World Heart Day 2016 – Power Your Life

This year the International Federation of CP Football is supporting World Heart Day which aims to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and to educate people on the benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle.

Held each year on 29th September, World Heart Day is organised by the World Heart Federation and is supported by UEFA. Working together with the European football family, we can all make a significant contribution to reducing premature mortality and disability caused by CVD.

The campaign theme for World Heart Day 2016 is: Power Your Life. Your heart is the body’s engine room and powers your whole body – that’s why it is so important to look after it. If you don’t look after your heart you are putting yourself at risk of CVD, which includes heart disease and stroke, and accounts for over 17 million premature deaths each year.

The good news is that CVD can be prevented by making a few simple daily changes, such as eating and drinking more healthily, taking more exercise and stopping smoking. By addressing these risk factors most premature deaths caused by CVD can be prevented.

We want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to live a longer, better, heart-healthy life. Together with World Heart Federation and UEFA, we are asking individuals and organisations, to consider making the following changes so you can Power Your Life:

• Fuel Your Heart: to adopt a healthier diet that is lower in fat, salt and sugar and to moderate your intake of alcohol over the course of the week
• Move Your Heart: to maintain an active lifestyle, aiming for at least 30 minutes of physical activity five times per week – playing football is only one way to achieve this!
• Love Your Heart: for individuals to seek professional support in attempting to quit smoking and for organisations to maintain a Smokefree environment.

How you can help:

Share your heart selfie: Join the cause to get everyone to take control of their heart health and power their lives by taking a Healthy Heart Selfie and sharing it on social media using the hashtag #WorldHeartDay.

Take the Heart IQ test: Heart IQ is a short online quiz that asks you 8 questions about heart health and gives you a score based on how much you know. At the end of the quiz you can either share your score or a Healthy Heart Selfie. Take the test at: http://worldheartday.org/

To find out more about World Heart Day please visit the website​

Facebook:       /worldheartday

Twitter:            @worldheartfed

Instagram:       @worldheartday

Hashtag:          #WorldHeartDay + #PowerYourLife