Arif Alvi encourages healthy lifestyle to reduce cardiac diseases

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has highlighted the importance of raising awareness about cardiovascular disease (CVD) and adopting a healthy lifestyle to minimize the death rate from heart ailments. 

In addition to reducing the strain on the national health care system, he stated that adopting preventative measures could lessen the likelihood of contracting an illness, reducing the need for health care services.

Today, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the President made these remarks while addressing a symposium hosted by a private hospital in Islamabad to honour "World Heart Day – 2022." "Use Heart for Every Heart" is the topic for this year's World Heart Day, which aims to encourage people to think differently, make the right decisions, help others, and reach as many people as possible to promote cardiovascular health for every heart.

In his remarks, the President of Pakistan noted that 25 per cent of deaths in Pakistan were attributable to cardiovascular disease (CVD), and 18.6 million deaths worldwide were attributable to heart disease and stroke. He states cardiovascular disease causes hypertension, diabetes, cigarette use, a poor diet, obesity, and inactivity.

Arif Alvi suggested that CVD may be prevented by adopting a better lifestyle, consuming a diet rich in legumes, fruits, and vegetables, consuming less red meat, fatty, and fried foods, quitting smoking, and engaging in physical activity. He emphasised the significance of teaching patients and the broader public about preventive measures to combat disease through effective, impactful, and consistent awareness efforts.

Arif Alvi remarked that Pakistan should also emphasize its people's mental health, which is severely neglected due to a lack of psychiatrists and mental health care specialists. He emphasised that our community experienced varying degrees of stress and mental illness, which contributed to the rise in heart disease in the country.

Arif Alvi urged society to take care of every person's mental health by reducing stress, avoiding and managing stressful events, eliminating hatred and backbiting from our social conduct, and spreading love and care for friends, family, neighbours, humanity, and nature, which would help reduce mental stress and the impact of cardiovascular disease. 

In addition, he advised healthcare professionals to strengthen their ethics and communication skills when interacting with patients.

Arif Alvi stated that the provision of medical care facilities in developing nations such as Pakistan was a significant challenge, adding that the government and relevant departments were working diligently to improve the public health situation in the country, with a focus on the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). 

He stated that we had effectively handled the COVID-19 pandemic through persistent and concerted efforts and that we could mitigate the impact of CVD by adopting a similar strategy.

Arif Alvi emphasized the need to strengthen surveillance of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors and to revise health policies in light of the nation's concerns. 

In addition to expanding the availability of resources, such as equipment and medicines, and developing open spaces for public use, he emphasized the importance of conducting indigenous medical research, as well as the local development and manufacturing of machinery and equipment, to reduce the cost of treatment and alleviate the burden caused by the importation of costly machinery.

He stated that congenital cardiovascular disorders were prevalent, resulting in infant and young child health issues. 

He urged the Pakistani health sector to perform indigenous research and development in gene editing and manipulation and to embrace the breakthroughs occurring in the industrialized world to replace faulty genes with healthy ones to treat congenital disorders.

Additionally, Arif Alvi urged the health sector to streamline the treatment procedures for CVD so that neglected and low-income segments of society might also benefit from these services.

Dr Mir Waheed explained the significance of observing "World Heart Day – 2022" and emphasized the need to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease to lessen the nation's CVD burden.

Earlier, Arif Alvi presented mementoes to private hospital doctors for their efficient and caring patient care.