Watch your lifestyle

12/11/08 Daily Graphic pg. 31
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

THE Minister of Health, Major (rtd) Courage Quarshigah, has called on Ghanaians to practise regenerative health and healthy lifestyles to increase their life expectancy from the present 57 years.
He said it behoved people to go back to the basics and practise regenerative diet as well as personal hygiene, if they wanted to live longer.
Major Quarshigah, who made the call at the opening of a five-day conference for senior nursing officers, said regenerative health and nutrition were the only way through which Ghanaians could increase their life expectancy.
The conference, which was on the theme: “Regenerative Health and the Nurse Manager”, was being organised by the Ministry of Health, in partnership with the African Hebrew Development Agency in Dimona, Israel, and it was expected to bring together 120 senior nurse managers from the Ghana Health Service, private institutions, the police, military, fire service, prisons, universities, ports and harbours, mines and teaching hospitals across the country.
The conference was expected to empower the participants with regenerative health, nursing administration and management skills.
Major Quarshigah said “it is possible for us to regenerate what we have degenerated over the years”, adding that “we can, if we choose to extend our life expectancy”.
He consequently warned youngmen who took aphrodisiacs to desist from such practice, saying that such substances caused toxic waste in one’s system, which in turn, create more health problems for people.
He said presently, hospitals across the country were overwhelmed with patients who reported that there with preventable diseases and avoidable injuries from their own unwholesome lifestyles.
The Chief Nursing Officer, Mrs Mary Osae-Addae, said the conference, which was a yearly programme, had dedicated this year’s conference to introducing the concept of regenerative health to both new and old senior nursing managers so as to enhance the health status of their clients.
She was also of the view that most nurses had little knowledge on regenerative health and nutrition programmes and, therefore, there was the need for them to be introduced to it for replication in their various outfits.
Mrs Osae-Addae said the conference would also give them the opportunity to deliberate on issues concerning nursing activities in the country.
The President of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, Mrs Alice Asare Allotey, said most diseases in the country were preventable, adding that if nurses were made to spearhead their eradication, it would go a long way to help patients to adopt them.
She called on her colleagues to lead by example, saying that “just as we demand better conditions of service, the onus lies on us to deliver up to expectation”.