Patna Residents Run for Heart Health

Patna: People from all walks of life turned out in encouraging numbers today to participate in the ‘Paras Healthy Heart’ Marathon organized by Paras HMRI Hospital, Patna with an aim to encourage people to adopt physically active ‘healthy heart’ ahead of World Heart Day.
The mini marathon saw active participation of a wide spectrum of people from school children, working professionals to the city’s elderly residents who ran across a 6 km stretch from Paras HMRI, Patna to Sanjay Gandhi Zoological Garden, Patna. The marathon was flagged off by Mr. Sanjay Agarwal, District Magistrate at 7.00 am and recorded a footfall of nearly 300 people including members of the hospital staff.
Cardiovascular diseases are today the leading cause of deaths worldwide, including in India where one-fourth of all deaths can be attributed to heart diseases. As we celebrate World Heart Day, it is important to emphasize that physically active lifestyles are crucial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease said Mr. Arun Goyal, Unit Head.
The marathon was organized with an aim to motivate and encourage the society to have a healthy heart in priority from early ages and adopt running, walking and exercising in their daily lives to fight the cardiovascular disease epidemic.
“Factors such as sedentary jobs, near total mechanization of work, heavy dependence on technology, unhealthy food habits, and highly stressful lives that include irregular sleeping patterns form the prime reasons for the surge in prevalence of heart disease today. The good news is almost 90 per cent of heart related diseases are completely preventable by adopting a healthy diet and active lifestyle patterns. We need to counter the negative risk factors by adopting positive modes of action such as regular physical exercise, running, jogging and walking every day. 30 minutes of exercise daily goes a long way in reducing our risk for several diseases including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. I am hopeful that this effort by the hospital will educate people about the importance of healthy lifestyle to ensure a long and productive life,” said Dr.Pramod Kumar, Director, Cardiology
According to WHO, out of the 16 million deaths under the age of 70 years due to non-communicable diseases, 82% happen in low and middle income countries and 37% are caused by CVDs.
“We all know that incidence of cardiovascular diseases has increased to epidemic proportions in India, becoming the number one cause of deaths of Indians. Given the enormity of the situation, the focus needs to be turned in a major way towards prevention and the entire society must be stimulated to adopt healthy heart lifestyles. Fortunately, most heart disease can be prevented by turning physically active, reducing consumption of fast food and giving up tobacco use and alcohol. We are happy that the residents of Patna turned out in large numbers to support our endeavor towards good health. We hope the marathon succeeds in generating awareness about the need for exercising and adopting active lifestyles as the primary weapon in our collective fight against cardiovascular disease”.