Reason: Nigerians are no longer walking. They rather watch television all day, use the elevator instead of the stairs, take motor bike to almost everywhere, smoke a lot, indulge in excessive consumption of alcohol, consume animal fat, eat lots of fried foods, prefer Western diets, and take a lot of salt.
Indeed, experts have associated the increasing cases of sudden deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD), heart attack and stroke to global decline in physical activities.
CVD is a broad term that covers any disorder to the system when the heart’s functions become compromised.
They said that CVDs ranked as the world’s leading cause of death: an estimated 17.3 million people died from it in 2008, representing 30 per cent of all global deaths; of these deaths, an estimated 7.3 million were due to coronary heart disease, a condition that leads to heart attack, and 6.2 million were due to stroke.
According to the experts the primary CVD risk factor include overweight/obesity, lack of physical activity, smoking, dyslipidaemia, diabetes mellitus and hypertension, which they said were controllable.
Dyslipidaemia is an abnormal amount of lipids (example cholesterol and/or fat) in the blood.
To address the situation, the experts, on the occasion of the World Heart Day, September 29, called on men, women and children of all age groups to increase their physical activity in order to protect their heart health and reduce the risk of CVD, including heart disease and stroke.
“Take at least 10,000 steps a day, which can be monitored by wearing pedometers,” they advised.
The experts include: the World Heart Federation (WHF), the Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, cardiologists, World Health Organisation (WHO), and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH).
A consultant cardiologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba, Lagos, Prof. Amam Mbakwem, at a media chat organised by Pfizer to mark the World Heart Day over the weekend said: “More people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause. It is therefore vital that individuals understand the risk factors of CVD and take remedial action to protect themselves and their loved ones.”
“We have a big problem in our hands. That is a time bomb waiting to go off. Nigerians are no longer walking. More people are slumping and dying on daily basis. There is no single day that we do not see at least two new cases of stroke in our clinic here. Strokes are getting so common.
“Why? People are no longer exercising. We are not moving. Most of us are living a very sedentary lifestyle. I think it is good for the government to have banned Okada so that people will start walking. We have to build the roads and provide where people can walk. Take a road to a healthy heart; walk. Let us start doing what we enjoy like dancing. Let the children dance. We have to consciously start taking at least 10,000 steps a day. Use the stairs rather than the elevator. Be wary of salty food. Do not fry the fish and white meat. We have to start reading labels of food products before we buy. We have to ban cigarettes.”
Pfizer has a dedicated Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Research Unit (CVMED RU) at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is bringing outstanding drug discovery scientists to the heart of one of the leading global centers for biomedical research into cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
The theme for this year’s World Heart Day, ‘Take the road to a healthy heart,’ focuses on the ‘life-course approach’ to the prevention and control of CVD amongst all age groups, with a focus on women and children, as healthy children lead to healthy adults and healthy adults lead to healthy families and communities.
On 27 September, Pfizer celebrated World Heart Day with the theme “Workplace Wellness.” Events took place in more than 100 different countries around the world with the aim to help people achieve a longer and better life through prevention and control of heart disease and stroke.
Also, the WHO, reported that global levels of physical activity are declining. The six country survey published jointly with the WHF revealed that between 14 and 37 per cent of adults do not pay any attention to one of the simplest things most of people can do to protect their heart health – walking.
More than a quarter of people who took part in a new multi-country survey said they did not know how much time they spent briskly walking at a speed faster than normal.
Chief Science Officer, WHF, Dr. Kathryn Taubert, said: “Awareness is the first step to a healthy heart. Paying attention to how much we walk should be as simple as watching what we eat. On World Heart Day, we are urging people to take action to protect their hearts. By reaching the recommended guideline of minimum 30 minutes of moderate exercise, which includes brisk walking at least five days a week, many premature deaths can be prevented.”
Medical Manager Pfizer, Dr. Osahon Omorodion, said: “The main aim is to educate people that the threat of heart disease can begin at any age, and that people’s risk increases with exposure to risk factors such as unhealthy diet or exposure to tobacco smoke. Unless people are aware and action is taken to enable heart-healthy living, CVD will remain the single leading cause of death worldwide and, by 2030, will be responsible for 23.6 million deaths each year.”
Mbakwem said awareness plays an important role in curbing the risk factors and reducing the burden of CVDs.
The cardiologist said several risk factors such as high blood pressure and increased cholesterol show no symptoms until devastating complications set in such as a debilitating stroke or heart attack. “The community needs to be educated and encouraged to address these risk factors despite their silent nature,” she said.
The new multi-national survey conducted in Brazil, China, India, Spain, United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) by the WHF revealed that:
• Around one in three adults in the US and UK are not aware of how much they walk each day compared to only one in six people in India
• Overall, in the six countries that were surveyed, 55 per cent of people who reported times, do less than 30 minutes of brisk walking on a typical day
• People in the U.S. and UK reported that they do less brisk walking than those in developing nations – two thirds of respondents in the U.S. and UK who reported their walking times do less than 30 minutes of brisk walking, on a typical day, whereas less than half of adults in Brazil and India do the same.
In an age of smartphones and fitness tracking devices, it has never been easier to keep track of personal fitness. Studies have shown that people who wear pedometers increase their physical activity by almost 27 per cent.
In celebration of this year’s World Heart Day on 29 September, the WHF and Bupa, a leading international healthcare group, are launching a new global challenge and free walking app, to encourage people to get walking and keep walking. Entitled Ground Miles, the challenge will help to motivate people to take care of their heart health, while the app provides them with a tool to count the distance that they walk and reach their physical activity goals.
Mbakwem said one of the keys to preventing CVD is getting risk factors under control. She explained: “This will involve a change in lifestyle which includes eating a heart-friendly diet that are low in fat especially animal fat and rich in vegetables and fruits. This will help reduce overall cholesterol levels and bad cholesterol that is Low Density Lipo-protein (LDL), which are harmful to the heart. This approach will also help increase the so called good cholesterol that is High Density Lipo-proteins (HDL) while reducing other harmful, fatty molecules.”
CEO, WHF, Johanna Ralston, said: “We want to get people around the world walking, to reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke. Our goal is to encourage people to collectively walk five million miles (eight million kilometres) by the end of this year.”
Awareness around CVD risk factors such as physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, overweight/obesity and tobacco use is the first stage towards preventing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Regular moderate exercise – such as walking, cycling, or participating in sports – has many health benefits for the heart. Walking in particular is one of the least expensive and most broadly accessible forms of physical activity in the world.
By reaching the recommended goal of minimum 30 minutes a day, five times a week of moderate exercise, the WHF says people can:
• Increase life expectancy – even 15 minutes a day of moderate exercise (which includes brisk walking) can have significant health benefits, adding up to three years to life expectancy
• Significantly reduce the risk of CVD – studies have shown reductions as high as 11 per cent
• Burn more fat than jogging – running an hour per day reduces the risk of heart disease by nearly five per cent; however people who expended the same amount of energy walking per day can reduce the risk of heart disease by more than nine per cent.
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