Ugandans urged to embrace healthy lifestyle ahead of World Heart Day

The Executive Director Uganda Heart Institute, Dr. John Omagino has, said cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death around the world.

He said world over, cardiovascular diseases claim over 18 million people per year and in Uganda one in four adults have high blood pressure which is one of the cardiovascular diseases.

He made the remarks at the Uganda Media Centre on Wednesday as Uganda set to celebrate the World Heart Day on 4th October in Jinja.

He said it is unfortunate that 80% of the people do not know that they have the disease and that’s is the real reason why Uganda Heart Institute has come out to raise awareness and inform the public about these cardiovascular diseases.

This year’s World Heart Day will be celebrated under the theme “My heart, your heart” with emphasis being placed on active lifestyle and routine medical checkups for those who are overweight.

Dr. Omagino said heart diseases are majorly preventable by watching one's health life styles such as observing proper feeding, carrying out regular physical exercises, avoiding toxics among others.

“The good news is that all most 85% heart diseases are preventable. The issue is we should be mindful of the food we eat because the body has a limit of what it can utilise.Today as a country, we have been losing up to $100 million per year in terms of referrals abroad,” he said.

He noted that over 11 million Ugandans are at the risk of heart disease and urged them to carrying out regular physical exercises as one of the measures to reduce these diseases.

“We have developed technical capacity and demonstrated it with good results that we can address the diagnosis issues to 95%. So we call upon the government to make favourable policies that can enable human beings live in a healthy environment, ”he said.