Mindanaotoday.com | CHO: Heart attack top cause of death in Oro
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Two-hundred-two persons had died by heart attack in Cagayan de Oro last year, exceeding the five-year average of 127 deaths, the City Health Office reported Monday, Aug. 1, this year.
City Health Officer Dr. Rachel Dilla said hospital records show myocardial infarction (medical term for heart attack) which is a lifestyle disease has been claiming 28 lives every week lately.
Dilla made the disclosure following the deaths of prominent city residents traced either to heart attack or cardiac arrest.
A heart attack occurs when blood flow through the coronary arteries to the heart is blocked with deposits of cholesterol called plaques.
Sudden cardiac arrest is a condition when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating.
Chest pain which travels from left arm to neck, shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, vomiting, abnormal heart beating, and fatigue are among the symptoms of myocardial infarction.
Dilla said heart attack, caused by coronary heart disease, has been among the top 10 causes of mortality, aside from cancer, diabetes, cerebrovascular, kidney, coronavirus, hypertensive cardiovascular, obstructive coronary, pneumonia, and tuberculosis diseases.
She said chronic obstructive coronary disease is traceable to smoking.
Giving up smoking is one of the steps at preventing heart disease, aside from eating a healthy and balanced diet, regular physical exercise, keeping an ideal weight, reducing alcohol consumption, and monitoring blood pressure and blood sugar.
Early this year, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that heart diseases, particularly the ischemic type, has become the country’s leading cause of death with 136,575 fatalities in 2021.
PSA said deaths due to ischemic heart diseases had gone up by 30 percent over that of 2020 when it was also on top of the list. Cerebrovascular diseases – conditions affecting blood flow and blood vessels in the brain, with 74,662 attributable deaths, was on the second spot.
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