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On Saturday, 13 CARICOM countries observed Caribbean wellness day. It’s an attempt to spread the word about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and no Belizean has campaigned for that more publicly than Jacqueline Godwin, so she joined in – even if it meant getting out there, very early.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
As morning broke on Saturday, Belizeans both young and old turned out to walk and run in the first Caribbean Wellness Day, an aggressive regional campaign to prevent and reduce chronic and non communicable diseases.  

Dr. Peter Allen, CEO – Ministry of Health
“I think we’ve got a healthy turnout but of course it could be much healthier. It is the September celebrations and it is early in the morning but I think it does a little bit show that health, exercise, proper diet, and proper nutrition isn’t high on people’s agenda.”

But a 2006 survey reveals why we should start exercising and eating healthy.
 
Dr. Peter Allen,
“It is a very serious situation. Our information suggests that more than 70% of the population over 20 is either overweight or clinically obese and of that population, I believe the figure is 33% are already hypertensive or have high blood pressure and that close to 14% are already diabetic and these are conditions that have strong lifestyle components. They are very strongly related to diets and exercise.”

In fact for the past twenty years cardiovascular diseases such as diabetes and hypertension have been the leading causes of hospitalization in Belize.

Dr. Jorge Polanco, Director of Health Services
“We are aware that the type of diet, the type of nutrition consumed by the entire population, children and adults, is not the best. There is an excess in the calorie intake, there is an excess in carbohydrates, and an excess in fat.”

Lots of reasons to worry, but in Belize the first observance of this healthy initiative was not well attended and sent a very strong message that much more work needs to be done.

Participant,
“I think unfortunately it will take persons to discover they have certain conditions that they could have prevented and if we only do that before, learn from other person’s experiences so that we don’t have to suffer some of the inconveniences rather than doing things before as a preventative measure.”

Dr. Jorge Polanco,
“You visit every school in the country and you will not find one that outside the gate or somewhere on the compound or near the compound you have a little stall full of sweets and almost all the products there are excess sugars in different ways, in ideals, in slush, in chewing gums, in sweets, in biscuits, etc. It is an excess intake of sugars.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
And you know Belizeans have a million and one excuses as to why they can’t start exercising.

Matron Hemmans, Participants
“I think we need to look at a way of empowering them, I think it is important to sell prevention – what does prevention mean. I think we fall short in that area. I know it is a question of attitude but people need to be empowered with information.”

Dr. Jorge Polanco,
“If the students, the young adults, or the entire population is not exercising, if they are not consuming the amount of calories, burning the amount of calories that they ingest, then that becomes deposited fat and that leads to obesity, I would not say in the long run, immediately.”

Dr. Peter Allen,
“If we don’t control those kinds of diseases, they create very significant problems later, especially heart attack and stroke and of course one of the big challenges for patients with a history of diabetes and hypertension is end state renal failure and then the need for diabetes. Cancer is affecting more and more of our people all the time and then much of it can be prevented or screened with pap smears, mammograms and breast examinations and prostrates, specific tests for men. The really important thing about the chronic and the non-communicable diseases is that many of them can be prevented.”

And that is why the Ministry of Health has definite plans for both adults and children to prevent and reduce the chronic and non communicable diseases and all of the complications. According to Minister of Health Pablo Marin there are plans to hold a school challenge competition after being motivated by the recent battle of the bulge health series aired on Channel7.    

Hon. Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
“Right now we have plans to do in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to start to work in different schools and see if this school weighs maybe 1,000 pounds, the school reduces their weight like what you were doing, so that is part of the idea. We saw you doing that and we saw it on the TV and we saw it was very good and we tried to do something with that with education. These are some of the things we are doing. Also right now we are trying to pass legislation with smoking, prohibiting smoking which is causing cancer and drug driving also. So we have to have more tests in the roads so that is what we have to do.”

Dr. Peter Allen,
“And the trick is to manage and to persuade people that it is important enough that they change their behavior. I think we have to keep repeating the message and I think we have to keep pointing out that we need to stay healthy for ourselves but we also need to stay healthy for our families and our children because they depend on us to provide for them.”

Dr. Jorge Polanco,
“The approach is basically that instead of putting all the efforts and focus on taking care of diseases, a lot of emphasis will now be put on keeping the population healthy.”

Matron Hemmans,
“I’m part of this process because as a health care provider I am quite cognizant of the gross number of non-communicable diseases that can be prevented and one way of doing it is through exercise and yes I am fit but at the same time it is also important to send the message, to sell it to the people that we need to take charge of our level of wellness.”

It is not certain just how many people on the sideline were motivated to get right with their health as they watched the runners and walkers pass by but one thing is certain and that is if you do not start to eat right and exercise you will be among the statistics hospitalized over the next ten to twenty years. Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7NEWS.

The theme for Caribbean wellness day was “love that body, love that mind.”