Sudden death: Underlying illnesses, warning signs often ignored —Expert

A cardiologist, Dr Adewole Adebiyi, has said that in medicine, no death thoroughly occurs suddenly in a person presumed to be completely healthy, and if anything, there was either an undiagnosed underlying illness or warning signs that were ignored.

According to him, no car stops or breaks down suddenly without many previous warning signs, just as human bodies don’t just breakdown without giving warnings that were either ignored or not given the necessary care.

Dr Adebiyi, who spoke at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan hospital, with the theme “Cardiovascular Risk and Regular Exercises,” said aside from deaths occurring from accidents, no other death in people who are presumed to be healthy is sudden.

He declared that the pillars of good health are self-care, good health literacy, sleep, stress management, a healthy diet, exercise, and maintaining healthy relationships.

“Self-care is important; you are not selfish when you take care of your health. Self-care is a general term that describes everything that one does deliberately to support mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing and not leave anything to chance. It is our responsibility to maintain our health; it is our responsibility to maintain our bodies until we die.

“If I have the power to do anything, it will be to ban commercial motorcycles. Even for short distances, people take okada. But physical exercises are important; the nearest thing to a cure all is regular physical exercise.”

Mrs Grace Adekoya, a public health nurse, urged Nigerians to prioritise, prevent, and control cardiovascular risks, listing these risks as including uncontrolled blood pressure and blood sugar, air pollution, smoking, high salt intake, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle.

According to her, Nigerians can imbibe the culture of routine medical checks, including blood pressure measurement, for early detection and prompt treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Oyenike Ayo-Ogunseye, a cardiopulmonary physiotherapist, recommended the use of the body mass index and waste-to-hip ratio measures for Nigerians to assess their bodies’s wellness, as well as 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five times a week for apparently healthy individuals.

Ayo-Ogunseye, however, said that walking is the most encouraged form of exercise for every age group and that it is not too late for anybody to start exercising, and there is nobody who is too sick or too well to exercise.

Earlier, Chief Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, said the hospital’s wide-grand was to educate the hospital community and the public on cardiovascular risks, as cardiovascular diseases are now the second leading killer diseases at the hospital.

“Cardiovascular diseases kill more people than cancer, even though cancer is becoming more prevalent. So it is something that we need to pay attention to, and the hospital intends to bring such topics up from time to time to educate its community and the public.”