Study: Heart disease and stroke are the main causes of death

According to Professor Mark Mawutor Tettey, the Ag. Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC), heart disease and stroke are currently the top causes of death in the nation.

According to research done by a trainee at the center, dyslipidemia, or elevated blood cholesterol (fat), is by far the leading cause of heart attacks, according to Mr. Tettey.

Smoking, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension are additional widespread risk factors.

According to Prof. Tettey, heart disease and stroke were the main causes of mortality globally, accounting for 18.6 million of all fatalities.

Therefore, in order to lower the risk of the two illnesses, the cardiologist emphasized the necessity for patients to take good care of their hearts by eating healthfully, exercising, and avoiding stress.

World Heart Day

At yesterday’s World Heart Day kickoff in Accra, he made this statement.

World Heart Day is observed annually on September 29 to raise awareness of heart disease and stroke prevention.

The theme for this year’s celebration is:

“Use heart, Know heart.”

Activities planned for the day by the center include a free health screening and a talk on the importance of the heart.

“Before using your heart for others, one must know that you yourself are fit and stress-free enough.

We can use our hearts for ourselves by taking good care of them.

“Eating healthy, exercising daily, and kicking out the tensions and the stress of life is helpful for a healthy heart,” he said.

Essential organ

Prof. Tettey, who is also the head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Ghana Medical School and a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, referred to the heart as the body’s most crucial organ and said that when it was destroyed, one’s life also perished.

“Anyone must have their heart checked to make sure it has stopped beating before they can be pronounced dead.

You can never be deemed dead if your heart is still beating, regardless of how you may seem after an illness or accident.

Our heart determines whether we are living or dead in this world.

Because your heart is beating, you are alive, he said.

Despite the importance of the heart, he claimed that most Ghanaians could not afford the country’s high cost of heart disease management.

He provided data to support his claim, stating that a heart illness diagnosis and treatment should cost at least GH40,000, and a heart operation should cost at least GH80,000.

How many of us have the money for this?

There need to be a workaround for this so that Ghanaians who require these services won’t be turned away due to financial hardship.

Heart problems don’t care about where you are in life, he claimed.

Worst of all, according to Prof. Tettey, the NCTC had outgrown the area it had available to assure effective practice, “with congestion everywhere.”

He claimed that this was the driving force behind the center’s management’s decision to construct the National Heart Institute, which will house the most up-to-date tools and facilities for heart disease research and diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care.

Accordingly, he announced the formation of the National Heart Foundation by the center’s management, which would, among other things, raise money to ensure the building of the institute and eventually contribute to making heart surgery and other pricey procedures necessary for the treatment of heart diseases free of charge in the nation.

“I can tell the nation that we can cure cardiac problems without charge if we can gather at least 2 million workers in Ghana who are prepared to sacrifice a bottle of coke, which is equivalent to around GH5 a month.

“All hospitals in the nation that will be involved in providing advanced heart treatment will be linked to this fund,” he said.

Therefore, he made a plea to well-intentioned Ghanaians and businesses to commit to this foundation, which he claimed was more dependable and could assist the entire nation.

Awareness

Speaking on the subject, Dr. Abdul-Samed Tanko, a cardiologist and the center’s head of cardiology, said that knowing one’s blood pressure, BMI, sugar, and fat levels are some ways to know one’s heart.

“Some people don’t even know they are walking with bad cholesterol in their system and lots of people come from families with these diseases that lead to stroke which they are not aware of. “The only awareness is when they get a stroke. People should do regular checks to know their cholesterol, sugar, and other levels,” he admonished.

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