Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 12, 2019 (SKNIS): Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and CARICOM lead Head with respect to Health and Human Resource, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris encouraged persons to follow three key steps to lead healthy lifestyles.
Prime Minister Harris reiterated that the power lies in everyone and encouraged urgent action. He appealed to all to play their part to prevent NDCs from occurring in families, communities and in their country by adopting the three behavioural patterns – physical activity, healthy eating and regular doctor check-ups – as they are important to achieving the goal of living healthy.
The statement was made during the launch of the August 09 initiative, SKN Moves, an initiative to promote healthy lifestyles.
“Physical activity, we have to get more people walking, jogging, cycling, climbing mountain and hills and swimming. Physical activity becomes critical as a life saver and it’s critical to our wellness and so we want to encourage as many of you who can, to basically become more involved, get on the move, and that can in fact care your health,” said Dr. Harris.
In addition to physical activity, persons are encouraged to develop healthy eating habits.
“We want to encourage you to eat healthier portions of foods. We want to encourage from today [and onwards] that our people become attuned with their health and the changes that are happening to their body, their mind and in that regard, we advise that we should have more regular check-ups. We have to now make it part and parcel of our regular routine,” said Prime Minister Harris. “The St. Kitts-Nevis Moves comes then in the context of our scaling up of our efforts for the prevention and control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).”
Dr. Harris highlighted that NCDs are the major cause of deaths in St. Kitts and Nevis. He added that “we still have a significant journey to travel in attempting to bring this epidemic under control”, but that it requires the full participation of everyone.
“Fortunately, there is a will to do so and fortunately for us to control this, to contain it and reduce it, is in the hands of each and every individual in St. Kitts and Nevis and the Caribbean as a whole,” said the prime minister. “Because as we look at the risk factors, we come to realize that they are related to the way we live, what we do and how often we are prepared to do things that are beneficial to our health.”
