Stress and the police in any part of the world are a synonymous pair. The more than 24-hour work schedule with erratic hours of food and sleep and hardly any time with the family triggers stress and a host of diseases.

Saffola Healthy Heart Foundation and the Indo-American Cardiac Diagnostic Centre (IACDC) have come together to organise free stress tests for over 600 employees of the Mumbai Police Commission. The tests are already underway and will continue till the end of this month.

The camp was inaugurated by police commissioner M N Singh, who was of the opinion that "not only will our force benefit from the tests, it will also help build awareness amongst the general public on the need for preventing heart diseases." Lauding the Saffola Healthy Heart Foundation and the IACDC for their initiative in holding such a camp, the commissioner urged them to continue these efforts. On his part, Harsh Mariwala, chairman, Marico Industries, promised that the Saffola Healthy Heart Foundation "will continue to hold similar camps to create awareness and support the cause of preventive heart care."

The Saffola Healthy Heart Foundation was formed in 1993 with the objective of educating the consumer about heart and heart care. The foundation now proposes to extend its camps to other high profile professionals like executives, corporates, journalists and the like. Outlining its future programme, Pranab Datta, chief executive officer, Health Care, said, "We are still in the process of zeroing in on the target group for whom we would like to hold such stress tests in the future such as the policemen. However, we have received a number of enquiries from younger-level executives who are keen to know more about heart care."

The Foundation has a website, www.saffola-india-com, which gives access to a minefield of information and advice regarding heart care through diet and nutrition. "We had recently released a cookery book, Sanjeev Kapoor's Khazana of Healthy Tasty Recipes, which was very well received," added he.