Angela Onwuzoo
Leading stakeholders in the health sector and key players in the food and beverage industry have said for Nigerians to enjoy physical, emotional, and mental well-being, they must embrace self-care and wellness as a way of life.
They noted that it had become crucial with the rising cases of non-communicable diseases for people to take charge of their health including health promotion; disease prevention and control which encompasses self-care and wellness.
Self-care according to the World Health Organisation is the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker.
The WHO recommends self-care interventions for every country and economic setting, as a critical path to reach universal health coverage, promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.
The stakeholders spoke at the Inaugural D’bio Wellness & Self-care Summit with the theme, “Advancing Wellness and Self-care: Prospects and Perspectives”, held in Lagos recently.
The two-day summit was designed to bring together industry leaders, health professionals, and key stakeholders to explore the latest trends, share valuable insights, and discuss the prospects and perspectives shaping the wellness and self-care industry.
The summit also examined the role of self-care in the attainment of Universal Health Coverage.
Founder of D’bio Wellness & Self-care and Convener of the summit, Dr Monica Eimunjeze, said there was a need to make self-care and wellness a topical issue in Nigeria.
“ We all have a role to play in our health outcomes, ensuring that we have positive health outcomes either for ourselves or the people we care for. So, in that regard, we must appreciate that it is a holistic thing.
” Today, we have a gathering of key stakeholders across different sectors, it is very holistic. We have stakeholders from the fields of medicine, nutrition, integrated medicine, pharmaceuticals, pharmacy, and fitness.,
“All of them have a role to play to ensure that self-care is entrenched in our communities and society.
Eimunjeze noted that her organisation’s vision aligned with the WHO’s recommendation on self-care.
According to her, self-care encompasses wellness, mental health, nutrition, physical exercise, and rational use of products or services.
Continuing, the pharmacist said, ” We need to adopt the seven pillars of self-care, Health literacy and awareness are key as we drive this agenda and get more people involved.
” It is important we embrace lifestyles and behaviours that will take us to what we need to achieve. Prevention is better than cure. If we have an understanding of our genetic predispositions and risky behaviours that we engage in and how our nutrition and diets affect us as well as an understanding of noncommunicable diseases around us such as hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and others, it will help us reduce the complications or the rise of these conditions. We must move to a state where we have better wellness and self-care in Nigeria.”
President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Prof. Cyril Usifoh, advised Nigerians to be mindful of their diets and embrace regular health checks.
He recommended they consume more organic foods, particularly traditional foods, which he said contributed to better health.
Usifoh also pointed out that regular physical activities, like trekking and consuming traditional foods, such as ogbono soup promote good health, revealing that ogbono soup for instance has anti-diabetic properties.
“These are cultural practices that we should imbibe. Unfortunately, nowadays we lead more sedentary lifestyles. Hopefully, platforms like this summit will help us formulate policies to improve health awareness, ultimately reducing mortality and morbidity”, he said,
The PSN president also warned against self-medication saying, “When people don’t need drugs, they shouldn’t take them. Drugs aren’t the solution to everything.”
Copyright PUNCH
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: healthwise@punchng.com
The post Adopt self-care to avert non-communicable diseases, experts tell Nigerians appeared first on Healthwise.