Fifty years ago, one in two Canadians died from heart disease or stroke. “Twenty years from now, there’s no reason it can’t be one in 10,” said David Sculthorpe, CEO of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, addressing the Economic Club of Canada yesterday in Toronto.
“Heart disease is largely a lifestyle disease,” he said. “It’s a function of completely predictable risk factors.” According research funded by the Heart & Stroke Foundation, he continued, nine risk factors together can predict 90% of all heart attacks in all populations in all regions of the world.
These are risks that can be easily measured and modified if we change our lives, he said. Risks such as not getting enough exercise, eating too much food, eating the wrong types of food and smoking.
The impact
“Heart disease and stroke severely impacts our healthcare system, causing tremendous burden on our economy, our companies and our future.”
“It’s not a disease where we don’t know the cure,” he said. Canadians are aware of how to decrease the devastation of heart disease, he continued, but we don’t want to do much about it.
Sculthorpe said that Canadians need to overcome the “mass denial” of heart disease.
The Heart & Stroke foundation promotes cardiovascular health with governments, corporations and the public. (In fact, it’s launching a new public awareness campaign about stroke in the spring.)
Although Sculthorpe did not address healthy-workplace tactics specifically, corporations are familiar enough with what they should be doing to keep their employees and their organizations healthy: offer healthy food choices in the cafeteria, implement exercise and smoking cessation programs, provide gym memberships, for example.
“If enough of us get together and work together, we can create a tipping point around creating healthier, more active lives for all Canadians,” he said.