Sweets should be replaced by Fruits at happy occasions
Prof. Ahmad Bilal’s address at PHL Meeting
MULTAN: Prof. Ahmad Bilal an eminent consultant physician with special interest in diabetes has been promoting the concept of Life Style Medicine and believes that Life Style modifications remains a purposeful tool and cost effective intervention to promote health care. Whenever and wherever he makes a presentation, he effectively conveys the message to healthcare professionals in general and people at large in particular. He has been advocating this approach now for many years. At the recently held 27th Annual Pakistan Hypertension League conference at CPE Institute of Cardiology, his presentation in the pre-inaugural session was on “Your Lifestyle is your Medicine”. This was a unique presentation at a time when all other speakers mostly talk about drug therapy, primary PCI or other cardiovascular interventions which is not the solution to the problems we face in Pakistan keeping in view the burden of the disease. We need to give preference to prevention but not many physicians are interested in prevention.
Prof. Ahmed Bilal
Prof. Ahmad Bilal said that we have to practice preventive and protective medicine, take care of physical inactivity, ensure healthy life style and use of balanced healthy diet to reduce morbidity and mortality. Stress management and quality of sleep were other important issues to reduce morbidity and mortality. Sweets should be replaced with Fruits at happy occasions. We need to educate our population. BMI is mostly low in educated Nations. He also revealed that he has been working with NIBGE an institution in Faisalabad for patient screening. They have over three hundred scientists and two hundred other staff. After five years, the benefits of this screening, lifestyle modifications are visible as their health budged has been reduced by 50%. Instead of talking about weight loss, he jokingly remarked, we need to emphasize on Pait loss meaning reducing the abdominal weight through reduction of abdominal obesity. A cultural change has to come in Pakistan. The people should be advised to ensure that they consume at least 50% vegetables in their diet and practice healthy eating. Regular exercise and stress management, avoiding processed food will prove extremely rewarding, he remarked.
Prof. Javed Iqbal former Principal of Quaid-e-Azam Medical College who has now become a motivational speaker also addressed the meeting in this session and talked about “Is our life purposeful”. Purpose of my life, he stated, was to help colleague healthcare professionals, improve the physicians. We all should make it our objective anything that we do if it is necessity, then it is not the purpose. Our objective should not be our need, it should also not be time bound. Whatever we do must benefit others, only then the Life will become purposeful, he remarked.
