Heart problems due to abnormal habits

LAHORE - Like other parts of the world, the World Heart Day 2008 will be observed in the country today (Sunday) with warnings that Pakistan is going to face epidemic of heart diseases.

The World Heart Day will be observed under the theme “Know your risk”, underlining the importance of creating awareness among the people about risk factors of heart diseases.

A public awareness seminar in this regard was organised by Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Lahore, on Saturday.

Addressing the seminar Prof Dr Nadeem Hayat Malik, Professor of Cardiology at PIC, warned that Pakistan was going to face epidemic of heart diseases due to abnormal habits among people couple with negligible efforts by the health authorities to control the spread of heart disease.

He stressed the need to create awareness among the people to urgently do something to avoid blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, smoking, lipid and lipoprotein (cholesterol, trig central obesity (the factor of insulin resistance), which were the major factors of heart diseases in the country.

He said that people can easily avoid these preventable risk factors by adopting healthy lifestyles as against the unavoidable/fixed factors like age, gender and family history risking heart disease among the people.