Latest update June 14th, 2026 12:45 AM
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Heart health
It is in-the-face and the gut and, most worrying of all, it is about the clogging and destroying story of heart disease in the region. That includes Guyana, which means us, as in self, or family, or neighbour, or stranger. Nobody is a stranger anymore; not when something is responsible for devastating so many in such a small space.
According to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Cardiovascular diseases [CVDs] are the number one cause of death and illness among the population in Caribbean countries.
Guyana is in the sick mix, it knows about CVDs. So that all are clear and of the same distressing understanding: the number one cause of death.
For even greater emphasis, there was another piece of alarming news from CARPHA. It is this: that people of African and Asian ancestry are at higher risk of developing these diseases than other racial groups. That’s us, and since those two groupings represent so many of us, it could be any one of us, isn’t? It could be that man sitting over there reading this newspaper, or someone in the workplace, or that robust chap chewing hotdogs, or the unconscious bustling about without a clue. Or, and this is frightening, the fellow just given a clean bill of health by his medical professional.
The words of choice are ‘high risk.’ Now that phrase has a dreadful sound to it, wherever one lives in the region, whatever one’s ethnic identification. Thoughts of mortality and life insurance close in, as family concerns take centre stage.
Listen to CARPHA. “Some people are born with conditions that predispose them to heart disease and stroke. A pre-existing heart condition and other physiological factors, including diabetes, hypertension or high blood cholesterol also increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.”
Those three diseases are like the plague around these parts. CARPHA pointed out that most people who develop cardiovascular diseases do so from poor diet, lack of physical activity, overweight and obesity, raised or high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking of tobacco and excessive use of alcohol.
Now some of those, let truth be faced, are traditional pursuits and not new there. What would be new is if many of the merry could be influenced to part with the rich cook-up, the overloaded pepper-pot, the boonjaal, the fried foods, and likable, savoury fare. All the lovely things so long beloved that are killing us quietly.
The old life must be given up to get added lease on life. More years, if only to exist with a better quality of life. The salt has to go. So, too, the most succulent part of the bite, as in the fatty portion, the glazed marble. Yes, it is no fun all, spinach isn’t. And that is only the beginning.
Just the other day, we urged a banana a day. It is not the only juicy fruit around these tropics. Whenever one goes out of season, there are a couple more varieties blossoming in abundance. Go ahead, make a selection for family and future. While at it, and remembering what is at stake, choose several from the many delights. Walk around and search for the best price. That’s part of the start, as in the steady exercise diet required. Yes, these things are all about discipline, of which we need lots of that around here. More activity, less blood pressure. Less is more. Less fat, more life. Less smoking, more lung power. Less liquor, more living and loving and leaving this land when the time comes.
There can be a say, some kind of say, in when that time should truly arrive. If it can be helped, it must not be of the sudden, unexpected, untimely variety. Not when the cures are in our own hands, when the steps to be taken, add up to giving up a few things to get a lot more things. Think about it.
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