Taming diabetes, hypertension

May 21, 2014

diabetes test

For the first time in 64 years, the Lagos Country Club held its first health seminar last Wednesday, with a special focus on three chronic diseases. The LCC threw its gates open as many Lagos residents were screened for hypertension, erectile dysfunction and diabetes.

To pull off the landmark programme, the LCC partnered with health care providers such as the Ekocorp Plc, MeCure Healthcare and Lagoon Hospitals to provide free health services for participants. The partners offered medical expertise by providing eye pressure, blood pressure and cholesterol screening. There were also blood sugar checks for interested people.

Indeed, many people defied the rain to attend the programme.

A consultant cardiologist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Olagoke Ale, said the cause of an elevated blood pressure in many individuals is unknown. But he warned against certain predisposing factors such as family history, diabetes, high salt intake, lack of exercise and tobacco and alcohol consumption.

He identified lifestyle modification such as quitting smoking, change in diet, low salt intake and weight reduction as some of the measures that could tame hypertension.

“Regular blood pressure check is advised for all adults,” he advised.

According to the World Health Organisation, diabetes affects more than 120 million people globally. It is a condition where the blood sugar in the body is dangerously elevated as a result of total or partial insulin deficiency.

A consultant endocrinologist with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Akin Dada, noted that while Type-1 diabetes occurs in younger people, Type-2 diabetes is associated “with affluent lifestyle, old age, obesity, certain ethnic groups like Africans and if there is a family member that already has diabetes. Other things noticed to be associated with the disease include sedentary lifestyle and reduced exercise,” he said.

Another lecturer at the seminar, Dr. Wale Ojewola, told participants that diabetes was a risk factor for both hypertension and erectile dysfunction.

“About 50 per cent of diabetic patients will have erectile dysfunction. However, good blood sugar control minimises the risk. Lifestyle choices like smoking, alcohol abuse and obesity impair blood circulation and may cause ED,” he warned.

But the health seminar was not premeditated, neither was it in the original plan of activities in 2014. Our correspondent learnt that it was provoked by the death of a middle-aged man who allegedly drowned while swimming in the club’s pool.

According to the chairman, organising committee, Dr. Babafemi Thomas, the unidentified man must have been diabetic or hypertensive.

“I summarised from information available to me that he suffered an initial heart attack and was desperately trying to get out of the pool but lost consciousness and fell back into the pool and drowned. He was likely to have been hypertensive or diabetic or both.”

That is not all. Our correspondent also learnt that the prime club had also recorded the deaths of more than 70 members in the last five years. In essence, prior to the health outreach, the club lost at least one member every month. The average age of the deceased persons was 63 years.

Again, Thomas is convinced that the deaths were preventable.

“It will not be wrong to assume that a sizeable amount of these recorded deaths are related to cardiovascular circumstances and, given recent advances in care of disease processes, including but not limited to hypertension and diabetes mellitus as well as predisposing cardiovascular events, these deaths were largely preventable,” he said.

Thomas expressed the hope that the seminar series would go a long way in abating incidents of untimely death among members.

He said, “This is what necessitated creating a platform to bring health education closer to Lagos Country Club members via this inaugural health seminar series which, we hope, can become an annual or bi-annual event.”

The President of the club, Mr. Adewale Osomo, told our correspondent that it was the responsibility of members to appreciate the inherent benefits of the programe. “The next step will be based on the feedback we get. As the Yoruba say, you can’t shave anybody’s head in absentia. They have to buy into it. It would be ideal if this seminar is bi-annual; but for now, it is an annual event.”

Osomo also expressed sadness over the deaths of the club members but insisted that the LCC had added value to the lives of the members.

“This is a family club. The parents register the children but once they turn 18, they have to register again. Nature has a way of accounting for its births and deaths. Being the humans that we are, we have been able to influence the course of nature.

“That is why we have hospitals and other interventions in place. Primarily, it is the focus of the club to achieve for members better quality of life, particularly as they begin to age,” he explained.