NMA Tasks Nigerians On Regular Health Checks

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has advised Nigerians to ensure regular check of their health status in order to reduce the possibility of sudden death.
The NMA Chairman, Anambra branch, Dr Jide Onyekwelu, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Awka yesterday.
Onyekwelu expressed concern over what he called rising cases of sudden deaths, which he attributed to lack of attention to health.
According to him, it is worrisome that a seemingly healthy person will suddenly slump and die.
He said that studies had shown that the most common cause of this type of sudden death was cardiovascular, that is, the heart and blood vessels.
“The commonest thing that can affect the workings of heart and blood vessels without any sign is hypertension. That is why high blood pressure is called a silent killer.
“An individual may not know that he has hypertension. It rarely shows any symptom. You can see somebody moving around, thinking that he is healthy but he is not, because he has high blood pressure”, he said.
“When blood vessel bursts in the brain, which is called cerebro-vascular accident or there is a similar burst in the heart, which is called heart attack, it is a sudden thing that does not give the patient enough time to get medical attention”, he said.