According to a research by Herbalpro, a herbal solution company that focuses on providing prevention and improvements to the most prevalent illnesses and diseases through herbal products, Obesity is on the increase in Nigeria.
A person is said to be overweight when the person’s BMI (body mass index) is 25 to 29.9 and considered to be obese when the BMI reaches 30 and above.
Obese may lead to serious health consequences such especially cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorder, cancer of the colon, breast and endometrial causing premature death and disability.
The study which commenced in 2015 showed that there was a 25% increase in cardiovascular cases from 2015 to 2016 with the first quarter of 2016 recording more causalities than the third and fourth quarter of 2015. It also stated that high blood pressure is on the rise with 2016 recording a 42% increase of new cases.
Looking at the possible cause of increase, Herbalpro found out that the rise has to do with diet which may be influenced by the increase in the cost of living, lack of sanitization about healthy living and the stressful nature of the economy at present coupled with the lack of proper diagnostics and treatment centers.
The research went further to state that individuals with protruding stomach also stand a risk of dying from heart related diseases than those with a normal waistline even though they have healthy weight.
Herbalpro concluded the research by stating that the government and other concerned institutions should make available proper sanitization on the importance of eating healthy, inclusion of healthy foods in diets, exercise, remedies to weight loss as well as adequate facilities to combat the heart related diseases so that Nigeria can become free of this illness that plagues 36% of its total population
