Vice Chancellor Health Services Academy Islamabad Prof Dr Shehzad Ali Khan here on Sunday said the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have increased to dangerous levels and would further rise amid no change in people’s lifestyle.
“It takes time to change the lifestyle as 90 percent of Pakistanis do not do physical activity and only 10 percent of them only walk or exercise, leading to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) during the last ten years,” said Dr Shehzad while addressing the concluding session of a two-day international conference on “Non-Communicable Diseases” (NCDs) under the auspices of the Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) along with Chairperson, Chancellor Riphah University Rawalpindi Dr. Hassan Mehmood Khan.
Prof Dr Shehzad Ali Khan said that six of the health disorders were those caused due to our wrong choice of food and drink. “In the future, 48 percent of men and 8 percent of women in Pakistan will use tobacco. Despite being an agricultural country, 75 percent of the people do not use fruits or vegetables on a daily basis, while 90 percent of the people were asked if they sleep, watch TV, or use mobile phones, 15 to 40 percent of young people have high cholesterol, one in four people suffer from hypertension, 90 percent people suffer from these diseases, 13 percent of the population is bearing diabetes,” he said while highlighting the outcomes of Global Diseases Survey being carried out. The Global Diseases Survey is conducted every ten years. The survey showed a gradual increase in non-communicable diseases. We need to adopt healthy foods to get rid of them, he added.
Chairperson, Chancellor Riphah University Rawalpindi Dr Hassan Mehmood Khan said the Department of Lifestyle Medicine headed by Shagufta Feroze was started at Riphah University two years ago. “We also regularly conduct a three-month Lifestyle Medicine course. No disease can be cured by drugs alone. To control it, we have to change our lifestyle. We will try to make it a part of the curriculum in the coming days,” he added.
In the last ten years, no questions have been asked about nutrition and lifestyle, health promotion, this was not just a problem for Pakistan, but for the whole world, he added.
Deputy Director, Ministry of National Health Services, Dr Samra Mazharne said mental illness was the fifth most common non-communicable disease. “We have to allocate a special portion of the budget to control diseases, which was not done in the budget 2021-2022, we have to focus on primary health care, need the cooperation of food and agriculture department and we have to choose healthy foods,” she added.
Director of Riphah Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, Dr Shagufta Feroze said, “We need pharmacologists and we have to take care of people from childhood to save them from heart diseases. John Kerry founded Life Medicine in 2004, and the WHO is assisting us in controlling non-communicable diseases (NCDs), she added. There are 24 countries whose experts are conducting research on this issue. Dr Shagufta further said, if we do not change our lifestyle for better health, we will develop different kinds of disorders in girls and adults.
Executive Director, Polish Society of Lifestyle Medicine, Dr Alicja Baska said that eating healthy foods was the best precaution to avoid diseases. NCDs are more common in heart patients, she said. Associate Professor of Riphah Institute of Lifestyle Medicine Tahira Sadiq said we have to change our eating habits especially by avoiding junk food as if you change your lifestyle in a positive direction it will keep you safe.
Later, 10 students from different educational institutions also shared their research papers.
At the end of the conference, President PANAH Major General (R) Masud Ur Rehman Kiani and Sana Ullah Ghumman, General Secretary of PANAH, thanked the guests of Ripah University and presented shields to the guests. The conference was followed by a series of questions and answers.
