Urbanization and Cardiovascular Disease: Raising Heart-Healthy Children in Today’s Cities

WORLD HEART FEDERATION CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT CHILDREN’S HEART HEALTH IN WORLD’S MOST POPULOUS CITIES

New S.P.A.C.E strategy to address threat to the cardiovascular health of the world’s urban children

Geneva, 29 September 2011 – On World Heart Day, the World Heart Federation calls for a new approach to make cities heart healthier for the children who live in them. The call to action follows research commissioned by them which shows that increasing urbanization threatens the current and future heart health of children.


The research results are presented in a new report entitled, Urbanization and Cardiovascular Disease: Raising Heart-Healthy Children in Today’s Cities. The report summary – made available today – shows how urban life in low- and middle-income countries – often imposes limitations on the ways in which children live, and restricts opportunities for heart-healthy behaviours. In large cities across the globe, urban living actually facilitates unhealthy behaviour in children, including: physical inactivity, eating unhealthy foods, and even tobacco use by children as young as two. Crowded city living environments can also spread diseases such as rheumatic fever, which if left untreated, can cause rheumatic heart disease.

The report notes that children are particularly at risk of the negative health effects of city life, since they are most dependent on and affected by their living environment. Since urbanization is continuing to occur rapidly worldwide, urgent action is needed to prevent an “epidemic” of cardiovascular disease (CVD) including heart attacks and stroke.

OMEGA-3 [Why this Fatty Acid is a Must for Good Health]

Omega-3 fatty acids

Overview:

           Omega-3 fatty acids are considered essential fatty acids: They are necessary for human health but the body can' t make them -- you have to get them through food. 

• Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in fish, such as salmon, tuna, and halibut, other seafood including algae and krill, some plants, and nut oils.

• Also known as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), omega-3 fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development. They have also become popular because they may reduce the risk of heart disease. 

• The American Heart Association recommends eating fish (particularly fatty fish such as mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, and salmon) at least 2 times a week.

• Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and may help lower risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis.

Transplant Patient Had an Emotional Reunion with Her Heart - in a Museum

      A transplant patient had an emotional reunion with her heart when she came face to face with the organ that nearly killed her – in a museum.

    Jennifer Sutton, who gave the heart to the museum to highlight the need for donors, said she had mixed feelings when she saw it.

She added: 'It was slightly surreal but amazing at the same time to see the object that had caused me so much pain and anguish."


'It is weird to think I am stood here alive and that was part of me once upon a time.'

The 23-year-old suffered from the condition restrictive cardiomyopathy since she was 18 and had a transplant earlier this year.