5, September 2018
1.4 billion risk deadly disease from lack of enough exercise 0
More than 1.4 billion adults are putting themselves at heightened risk of deadly diseases by not getting enough exercise, doctors are warning, with global activity levels virtually unchanged in nearly two decades.
With richer nations enjoying an increasingly comfortable, sedentary lifestyle, a study by the World Health Organization said a third of women and a quarter of men worldwide are in the firing line for killer conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer unless they up their physical activity.
“Insufficient physical activity is a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases, and has a negative effect on mental health and quality of life,” said the study of world exercise levels published Wednesday by The Lancet Global Health Journal.
The WHO recommends each adult do at least 150 minutes “moderate-intensity” exercise — such as brisk walking, swimming, or gentle cycling — each week, or 75 minutes “vigorous-intensity” activity — such as running or team sports.
The study tracked activity levels of 1.9 million people in 168 countries across the world during 2016.
Researchers found there had been no improvement in physical activity levels since 2001, despite numerous public health initiatives extolling the benefits of exercise.
More than a quarter of the world’s adults (1.4 billion people) were insufficiently active, according to the data.
“We definitely haven’t done enough” to encourage people to exercise, the WHO’s Regina Guthold, lead study author, told AFP.
“We have seen basically no progress.”
The study authors highlighted several worrying trends, including a stark divide in exercise rates between poor and rich nations, and between men and women.
Wealth, gender gaps
Levels of insufficient activity to guard off non-communicable killers, including dementia and cardiovascular diseases, are more than twice as high in high-income countries compared to developing nations.
Guthold said the link between the lifestyle in wealthier nations — more time indoors, longer office hours, more easily accessible high-calorie foods — and lower exercise levels, was part of a “clear pattern” of poorer health coming with urbanization.
“As countries urbanize, people who used to be, say, farmers, and got a lot of physical activity through their work all of a sudden live in an urban environment where they might be without work or move to a sedentary job, so societies need to compensate,” she said.
In four countries — Kuwait, American Samoa, Saudi Arabia and Iraq — more than half of adults were classified as insufficiently active.
Melody Ding of the University of Sydney, who worked on the paper, said there were a variety of reasons why some countries were more active than others, including “biological, psychosocial, institutional, cultural and environmental barriers.”
“I consider one of the biggest barriers being our environment — physical activity has been engineered out of life, with desk-based jobs replacing labor jobs, lifts replacing stairs, cars replacing active travel,” she told AFP.
“Technological advancement has made our life more convenient but also less active.”
Women still lag behind men in nearly every region of the world, with the gender exercise gap highest in Bangladesh, Eritrea, India, Iraq, and the Philippines, the study found.
“In these settings, women are often expected to be at home, take care of the children, manage the household and so sometimes don’t always have time to exercise,” said Guthold.
One bright spot on the global exercise map was Southeast Asia, where women were equally as active as men in the only region where inactivity has decreased since 2001.
(Source: AFP)
6, September 2018
War of words erupts over delayed school resumption in Southern Cameroons 0
Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the Biya Francophone regime’s Minister of Communication has condemned the latest self defense efforts carried out by the Ambazonian Restoration Forces on Ground Zero. Mr. Tchiroma who is a chartered member of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate noted that Southern Cameroons self defense forces have committed “imprescriptible” crimes since 1 September 2018, to discourage students and teachers from going about their business.
Cameroon Concord News understands the Yaounde regime ordered its troops to assassinate young Southern Cameroons boys and girls believed to be members of the Ambazonia Restoration Forces accusing them of wanting to disrupt the smooth running of the new school year 2018-2019 in some localities of the southwest and northwest, shaken since October 2016, by socio-political demands.
The Ambazonian Interim Government said in a statement that they were not in the position to guarantee the safety and security of pupils and students within Southern Cameroons territory. Fighting recently claimed the life of the rector of a public school in the Ngo-ketundja constituency.
On Monday, September 3, 2018, 6 students from the Presbyterian Girls Secondary School in the locality of Bafut in the Mezam County were reportedly kidnapped as well as the director of the said college by soldiers dressed in French Cameroun army uniforms. On Tuesday, September 4, 2018 around 2 pm, armed men stormed Melim High School in Kumbo, Bui County, vandalized the administrative buildings and chased away teachers and pupils present in the school.
The so-called Cameroon government spokesman revealed that an attack on St. Joseph College in Sasse, Fako County was repulsed by the French Cameroun defense forces. Our sources in the Northern Zone hinted that the bursar of Government Technical College Bui who was going to his place of duty was attacked and his effects carried away.
The Ambazonian Interim Government has protested to the United Nations and the African Union against these barbaric acts and serious violations of Southern Cameroonians rights by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaounde.
By Sama Ernest