The World Heart Federation (WHF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) have joined hands and urged employers and employees around the world to make workplaces healthier.
The World Economic Forum has identified chronic diseases as a major threat in the near future. “Some of the world's leading companies and members of the World Economic Forum have workplace wellness programmes,” avers executive chairman of World Economic Forum, Prof Klaus Schwab.
“Such a programme also makes good business sense because productivity suffers due to chronic diseases. Fall in productivity has been estimated to be four times greater than the cost of disease prevention or treatment," adds Schwab.
It is for this reason that “Work with heart” has been chosen as the theme for the World Heart Day, the last Sunday of September every year.
Not a rich-country’s problem
Heart diseases and strokes are the world’s leading cause of death accounting for more than 17.2 million deaths globally per annum.
There is still common fallacy that heart disease and stroke are rich countries' problems. In India, the risk is more pronounced that in some of the developed countries.
The risk of a fatality due to a cardiovascular disease in India is four times that of Westerners and 20 times that of Japanese. What is really worrisome is that the number of 25- to 30-year-olds succumbing to a heart disease is on the rise.
The precipitating factors
Individuals who get agitated and aggressive or remain non-communicative set off negative psycho-neuro-humoro-viscero-immune chain reactions in the body.
These individuals usually see their work as nerve wracking, tend to overeat, lead an inactive life, are overweight and have a tendency to take to smoking.
This kind of a lifestyle leads to hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolemia, which eventually leads to a coronary heart disease (CAD).
Dr R P S Bhardwaj, ex-head Laxmipat Singhania (LPS) Institute of Cardiology noted, “Lifestyle modification has increased the number of heart patients. With the changing lifestyle, dietary habits have been widely affected, increasing the risk factors for heart diseases.
“These include high blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose level, smoking, inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables, overweight, obesity and physical inactivity."
The do’s and don’ts
People have been urged to follow the following tips to prevent heart diseases:
Aavoid tobacco in any form and have control on drinking alcohol
Regular physical activity and health check-ups are a sine qua non
Junk food contains excess fat and salt and has to be avoided
Eight hours of sleep a day is recommended for a healthy heart
People with diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, and all those associated with obesity are more susceptible to heart problems and therefore should be extra cautious
source: themedguru
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