World Heart Day 2024: A global call to heart health with the theme ‘Use Heart for Action’
Every year on September 29, the World Heart Federation launches the World Heart Day campaign. Its objective is to raise public awareness of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the leading cause of mortality worldwide, by emphasizing the importance of heart health and motivating individuals, groups, and institutions to take steps to reduce the risk of heart-related problems.
In an effort to raise awareness and inspire global action against cardiovascular diseases, the World Heart Federation and the World Health Organization began to recognize World Heart Day together in 2000. September 24, 2000, was the first day of observation. Up until 2011, the event took place on the final Sunday in September each year.
The year's theme ‘Use Heart for Action’ which emphasizes using the right tools to manage and prevent cardiovascular illnesses. Being aware of concerns including high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, and obesity can help one take charge of their life.
Here’s how you can protect your heart:
1. Healthy Diet: A healthy diet consists of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains with less saturated fats, salt, and sugar, which can reduce the risk of CVD to a great extent.
2. The most crucial measure is regular physical activity. Performing moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes a day keeps the heart active and healthy and improves circulation.
3. Smoking Cessation Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of heart diseases. Smoking cessation benefits heart health and wellness.
4. Management of Stress: There is much concerning the impacts of excessive stress on an individual's lifestyle. Other habits related to excessive stress include overeating, lack of exercise, and adding to heart conditions. Meditation, yoga, and mindfulness will be beneficial in this aspect.
5. Regular checkups: Regular checkup of blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose levels and other examinations that may be relevant have been crucial in identifying possible heart conditions when treated in time.
The practice of maintaining a healthy heart is symbolized by World Heart Day. The government should introduce more laws that promote a healthy environment. Some of these laws could include accessibility and availability of healthcare services, safety in places where people may exercise, and more affordable healthcare. Communities could organize cardiovascular awareness events, free health screenings, and related awareness campaigns to achieve this goal.
While communities and governments can have a significant impact, each person's sphere of influence has some responsibility as well. Making small changes to one's diet or using the stairs instead of an elevator can have a positive impact on one's heart health.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Prakash Karat to be coordinator of CPI(M)'s Politburo, Central Committee as interim measure
New Delhi, Sep 29: Senior CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat will be the coordinator of the party's Politburo and Central Committee as an interim arrangement until the 24th party Congress to be held in April next year, the Left party said on Sunday.
The decision comes in the wake of CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury's death on September 12 at the age of 72.
"The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), now in session in New Delhi, has decided that Comrade Prakash Karat will be the coordinator of the Polit Bureau and the Central Committee, as an interim arrangement until the 24th party Congress to be held in April 2025 at Madurai," the CPI(M) said in a statement.
"This decision was taken due to the sad and sudden demise of the sitting general secretary of the CPI(M), Comrade Sitaram Yechury," it added.
Karat, one of the seniormost leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was its general secretary from 2005 to 2015.
Karat was born on February 7, 1948 in Letpadan in present-day Myanmar, where his father, C P Nair, was employed with the Burma Railways and later, at the Burma Oil Pipeline Project.
He studied in the Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School in Chennai and later, went to the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom for a master's degree in politics. He became active in student politics at the university.
He returned to India and joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in 1970 and also worked as an aide to veteran CPI(M) leader A K Gopalan.
One of the founders of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), Karat was elected as the third president of the JNU Students' Union. He also became the second president of the SFI between 1974 and 1979.
He was the secretary of the Delhi state committee of the CPI(M) from 1982 to 1985, was elected to the Central Committee of the party in 1985 and became a member of its Politburo in 1992.
One of the key faces of the party for decades, Karat was at the helm of the CPI(M) when it decided to withdraw support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre in 2008. The following years saw a decline in the strength of the Left in Parliament.
The CPI(M) had 43 MPs in the Lok Sabha in 2004, which came down to nine in 2014. As a part of the INDIA opposition bloc, the Left party won four seats in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year.
