A medical practitioner and cardiologist, Dr. Taiwo Oloyede, has advised Nigerians to maintain healthy eating habit to prevent heart-related diseases.
Oloyede gave this advice on Monday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
He said Nigerians should try to engage in regular physical exercise against the backdrop of recent reported cases of heart failures in the country.
According to him, a lot of people do not pay attention to their health because of financial constraint.
He said many Nigerians who were in the habit of eating junk foods should engage in physical exercise or give themselves enough rest to avoid having complicated heart-related diseases.
The cardiologist advised people to live on well balanced diets, saying “they should do away with crash diets/junk foods that do not provide the balanced nutrients the body needs’’.
He said to keep and maintain balance diet was not expensive, noting that plenty of fruits and vegetables should be added to daily diets.
“A well-balanced diet should include at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day while it is also good to vary the fruit and vegetables.
“Foods taken too should be lower in cholesterol, lower in fat, salt and sugar and habits like smoking and high alcohol intake should also be stopped.
“Physical exercise like jogging, cycling and trekking for at least 30 minutes should be turned to a regular habit to help the heart functioning well and enable the blood pump perfectly,” he said.
He said coronary heart disease (angina and heart attack) and stroke might be caused by the same problem – `atherosclerosis’.
“This is when the arteries become narrowed by a gradual build-up of fatty material (called atheroma) within their walls.
“In time, the arteries may become so narrow that they cannot deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to your heart and this can cause angina – a pain or discomfort in the chest.”
He, however, patients experiencing chest pain to visit the hospital for a comprehensive check-up to prevent the risk of developing heart disease or heart failure.
