Pay attention to changes of lifestyle, Physiotherapist urges senior citizens

Mr. Abdulsalam Shuaibu, a physiotherapist in the Sport Medicine Department of the Federal Ministry of Sports Development, urged senior citizens on Sunday in Abuja to pay more attention to the changes in lifestyle.

Shuiabu, at a medical outreach organised for a senior citizens group, stated that paying attention to the changes in lifestyle would enable them to avoid illnesses that may want to set in at old age.

Supreme News reports that the medical outreach was organised by the Axios Senior Citizens Foundation, an NGO caring for the elderly in different ways of life.

He said that one can prevent a lot of things including sicknesses at old age when much emphasis was paid to the changes of the lifestyle, while calling on the elderly to start such practices from this moment on.

Shuaibu said, “The concept now is to pay emphasis mostly on lifestyle changes, normally when we are aging a lot of things come down in our body, you don’t stress the organ when you know that their workings are going down.

“You must know when to watch the do’s and don’ts required by the body, as elders, there are certain things that will present themselves as problems, things as simple as hydration, taking of water might be of help to you.

“Taking water can prevent certain illnesses that disturb the elderly, so old age illnesses can be prevented if you do things right.

“My advice for the elders is to watch what they eat, watch how they grow, they should try and be active instead of sitting down lonely in just one place.

“They should try and do some basic exercises; things like this are good for them; watch their diet; and rest when necessary.”

Dr. Ohida Onimisi, a family physician at Asokoro Hospital, advised the senior citizens to study their body systems, adding that ”disease management is beyond given medication.”

According to him, paying attention to lifestyle will help the elderly prevent complications that follow disease conditions, adding, ”Health education will help them to know much about lifestyle modification.

“We are happy to be here as usual; it is an annual event. Before we had this exercise, we had a meeting to assess what patients were going to come in with today, and we were able to do that successfully.

“We have quite a lot of disease conditions, most of which are age-related illnesses and chronic conditions, which we attended to all.

”We have over 200 cases that came in today; they all had free tests and were administered by various specialists, doctors, and physiotherapists on the ground.

“Those that needed to see the dentist were referred to the section, and those for the eye clinic were also referred to the place. We have a whole number of specialists that attend to these sets of elderly people.”

Earlier, in an address of welcome, the founder of the foundation, Mrs. Murjanatu Habibu, admonished the senior citizens not to be discouraged by their age status.

She said that the foundation would continue to advocate for the rights and well-being of senior citizens and move the vision across different communities by providing them with support to live a fulfilling life.

According to her, the foundation aspired to create a future where every senior can age actively, feel cherished and valued, and be part of the community.