Finland fights heart disease with healthier lifestyles
photo by Ilpo Torn (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
The municipality of in the region of North Karelia in the east of Finland is home to a remarkably successful health program. Eastern Finland once had the highest death rate from heart disease in the world. In 1972 a Finnish government led project was launched in cooperation with the WHO to combat heart disease in Eastern Finland, starting in North Karelia.
The North Karelia Project focuses on lifestyle factors in non-communicable diseases – primarily diet and exercise.
By 2006 the annual mortality rate of coronary heart disease in North Karelia in the working age population had fallen approximately 85 %, compared with the rate before the Project.
–National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland
Check out this video report on the Karelia health project from NBC:
NBC Nightly News – Creating a healthy community
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by Graham Land
Graham Land grew up in Washington, D.C., where he was part of the local hardcore punk scene. Through this unique musical movement he became involved in grass roots anti-racist activism, animal rights and Ecology. Since 2000 Graham has lived in Europe, earning an MA in history from Malmö University in Sweden and working as a musician, English teacher, sports therapist, customer service agent and writer. Graham has a podcast with author Saci Lloyd and is currently pretending to work on his first novel.
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Tags: disease, Finland, Health, heart, Karelia, NBC, north, project
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