Today , September 29th is the World heart federation, backed official World Heart day.
Reclaiming the Soul of World Heart Day
Have you ever wondered why cardiologists, physicians, and big hospitals celebrate World Heart Day in a most sacred way as if it is festival of Diwali, Dussehra, or Onam? The scale of these celebrations and the accompanying mainstream media blitz have become truly overwhelming.
Originally, this day was meant to create genuine awareness about the rising global epidemic of heart disease. It was designed to propagate healthy lifestyle choices among the public and protect vulnerable hearts.
But it does not stop there. There is a concealed interest public rarely sees. Although we often emphasize that prevention is preferable to a cure , the explosive growth of high-tech diagnostics and aggressive therapeutic modalities has ironically become the enemy of true preventive care. World Heart Day has increasingly been hijacked as a marketing to drive hospital footfalls rather than to create true wellness.
The much glamourised , gadget based diagnostics , advanced screening packages, & biochemistry based “preventive heart checkups” have not yielded the desired results. In fact, by creating unnecessary anxiety and over diagnosing minor anomalies, they can have the exact opposite effect. As custodians of health, we must shift the focus away from lucrative diagnostic packages and return to the simple, low-cost fundamentals of diet, exercise and lifestyle modification.
I think, on this world heart day , We should make the public realise, it is absolutely possible they can prevent a heart attack in their life time, without fearing about their calcium scores, exotic lipid sub fractions or CT angiograms. Let us reclaim World Heart Day as a forum for genuine public health, not a corporate festival.
