PROVINCE OF LAGUNA - Health is wealth, and keeping the body in good shape through regular physical exercise is vital particularly for frontliners during this COVID-19 pandemic. These frontliners who safeguard our kababayans nutritional well-being, are among the busiest individuals in these times of community quarantine as they directly interact with the ill and unwell patients and are also involved in the distribution of food packs to help ensure that food is available in all households.
Having considered the roles they play in this time of crisis, the health workers of City of Calamba, Laguna and Mulanay, Quezon have decided to pursue more vigorously their regular 30-minute physical activity to keep themselves fit and fab. In an interview, City Nutrition Action Officer, Ms. Aleli Jimenez of Calamba, shared that they are conducting this fitness routine called “Aqua Zumba” and “Aero Fitness” alternately every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month.
The participants, the Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) of all the 54 barangays in the city and the health workers/staff of the City Nutrition Office, are guided by a certified Zumba instructor. The Aqua Zumba started last August 2019 (after the members of the City Nutrition Action Office of Calamba were trained by the Department of Health on physical fitness and the importance of physical activity), while the Aero Fitness started last 2014.
In Calamba City, the frontliners are also dynamically into their “Hataw Fitness” activity -- with barangay officials, senior citizens and mothers of households. When asked why the government of Calamba pursued such an activity, Ms. Aleli Jimenez said that “It’s good for the lungs, and it helps them to be physically healthy and fit.” In addition, she said, “Gusto namin physically healthy kami. Kaya motto namin is Hataw Galaw para Hindi Pumanaw.”
In Mulanay, Quezon, it was conveyed by Ms. Rona P. Rogelio, the Assistant Municipal Nutrition Action Officer of the municipality, that she and her colleagues enthusiastically conduct their daily 30-minute Zumba routine every 5 pm in the Rural Health Unit. She also said that regular Zumba help them combat stress and prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and stroke. Physical activity, in conjunction to proper nutrition, is an ideal precautionary measure to strengthen and improve cardiovascular health, emotional health and promote well-being.
Cardiovascular concerns in health are the most perilous. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Registered Deaths in the Philippines in 2017, the leading causes of deaths are ischemic heart diseases (with 84,120 deaths or 14.5 percent contribution to mortality rate). Second are neoplasms which are commonly known as “cancer” (with 64,125 deaths or 11.1 percent contribution to mortality rate), followed by cerebrovascular diseases (with 59,774 deaths or 10.3 percent contribution to mortality rate contribution to mortality rate).
Ischemic heart disease, also called coronary heart disease (CHD) or coronary artery disease, is the term given to heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle that is caused by a blood clot or by constriction of the blood vessel, most often caused by build-up of plaque caused by high cholesterol levels, called atherosclerosis. To prevent this, it is important to take note that cardiovascular disease is influenced by environmental factors such as smoking, exercise, and diet.
By: Zarah Clarice T. Megino, RND
References:
Philippine Statistics Authority (https://psa.gov.ph/vital-statistics/id/138794)
