Health experts have raised alarm over the increasing cases of asthma among students, saying adequate nutrition would prevent diseases such as asthma and ulcer.
Head of Department, HOD, Nutrition and Dietetics Department, College of Health Technology, Ilese-Ijebu, Ogun state; Mrs Olaide Folahan, stated this during a one-day seminar tagged: “Dietary management of ulcer and Asthma.”
The seminar organised by the Nutrition and Dietetics Student Association, NUDSA, of the college was aimed at addressing the high cases of asthma and ulcer among students which most times disrupt their academic activities.
Folahan blamed the high incidence of asthma and ulcer among students in schools on failure of the students to adhere properly to feeding instructions.
“When people, especially students who reside in campuses follow right nutrition, incessant rise of these attacks will reduce,”citing example of a student who developed asthma attack during one of the school’s semester examination, she said the student narrowly escaped death.
She continued: “When she was taken to the school’s clinic, it was discovered that the student violated basic nutritional guidelines for asthma patients that included avoiding too much consumption of oily foods and fast foods. This student would have died if she was not urgently attended to,” she said.
She added that if everyone eats proper diet, cases of people, especially parents spending on their children’s health will reduce.
“If a mother knows the right nutrition for her child, instead of spending N5000 regularly on drug, she can actually spend less, when the child is properly fed because good nutrition does not cost much, but lack of nutrition is far expensive to treat,” she noted.
