Mrs. Mara Thompson, the wife of the Prime Minister, addressed fitness and exercise in the weekly lecture at the Unity Bar yesterday. She heads the National Task Force on Physical Activity and Exercise. Coming from a sporting background including qualifications in physical education, it is a natural platform for her. She promoted a 'Fitness Fair' to be held at Ilaro Court on March 13, from 1-6pm, which will involve a range of activities such as road tennis, martial arts, skipping, hopscotch, and more for all to enjoy.Her basic point of attack was to reduce the numbers for chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs), such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes: data show that the Caribbean has the highest rates in the Americas: CNCDs accounted for about 60 percent of deaths in regions, compared to about 30 percent for infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and under 10 percent from injuries. Treating them is also costly: Barbados spent about 5 percent of its GDP on treating diabetes and hypertension. Exercise can be cheap and needs little equipment, often needing only a willingness to make time to do it.
However, as some in the audience noted, while prevention of these diseases can be helped by exercise, they can be helped too by changes in wider aspects of lifestyle, including diet.
Next week's fair is not meant to be a one-off event, and one hopes that community groups, schools, employers, employees and each individual will be encouraged to take their health and welfare in hand on a regular basis.
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