February is Heart Month in Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation has a few ways you can better improve your cardiovascular health.
60-thousand out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in Canada each year – 82-hundred of those took place in British Columbia in 2022.
BC and Yukon Director of Heart Policies, Mary Stambulik stated a big part of prevention is diet and exercise.
“Make sure you get enough physical activity, if you smoke to stop smoking – if you don’t smoke, don’t start. Healthy eating is a big plus because we know that diet plays a big factor in your health as well as proper sleep.”
She added there are several reasons why we are seeing a spike in cardiac arrests in our country.
“It’s a growing and aging population and that is a factor in the increase of the number as well as an increase in risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes. Probably an increase in environmental factors too such as COVID-19, air pollution as well as the opioid crisis.”
Stambulik mentioned initiatives like telephone CPR where a dispatcher will help guide a bystander on how to perform it even if they have never taken any formal training.
“It can be done, even by looking at some of our 90-second whiteboard videos to familiarize yourself with how to do that. If you are in a situation where you witnessed somebody in cardiac arrest, don’t be afraid to take action, call 9-1-1, perform CPR, and find an AED.”
Having more life-saving devices on hand to assist those who are in cardiac arrest has made a big difference in survival rates.
“Having more AEDs available in public places has also contributed to improvements in survival rates and outcomes as well as research that’s being done on hands-only CPR and it shows its highly effective,” added Stambulik.
CPR rates vary across the country anywhere between 42% and 72% – the bystander Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) rate remains low at 13%
Heart disease is the second leading cause of death for both men and women in Canada.
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