Now that we are into the festive time of year and enjoying heightened consumption, it is again appropriate to remind our readers that cardiovascular diseases remain a significant problem afflicting the Caribbean region, and wherever its diaspora has settled: in the US, Europe, here in the GTA, or the rest of Canada.
As we continue to remind our readers, CVDs affect everyone, and as the Caribbean Public Health Agency indicated in September, these afflictions are the number one cause of illnesses and deaths among Caribbean populations.
That no one is a stranger to CVDs is as unequivocal as can be: it means “high risk” applies to all of the Caribbean, with some ethnicities now considered to be even more high risk than others. According to CARPHA, Caribbean people of African and Asian ancestry are now more vulnerable to CVDs than the other groups.
The statistics emerging in the last decade are quite unpalatable. Last year, the journal Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine cited CVDs as the leading cause of global deaths, over 17 million, or 31 percent. It also noted in Jamaica and other Caribbean countries, CVDs accounted for four of the five leading causes of death. Additionally, a high prevalence of CVD risk factors exists in Jamaica, with 52 percent of its population overweight or obese, 25 percent suffering from hypertension, 12 percent with hypercholesterolemia, and eight percent afflicted with diabetes.
As was reported earlier this year by the Guyana government, CVDs are also a major challenge, with the statistics being quite alarming given the country's population size. As the ministry of health reported, CVDs’ deaths now hover in the range of 32 percent nationally, with an estimated 22 percent of the population living daily with its complications. For Trinidad and Tobago, available figures from the World Health Organisation for this decade reveal an average of 32 percent of deaths are the result of CVDs out of its annual and total national number, with 13 percent of its population dying from diabetes.
As CARHPA noted, “Some people are born with conditions that predispose them to heart disease and stroke. A pre-existing heart condition and other physiological factors, including diabetes, hypertension, or high blood cholesterol also increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.” However, it also noted most people who develop CVDs can evade its deprecations and dangers; that poor diet, lack of physical activity, overweight and obesity, raised or high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking of tobacco, and excessive use of alcohol, could be avoided.
Understandably, with many of us from the Caribbean having relocated abroad, it goes without saying transference of negative cultural practices leading to CVDs has accompanied our diaspora, and which we continue to faithfully replicate, heightening it during the festive season.
In this time of celebration, there are many of us residing here in the GTA, or in Queens, New York, and in the far reaches of the US and in Canada, who booked flights early, and are now eagerly anticipating the trip back to the Caribbean for the holidays. For those of us who remain behind, we plan to gather with family, friends, in churches, in workplaces, or even spend quiet moments alone enjoying our Caribbean cuisine that is replete with the savoury and sweetened, the glazed and honied, the thoroughly salted, and highly sweetened.
As CARPHA has wisely noted, “The more risk factors you expose yourself to, the higher your chance of developing CVDs.”
However, it has also noted studies show CVDs’ risk can be reduced through healthy consumption; by reducing body weight to normal, healthy levels, and through disciplined, structured, and ongoing physical activity. Also, a lifestyle that keeps blood pressure at normal levels, lowers cholesterol, eschews smoking, and avoids excessive alcohol consumption, is a worthwhile pursuit.
As we enjoy the festive season ahead, let one of our goals be the celebration of good health.