KARACHI: Sedentary lifestyle main cause of diseases
KARACHI, April 11: Speakers at a seminar on “Importance of lifestyle in disease prevention” underscored the need for taking daily physical exercise to avoid non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Experts at the seminar, held at Vicky Zeitin Media Library of the Pakistan Press Foundation, pointed out that the people of South Asian countries were more prone to chronic, non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, respiratory diseases, hypertension and obesity, due to neglecting physical exercise in their daily routines.
They emphasised that all these NCDs could be prevented, to a large extent, through bringing changes in lifestyle, particularly in dietary habits, physical activity and tobacco use.
In his keynote speech, Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Director Dr KA Shakoor said Pakistan was among the first 10 countries in the world with high number of diabetic people. Presently the country had about 15 million diabetics.
He said 87 per cent of the urban population had sedentary lifestyle.
He appreciated the Federal Minister Mohammed Nasir Khan for enforcing ban on Tobacco from May 31, this year.
Dr Shakoor stressed on offering incentives to promote behaviour modification among the public through creating awareness among them.
He also emphasised the need of taking necessary measures to create awareness about non-communicable and communicable diseases among the people at grassroots-level, particularly in rural areas where basic health care and hygiene awareness was not available.
Dr Shakoor urged the government to place a ban on advertising tobacco products, as well as on use of cigarettes, cigars, Huqqa (pipe), and Bedi (betel), in public places, specially in educational institutions.
He further said that more than 46 per cent of the children were affected by malnutrition, while 15 per cent were ‘under-nutritioned’.
Associate Professor, Chest Medicines, JPMC, Dr Nadeem Rizvi described any kind of smoking as a big cause of lung-cancer among the people.
Dr Rizvi said both current and former smokers were at greater risk of developing lung cancer than those who had never smoked.
Delineating the common causes of lung cancer, he cited smoking, exposure to certain industrial substances, radiation, air pollution, tuberculosis and passive smoking, as its sources.
Dr Rizvi said that an early diagnosis could raise chances of survival by 85 per cent. Much progress has been made in treating lung cancer through surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, he added.
He said there was an overwhelming consensus among scientists that exposure to second-hand smoke caused the disease, disability and death. Second-hand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals and 69 known carcinogens, he added.
He referred to a recent study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organisation (WHO), which concluded that “nonsmokers are exposed to the same carcinogens as active smokers.”
Dr Rizvi said second-hand smoking was a proven cause of heart disease, emphysema and other ailments and was responsible for thousands of deaths each year.
He said children were especially vulnerable to the smoking by other people and they had to suffer from respiratory problems, slow body growth, physical weakness, ear infections and asthma.
President of the Health Oriented Preventive Education (HOPE), Dr Mubina Agboatwala, said lifestyle, including ones occupation, physical environment, habits and physical activities, was a very important factor in prevention of NCDs. .
She said that one should use nutritious or balanced diet containing vitamins, proteins, water and avoid fast or junk food, which contained high fats and carbohydrates. She said the concept of using vegetables, fruits and fibrous food, in daily diet, was being ignored or abandoned.
She said “we should promote green environment, tree plantation, sanitation and hygiene, clean drinking water, proper disposal of garbage, besides keeping roads and streets clean”.
Professor, Diet and Nutrition, Aga Khan Medical University, Dr Salma Badruddin, also spoke on the occasion.—APP
