Support for the one heart many lives campaign

Heart Foundation

Medical Director of the Heart Foundation, Dr Diana North commends PHARMAC for having the vision to pilot this new campaign.

“It is exciting to see a campaign specifically for men, especially in regional areas with higher proportions of Maori and Pacific peoples. These people are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and this campaign is designed to help them to reduce their risks by encouraging them to visit their health professional for risk assessment and then to receive the appropriate information to make lifestyle changes,” said Dr North.

Sport And Recreation New Zealand

“SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand) supports the heart disease campaign being piloted by PHARMAC. A lack of physical activity is one of the risk factors for heart disease. If all New Zealanders did at least 30 minutes a day of physical activity that would be a great start in helping prevent heart disease.”

Diana O'Neill, Senior Advisor – Health

Quit Group

The Quit Group Medical Advisor Dr Peter Martin applauds the PHARMAC campaign and says it’s an important reminder to New Zealanders about the dangers of smoking.

“Most people are aware of the link between smoking and lung cancer, but people seem less aware of the harm it can cause their hearts. Smoking damages your blood vessel walls, speeds up the clogging of arteries with deposits, raises blood pressure and makes the heart work harder. But the good news is that quitting smoking has major and immediate benefits – the risk of heart attack decreases within one day of quitting, and a year after giving up the danger of heart disease is reduced by a half,” he says.

Dr Martin says the link between smoking and cardiovascular risk is yet another reason for smokers to consider quitting.

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