World Heart Day 2019 – Take The Pledge

Over the past couple of decades, India has registered a sharp growth in lifestyle diseases and heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancers. According to the leading science journal, the Lancet, the prevalence of heart disease and stroke have gone up by about 50 percent between the years 1990 and 2016. Disease and death due to heart diseases and stroke have doubled in the Indian states in this period. So much so, that cardiac diseases have become one of the leading health challenges among Indians. Another study says that the prevalence of heart diseases alone in the country has gone up to 2.8 million in 2016 and over 50 percent of the deaths caused by cardiac ailments were in patients under 70 years of age. With World Health Day 2019 approaching, this is a good time for us to become aware of heart health and pledge to take preventive action.

What can you do to maintain heart health?

1. Consume a healthy diet – Consuming a diet rich in soluble fibers and micronutrients and low in saturated and hydrogenated fats makes for great heart health. A balanced diet is important to fend off heart diseases.
2. Follow an exercise schedule – Following a balanced exercise schedule has numerous benefits. One of these is to keep your heart healthy. Exercising regularly also helps increase HDL and keep the total cholesterol levels in check.
3. Understanding family history –The risk of heart disease is strongly linked to family history. Conditions like coronary heart disease, having a stroke or heart attack, etc, may be influenced by your family's history.
4. Undergo regular screening – Regular screening and diagnostic tests are mandatory for those in the high-risk category or those with diagnosed cardiac diseases. The easy availability of home-use devices and the low price of pulse oximeters and similar medical devices makes monitoring quite easy.
5. Maintain optimum weight – Obesity is the cause of many health issues. Being overweight puts extra pressure on the heart and when combined with other factors leads to a number of cardiac diseases and can even cause heart attacks.
6. Get proper sleep – Doctors commonly advise between 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. This reduces the risk of developing cardiac diseases, heart attacks, and strokes
7. Manage stress effectively – Stress is one of the major precipitating factors in the occurrence of heart attacks. It is believed to be the cause of many different heart diseases. Practicing yoga, meditation, laughter therapy, etc. helps reduce stress.
8. Quit smoking – Not only does smoking cause cancer, but it also leads to the build-up of plaque in the arteries and veins causing a heart attack. It causes hypertension and ischemic heart diseases as well.

Home monitoring

World Heart Day 2019 brings us the perfect opportunity to take our health and our hearts very seriously. A key aspect to maintaining heart health is regular monitoring of our health parameters. In these modern times, medical supplies stockists and suppliers like Smart Medical Buyer make the best of devices available at our doorsteps. You may order a BP machine or an ECG machine online and use them from the comfort of your home. As a special incentive in commemoration of World Heart Day, Smart Medical Buyer is providing a special discount on selected products. Use promo code HEART7 to get 7% odd on the price of these products.