Materia Medica Malaysiana

`Lifestyle' Diseases a Concern

HEALTH: THE average Malaysian is healthier compared to some 30 to 40 years ago. What is worrying though is acute and infectious diseases are being replaced by chronic, non-infectious diseases mainly due to a lifestyle closely related to social and economic changes.
Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Professor Dr Syed Mohamed Aljunid, said the main chronic diseases were cardiovascular diseases such as ischaemic heart diseases, hypertension and stroke.
Together with diabetes and cancers, they make up the main causes of hospital admissions, he told the New Straits Times.
Cardiovascular diseases are also the principal causes of deaths in government hospitals, accounting for 23 to 26 per cent of deaths from 1994 to 2001 followed by cancers 9.34 per cent.
Syed Mohamed, who is the hospital's Professor of Health Economics and Head of the Community Health Department, says almost 30 per cent of Malaysians now suffer from hypertension.
However, he says more than half of them "are unaware they have hypertension. Only one third of them are on treatment".
As for diabetes, Deputy Director of Disease Control, Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar says it is no longer an ailment affecting those above 30 years. It is also hitting the young.
Many above the age of 20 are diabetic because of their eating habits. They consume far too much drinks with high sugar content and high calorie foods which had less fibre.
Twelve per cent of the Malaysian population are diabetic, and Zainal said more than 50 per cent of complications were linked to the ailment which was one of the leading causes of deaths.
Diabetes, which can cause blindness, renal diseases, organ loss, ulcers and impotency in men, is also a main cause of End State Renal Disease (ESRD) in the country.
The National Renal Registry statistics show that 44 per cent of the ESRD in need of dialysis are diabetic patients.
"Management of diabetes has become a great challenge in the 21st century," says Zainal.
Syed Mohamed says one main reason why Malaysians suffer from these diseases is because an estimated 70 per cent never exercised.
The focus, he adds, should be on primary prevention, health promotion, encouraging healthy lifestyles through proper diet, exercise and stress management.
People should also, he says, go for regular check-ups to enable early detection of diseases.