Wellness expo for next month
Jamaica’s first Wellness and Lifestyle Expo was launched last Tuesday at Eden Gardens in Kingston.
Jamaican representative of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), Ana Treasure, in her keynote address, welcomed the initiative especially in light of health data showing an epidemiological transition in disease patterns.
“Here in Jamaica, chronic diseases, including cardiovascular – heart and stroke – diseases, diabetes, obesity and cancer, now account for 56 per cent of deaths annually. Cardiovascular disease and cancer are now emerging as the leading cause of death. Diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and certain types of cancer, such as cervical cancer, are a growing concern,” she said at the function, while adding that the management of obesity is the most important of the risk factors to control, although it’s a difficult feat.
Treasure cited the positive benefits the nation is likely to receive from the exposition and called it a timely venture.
“Mind, body and spirit: a powerful celebration of life is the theme for this wellness and lifestyle expo. At PAHO/WHO we repeat and repeat that health is not only the absence of disease but the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being,” she said. “Therefore, the theme for this expo is quite timely, due to the fact that now we are promoting that to have health, to celebrate life we need to reduce some risks factors by taking control of our mind, body and spirit,” Treasure explained.
The Ministry of Health’s Healthy Lifestyle campaign slogan: ‘It is all about what I put in, what I keep out, and how much I do’, spoke directly to the proceedings, which Treasure said, “invites us to take charge of our mind, body and spirit.”
According to Jamaica’s 2000 Lifestyle survey:
40 per cent of the population is inactive;
50 per cent eat more fats than what is recommended;
64 per cent of our males and 11 per cent of females had more than one sex partner in 1999-53 per cent of males and 67 per cent of females did not wear a condom in the last sex act;
and 40 per cent of the females had more than three pregnancies.
Treasure noted that the Healthy Lifestyles initiative is a proactive approach to health care and that to achieve the necessary behavioural changes, different sectors of the nation must work with the health sector in an integrated manner.
The Wellness and Lifestyle Expo: A Powerful Celebration of Life, is slated for April 16-18, on the Eden Gardens premises. It is expected to give exposure to the wellnes/healthy lifestyle industry, nationally and internationally. About 40 booths will be set up to accommodate the industry’s leaders, service providers, producers/developers and distributors, along with consumers seeking a more holistic and balanced lifestyle.
Blue Cross of Jamaica’s chairman Dr Henry Lowe, radio hosts Beverley Anderson-Manley and Carol Narcisse, are responsible for the inaugural staging of the island’s well-being fair.
