By Dr Rui Tomé features@algarveresident.com
Dr Rui Tomé is the Medical Director of Hospital Particular do Algarve (Alvor), Chief Consultant in Internal Medicine at both the Hospital Particular do Algarve (Alvor) and CHBA in Portimão and Chief of the Digestive Endoscopy Unit in Hospital Particular do Algarve (Alvor).
Health is probably our most precious asset and the investment we put into it is vital.
It is important to develop a culture of good living habits as early in life as possible, and it is our responsibility to educate our children about the need for responsible eating habits and adequate behaviour to protect their health.
Nowadays, excessive time is spent watching TV, playing video games and, generally, a sedentary lifestyle has been adopted.
A sedentary lifestyle leads to obesity, not only due to the lack of exercise, but also because it is often associated with “junk food” and an excessive caloric intake.
Deposits of fat in the body’s arteries take place quite early in life and can be present by the age of 10.
At first it is a very slow process and during the active years of puberty and young adulthood, its progress is negligible, unless certain other factors are also present, such as family trait, sedentarism and obesity. In these cases, the process is accelerated.
It is a fact that obesity and sedentarism are becoming more and more prevalent and we are now observing an increase in the number of illnesses associated with these factors, such as CVA (stroke) and myocardial infarction (heart attack).
More alarming is the fact that these serious illnesses, which may cause severe impairment or even premature death, are affecting people at a much younger age than we had expected.
These and other related diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and certain types of cancer are associated to the risk factors, which are commonly known and some can be prevented, avoided and even treated by adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Excessive intake of salt and sugar is associated with hypertension, obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes.
Alcohol, which is socially widely accepted, presents a very serious risk factor if safety limits are exceeded and these limits are not very high.
More than 20g of alcohol a day, about two wine glasses, on a regular basis for a few years can cause serious damage to the liver and can contribute to the development of pancreatic disease, hypercholesterolemia and hypertension.
Smoking is associated with mouth and lung cancer as well as with other incapacitating pulmonary disorders like emphysema, and is also a serious risk factor for cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases, hypertension, kidney disease and premature ageing.
There are studies that show that each cigarette smoked reduces the life expectancy of a smoker by 11 minutes. If one starts adding up these figures the result can be quite dramatic.
There are risk factors which are out of our control, such as age, race, gender and genetic heritage (in the near future one may be able to interfere with the latter).
It is very important that we educate ourselves and our children to adopt a correct attitude towards risk factors which are controllable, in order to prevent the development of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and sedentarism.
Avoiding excessive alcohol intake, smoking, consumption of excessive quantities of salt and sugar and adopting regular exercise from early ages, will help delay illness and suffering and will improve quality of life.
When diagnosed, diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and triglicerides must be treated vigorously and controlled in order to minimise its deleterious effects in the body.
Stress is another important factor that modern life has brought us and is constantly present in our competitive way of living. It is not always easy to control, but adds to the excesses mentioned above which we should try to avoid or control.
The message which I want to convey is summarised by the following well known Dalai Lama citation. When asked what surprised him most in humanity, his answer was: “MAN – because they waive their health to make money and later lose money to recover health”.
