Unhealthy lifestyle root cause of heart diseases, say experts

Pakistan has third-largest population of diabetic patients with 33m affected

KARACHI:

The Dean of Dow University of Health Sciences, Professor Iftikhar Ahmed, stressed on the need to prioritise nutritious foods for children over the allure of new restaurants.

“While we spend billions of rupees on dining out, we concurrently burden ourselves with billions more in healthcare costs, particularly for conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and heart diseases,” he pointed out speaking at a seminar held on World Heart Day, hosted by the Dow Institute of Cardiology.

He said that insufficient exercise and a lack of healthy foods, are the root causes of heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and other ailments.

Another speaker, Professor Akhtar Ali Baloch, said that Pakistan has the third-largest population of sugar patients in the world, with 33 million individuals affected, trailing only China and India.

He attributed Pakistan’s rapid rise in obesity rankings [from 84th to 8th in 15 years] to excessive consumption of fast food, a shortage of fruits and vegetables, and increased smoking, including the use of flavoured tobacco products.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2023.