Many deaths related to heart illnesses are preventable by making lifestyle changes and using medication correctly, Tainan Deputy Mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左), a medical doctor, said on Facebook on Sunday.
The advice came after 72-year-old Hoklo singer Kuo Chin-fa (郭金發), who collapsed on stage during a concert on Saturday, died after he suffered cardiorespiratory failure, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said on Sunday.
Yen said people with heart problems should be particularly cautious as winter approaches, adding that people taking medication should talk to their doctor about the most effective methods for taking their medications.
Yen said that because the temperature varies throughout the day more dramatically in winter, the chances of heart problems increase.
Several years ago Yen began giving out health-reminder cards after seeing what he considered to be preventable cardiovascular-related deaths.
On the cards Yen lists 10 common causes of cardiovascular illness and provides advice on how to take nitroglycerin tablets, which are commonly prescribed to people with heart disease.
Angina is chest pain or discomfort caused when the heart does not get enough oxygen-rich blood. It has 10 common causes: high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, aging (over 45 for men, 55 for women), hereditary conditions, lack of physical exercise, emotional or work-related stress and poor work-life balance, Yen said.
Angina manifests in the form of pain and tightness in the chest, even spreading sometimes to the left arm, shoulder blades and teeth, Yen said, adding that sweating and dizziness often follow.
Yen said that when people diagnosed with angina become symptomatic they must immediately take their medication and call 119 for emergency assistance.
“If the symptoms do not dissipate within five minutes of taking a nitroglycerin tablet, the person should take a second one, and again a third one if the symptoms persist in another five minutes,” Yen said, adding that people diagnosed with angina should keep their medication close-by at all times.
“Once the packaging [for nitroglycerin tablets] is opened the lid must be kept on tightly whenever not in use in order to prevent moisture from damaging the pills,” Yen said.
“And people need to be sure that the medication has not expired before taking it,” he added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching