A Sedentary lifestyle Can Increase The Risk Of Non-communicable diseases (NDCs)

Abuja - Dr Yinka Awogun, a Physiotherapist at the National Hospital, Abuja, has cautioned Nigerians on sedentary lifestyle to reduce the increasing risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Awogun told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday that staying active was the cheapest and greatest way of preventing such ailments.
According to the WHO, people who are inactive, use tobacco, eat unhealthy foods and abuse alcohol have an increased risk of NCDs.

It also states that NCDs includes cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.

Awogun explained that yearly, governments at all levels invested large sums of money into budget policies to care for people with NCDs, otherwise known as chronic diseases.
 “Epidemiology has shown that the number of people with diabetes, hypertension, and obesity is on the rise and that the money budgeted for treatment is having very little effect.”
Awogun said that many people believed that having a desk job and working in an office environment was a sign of status and progress.
“They do not realise that this sedentary lifestyle has led to drastic decrease in their physical activity and increased their risk of disease.”
“We have to let go of our newly adopted sedentary lifestyle that we think is the civilised thing to do.
“So please, maintain some degree of activity, even if it is taking walks round your house, you should make it a habit.
“20 to 45 minutes of exercise is good enough twice a week, will go a long way to prevent a lot of problems that could come in with diabetics, obesity, cardiac problems, arthritics
“All those things go a long way to prevent it coming in earlier in life.”
Awogun said that keeping physically active can help a person to control their weight, reduce the risk of heart problems and strengthen their muscles and bones.
He explained that physical activity was an important component of medicine that could help prevent chronic diseases.
 “Right from our primary schools, our school games we used to have before are none existent.
“When we grew up we used to have inter house sports, everybody had fun.
“Everybody has one particular sporting activity he is interested in, “Yellow House, Blue House”, it doesn’t happen that way again.
“It goes a long way and people are so much sedentary these days.
“Everybody wants to make so much money by sitting in the office; people spend 10 to 12 hours of their day sitting the office without any physical activity.”
He said there was the need to continue to enlighten people to develop the habit of being active.
He urged governments at all levels to encourage people to return to a more active lifestyle as a way to counter the rise and costs of managing these diseases.
-NAN