Then Go and
lightning, trumpet and smoke, he gave two
tablets of stone, inscribed by his own finger:
the Ten Commandments.In an age when thunder and lightning in our
cells and tissues overwhelm us, doctors are the
new gods. And right now they are dishing out
the new ten commandments for optimising
your health. The oldest umbrella organisation
of cardiologists in India, the Cardiological
Society of India (CSI), is asking us to em-
brace 10 everyday tips to live better. With ‘My
heart, Your heart’ as the theme for this year’s
World Heart Day on September 29, cardiolo-
gists have put together a slim document, ‘Ten
Commandments for Creating Heart-Healthy
Homes’ (see graphic), in 11 languages, and sent
it out to schools and movie halls. “It is our gift
to the nation, not just to keep the heart-health
conversation on but also to take it a step
further—a call for action,” says Dr Soumitra
Kumar, general secretary of CSI. “Keep the
ten commandments in mind, follow it yourself
and teach your children,” he says.
According to the World Health Organi-
zation, of the 54.7 million deaths across the
world per year, 36 million are due to noncom-
municable diseases or NCDs like heart attacks,
stroke, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases,
hypertension and diabetes. A large proportion
of these are due to the risks related to urban
built environment: from physical inactivity
and obesity, cardiovascular and pulmonary
diseases from transport-generated air pollu-
tion, ischaemic heart disease and cancers from
household biomass energy use (coal, dung,
wood, low-cost fuel), asthma from indoor air
pollution and smoking, heat-related strokes
and illnesses. Outdoor air pollution alone is
responsible for 3.7 million deaths annually,
mainly due to NCDs, while physical inactivityHEALTH | WORLD HEART DAYGETTING
TO KNOW
YOUR
HEART
By Damayanti Datta
A guide to living the ten commandments of
the 21st century on World Heart Day 2018