Heart disorders top illnesses in Central Luzon

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) rank first among leading causes of mortality in Central Luzon with 14,469 cases for every 100,000 individuals.
Central Luzon has about 9.7 million people, the third most populous region in the country. Region IV-A or Calabarzon has 11.7 million and National Capital Region has 11.5 million.
Second cause of mortality is cancer with 4,519 cases; followed by pneumonia, 3,351; cerebro vascular accident, 2,907; and, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 1,980.
Department of Health Region 3 Nurse Coordinator Erlinda Maglanque, in a press conference held Tuesday, said that CVDs “are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels which include diseases on coronary heart, cerebrovascular, peripheral arterial, rheumatic heart, congenital heart, and deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.”
Among the causes of this kind of disease are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and tobacco use.
“With this data, we, in our agency, are starting to promote healthy lifestyle more intensively to lower the mortality cases in the region. Among these are the healthy lifestyle program, physical program, and healthy food diet,” Maglanque said.
Activities that the department is doing are through promotion of campaign materials, and activities within the workplace, communities and schools.
“By doing this so, we are slowly switching the habits of Filipinos from their usual doing – with no diet and exercise at all,” she added. ●Joelyn G. Baluyut

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