Soi Lek on a mission to check lifestyle diseases

Star: When Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek sets out on his daily morning jog, he is burdened by the fact that only two out of every 10 Malaysians exercise regularly to keep fit.
And he is not proud of another fact that in the Asean region, Malaysians are ranked the highest when it comes to obesity.
“We have lifestyle diseases spreading across the nation,” he warned.
Dr Chua is on a mission to bring down the incidence of lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol.
He has already convinced the Government to allocate RM50mil for the Health Promotion Board, which will be set up under his ministry to carry out activities to promote a fitter Malaysia.
The Health Promotion Board Bill will be tabled at this Parliament sitting. The board will be headed by a chief executive officer and its members will include officials from various non-governmental organisations and professional people.
“The board will function like a private sector body. We want the leadership to run it like a business because we want to emphasise the importance of fighting lifestyle diseases,” said Dr Chua.
And health promotion, he stressed, was imperative if Malaysia was not to be saddled with such diseases.
As he sees it, the individual is ultimately responsible for his own health but the upward trend in lifestyle diseases is not comforting at all.
He said 30% of Malaysians suffered from obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol, while 8.5% suffered from diabetes.
“About 80% of Malaysians do not exercise.
“If we don't exercise and eat the right food regularly, then our immune systems will break down and we can be vulnerable to diseases,” he added.
According to Dr Chua, the number of kidney patients on dialysis machines in Malaysia was among the highest in the region.
And half of them are related to complications related to diabetes.
“Twenty years ago, only 6% of the population had diabetes. A lot of people think that we will hit 12% by 2020,” Dr Chua said.
In addition to lifestyle diseases, Malaysia is also facing a range of emerging diseases like avian flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome while others such as tuberculosis and malaria are making a comeback.