KUCHING, July 1: The rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a worrying trend in the country.
Samarahan Division health officer Dr Nur Fatihah Oh Abdullah said more and more Malaysians were now suffering from NCDs, such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Based on data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS), it could be assumed that the prevalence of NCD risk factors continues to rise.
She urged both the public and private sectors in the state to conduct more exercise programmes to boost behavioural change to reduce the risk of getting NCDs.
“We must change our lifestyles, including our eating habits, to a more balanced and healthy one. Exercise therapy has the potential in preventing NCDs through the prescription of the right amount of exercise.
“We are moving ahead to do prevention programmes in the health sector, such as promoting more awareness campaigns on the prevention of NCDs, including diabetes, hypertension and cancer,” Fatihah said at the Healthy Sarawak Carnival closing ceremony today.
Health policies aimed at preventing NCDs must also be given priority among schoolchildren.
She cautioned that NCDs such as diabetes, hypertension, hypercholestrolemia and obesity, which were rampant among schoolchildren, were diseases that could be prevented through awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyles and living conditions.
The health department reckoned that exercise therapy had the potential of treating and preventing four main NCDs, namely hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and dyslipidemia.
These therapies, which have the potential to be an alternative remedy to conventional medicine in preventing NCDs, had proven to produce many positive changes to the human body if executed in the right manner. — DayakDaily
