Alex residents exercise at the Stroke Awareness Day Campaign.
Alex residents were keen to check up on their health and be educated about strokes at a Stroke Awareness Day Campaign held at Eastbank Hall.
The annual event was conducted by the Gauteng Health and Social Development Department and the Stroke Task Team which was established to create awareness among the public on the risks and prevention of strokes.
The district’s spokesperson for the event, Adrian Kusambize-Kingi said strokes were one of the four major killers countrywide along with HIV, heart disease and tuberculosis. “It used to affect the elderly from 50 years old but now also affects the younger age group because of stressful and sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and lack of exercise,” he said.
“It’s now a concerning African disease with many Alex and other city residents prone to it, also from smoking and excessive salt intake in food.”
Alex residents are taught how to exercise to avoid having strokes.
He said both smoking and excessive salt increased blood pressure, clotted the blood and starved the brain of oxygenated blood which could lead to a stroke.
Kingi advised residents to avoid a stroke through routine exercise, an improved and healthy diet, regular medical check-ups, and reacting promptly when the symptoms of a stroke were noticed such as the swelling of legs and unexplained regular tiredness.
The participants were taken through various stages of health promotion which included checking blood pressure and sugar levels, body weight, lifestyle assessment, exercise and health education.
