Lifestyle diseases cause deaths

 MANY people in Papua New Guinea, especially leaders and businessmen, are dying from lifestyle diseases because they fail to take care of their health, according to a medical officer.

Dr Wesong Boko, the deputy chief physician for the Highlands region, said ignorance of the causes of lifestyle diseases and how to avoid them was costing lives.

Boko told a group of people at Mt Hagen last Friday on World Health Day that lifestyle diseases did not affect only those who lived in towns and cities but also in rural communities.

Hypertension or high blood pressure was the topic for the day.

Boko said people who ate a lot of fatty and greasy foods such as chicken and chips and did not do any exercise would die. He said those deaths should not be blamed on sorcery or witchcraft.

“A lot of our leaders and business people these days just eat what tastes good in their mouths without considering what happens inside their bodies,” he said.

“When you eat like this and just drive around without doing any exercise, you’re eating yourselves to death.

“When people die suddenly of a heart attack or diabetes, these are lifestyle diseases which they themselves are to be blamed for. They should never be blamed on sorcery or witchcraft as is sometimes done.”

He said every citizen should go to the nearest health facility for a regular medical check-up which includes blood pressure checks. If they find that the pressure goes beyond the normal level of 120/80, then it should be a cause for concern, especially if it reads 140/90 and above.

Boko said obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and HIV/AIDS were all lifestyle diseases.

They are cousins to one another and when one happens, others follow too.

He said in the 1960s and 70s, these diseases were unheard of because people ate fresh garden food and did a lot of physical work to keep themselves fit. This is different today as people adapt to new lifestyles and eating habits.

Boko said high blood pressure gave rise to kidney and heart diseases as well as eye problems. It is a silent killer as it has no symptoms. 

He said the best thing is to find out if one had high blood pressure by going for regular check-ups at the nearest health facility.

Boko said statistics kept at the Loo Pok Cardiac Clinic at Mt Hagen Hospital showed that the number of people with high blood pressure had increased just like HIV/AIDS. 

He said between 2008, when the clinic opened, and 2012, the number of hypertension cases rose from 108 to more than 500 and continued to increase.

He said high blood pressure was not caused by a bacteria or virus but by how we live, eat and conduct ourselves. If it goes, other health problems would go as well.