Experts call for regular health check to battle NCDs
CITIZENS have been encouraged to regularly conduct health checks in order to undertake right measures against Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)
Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Golden Youth Organization (GYO) based in Mwanza, Dr Sanga Monali said it was imperative to conduct regular check-up for them to take right measures to prevent themselves against NCDs including diabetes, cancers, stroke and hypertension.
Mr Monali expounded that daily health screens allow anyone to familiarize with his or her health progress for easy detection of disease symptoms in order to undertake medical treatment and adopt an appropriate lifestyle including eating a balanced diet and physical exercise.
“With health checks people who will find themselves with health problems can timely carry out medical treatment procedures as prescribed by medical experts,” Dr Monali told the ‘Daily News’ yesterday.
He noted that many citizens in different regions across the country wait until it is too late to undertake medical check-up, so as to understand their health status, a situation that is harmful as it makes them incur high cost for treatment in the hope of being cured or not.
He said some diseases become chronic after existing for a long time within the human body without medical care.
He also mentioned inappropriate lifestyles including unhealthy diet, excessive alcoholism intake and smoking as well as lack of physical exercise as main factors behind prevailing NCDs.
He said since inception, the GYO has been providing health awareness to citizens by organising community health based events, school visiting, cooperating with Local Government Authorities’ (LGAs) administrators at the grass root level in Mwanza and Mara regions.
Equally, Nutrition Expert, Dr Charles Manyanga said health check culture can enable people to precisely eat a balanced diet and do physical exercise by considering what the body wants as the medical screen results suggest.
To address diabetes for instance, Dr Manyanga said health checks enable citizens to understand their body sugar level and therefore, reduce carbohydrates intake if they have high sugar levels.
Moreover, he said physical exercise should go hand in hand with repeated health checks as every given exercise fits a person with a particular body status.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) recent data, NCDs kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 74 per cent of all deaths globally.
