The Health and Wellness Ministries of Andrews Memorial Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, in partnership with the renowned Uchee Pines Lifestyle Institute of Alabama in the United States (US), is set to host a special symposium aimed at teaching life-saving lifestyle changes to reverse non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Yesterday’s launch at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston saw medical, government and opposition representatives providing data-driven presentations on the state of the nation’s health, with a prognosis that is good for neither the young, ageing or disabled.
Dr Derria Cornwall, consultant radiologist and director of Health Ministries at Andrews Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church, l, said the symposium’s focus will teach individuals effective and inexpensive ways to reverse lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease; manage stress and improve sleep.
“The institute (Uchee Pines Lifestyle Institute) will be working with local medical doctors, lifestyle practitioners and counsellors to deliver a series of lectures and workshops and also to do personal medical consultations,” she told the launch.
Several medical personnel from the institute will be resource persons for the symposium which will be held February 26 to March 1 at Andrews Memorial, which is located on Hope Road in St Andrew.
Among those addressing yesterday’s launch was Dr Simone Spence, who is the acting chief medical officer while Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie is on leave. She told the meeting that Jamaica is facing an NCD crisis – a staggering reality that requires urgent action from all stakeholders – and that the statistics were not good for either Jamaica or the rest of the globe.
“Jamaica is no exception to this, as, according to our Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey, one in three persons are hypertensive or have high blood pressure, but also another one in three are pre-hypertensive. And more startlingly is what Dr (Leslie) Meade would have shared, the fact that 40 per cent of these persons are unaware that they have this condition. One in eight have diabetes and more than 50 per cent of them don’t know that they have diabetes. One in two persons approximately are either overweight or obese, which we all know is a major risk factor for NCDs,” she said.
Added to that, the vast majority of Jamaicans consume less than the required daily intake of fruits and vegetables, and more than 30 per cent live a sedentary lifestyle, which is also a contributing factor to the high burden of disease.According to her, Jamaica is among the top 10 countries in the Americas for diabetes and cancer complications and deaths.
Diabetes is listed as the number-one killer in that regard. For men, the leading cause of death is stroke, while cancer remains among the leading causes of death, accounting for almost 24 percent of NCD-related fatalities in 2020, breast and prostate cancers being the leading causes.
Continuing, she said: “And there has been a significant increase from 2006 to 2021 in what we call the age-standardised mortality rates for diabetes, hypertensive disease, ischemic heart disease, and breast cancer, not because our population is aging, but really arising in the conditions regardless of the age structure of our population. And of concern also is that our people are dying younger, and getting these NCDs in the prime of their lives.”