RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Heart Foun­da­tion (TTHF) has long been at the fore­front of com­bat­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease (CVD) and pro­mot­ing heart health.

As the lead­ing cause of death glob­al­ly, CVD’s preva­lence in T&T has ne­ces­si­tat­ed a ro­bust re­sponse from or­gan­i­sa­tions like the TTHF.

But with obe­si­ty and oth­er non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases (NCDs) on the rise, the Foun­da­tion is now ramp­ing up ef­forts to ed­u­cate, ad­vo­cate, and in­no­vate.

Man­ag­er of the TTHF Amit Ma­haraj said since 1998, his group has been cre­at­ing aware­ness about heart health, en­cour­ag­ing healthy lifestyles, and pro­mot­ing prop­er di­etary habits to curb the in­ci­dence of CVD.

“We op­er­ate un­der the guid­ance of a vol­un­tary Board of Di­rec­tors, fund­ed pri­mar­i­ly through cor­po­rate spon­sor­ships, pub­lic do­na­tions, and fundrais­ing ac­tiv­i­ties,” he ex­plained.

This week­end, the group will host its TTHF’s Go Red For Women High Tea and Fash­ion Show, sched­uled for to­day from 3 pm to 6 pm at the Hy­att Re­gency.

“This is a ma­jor fundrais­er and aware­ness event. This ini­tia­tive is part of the glob­al Go Red for Women Cam­paign, which fo­cus­es on the pre­ven­tion, di­ag­no­sis, and con­trol of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease in women,” he said.

Ex­plain­ing the im­por­tance of this, Ma­haraj said: “CVD is the lead­ing cause of death among women world­wide, yet many women are un­aware of their risk.”

He not­ed that the Go Red For Women Cam­paign, launched by the Amer­i­can Heart As­so­ci­a­tion in 2004 and adopt­ed by the World Heart Fed­er­a­tion, aims to em­pow­er women with the knowl­edge and tools to take charge of their heart health.

“The TTHF’s lo­cal cam­paign seeks to dis­pel the myth that heart dis­ease is a male prob­lem and high­light that it af­fects women just as much, if not more. The High Tea and Fash­ion Show will not on­ly raise funds but al­so pro­mote aware­ness and ed­u­ca­tion among women about their unique risk fac­tors for heart dis­ease,” he added.

Apart from rais­ing funds, Ma­haraj said the TTHF col­lab­o­rates with var­i­ous or­gan­i­sa­tions, health­care providers, and gov­ern­ment agen­cies to achieve its goals.

Through mem­ber­ships in as­so­ci­a­tions like the In­ter Amer­i­can Heart Foun­da­tion and the Healthy Caribbean Coali­tion, the TTHF ac­cess­es a wealth of re­sources and re­search that in­form its ini­tia­tives, he ex­plained.

These col­lab­o­ra­tions en­able the Foun­da­tion to dis­sem­i­nate up-to-date in­for­ma­tion and best prac­tices for heart health to the pub­lic.

Ma­haraj said he en­vi­sions a fu­ture where there will be a de­cline in the preva­lence of CVD in Trinidad and To­ba­go, fos­ter­ing a heart-healthy cul­ture across the na­tion.

“Com­mu­ni­ty sup­port is vi­tal to the TTHF’s mis­sion. In­di­vid­u­als can get in­volved by vol­un­teer­ing, do­nat­ing, be­com­ing mem­bers, or sup­port­ing the Foun­da­tion’s events,” he re­vealed.

“By spread­ing aware­ness through so­cial me­dia, at­tend­ing TTHF ini­tia­tives, and adopt­ing heart-healthy habits, the pub­lic can con­tribute to the fight against heart dis­ease,” he not­ed.

Apart from the Go Red for Women cam­paign, the TTHF al­so hosts Na­tion­al Heart Walks, Health Fairs, pub­lic lec­tures and school lec­tures aimed at en­cour­ag­ing healthy liv­ing.

Ma­haraj said the Foun­da­tion al­so col­lab­o­rates with re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions, such as the World Heart Fed­er­a­tion and the Caribbean Car­diac So­ci­ety, to en­hance its im­pact.

“One of our most sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ments is our pro­mo­tion of the ‘Know Your Num­bers’ ini­tia­tive. This pro­gramme en­cour­ages in­di­vid­u­als to mon­i­tor their blood pres­sure, blood glu­cose lev­els, cho­les­terol, body mass in­dex, body fat per­cent­age, triglyc­erides, and waist cir­cum­fer­ence. By un­der­stand­ing these met­rics, in­di­vid­u­als can take ear­ly ac­tion to mit­i­gate their risk of heart dis­ease,” he ex­plained.

De­spite its suc­cess­es, the TTHF faces con­sid­er­able chal­lenges. Ma­haraj said one of the biggest ob­sta­cles was en­cour­ag­ing peo­ple to main­tain a heart-healthy lifestyle.

“Many in­di­vid­u­als strug­gle to change long-stand­ing un­healthy habits, such as poor di­et and lack of ex­er­cise,” he said. He not­ed that the TTHF ad­dress­es this by pro­vid­ing prac­ti­cal guide­lines, di­et sheets, and ex­er­cise rec­om­men­da­tions that are easy to fol­low and in­te­grate in­to dai­ly rou­tines.

He not­ed that the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic al­so posed sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, lim­it­ing face-to-face in­ter­ac­tions and com­mu­ni­ty events. How­ev­er, the TTHF adapt­ed by lever­ag­ing dig­i­tal plat­forms to con­tin­ue its ed­u­ca­tion­al and aware­ness cam­paigns.

More on heart dis­ease

Car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease re­mains the num­ber one cause of death in T&T, mir­ror­ing glob­al trends. An­nu­al­ly, CVD ac­counts for ap­prox­i­mate­ly 17.9 mil­lion deaths world­wide, with 85 per cent of these due to heart at­tacks and strokes. Ma­haraj ex­plains that heart dis­ease af­fects the heart and blood ves­sels, of­ten due to ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis—a grad­ual clog­ging of ar­ter­ies by fat­ty plaques.

“This con­di­tion sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­creas­es the risk of blood clots, which can lead to heart at­tacks or strokes,” he says.

The TTHF em­pha­sis­es that many CVD risk fac­tors are mod­i­fi­able, in­clud­ing smok­ing, high blood pres­sure, high cho­les­terol, di­a­betes, lack of ex­er­cise, obe­si­ty, and de­pres­sion. Non-mod­i­fi­able risk fac­tors in­clude age, fam­i­ly his­to­ry, and eth­nic­i­ty, with in­di­vid­u­als of South Asian and African de­scent be­ing more at risk.

Ad­dress­ing com­mon mis­con­cep­tions about heart dis­ease, Ma­haraj said: “ Many in­di­vid­u­als un­der­es­ti­mate their risk, of­ten not re­al­is­ing they are at risk un­til they ex­pe­ri­ence a heart at­tack or stroke.”

He un­der­scored the im­por­tance of reg­u­lar check-ups and un­der­stand­ing one’s health met­rics like blood pres­sure and cho­les­terol lev­els.