‘Heart disease No. 1 cause of deaths in VSMMC’

HEART disease is still the most common cause of death in the country and a government hospital in Cebu.

This was the assessment in  the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), said Dr. Joar Gumapon, VSMMC head of the Department of Internal Medicine.

Ten to 12 patients suffering from heart disease are admitted to the hospital daily, Gumapon said.

A similar profile applies on the national scale.

The National Statistics Office reported last year that heart disease was the no. 1 cause of death among Filipinos.

The NSO report said one of five deaths in 2010 were caused by the disease or 100,908 deaths out of 480,820 deaths reported from January 2009 to March 2010.

Gumapon  cited the lack of doctors and facilities to attend to  heart patients.

He said the ratio of doctors to heart patients admitted to the hospital was 1 is to 20.

The Department of Health  in Central Visayas,  hired 500 nurses to attend to the heart patients at the hospital especially those placed at the intensive care unit of the hospital.

Dr. Susana Madarieta, regional director of the Department of Health in Central Visayas, urged the public to practice a healthy lifestyle to prevent heart diseases.

“We only have one heart. And so we have to take care of it,” she said.

“To prevent heart diseases, you should have exercise, stress management and a healthy diet,” she said.

Gumapon, on the other hand, said that high-fiber, low-fat and less-salt diet could prevent heart diseases.

You should eat fruits, vegetables and avoid eating pork fat,” he said in Cebuano./ Correspondent Rhea Ruth V. Rosell