‘Enforce more measures, policies to prevent, fight heart diseases’
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KUWAIT CITY, June 20: Dr Hind Al-Shoumar, a member of Kuwait Heart Foundation, urged for enforcement of more measures and policies in various sectors for preventing and fighting heart diseases and non-communicable chronic diseases as part of Kuwait’s obligation towards the United Nation’s declaration issued in September 2011, and the 2015 UN Charter for global objectives towards sustainable development.
In her statement, Dr Al- Shoumar affirmed that there are major challenges countering the efforts exerted by various organizations for spreading awareness on heart diseases and the risk factors that lead to such diseases. She urged for more efforts to be implemented for enforcing policies on anti-smoking and various items issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its effort to fight tobacco use.
Dr Al-Shoumar explained that the risk factors that lead to heart diseases are obesity, sudden increase in weight, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, smoking and increase in cholesterol level in blood, among other factors.
The risk becomes higher when all the factors exist at the same time. She stressed that the challenges related to heart diseases and non-communicable chronic diseases as well as the repercussions that follow necessitate setting up and enforcing comprehensive national policies in various sectors of the society.
Dr Al-Shoumar insisted that both governmental and non-governmental organizations must cooperate to achieve the main objectives instead of leaving the entire burden on the health facilities. She indicated that some of the responsibilities that non-health agencies could adopt include increasing taxes and charges of tobacco products and unhealthy food, and implementing policies for prevention of air pollution, which is one of the main risk factors for heart diseases. Dr Al-Shoumar went on to say other measures such as intensifying plans and strategies that encourage regular physical activities that target all layers of the society should also be implemented.
By Marwa Al-Bahrawi Al-Seyassah Staff
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