In the small meeting room of Homburg Town Hall, the focus was recently on a topic that can make the difference between life and death in an emergency: Heart attacks and strokes. Around 40 members of the public took the opportunity to find out more as part of the "Heartbeat" campaign. The event was organised by Jessica Jung (City of Homburg) and Nina Schaubitzer (Saarpfalz district, prevention department at the health authority) in cooperation with the city administration of Homburg and the Saarpfalz district. The event in Homburg was the first time the series of events had been held in the city and was also continued in the Saarpfalz district. The campaign was previously launched in Kirkel in March and has already met with a positive response there.
The evening focussed on understandable medical insights and everyday prevention. Dr Mikdat Altay from the Department of Internal Medicine III - Cardiology, Angiology and Internal Intensive Care Medicine at Saarland University Hospital (UKS) clearly explained how heart attacks and strokes occur, which risk factors play a role and how to recognise typical - but also gender-specific - warning signs. Particularly important: clear instructions on how to react correctly in an emergency.
Linda Wilhelm, sports scientist and former employee of "Das Saarland lebt gesund!", then provided a practical look at prevention in everyday life. She showed impressively that even small changes in lifestyle - more exercise, a conscious diet or more everyday activity - can often strengthen cardiovascular health in the long term.
The subsequent question and answer session was used intensively and showed the great interest of the participants in the topic.
The two kick-off events in the Saarpfalz district clearly showed how much interest the population has in the topic of heart attacks and strokes, so that work is already underway to offer the format in other towns and communities in the district in the future.