The cardiovascular diseases they are still the leading cause of death in the world. In Italy they are responsible for one in three deaths. For this reason, prevention must be the first objective, as underlined by the Italian Society for Cardiovascular Prevention – Siprec on the “Third Italian day for cardiovascular prevention”.
On the occasion of the day, Siprec presented a document based on eleven points that can strongly affect the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases.
“The document produced by Siprec retraces the main issues of prevention and the various interventions that can be implemented to preserve the health of our heart and our vessels and live in well-being by avoiding or at least delaying very serious cardiovascular events” he explains Massimo Volpe of the Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine University of Rome Sapienza and President of Siprec. “Interventions on the population and individual interventions on individual citizens can be highly effective and make their lives more “sustainable” in terms of well-being and life expectancy, as well as making ours more “sustainable”.
National Health System”.
What can we do to strengthen cardiovascular prevention?
The points supported by Siprec concern both the improvement of lifestyles in relation to age, gender, social and economic condition, and the timely use of all prevention tools (diagnostic, therapeutic and prophylaxis) which can strongly affect the development and the progression of cardiovascular disease:
- The correct nutrition
- The promotion of physical activity
- The fight against smoking
- Blood pressure control
- Control of dyslipidemia (hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia)
- The control of overweight and obesity
- The control of diabetes and pre-diabetic condition
- The implementation of citizens’ adherence to lifestyle and therapeutic prescriptions
- The use of vaccinations as a tool for cardiovascular prevention
- The declination of all interventions in relation to age throughout life and in relation to gender specificity
- The fight against environmental pollution
One of the eleven points of the Siprec document recommends a correct dietary lifestyle, based on the Mediterranean diet, which however registers a progressive abandonment by Italians, with visible consequences on citizens’ health and life expectancy.
“The Mediterranean diet has 70 years of consolidated scientific research demonstrating the positive impact in the prevention of chronic diseases in general and cardiovascular diseases in particular,” he says Stephanie Maggi, research director of the Cnr and president of the Mediterranean Diet Foundation. «And yet the Italians don’t follow it, they have abandoned it, as they did in Greece and Spain, which are historically the cradle of this diet. Contrary to what happens in Northern Europe, where the Mediterranean diet is increasingly followed and the results in those countries can be seen in terms of obesity control and reduction of cardiovascular diseases».
