Your heart. Listen to your heart and get into good habits!

To mark World Heart Day on 29 September, the Ministry of Health and the Luxembourg Society of Cardiology have launched an awareness day on 30 September to raise awareness of risk factors and what actions to take in the event of a heart attack.

Cardiovascular diseases are the number-one cause of mortality in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 17.9 million deaths can be attributed to cardiovascular disease every year – 32 % of total worldwide mortality.

In Luxembourg, in 2021, cardiovascular disease was the number-one cause of death among women (540 deaths or 25.3 % of female deaths) and second among men (506 deaths or 22.9 % of male deaths). Among people aged 65 and over, it was the main cause of death (938 deaths or 26.2 % of deaths in this age group).

Everyone can limit their own risk factors by taking a few simple steps.

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of some steps you can take on a daily basis to improve your lifestyle and heart health

1. Cook and eat more healthily.
2. Do 30 minutes' physical exercise a day.
3. Ask your doctor whether you should have a diabetes or cholesterol test (the Scientific Council for Health Care has issued a comprehensive set of recommendations on preventing cardiovascular risk, which you will find on the public.lu website (Recommendations – Scientific Council – Luxembourg).
4. Monitor your blood pressure (the Luxembourg Institute of Health recently published a leaflet on this subject which you can find on the Luxembourg Cardiology Society website).
5. Stop smoking.
6. Relax and try to unwind where possible to reduce your stress levels.