Heart Diseases Kill Five Thais Per Hour

[george]

Heart diseases kill five Thais per hour

BANGKOK: -- Five Thai people die of heart-related diseases every hour mainly due to unhealthy diet and lack of exercise, Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkha said Monday.

The minister cited high blood pressure, smoking, obesity and diabetes as the major factors that kill Thai people. A latest survey also indicated that 86 percent of Thais regularly consume fatty food.

“To mark the World Heart Day on Sep 30, a campaign to prevent Thais from heart diseases will be launched nationwide with a four-point slogan -- stop smoking, eating healthy food, getting more exercise, and maintaining good moods,” said Dr. Mongkol.

He added that anyone who followed instructions in the campaign would be 80 percent free from heart diseases.

The World Heart Day was initiated by the World Health Organization and World Heart Federation in light of escalating fatality from heart diseases. It has been reported that 33 people die of heart-related diseases per hour worldwide.

--TNA 2007-09-24

[Martin]

These figures don't make sense. Thailand has 60 million out of 6600 million population worldwide. That is a little under 1%.

But 5 out of 33 every hour is 15%.

My guess would be that '33' in the report is a misprint for 330.

That would seem to put Thailand 'in the right ballpark', as heart disease is more prevalent in industrialised countries, and Thailand is a bit-more-than-average industrialised.

[geriatrickid]

Dr. M's concern is the prevalence of heart disease and this is his way of making sure we know. One of the problems in past years in Thailand was in the poor mortality reporting methodologies. For example Aids related deaths were under reported until 2000. Heart disease and "accidents" as well as the ubiquitious "Unknown" were over reported. All of a sudden they went, ut oh, we got a bigger Aids problem then we had thought and they put alot of resources into AIDS. Unfortunately, other preventable diseases were sort of neglected. Now that the reporting issues have been cleaned up, the stats show a worrying trend: Heart disease is out of control and the Big M is moving on it.

[John K]

I find this interesting. The last time I was in Isaan I had the chance to check the blood pressure of about 30 people in a village. Their age was what I would consider as senior Thais mostly 60+. I was totally surprised at how low their readings were, that I actually had to check myself to see if my equipment was malfunctioning. 95/60 was common. Out of all I checked I found only 2 that were of concern. One was border line and the other was highly elevated. Because of that I suspect this report talks mostly about non rural Thais.

[sbk]

I don't know John, where I live nearly everybody has high blood pressure. They fry everything, used to cook everything in coconut oil, and eat alot of oily fish. Most still use palm oil for their cooking as well.

My father-in-law, who is a fit and healthy 71 year old, has been taking blood pressure meds for years. My brother-in-law (an unfit and lazy 44 year old) has been taking blood pressure meds for the last 10 years. Most of the middle-aged/older people I know have heart disease or high blood pressure. Could be genetic, but I believe it is also the high fat diet they all eat. Fatty pork, fried foods, etc.

[lazeeboy]

the thais eat more fat than anyother country i've been in ,and most thai's smoke and drink to eccess

[John K]

The place I checked the locals was in a small village in Ubon Ratchathani not to far from where Cambodia and Lao meet. I don’t know exactly where you are but most of the foods there were not fried to my observation. It was during SongKran 2005 that I did this.

[sbk]

The place I checked the locals was in a small village in Ubon Ratchathani not to far from where Cambodia and Lao meet. I don’t know exactly where you are but most of the foods there were not fried to my observation. It was during SongKran 2005 that I did this.

Look under my name Koh Phangan is in Surat Thani, just off Samui.

[lazeeboy]

The place I checked the locals was in a small village in Ubon Ratchathani not to far from where Cambodia and Lao meet. I don't know exactly where you are but most of the foods there were not fried to my observation. It was during SongKran 2005 that I did this.

Look under my name Koh Phangan is in Surat Thani, just off Samui.

funny in samui there are a lot of old local people ,all seem pretty healthy ,its the 30-50year olds that arn't ,the western influences started around 20-25 years ago here ,maybe its our fault introduceing them to burgers and the like

[sbk]

The place I checked the locals was in a small village in Ubon Ratchathani not to far from where Cambodia and Lao meet. I don't know exactly where you are but most of the foods there were not fried to my observation. It was during SongKran 2005 that I did this.

Look under my name Koh Phangan is in Surat Thani, just off Samui.

funny in samui there are a lot of old local people ,all seem pretty healthy ,its the 30-50year olds that arn't ,the western influences started around 20-25 years ago here ,maybe its our fault introduceing them to burgers and the like

The healthiest ones live. Unhealthy ones die off. Like I said, my father-in-law is extremely fit, strong and healthy looking but has high blood pressure. Lots of the healthy looking ones do. Our neighbor had a heart attack when he was about 62, the man had washboard abs but still had a heart attack. Because he was otherwise strong and fit, he survived. A lesser man would not have made it over to Samui like he did (hospital here is terrible).