening activities on at least 2 days each week
