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Tunde Diya Foundation, Others Raise Alarm Over Rising Heart Disease Cases Among Nigerian Youths

The Tunde Diya Foundation, in collaboration with other health advocacy groups, has raised concerns about the increasing rate of heart disease among young Nigerians. This alarming trend prompted the organization to call for urgent action during the World Heart Day awareness program in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

Cardiologist Dr Alli emphasized the need for Nigerians to prioritize heart care, as heart disease can spread to other parts of the body. Shockingly, the disease can begin as early as age 7, claiming young lives before they reach 20.

The programme, which was organized by Access Heart Foundation in collaboration with the Lagos Executive Cardiovascular Centre (LECC) and Dr Tunde Diya Foundation (DTDF), featured awareness creation, education and free tests for High Blood Pressure.

While appealing to the government to begin the implementation of the petition signed on the need to have detailed plans for cardiovascular diseases in the country, Dr Alli hinted that hypertension is not curable but manageable and recommended regular exercises, such as hiking, swimming and cycling as a necessary step to managing High Blood Pressure.

She warned that people should put an end to excessive salt consumption, junk, and fast food and recommended consumption of vegetables, fruits and other natural foods as the best solution to prevent heart diseases.

According to her, “Some of the guides to make sure that the heart is healthy is diet because the heart feeds from what we eat. You must ensure that you eat well, you should have several dash diets to prevent hypertension, and salt consumption must be low. You should take more vegetables and fruits and eat less trans fat all these hamburgers, doughnuts, even for children, it is not only for the elderly one”.

“Since cardiovascular diseases are now rampant among children and youths, we must ensure that people are aware of it, especially mothers so that they will know what they will feed their children. We need to join hands together; mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, we must all join hands together to safeguard the hearts of our loved ones”.

“Right now, there is a petition that is being signed all over the world that cardiovascular diseases should be in the plan of all governments in all nations. That is the first petition all over the world that is been sent out for people to sign that governments of each country need to realize the need to have a detailed plan for the heart health of their citizens. There is an advocacy that we should go out there as cardiologists and specialists and speak out so the government will come up with a cardiovascular health plan”.

“We need to create awareness about cardiovascular disease and heart health to make sure that people are aware that they have a heart and that they have a duty to make sure that their heart is healthy. It is an awareness day to tell the community and the whole world that there are diseases that affect the heart. Therefore, they must guide their heart and also tell others to be aware because information is power”.

On her part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Access Heart Foundation, Miss. Mariam Alli noted that the gap of unavailability, lack of quality and inaccessibility of heart surgery in Nigeria is alarming, particularly in the Northern part of the country.

She posited that the Access Heart Foundation is filling the gap through the provision of free access to heart surgery, adding that it has carried out over a hundred surgeries within the short period of establishing the foundation.

She explained that Nigeria carries out less than 2,000 heart surgeries in one year, compared to what is obtainable in Tunisia which carries out 500 heart surgeries for every 1 million people in Tunisia.

“We established Access Heart Foundation in response to the unavailability of quality heart surgery for children and adults across Nigeria, as well as the unaffordability of the surgery in Nigeria. So, we founded the Access Heart Foundation to close the gap for Nigerians. We organize free heart surgery for children from zero months old to adults and age”.

“This is our way of giving back to the society, to the community, and to the country.

On his part, Dr Emmanuel Akinteye warned that overconsumption of alcohol, smoking and sex-enhancement drugs are dangerous to the heart, stressing that these may lead to hypertension.

He noted that the heart is a very important organ in humans, saying that it pumps about 100 thousand times a day to keep humans alive; therefore, it needs to be taken care of as recommended by the cardiologist.

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