MikeLigalig.com

Missions shift to noble phase: heart operation
http://www.boholchronicle.com/2011/jul/13/front2.html
July 13, 2011


That life stops when heart stops is a concern bigger than life itself when Bohol’s biggest series of surgical-medical missions shifts to nobler, crucial phase---the open heart operation---starting tomorrow.

The complex group of heart diseases has been the Philippines’ top killer, in fact the first among the leading 10 causes of deaths in the country.

The free heart surgery at the Borja Family Hospital here until July 17 is the major part in the chain of surgical, medical and dental missions in the province that began on July 3.

The first batch of heart patients for operation will be admitted to the hospital today. A mass will be heard before the start of the surgery tomorrow.

Doctors and other medical workers from the US, Manila and Bohol have volunteered in the successive medical missions, already serving over 8,000 individuals in Panglao, Sagbayan, Carmen, Danao and Balilihan.

The four-day heart operation is the crucial phase of the series, which will end in medical missions in Dauis on July 21 and Tagbilaran City on July 22, a life-devoted way to mark exactly Bohol’s founding anniversary.

The chain of missions has the lead sponsorship and participation of the New York-based Home Reach Foundation, Inc. (Home Reach), Philippine Heart Foundation (PHF), Philippine Gift of Life (PGOL), Philippine Heart Center (PHC) and provincial government.

Gov. Edgar Chatto hailed the selflessness of the different groups led by PHF chairman and PHC consultant Dr. Ludgerio Torres, PHC chief surgeon Dr. Arturo Lomibao, and Drs. Ramie Cadag and Pepe Recitas and Toto Jabonillo of Home Reach. Cadag is the US-based chairman of PGOL.

The governor just returned from the 14th Convention of the Confederation of Boholanos in the USA and Canada (CONBUSAC), during which more medical missions in Bohol were arranged for next year.

The on-going series is also supported by the Department of Health (DOH) thru Sec. Enrique Ona and Asec. Elmer Punzalan, PCSO, Sangguniang Panlalawigan thru Acting Gov. Concepcion Lim and health committee chair Board Member Cesar Tomas Lopez, Provincial Administrator Alfonso Damalerio II, Borja Family Hospital thru Dr. Belinda Borja and Dr. Kazan Baluyot who opens a vital heart clinic there, PHO, BMS, Bohol chapters of AMHOP and PNA, LGUs, and HSS Elementary and High School batches under team leader Joseph Alagon.



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HURTING TO THE HEART

According to expert sources, certain factors raise the risk of heart attack, but the major ones that individuals cannot change include age, gender and heredity.

Four out of five deaths from the disease involve people over age 65. In this age bracket, women are twice as likely to die from heart attack as men.

Women are more likely to die from heart disease than from all forms of cancer, chronic lung disease, pneumonia, diabetes, accidents and AIDS combined.

However, men have a greater life-long risk of heart attack, and experience attacks earlier in life.

Of the daily death toll per 100,000 women in the Philippines, 80 are caused by heart diseases.

Children have great risk if their parents had heart disease.

The three biggest risk factors that one can do something about are cigarette smoking, high blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol level.

About one in four Filipino adults has high blood pressure.

Other risk factors, such as obesity, being overweight, having diabetes and physical inactivity, also are conditions that individuals can control.

At least 80% of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes could be prevented thru healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of tobacco.

Smokers have twice as high a risk of heart attack as non-smokers, and have two to four times the risk of sudden cardiac death. They are also more likely to die quickly and suddenly than non-smokers.

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MORE FACTS 2

- Laughing relaxes and expands blood vessels, which helps protect the heart.

- A person is more likely to have a heart attack on Monday morning than on any other day of the week.

- Physicians call morning time “the witching time” for heart attacks because the mornings are when most people suffer heart attack. In the morning, stress hormones, such as cortisol, peak. Additionally, blood is thicker and harder to pump because a person is partially dehydrated.

- Women who smoke face the risk of heart attack 19 years earlier than the non-smokers.

- Studies from over 20 countries show that moderate drinkers have 20-40% less coronary heart diseases than non-drinkers.

- People with poor oral health may be more likely to have atherosclerosis (clogged arteries) because the bacteria in the gums and teeth can enter the bloodstream and affect blood clotting.

- Worldwide, nearly one-third (8.6 million) of all deaths in women are from heart diseases.

- The risk of heart attack or stroke is higher for women who both smoke and use high-dose birth control pills.

- A statistical study in Wales found that having an orgasm at least three times a week may decrease by half the risk of a man dying from coronary heart disease. (Ven rebo Arigo)

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