BY  Chioma Obinna
AS the 8th state-wide round of free screening for hypertension and diabetes commenced weekend, the need for life style modification has been mooted as the key management strategy for the conditions even  600,000 persons in Lagos have so far benefited from the exercise since inception in July 2007.

Hypertension and diabetes are major health problems with no cure but could be properly managed to avoid possible short term and long term complications.

* Dr Adeshina

The diseases constitute a major component of Non Communicable Diseases, NCDs and statistics show that by 2020, NCDs will be causing seven out of every 10 deaths in developing countries including Nigeria.

At a media interaction in Lagos, Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr Yewande Adeshina who explained that ideally, medication should not be the first treatment for hypertension argued that with lifestyle modification, a patient can drop up to 20 points from the blood pressure.

Adeshina said lifestyle modification like exercise, weight loss, alcohol and salt reduction and other personal habits could tremendously impact positively on a patient’s life.

She said medication is only needed when a patient is certified to be hypertensive.

She regretted that doctors most times are left with the choice of medications due to lack of culture of preventive health in order to save the lives of patients.

An estimated 100,000 persons are targeted during the exercise that would run November 14 -18 in the 20 LGAs and 37 Local Councils of the state.

She explained that the goal of the programme was to detect early asymptomatic/undiagnosed cases especially those at high risk and prevent complications through prompt and effective treatment of diagnosed cases.

She expressed hope that through the programme significant reduction in morbidity and mortality of hypertension and diabetes would be achieved in the short term and sustained in the long term.