From not doing any activity to smoking and not eating fruits and vegetables are certain lifestyle choices that are making people sick and it is really absurd to think that we suffer from diseases that stem from the choices we make on daily basis.
To prove her point of including a healthy lifestyle in our daily routine, Dr Mariam al Waili, Senior Consultant in Nutritional Medicine, Ministry of Health, cited some reasons due to which diseases like obesity and diabetes are higher in Dhofar.
In an interview with the Observer, Dr Mariam called sedentary
lifestyle along with non-consumption of balanced diet reasons behind most of the diseases and cited a data
which is important to understand people’s ignorance towards lifestyle diseases.
Against a national average of 41 per cent, 49 per cent people in Dhofar do not do required physical activity, cases of smoking is 18 per cent more in the region, and 74 per cent do not eat vegetables and fruits.
Cases of high blood pressure are 42 per cent; diabetes cases are 10.8 per cent higher; cholesterol 36.9 per cent and obesity is 45 per cent.
As an expert in Nutritional Medicine, Dr Mariam calls for awareness among people to adopt some physical activity on daily basis to get rid of certain diseases which otherwise become problematic and becomes difficult to handle without medicines.
Lifestyle diseases, according to her, include obesity, hypertension (high BP), insomnia, asthma, heart attacks, diabetes, stress related conditions like anxiety and depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, and even cancer.
Dr Mariam cites lack of exercise and overeating two most important factors for developing most of the lifestyle diseases.
She also said that a grain consumption pattern in Oman has decreased. She said people were eating whole grains more in 1960s and 1970s than today and called upon different stakeholders to promote intake of whole grain and vegetables and fruits through awareness drives.
She brushed aside general misconception that by eating vegetables and fruits human body does not get proper nutrients.
“You have to balance your diet. Don’t overeat. Diet must include vegetables and fruits. Examples are there in front of you, 74 per cent people are not eating vegetables and fruits in Dhofar and they are having all sorts of lifestyle problems more pronounced than other parts of the country,” Dr Mariam al Waili said.
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