Aimed at promoting healthier living, Health Ministry to sign charter

A health and wellness fair will be hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Friday by the Health Ministry in Collaboration with the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO).

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, pointed out that several booths promoting healthy living and offering health services will be available to the public. It was noted that Caribbean Wellness Day (CWD) is a regional response to the threat posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), according to the Caribbean Public Health Agency.

“It’s not just about looking at exhibits, it’s also interacting with the people who would be able to explain how to embrace a healthy lifestyle, so there will be lots to learn and I’m sure people will be surprised that you can make small and simple that can result in a big difference in terms of longevity and a healthy lifestyle,” Dr. Anthony said during his COVID-19 update on Monday.

It was noted that the ministry will also sign a charter with several agencies, aimed at promoting healthier living in Guyana on Friday.

“What we are trying to do is to get more companies, more agencies, more entities understanding the concept of wellness and to get their workforce to stay well. What that means is that we want to do more of the preventative aspect, trying to prevent people from getting sick and the way that we can do that is for people to embrace a different type of lifestyle,” Minister Anthony said.

The minister stressed the importance of a healthy diet and reducing risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and the use of harmful drugs.

The health minister disclosed that exercise is also being encouraged, as this would help to keep the cardiovascular system active.

“There are several bad habits that we have, they include consumption of alcohol, consumption of cigarettes, we [don’t] eat the right foods, we have moved away from fresh healthy foods like vegetables and so forth, we eat a lot of fast food, we drink a lot of sugar-sweetened beverages, these contribute to diabetes and so forth so, these things we have to change them,” Dr Anthony said.

The minister added that the annual event is geared at increasing awareness and promoting activities to address non-communicable diseases, as well as mental ill health.