Globally, February is celebrated as a month of love because Valentine’s Day is on 14 February. The Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa (HSFSA) is using the month of February to increase the awareness of the importance of heart and brain health.
“We use the month of February for our fund-raising drive to help us sustain our work-streams for health promotion, disease prevention, health advocacy, health education and community-based outreach,” the foundation states. “We want the population at large to understand that the heart and brain are very interconnected organs. Consequently, love is not only associated with the heart but also the brain! There has been an increase in scientific evidence supporting this over the years, which also illustrates the relationship between good gut health and good brain health. The foundation has consistently conveyed the health message related to good nutrition and cardiovascular disease.”
It elaborates on the gut-brain connection: The gut microbiota are in constant interaction with the human host.
“It represents an ecosystem vulnerable to influences from the environment,” the HSFSA says. “Over the years the brain-gut axis concept has evolved and illustrated connections to both the nervous system pathways as well as hormonal pathways and internal brain connections that exist between cognitive and emotional functions. The central nervous system and gut are physiologically unable to be dissociated. Neural structures present at and linking both sites are similar. The significance of the brain-gut axis is best seen as ‘a team’. Both systems are physiologically coordinated to ensure a healthy status.”
It is due to these connections that stressful life events can influence gut-brain signalling and cause alterations of meal tolerance, intestinal dysfunction, cognitive and task performance. This gut-brain connection helps explain the effectiveness of irritable bowel syndrome and bowel-disorder treatments such as antidepressants as well as mind-body therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and medical hypnotherapy.
“Specialists have gone as far as stating that ‘Our two brains’ ‘talk’ to each other,” adds HSFSA, “so that therapies that help one may help the other. At the global and South African levels statistics highlight the burden of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions (CVDs). These are the leading causes of death and disability within the non-communicable disease cluster in South Africa. CVDs are responsible for almost one in six deaths, claiming more lives than those of all cancers combined. Every day 225 South Africans die from heart disease and strokes.”
The foundation plays a pivotal role in educating South Africans from all walks of life, including family, friends and colleagues, about adopting healthier behaviours.
“To meet our mission, the foundation has several outreach programmes which include: the Mended Hearts and Stroke Groups, School Health Promotion Initiative (SHPI), Fast Heroes for Stroke Prevention, and Health Risk Assessments (HRAs). To help with easier food choices the Heart Mark Endorsement Programme is a very important part of our nutrition pillar.”
Each programme is tailored for a target group.
“Prevention is always better than cure, and we could just as easily lose a workforce to heart disease or strokes than to any other disease. Workplace-wellness programmes aim to prevent chronic diseases and improve the productivity of employees. Such programmes allow employees to view access to and provision of wellness programmes as a sign of commitment to health and well-being from the employer’s perspective. The foundation extends our health promotion programmes to the private sector at a cost.”
Highlighting its flagship Heart Mark endorsement programme, the HSFSA forms part of a health-enabling environment offering consumers a tool that makes choosing healthier foods easier.
“The Heart Mark logo helps consumers identify healthier food options and at the same time advocate against food manufacturers that flood the market with unhealthy products that contribute substantially to the rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and being overweight or obese. We urge everyone to show genuine love for their nearest and dearest, friends and colleagues by empowering them and giving them the tools to be present and healthy. We not only ask individuals, but also companies, to work together with the foundation and help amplify the impact of its programmes.”
As a non-profit health organisation, the HSFSA relies on donor funding to meet its sustainability needs to continue its work for many more decades and reach new frontiers through its invaluable work and data collection.
You can make a difference and show your healthy-heart-love to those around you by donating at: https://www.heartfoundation.co.za/donate/
