Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
The way to a healthy heart
Child ambassadors.
BRAVING the sun, celebrities and students turned up for walks and lectures on the occasion of the World Heart Day on Sunday. The message: Adopt a healthy lifestyle from childhood.
The theme of this year's observance was `Children, Adolescents and Heart Disease'.
About 300 school students and tiny tots from Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Chinmaya Vidyalaya and Sita Kingston, carrying pink heart-shaped balloons, walked with their teachers this morning from Labour statue on the Marina to Gandhi statue.
The young ambassadors sported T-shirts that read: "Eat to keep fit but not to become fat; Exercise...an endless commitment to life." A dozen street-side cricket teams along the way abandoned their game to make way and cheer the children.
A group of 60 boys and girls from Bharathi College for Women, Presidency, Loyola and Pachaiappa Colleges also took part in the rally, which was inaugurated by television personality Ilavarasu.
The Torrent Pharmaceuticals, the TI Cycles, the TVS Sundaram Fasteners and the Lucas TVS sponsored the event, which was organised by the Chennai Heart Education and Research Society.
S. Shanmugasundaram, honorary medical advisor of the CHEARS and a professor of cardiology in the Madras Medical College, said children were being encouraged to walk and exercise and follow a diet regimen because evidence of "fat deposits can be found at the age of three itself." Cholesterol deposit was found to be high even in poor children who came to the Government General Hospital. He attributed it to the wrong kind of food and lack of exercise.
About 150 people participated in the hour-long walk organised by Venkateswara Hospitals from Gandhi Mandapam in Guindy to the hospital on Chamiers Road.
Celebrities such as S.Ve. Sekhar, movie directors K. Balachander and Vasanth, cartoonist Madan and Naina Shah, president of Boat Club Walkers' Association, took part.
At the hospital, about 300 people participated in an interactive lecture session and underwent a free medical check up.
At the Madras Medical Mission hospital at Mogappair, students from Anna Adarsh, Stella Maris, Madras School of Social Work and MMM BITS-Pilani participated in an inter-collegiate debate on how stress can make or break an individual. Students from the MSSW won the team prize. There were lecture sessions and an open house on adult and paediatric cardiology. M. Ravi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-North), also spoke.
While most events focused on `catching children young and improving their future,' cardiac surgeon K.R. Balakrishnan dwelt on treatment to needy children and making parents responsible for the health of the unborn child.
On Saturday, about 120 children underwent screening at a free paediatric cardiology camp held at Adyar. Some of these children had been operated on for congenital heart defects. Women's Welfare Syndicate, a non-government organisation, which has funded the operation of a large number of needy children, conducted the camp.
For technology to reach the poor "it has to have a fundamental impact, said Balakrishnan, who is chief of cardiac surgery in Sri Ramachandra Medical College.
A significant number of newborns die because the family lacks money for treatment, the heart surgeon said.
By Sujatha R
Photo: R. Raghunathan
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
|
