‘Adopt healthy lifestyles’

Saturday, December 15, 2007 Pg. 33 (The Mirror)
By Rebecca Kwei
The Programme Manager of the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Project of the Ministry of Health, Mr Kofi Adusei, has called on Ghanaians to adopt healthy lifestyles in order to prolong their lifespan.
He noted that while communicable diseases were on the increase, non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke and cancer were also increasing by the day, which was impacting negatively on the socio-economic development of the country.
He, therefore, recommended the adoption of regenerative health, which he explained was the process of using natural and non-medical interventions to continuously improve one’s health, prevent diseases and increase life expectancy.
Mr Adusei was speaking at a day’s seminar for media practitioners on the inter-relationship between physical activity and health organised by the Health Promotion Department of the Ghana Health Service in Accra.
He said most Ghanaians were increasingly consuming nutritionally deficient foods, did not engage in any form of exercise and led degenerative lifestyles.
Mr Adusei recalled that the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd), in one of his press briefings, announced a new paradigm shift which would focus mainly on health promotion, prevention of diseases and protection from injuries with curative health as the last resort.
He said adopting the principles of regenerative health which among others encouraged increase in the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, increase in water intake, engaging in moderate exercises and getting adequate rest and relaxation had been found to be good.
Citing an example, he said evidence supporting regenerative health came from the Hebrew Israelite Community in Dimona, Israel.
He said through changing their lifestyle many of the diseases currently impacting Ghana and the Western world had been virtually eradicated from the community.
Mr Adusei said the unit had evaluated regenerative health project in 11 districts of the country and the results had been good.
He added that the project was engaging in more health promotion strategies to increase awareness on regenerative health, as well as liaising with other sectors whose work impacted on the health industry in the design and implementation of appropriate interventions.
Giving a presentation on ‘Mapping of Stakeholders on Physical Activity’, the Deputy Head of the Health Promotion Unit, Ibrahim Napuli, said the findings indicated that there were 111 organisations that were engaged in promoting physical activity in the country and majority were Keep Fit Clubs.
Among recommendations were that there was the need to develop a national strategic framework on physical activity; funding and other logistic support should be made available to stakeholders engaged in promoting physical activity.
The Health Information and Promotion Officer of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Sophia Twum Barimah, giving an overview of the global strategy on diet, physical activity and health, said the WHO had prioritised the promotion of physical activity in view of its inter-relationship with the promotion of good health.
She said the strategy provided member states with a range of global policy options to address two of the major risks responsible for the heavy and growing burden of non-communicable diseases — unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.