Improving Indigenous people's heart health
A Message from Dr. Jeff Reading, BC First Nations Health Authority Chair in Heart Health & Wellness at St. Paul's Hospital and Professor, Simon Fraser University
September 29 is World Heart Day – a day to think and talk about how to promote heart health and help prevent the many heart diseases afflicting people across the world, including Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous people's heart health can be improved, and we need to think about the impacts on women and men, infants, children, youth, adults and Elders to target changes that make sense for our heart-health journeys.
It will take active and continuous community-engaged working groups – made up of patients, leadership and community representatives, health care providers, policy-makers, and industry innovators – to effectively tackle the epidemic of heart, brain and vascular disease and address current and future needs/gaps in the diverse First Nations community context.
The focus needs to be on addressing specific heart-healthy systems of care (from prevention and early detection to advanced cardiac, vascular and stroke care), informing health policy, and translating high-quality research evidence into action.
At the same time, in our day-to-day lives, Indigenous people in BC should focus on prevention, which includes reclaiming health and well-being by improving access to traditional foods, getting regular physical activity, respecting tobacco and quitting commercial tobacco, and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol through healthy lifestyle changes and medication when necessary.
Following the FNHA's four wellness streams will go a long way toward keeping our hearts healthy. To begin with, making regular exercise a part of our daily routines will help prevent heart disease while improving physical and mental health.
All my relations.
For more information on Indigenous heart health, visit http://www.heartandstroke.ca/what-we-do/our-impact/helping-to-close-the-gap-in-indigenous-health.
About World Heart Day
World Heart Day, celebrated on September 29 every year, is aimed at drawing people's attention to heart illness and the range of associated health issues. Launched by the World Heart Federation in 2000, the day is commemorated to promote different preventative steps and changes in lifestyle to avoid any cardiovascular diseases, like heart attack, stroke, heart failure and any other condition related to the same. On average, more than 17 million people die from heart-related illnesses every year.
