Living a healthy lifestyle
I live in San Fernando and on mornings I frequent the running track at Skinner’s Park for my daily exercise. Sometimes when I miss making it to the “Park” in the mornings I go in the evenings. Now I have done an informal survey of the people who frequent the “Park” and what I have seen is that the majority of people there are older folks. I know that people live very hectic, full lifestyles these days, but I would really like to see more younger adults and even teenagers coming out and exercising and leading a more healthy lifestyle.
I have a niece who is studying to become a nurse and she told me that she sees on a daily basis what these “lifestyle” diseases does to patients and their families. Hypertension and diabetes are the major causes of the majority of diseases in the health care system. My niece, who was never one to exercise regularly, now runs and hits the gyms almost every day. She said she cannot allow herself to fall prey to these diseases after seeing the untold suffering of these patients. When you read these inspirational weight loss stories, in almost all of them people claim after they lost their weight they didn’t need their hypertension drugs nor diabetes medication again. Childhood obesity is something that is creeping up in our nation also. Leading a sedentary lifestyle and eating poorly will definitely lead to health complications later on.
The government could supply a hospital bed for each citizen (which is highly impractical and excessively costly) but this will never be enough if we continue on this path. We really need to take a proactive approach in how we treat our bodies. The nation will not be able to afford the ballooning health care bill if we continue to flood the hospital wards with “lifestyle” diseases. Come on Trinidad and Tobago, your health is your true wealth.
Valerie Samuels
via email