Bengaluru: Aster RV Hospital launches 'Heart to Heart' campaign

Bengaluru: To inspire city-dwellers to take the extra step in leading a healthy lifestyle, Aster RV Hospital launched a campaign, 'Heart to Heart' on Wednesday.

The campaign requires you to use a smartphone or a wearable device to track your steps. For every 10,000 steps, the CSR wing of the hospital will donate Rs. 100 for the treatment of paediatric heart patients. The campaign will run till September 8 and interested participants need to register at https://heart2heart.astervolunteers.com/ to be a part of it. Participants also have to share a screenshot of steps achieved at the end of the day.

"India has achieved the dubious distinction of being the hypertension capital of the world and much ahead of western countries in heart diseases. Extensive efforts are required to educate people about the need to keep their heart healthy at an early age. According to the Global Burden of Disease study, CVDs hit Indians a decade earlier than the western population," said Dr BG Baliga, Senior Consultant Cardiologist, Aster RV Hospital.

The campaign was kickstarted with a one-hour long walkathon from Aster RV Hospital to Dhanavantari Park. Following that, Dr Divya Marina Fernandes and Dr R.S Karthik educated the audience regarding the risk factors of heart attacks and the simple ways of monitoring heart health.

To mark the occasion of World Heart Day, Aster RV Hospital also launched its hypertension clinic, a comprehensive and dedicated treatment facility that will counsel patients on the prevention of hypertension, early identification and proper management of hypertensive symptoms in patients.

This will also include a heart efficiency package, a unique heart evaluation through which interested patients will undergo a series of medical tests to get a thorough heart-healthy profile to determine their risk of suffering from a heart attack.

"It has become increasingly common for us to see patients burdened with stress, anxiety, combined with unhealthy lifestyle habits such as smoking, overconsumption of alcohol, poor diet and lack of exercise, succumbing to heart attacks, developing hypertension or other heart ailments, majorly due to lifestyle factors. These can be controlled at an early age," said Dr S Venkatesh, Lead Consultant – Cardiology, Aster RV Hospital