Regular exercise, healthy diet can lead to a host of benefits, journalists told

KARACHI: Working journalists were urged to adopt a healthy lifestyle to remain physically and mentally fit as around 75 to 80 percent of the journalists and their family members screened for Body Mass Index (BMI), hypertension and diabetes in Karachi were found to be overweight and obese, with many having problems of hypertension and uncontrolled diabetes.

Similarly, over 80 percent of the journalists had weak bones while many of them were leading towards having osteoporosis, experts said and urged them to take preventive measures, which include regular exercise, proper and balanced diet, overcoming calcium and vitamin D deficiency and avoid smoking.

"Today we have screened around 100 working journalists and unfortunately, most of them were overweight while many of them were obese. Most of them were found to be hypertensive, had uncontrolled or borderline sugar while their bone mass density suggested they had weak bones, leading to the condition of Osteoporosis," Irma Zameer, Coordinator at Advanced Laboratories said while speaking at a health screening camp at Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Saturday.

The health screening camp was organised by the health committee of Karachi Press Club (KPC) in collaboration with Advanced Laboratories and Seha division of Jungl Ltd., an online health facility at KPC premises where several screenings and health consultation facilities had been arranged for the journalists.

Facilities of fasting and random blood sugar test, cholesterol, uric acid, HBA1C, BMI, Bone Mass Density (BMD) as well as some other advanced tests and consultation with an assistant professor of medicine was arranged for the journalists and create awareness about importance of healthy lifestyle to remain physically and mentally fit.

Dr Saud ur Rehman, an assistant professor of medicine from Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Karachi who examined around a 100 journalists, was of the view that people need to resort to daily exercise and physical activities to control their weight, saying abdominal obesity was seen among most of the journalists, which leads to diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in Pakistan.

"Men as young as 22 to 25 years of age are having heart attacks in our country, which shows the severity of the problem and that is sedentary lifestyle. We need to take out time for rigorous exercise on daily basis to keep our weight in control. We need to improve our diet and also avoid smoking and use of drugs to remain healthy and fit," Dr Saud ur Rehman said.

Dr Farhan Qureshi, head of business development at Jungl Ltd, said they were concerned about the health issues in the society and come up with a tech-based solution where people could consult a health consultant online, had their tests done at their home while medicines are delivered to their doorsteps.

Organisers of the health camp lauded the support rendered by the management of Karachi Press Club (KPC), especially Secretary Rizwan Bhatti, President Fazil Jamili and vowed to continue holding screening and awareness activities for the journalists at KPC.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021