Avoiding the Slow Death
Becky Uba Umenyili
The value of good health cannot be quantified with wealth; we live today to plan for tomorrow and thus the need to care for one’s health as a primary concern.
Contemporary developments reveal that most people in our dear country Nigeria and indeed, some other developing nations do not undergo periodic health check-ups to access the state of their health until they break down and become ill.
Discoveries by various scientific institutes have proven that stress is the major cause of high blood pressure and heart attack in most people; yet this reality seem to have lost its scare in the minds of many people who undertake their respective engagements in most stressful manner oblivious of the effects, thereof.
The recent increase in fuel price and its effects on the economy has obviously increased the distress state of most people in country, both rich and poor alike.
Events of the recent past years, chronicling from the shutdown of private and public economic sector due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the nationwide public unrest orchestrated by the ENDSARS protests, agitations by sectionalized groups for improved welfare package like the eight-months industrial strike by ASUU, tensions heightened by various religious cum regional attacks by unknown gunmen, kidnappings and most recently, the politically-induced distress occasioned by the change of Naira currency with its undue process that unleashed untold hardship on the masses and of course the present hiked cost of fuel and its consequent increase in prices of goods and services; have obviously increased stress in the lives of many people in the country, both young and old.
In line with its medical term, stress which means anything that causes physical or emotional tension to someone, seem to have become a second nature of most Nigerians, so much that one hardly notices when one is stressed and which explains the reason for most sudden death and chronic ill health.
In his memoir, Dr. Charles Patrick Davis, a medical practitioner, notes that stress can be internally induced, (from illness or medical procedure) and/or externally caused (from the environment, psychological or social situations).
He further explained that stress can elicit a complex reaction of neurologic and endocrinologic systems, leading to acceleration of heart and lung action, paling or flushing, or alternating between both, inhibition of the stomach and upper-intestinal action to the point where digestion slows down or stops.
In her own opinion, Mrs. Agnes Agbo, the former Chief Nursing Officer (retired) of the National Library Staff Clinic in Yaba, Lagos says that stress is a natural human response, felt by everyone but unknown to some when it is mild and that this can be in acute or chronic form.
Mrs. Agbo explains that excessive work, poor relationship and uncertainty, amongst other poverty-related factors are major causes of stress which are evidenced by various symptoms which include unfamiliar traits like ulcer, low appetite, dry mouth, amnesia and other psychological misconducts like addictions and aggressive behaviours.
She warns that most people do not recognize when they undergo stress and therefore encourages regular assessment of one’s activities to know when one is burdened with excessive attachment of any kind, even emotionally and in social ties.
With respect to physical exercises and other means of preventing and managing stress, she advises that one should adapt to changes in life, including loses of anything/anyone, socialize and share problems wisely, avoid caffeinated drinks and eat well, moderate use of social media to avoid ill-news that trigger bad emotions as well as observe quiet relaxation periods, regularly.
Mrs Agbo further add “some people who trek often think that they have exercised their bodies, this is not very correct because good body exercise entails working up the different parts of the body and not just mere walking which is also stressful when its excessive”.
