When man is serene and healthy the pulse of the heart flows and connects, just as pearls are joined together or like a string ofred jade then one can speak ofa healthy heart. - Huang Ti (The Yellow Emperor) (2697-2597 BC)
Nei Ching Su Wen, Bk. 5, Sect. 18
(tr. by Ilza Veith in The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine)
The final sessions of the International Heart Health Conference, held May 24 to 29, 1992, in Victoria, focused on the refinement of the Victoria Declaration on Heart Health. This declaration, along with two supporting documents (“Call for action” and “Framework for policy and action”), was prepared by the Advisory Board of the International Heart Health Conference.
The declaration was authorized by the individual advisory board members and not their respective organizations. Other contributors were the members of the Scientific and Program Committee of the International Heart Health Conference and individual participants at the conference. Readers are invited to use the declaration as their personal document to influence their professional associations and municipal, state, provincial or federal governments. However, no policy statement on cardiovascular disease can ever be complete, so complex is the field. We urge that you build upon the declaration and use it as a starting point for critical re-examination of its relevance to you, your institutions, your community and your country. We, in turn, will continue to pursue adoption of the declaration through advocacy and refinement of the recommendations as needed.
The following is the executive summary and the declaration.
Executive summary
Cardiovascular disease is largely preventable. We have the scientific knowledge to create a world in which heart disease and stroke are rare. In such a world everyone, from infant to elderly person, would have access to and would practise positive healthy living.
In most cases cardiovascular disease is brought about by some combination of the following factors: smoking, high blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol level, unhealthy dietary habits(including excessive alcohol consumption), obesity, a sedentary lifestyle and psychosocial stress.
Healthy living includes good nutrition, a tobacco-free lifestyle, regular physical exercise and supportive environments. To implement a global policy of cardiovascular disease prevention, we must unite people and their communities with health care professionals,scientists, industry and policymakers.
From studying downward trends in cardiovascular disease in certain industrialized countries, we are learning how to reduce the toll of such disease, although it still remains a major problem.
The primary challenge now is to maintain the downward trend while assisting and encouraging countries where rates of heart disease are increasing(developing countries and those in central and eastern Europe) to prevent the epidemic from spreading.
The prescription is simple. To implement it is more difficult. The promotion of heart health on a global scale requires clear agreement on policy principles, implementation processes and the partnerships to make it happen.
The prevention of cardiovascular disease requires the prevention of the onset of risk factors in children and youth everywhere and in entire populations of countries where cardiovascular disease has not yet reached epidemic proportions as well as the elimination or reduction of risk factors in all populations.
The control of cardiovascular disease requires healthy living for everybody, regardless of age, sex, race or socioeconomic status. It also requires equitable access and appropriate treatment for people who are at high risk of or have cardiovascular disease.
This will require mutual assistance involving people and communities within countries and between nations; a balance between prevention and treatment and between basic, applied and evaluative research; extensive communication, education and feedback evaluation at all levels; and action by individuals, many professional associations, communities and governments.
The advisory board believes that all concerned with improving the health and quality of life of people around the world have a responsibility to heed this “call for action.” It can be done.
Declaration
Recognizing that the scientific knowledge and widely tested methods exist to prevent most cardiovascular disease, the Advisory Board of the International Heart Health Conference calls upon professionals in health care, media, education and social science, and their associations, the scientific research community, government agencies concerned with health, education, trade, commerce and agriculture, the private sector, international organizations and agencies concerned with health and economic development, community health coalitions, voluntary health organizations and employers to join forces in eliminating this modern epidemic through the adoption of policies and the implementation of programs of health promotion and disease prevention, as well as through regulatory change directed at entire populations.