World Heart Day: Know your risk and improve your health
September 29 is World Heart Day. The Swiss Heart Foundation is marking the occasion by calling on people to actively improve their own heart health.
On the occasion of World Heart Day, the Swiss Heart Foundation is drawing attention to the fact that we can do a lot for our heart health with just a few simple steps. It is important to know one's personal risk and individual health potential. The online tool "Swissheart-Coach" calculates heart age and risk, shows the positive effects of a healthy lifestyle and gives concrete tips for implementation in everyday life.
Cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure or stroke are the main reasons for visits to the doctor and hospital admissions and, at around 10 billion Swiss francs a year, cause the highest direct costs of all chronic diseases. Above all, they impair the quality of life of those affected and are responsible for many lost years of life. But cardiovascular diseases are not simply fate: nine out of ten heart attacks and strokes are influenced by factors that can be measured and controlled. If you know your personal risk, you can take a positive approach to your own heart health.
Online heart health tool
To this end, the Swiss Heart Foundation, in collaboration with heart and prevention specialists, has developed the "Swissheart-Coach" on the basis of major scientific studies. The online tool, which can be understood by laypersons, uses personal information to calculate the age of the heart and the individual cardiovascular risk, highlights health potential and makes concrete suggestions for implementation in everyday life. In addition to age, gender, genetics and previous illness, all factors that can be influenced are taken into account: Smoking, exercise, diet, body weight, stress, blood pressure, blood lipids and blood sugar.
The recipe for a healthy lifestyle sounds simple: regular exercise, sufficient relaxation, a Mediterranean diet and not smoking. But lifestyle changes are often easier said than done. The online tool offers supporting tips and information and can be accessed on www.swissheartcoach.ch be used free of charge.
Source: Swiss Heart Foundation
