The 'Manipal Hospitals', India, has organised a virtual sensitisation workshop for journalists and health professionals around the world on the importance of having a healthy heart and how to live healthy lives to protect their hearts.

The workshop, on the theme: "Guardians of the Heart", was organised in partnership with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to promote healthy living and join the rest of the world to commemorate the 2021 'World Heart Day's which falls on September 29 of every year.

The workshop was joined by participants from Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Maldives, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Dr Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Health Enterprises Pvt Ltd, speaking at the workshop, said heart diseases were common in the contemporary world across all age groups including those in their 30s and 40s.

Primary causes are stress, lack of exercise, and unhealthy food habits apart from excessive smoking and drinking, he said.

Compared to the West, Dr. Ballal said Indians' experienced heart failures early and therefore it was recommended that they modified their lifestyles at early ages.

"Keeping cholesterol levels under check and undergoing regular health check-ups are the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. India is currently witnessing nearly two million heart attacks a year and the majority of the victims are youngsters, which is not a healthy trend. Current projections are a wake-up call for all of us to adopt a healthy lifestyle," he said.

Dr Yogal Sharma, Manipal Hospital, Dwarka, said: "We hope to harness the power of digital connectivity by creating conversations around awareness, prevention, and management of Cardiovascular Diseases globally.

"Manipal Hospitals promised to make Heart Heroes through the workshop. We believe that knowledge, compassion, and influence can make hearts healthy," he asked.

He explained that the agenda of the workshop was to make people aware of different ways of keeping the heart healthy while staying at home as 'digital health is the need of the hour'.

Dr. Sharma said Manipal Hospitals was committed to lead and promote innovation and technological advancement in cardiovascular conditions by conducting insightful workshops on heart health and educating and fulfilling its mission with programmes.

Mr Affail Monney, President, GJA, said the initiative was committed to creating awareness on major lifestyle diseases that would potentially affect the 'common man'.

Considering the rising incidences and higher morbidity of heart failure patients, he said there was the need for dedicated workshops like that of Manipal to provide end-to-end and comprehensive education and awareness creation on heart diseases.

"We are committed to this cause through our patient-centric facilities, expert specialists, and a track record of best-in-class outcomes," he added.

As a pioneer in healthcare, Manipal Hospitals is India's second-largest multi-specialty healthcare provider treating over 4.5 million patients annually.

With its recent acquisition of a 100 per cent stake in Columbia Asia Hospitals in India, the integrated organization today has an enhanced pan-India footprint with 27 hospitals across 15 cities with over 7,600 beds with a talented pool of more than 4,000 doctors and 10,000 employees.

Its focus is to develop an affordable, high-quality healthcare framework through its multispecialty and tertiary care delivery spectrum and further extend it to out of hospital care. Manipal Hospitals provides comprehensive curative and preventive care for a multitude of patients from around the globe.