Health Ministry launches awareness campaign on lifestyle diseases

IN an attempt to move citizens away from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthier one, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the ministry is working on another step to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol.

Addressing the media Friday at the launch of TT Moves, an awareness campaign addressing NCDs, at the Brian Lara Promenade, Port of Spain, Deyalsingh said those who suffer from NCDs end up in hospitals, clogging the accident and emergency departments.

He said Friday’s event is a continuation of a plan the ministry launched earlier this year to get this country to move from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthier one.

“When I say a healthier lifestyle, I mean how we eat, how we exercise, controlling our stress levels, moving away from this, as social-media electronic toys which shackle us to a device and we sit down.

“We have to start to exercise some more. Simple walking, simple jogging. We have to bring into our diets healthier options like fruits. Today we are giving out fruits and fruit trees. We want people “to gradually change their lifestyles, not change today for tomorrow.”

Deyalsingh said it is estimated that there are 150,000-175,000 or more people with diabetes, and approximately 500 or more amputations of limbs a year, frightening figures for a small country like TT.

“We want to bring those statics down. When you look at your... admissions that clog up an accidents and emergency (department), a lot of them are not cuts or asthma. A lot of it is people who have uncontrollable diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension, because of their lifestyles.

“This is an effort to get people to live a healthier lifestyle.

“We are starting to see some tangible results. We have seen some positive signs at the North Central Regional Health Authority, where we took a decision and looked at people coming to the A&E on a regular basis.

We are now going to the homes of those people. What we are seeing is a decrease of those people using the A&E as a revolving door.”

Deyalsingh also said the NCRHA is starting a pilot diabetes wellness centre which will be rolled out throughout all RHAs, and where citizens with diabetes can go to a one-stop shop for advice, testing and medication.

He said screening is one of the most important stages because one of the biggest issue with NCDs is amputations.

“People with diabetes, when their nerves go dead in their feet, when they get cut or whatever, their nerves are dead and they don’t feel the pain.

When the cut gets infected they do not heal. When you don’t heal, we have to amputate a toe. You don’t stick to your diet and your medication: we have to amputate below the knee. Then we have to amputate above the knee. So the diabetes wellness centre will help with an initiative like that.”