Good Diet Panacea To Prevent Killer Diseases- Medical Experts

-As Shifau Rahman Integrative Hospital, Osogbo, Organises Seminar On ‘Scientific Evidence For Food As Medicine’

Medical experts in various fields have made a case for good diet as panacea to prevent some killer diseases in Nigeria.

The experts spoke separately at a day seminar organised by Shifau Rahman Integrative Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, with the theme: scientific evidence for food as medicine.

The medical director of the hospital, Dr Opeyemi Abdulahi, explained that some foods are beneficial to the body and can prevent some incurable diseases.

“There are epidemic incurable diseases which are mostly preventable. That’s why we decided to educate the people on what they can use to prevent them. For those who have contracted the disease, we want them to know what they can use to complement the treatment they are receiving.

“We provided scientific evidence, randomised clinical trials, meta-analysis and other scientific evidence for the general public.

Government needs to provide research centres, and funds to test the efficacy and safety of most of the items. There is a need to let the people know that food can use their food and vegetables around them to prevent some diseases,” Abdulahi said.

A professor of Anatomy in the Department of Anatomy in the College of Medical Sciences, Ila-Orangun, Osun, Ahmad Adekilekun, noted that there are cheap diseases that should not be expected in anybody because they are easy to prevent.

“A person with diabetes, probably a genetic, can still manage the metabolism from what he eats in diet such that he will not have it or even if he has it, he will not have any complication and he will live long.

“I will advise that the older we get, people should eat more fruits and vegetables. It doesn’t mean that they should not eat other foods. But they should shift from macro-molecules to food that will give more of micro-molecules. It is these micro-molecules that benefit us in old age and liberate us from metabolic diseases,” Adekilekun said.

Also, a Professor of Ophthalmology, Adebukunola Ositelu, who spoke on “safety and efficacy of garcinia cola (bitter cola) for the treatment of open-angle glaucoma,” disclosed that many solutions are embedded in the cola that Nigerians have not tapped into.

Similarly, a consultant Neurosurgeon, Dr Liadi Tiamiyu, who spoke on “neurodegenerative disorder: causes, risk factors and preventive measures,” noted that good food and rest are better for the brain than medication.