The Chief Medical Director, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Prof. Akin Osibogun, on Friday identified unhealthy lifestyle as the major cause of high rate of sudden deaths in Nigeria.
Osibogun told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that excessive drinking of alcohol, abuse of tobacco, consumption of fried and junk foods and sedentary activities were major risk factors leading to cardiovascular diseases.
He said: “Sudden death due to cardiac origin is due to several factors, chief amongst which will be issues of lifestyle.
“Of course, there are various risk factors, some of them are modifiable and some are not modifiable.
“Some of the risk factors will be hereditary, which is not modifiable, some will be hypertensive reasons and some, of course, will be due to lifestyle, use of alcohol, abuse of tobacco and sedentary lifestyle.
“There is an increase in death due to cardiac origin.
“That increase can be due to two main reasons.
“One, improvement in our ability to diagnose and two, those changes in lifestyle.
“Now we are taking a lot of fast foods, fried food items and so on.”
According to him, the rate at which people die from cardiovascular diseases is becoming a public health concern.
Osibogun called for public enlightenment to educate people on the benefits of walking, jogging and regular exercise to healthy living.
He stressed that cardiovascular diseases were the main causes of sudden death around the world, especially when not properly managed.
He also advised Nigerians to do medical check-ups at least twice in a year, modify their lifestyles by exercising regularly and adhere to healthy eating habits.
Osibogun said: “So, what we need to do is to carry out a massive campaign to encourage Nigerians to walk for health, because you don’t need to buy any kits to walk.
“So, jogging and walking are the cheapest forms of exercise.
“And then to also modify our diets, to reduce our salt intake, to reduce the oil in our food and to take more of vegetables.
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