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Know your risk, lower your chances of heart disease

Staff Report

KARACHI: A speaker at a seminar held in connection with World Heart Day revealed that at least six million people in Pakistan are at risk of dying from any of a number of heart diseases. Together, heart diseases and strokes are the world’s leading killers, claiming 17.5 million lives a year.

The Pakistan Cardiac Society, a member of the World Heart Federation, organized this seminar in collaboration with Unilever Pakistan. Top cardiologists and heart specialists of the country spoke at the seminar, and aimed to raise awareness about heart diseases and their prevention. Provincial minister for information Shazia Marri was the chief guest on the occasion.

The theme for World Heart Day 2008, Know Your Risk, was used as a way to help people understand their personal risk for cardiovascular disease. People suffering from hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity and high cholesterol levels fall in the medium to high risk region. Highly acclaimed cardiologists, Prof. Azhar Farooqui, Prof. Abdus Samad, Prof. Khalida Soomro, Dr Khawar Kazmi, Dr Asad Pathan, Dr Imran Ahmed, Prof. Ishaq Paracha and Dr Nadeem Rizvi actively participated in the seminar with presentations and important messages on various risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and their prevention.

“Six million people in Pakistan are prone to die from heart diseases only because the fat intake in normal diets is increasing, and protein intake is sharply decreasing”, said Dr Mansoor Ahmed while speaking at the seminar. He said that people should limit their fat intake to 25 to 30 percent out of which less than 10 percent should be saturated fats, found in processed meat, full fat dairy products like cheese and butter. Whereas the remaining fat should come from sources of unsaturated fats including, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, such as nuts, seeds, fish and vegetable oil enriched products like soft margarine. “It is important to know your fats and understand that the answer does not lie in avoiding fats altogether as fats play an important role in our lives and are an essential part of our diet, rather it is advised that you substitute saturated fats with unsaturated fats wherever possible”, he stated.

President of Pakistan Cardiac Society Dr Azhar Faruqui pointed out that “We have seen a lot of technological advances in the medical field in the last couple of years; however, the treatments are too expensive.” He further added, “Our developing nation is facing infinite challenges along with an epidemic of heart diseases. We are responsible for a major chunk of the problem as we always look for short cuts. He said that about 80% of heart diseases can be prevented just by simply reducing our salt, sugar and oil intake, thirty minutes of walking and not smoking.

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