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Four million Nigerians are diabetic, says don

By Tunji Omofoye,Osogbo
21 August 2015   |   9:13 am
A university teacher, Professor Olayinka Akinwusi has alerted that about four million Nigerians are diabetic with half of the population not knowing their health status
PHOTO: weblog.liberatormagazine.com

PHOTO: weblog.liberatormagazine.com

A university teacher, Professor Olayinka Akinwusi has alerted that about four million Nigerians are diabetic with half of the population not knowing their health status

Akinwusi who is the Dean of Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Osun
State University, {UNIOSUN}, spoke at the first annual lecture of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences held at auditorium of the main campus of the institution in Osogbo.

According to her, lifestyle modifications such as healthy diet, regular physical activity or exercise, smoking cessation, alcohol reduction, abstaining from soft drinks and sugary drinks are important primary and secondary prevention strategies.

She said, “In Nigeria the prevalence was 2.2% in the 1990s through a Federal Ministry of Health sponsored Survey by Akinkugbe et al.

“The prevalence is now estimated to be 0-2% in adult rural dwellers and 6-10% in urban adults. In essence about four million Nigerians have diabetes and about ½ of them are unaware,” Akinwusi said.

Delivering a paper tagged: “Strengths and Weaknesses of Current Type 2 Diabetes Diagnostic Tools,,” an Assistant Professor of Endocrinology from the University of Virginia, United States, Dr. Ayotunde Dokun, opined that biggest driving factor of type 2 diabetes remains obesity.

He warns against the practice by many privilege Nigerians of using aides for nearly all domestic chores, while they remain inactive for most hours of the day without checks in their food consumption.

Dokun noted that obesity was becoming common among kids and developing countries because kids from privilege homes do less of energy- sapping activities but spent many hours behind computers and playing computer games.

He advocated for   increased exercises and consumption of fruits and vegetables to prevent accumulation of fat in the body system.

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