The National President of the Association of Clinical and Academic Physiotherapists of Nigeria, Dr Udoka Okafor, has identified age factors, and contaminated water as major causes of Parkinson’s disease in Nigeria.
Okafor, who described the neurological condition as a condition that affects the brain and things around the neurological system of human beings, said people should engage in regular exercise to prevent the disease.
He stated this at the 7th Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting, held at the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo town, Ondo State, on Tuesday. The conference was themed, ‘Recent advancement in movement disorder: movement disorders in Parkinson and other neurological conditions.’
Okafor said, “Stroke is an affliction that causes the weakness of one side of the body because of insufficient blood in the brain. When there is a problem in the brain, it usually causes insufficiency of blood and this can cause Parkinson’s as well.
“Stroke and Parkinson’s are different diseases caused by insufficiency of blood in the brain and they are both age-related. These diseases are not diseases of children. However, we can have stroke in younger children, but usually, the age of about 60 years is when the chance of stroke and Parkinson’s are higher.
“To prevent Parkinson’s disease, when the conditions are seen gradually or have occurred there are interventions apart from medical which is exercise because we don’t know the causes yet but people must engage themselves in exercise so that it will increase the blood flow to improve the blood circulation in the brain to function well.
“When this is done it is not common to develop conditions like neurological conditions including Parkinson’s disease.”
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the UNIMED, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi described Parkinson’s as a disease that affects people’s movement.
According to him, the most important thing to note about Parkinson’s disease is that the older population ” the more we likely have Parkinson’s disease in Nigeria.”
The VC also lamented the shortage of physiotherapists in the country, describing the development as a great challenge in fighting neurological conditions.
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