‘Pulse’, a health event on 'heart attack among young adults', a topic that has been a concern for many, drew a large number of people.
Organised by the Ministry of Health, represented by the Higher Institute of Health Specialties (HIHS), Adult Critical Care Nursing Programme 2021-2022, the event was held recently under the patronage of HH Dr Taghreed al Said, and in the presence of Dr Manal bint Abdul Majeed al Zadjali, HIHS Dean, along with a number of officials, academics, teaching staff, and students of the Institute.
HH Dr Taghreed al Said, speaking to the Observer, said that she was impressed with this event mainly because it highlighted important points to the public.
“One of the important points is that people generally think that one has to reach a certain age to develop heart conditions, or have a heart attack or visit a doctor for check-up. What I heard was that around 5,000 people have heart-related issues and this has also begun to include young adults and even younger ones, which means we need to look into this further,” she said.
She added that even people who are active and engage in sports have been noted to develop heart conditions, indicating there is a genetic aspect and acquired part.
“Another interesting point the event focused on is the need for people to learn about first aid to save lives. I did not know about the crucial four minutes to save a person who is going through a heart attack. The fact is you can do quite a bit at home before getting the person to the hospital,” pointed out HH Dr Taghreed.
In recent months there has been increasing discussions on heart attacks and causes in the social media.
“People are puzzled with some blaming on Covid or vaccinations. People come up with rumours and consequently people do not understand what is going on. Today we can see lots of efforts are done, and I think we all have to get together to work on this – we need to educate children in schools on how wrong habits and lifestyles, eating fast food, sitting for long, and not being active all this needs to be changed,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Dr Manal al Zadjali said that the postgraduate students regularly organise activities for adult care programme. They felt these days heart attacks are becoming common.
“There is no specific age, they are younger people getting affected so people are connecting to Covid, vaccine and so on. However, we wanted people to realise that there are other factors, which can play a role in one getting the disease. That is why the students have chosen the name of the programme as ‘Pulse’. The pulse means heartbeat and it is known that there predisposing factors and precipitating factors. The predisposing factors are those that dispose from yourself – such as genetics but there are precipitating factors such as sedentary lifestyle that is very common. We also see the gift of globalisation and modernisation - the junk food. We can observe the stressful life we are living and factors like people not going out because of the heat. All of this causes stress on our heart because it all comes back to our body,” explained Dr Manal al Zadjali.
According to Dr Manal al Zadjali, the whole objective of the event was to talk to the public about what they should be careful about. For example, people are drinking a lot of fizzy drinks and sodas, sugar-coated products. People are not moving out of their offices. We say that there should be a minimum of 30 minutes of walking or household activities to make our lives more healthier. Doing some meditation and prayers or even sitting down to think quietly makes a difference.
The event also had a session on CPR where experts showed what should be done if someone falls sick at home.
“People should learn to do a CPR to rescue the life of a person. It is known that if you rescue a person in the first few minutes of a heart attack you are actually increasing the chances of survival of that person,” she pointed out.
A number of governmental and private authorities including the National Health Centre at the Royal Hospital, Royal Oman Police, Medical Services of the Sultan's Armed Forces, Oman Heart Association, and Heart and Vascular Center attended the event. A visual presentation was presented on "Heart Attacks" prepared by students of the Critical Care Nursing Programme for Adults at the Higher Institute of Health Specialties. The event also included an exhibition that highlighted disease onset, risk factors, disease causes, mental health, definition of heart attacks, methods of prevention, rehabilitation and healthy nutrition, the risks leading to heart attacks, their symptoms, methods of treatment and treatment of heart attacks.
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