Editorial Note
May 2010 – Month of the Heart at a Time of Crisis
The month of May is traditionally chosen in order to heighten everyone’s awareness towards the role of cardiovascular diseases as a cause of illness and death in Portugal. These diseases may be prevented, namely by delaying their appearing in each person’s life cycle. The main preventive measures are "simple" and cost little, which is very important at a time – such as that we are going through – of serious financial and economic crisis on a world level. It is therefore essential for us to: 1) not smoke; 2) control our blood pressure (ideally within values of 120/80); 3) watch our weight so as not go beyond 25 as a body mass index; 4) practice regular and ideally daily physical exercise; 5) have a healthy and varied diet, with a predominance of vegetables and fruits, avoiding salt, sugar, animals fats and fried food; 6) in situations of hypercholesterolemia or diabetes mellitus follow the indications of the doctor in attendance; 7) and not to forget to “be happy”, keeping active, no matter what one’s age, on the three levels: intellectual, physical and social.
If we are the bearers of cardiovascular pathology we must know it well (“the patient should be an expert in his illness") so that we can efficiently intervene in the multiple “therapeutic windows of cardiac rehabilitation” we possess. In 2009 we saw a great advance in these therapeutic measures, with the publication of the legislation that allows the use of External Automatic Defibrillators (DAE) by non-medical personnel after appropriate training. The INEM (National Institute of Medical Emergency) guarantees support for these measures essential for preventing Sudden Death, a frequent clinical situation that is demands immediate action in order to recuperate patients who have succumbed to this situation.
The case I experienced recently among the students of the 12th Grade of the Jorge Peixinho Secondary School in Montijo, supervised by their teacher Francisco Lucas, paradigmatically documents the path that we have to develop. When they were in the 10th Grade, these pupils suffered the shock of losing one of their classmates to sudden death during a physical education class. Since then there have been many initiatives aiming at setting up a DAE system in their school. In the Health Week organised by the school the subject of sudden death in young people was debated at length in order to prepare the future students for an efficient and active education towards health (figure).
Despite the difficult times we are going through, we may have an optimistic view of the future when the new generations take proactive measures that are so important for cardiovascular health as this one I am describing.
The 12th Grade Students Committee (2009/2010) of the Jorge Peixinho Secondary School in Montijo, who, on the 23rd of March 2010, organised the session: “How to deal with Heart Disease and Sudden Death – What can we do?" (Soraia Silva, Rui Gonçalves, Viviana Martins, Miguel Moura, Cláudia Baeta e Maria Inês)
Professor Mário G. Lopes
Director of the University Clinic of Cardiology
Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa
mario.lopes@hsm.min-saude.pt
If we are the bearers of cardiovascular pathology we must know it well (“the patient should be an expert in his illness") so that we can efficiently intervene in the multiple “therapeutic windows of cardiac rehabilitation” we possess. In 2009 we saw a great advance in these therapeutic measures, with the publication of the legislation that allows the use of External Automatic Defibrillators (DAE) by non-medical personnel after appropriate training. The INEM (National Institute of Medical Emergency) guarantees support for these measures essential for preventing Sudden Death, a frequent clinical situation that is demands immediate action in order to recuperate patients who have succumbed to this situation.
The case I experienced recently among the students of the 12th Grade of the Jorge Peixinho Secondary School in Montijo, supervised by their teacher Francisco Lucas, paradigmatically documents the path that we have to develop. When they were in the 10th Grade, these pupils suffered the shock of losing one of their classmates to sudden death during a physical education class. Since then there have been many initiatives aiming at setting up a DAE system in their school. In the Health Week organised by the school the subject of sudden death in young people was debated at length in order to prepare the future students for an efficient and active education towards health (figure).
Despite the difficult times we are going through, we may have an optimistic view of the future when the new generations take proactive measures that are so important for cardiovascular health as this one I am describing.
The 12th Grade Students Committee (2009/2010) of the Jorge Peixinho Secondary School in Montijo, who, on the 23rd of March 2010, organised the session: “How to deal with Heart Disease and Sudden Death – What can we do?" (Soraia Silva, Rui Gonçalves, Viviana Martins, Miguel Moura, Cláudia Baeta e Maria Inês)
Professor Mário G. Lopes
Director of the University Clinic of Cardiology
Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa
mario.lopes@hsm.min-saude.pt