Sedentary lifestyle pushing Pakistan’s children into early graves: experts

Compared to other ethnic groups across the world, Pakistani children and youngsters are programmed to have heart diseases, diabetes mellitus and hypertension due to their genes.

At the same time, because of their unhealthy lifestyle, children as young as those that fall in the 12-18 age group are having high blood pressure and diabetes, while young men and women in their late 20s and early 30s are dying due to heart attacks.

“Pakistanis are at a higher risk of having hypertension, diabetes and ischemic heart disease [IHD] due to their inherited genes.... There is an urgent need to conduct research and collect data to find out the causes and prepare preventive strategies,” said Pakistan Cardiac Society (PCS) President Prof Feroz Memon while addressing a news conference at his office on Wednesday.

On the occasion, the PCS and the Health Research Advisory Board (HealthRab) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), through which HealthRab will finance the 4th Cardiology Research Award to promote research in the field cardiology.

According to the MoU, top three researchers will be given cash awards on their papers during the annual conference of the PCS to be held at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in October-November.

“We have come to know that Pakistanis are having heart attacks, hypertension and diabetes a lot earlier as compared to other ethnic groups. This is because of their genetic characteristics as well as their lifestyle which is making Pakistanis a diseased nation,” said Prof Memon.

He added that they are trying to promote research in the field of cardiology and risk factors leading to cardiac ailments so that the nation can be prevented from early deaths and complications of heart diseases.

He said that due to awareness and lifestyle modifications, people in other parts of the world are living healthy lives and their rate of having IHD is reducing, while in Pakistan the ratio of people having heart diseases is constantly on the rise, which should be alarming for the nation as well as the authorities.

“To save our future generations, we have decided to promote the culture of research in the area of cardiology, and in this regard HealthRab is helping us for the past three years. We hope that this research and data collected by our young researchers will help us save thousands of lives annually.”

Diabetologist and HealthRab Vice-President Prof Abdul Basit deplored the fact that except for diabetes, Pakistan lacks reliable data of other diseases, including heart diseases, stroke patients and other communicable and non-communicable diseases.

He added that HealthRab has been promoting the culture of research in the area of health care and soon Pakistan will have its own figures and data to prepare national preventive strategies. “At the moment, we are relying on American, European and other countries’ facts and figures except for diabetes, but it is hoped that soon we will have enough data and research to know what should be done to prevent our people from communicable as well as non-communicable diseases.”

He suggested PCS to launch a national survey in collaboration with the Pakistan Health Research Council and other stakeholders to get reliable data on heart diseases in the country. “Our research also shows that Pakistani children are programmed to develop diabetes and heart disease in their later stages of life. The only thing we can do is apprise them what can be done to prevent themselves from acquiring these ailments by adopting a healthy lifestyle.”

He also urged the government to launch a national awareness programme in order to educate the people about how to live a healthy and disease-free life. The PCS also signed an MoU with Sehat Kahani to provide cardiac-care facilities to the people in the remote areas of the country through telemedicine. The agreement was signed between Dr Sara Saeed of Sehat Kahani and Prof Ishtiaq Rasool, general secretary of the PCS.

Titled ‘Pakistan Cardiac Awareness and Access Program’, the MoU will produce a working partnership between home-based female doctors and cardiologists belonging to the PCS to provide health care facilities to people in the remote areas through digital medium, while Sehat Kahani experts will take care of diagnostic and other needs of the patients.