I was invited recently to give lectures and conduct a workshop in Khartoum, Sudan, on the prevention, rather than treatment, of high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases.

I was delighted that one of the speakers in the international conference cited the advocacy of our own professor Ramon Abarquez Jr. in making a healthy lifestyle a family affair to make it more effective and sustainable.

Dr. Abarquez is an emeritus professor of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and an academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology. He has a catchy slogan for his healthy lifestyle advocacy: “HAD SEX is a family affair!”

“HAD SEX” actually stands for:

Hypertension control

Avoidance of unhealthy diets and lifestyle practices

Diabetes prevention and early treatment

Smoking cessation and stress management

EXercise and active lifestyle

I recall that in some of the scientific meetings where Dr. Abarquez and I lectured, the acronym SEX always drew a curious reaction from the audience. In one meeting, someone asked him if his advocacy included a sexually active lifestyle.

He wittily replied, “Well, yes, but as I said, it should be a family affair, so only with one’s spouse.”

Reversed

It is well established, even in clinical trials, that if one can only maintain a healthy lifestyle, many lifestyle-related diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung problems and even cancer may be prevented.

One recent study suggested that new-onset diabetes could be reversed, with the discontinuation of all maintenance antidiabetic medicines, by effective weight loss in overweight and obese individuals, and by regular exercise.

Maintaining and sustaining a healthy lifestyle, though, can be a big challenge to physicians. It may be easy to initiate, but especially in the country, with our “ningas-kugon” mentality (initial enthusiasm that eventually dissipates), sustaining it is virtually impossible for majority of patients.

The main message of Dr. Abarquez’s advocacy is that there is a bigger chance of inculcating it in every member of the family, and sustaining it as a way of life, if the whole family, especially the parents and the elder siblings, are encouraging it and consistently “walking the talk.”

He has validated this with some studies he has done at the Philippine General Hospital, and among employees of San Miguel Corp., when he was head of its medical services.

It may not be well known that San Miguel became an important resource of highly meaningful local scientific data in cardiovascular medicine, with several important researches completed by Dr. Abarquez.

It was the Philippines’ local version of the famous Framingham Heart Study, which has been tracking down the effect of various lifestyle factors on the adult residents of a small town in Massachusetts (Framingham) since 1948.

Building blocks

Dr. Abarquez, who remains mentally sharp at age 89, has always urged parents to provide their children with the building blocks for a healthy lifestyle early on, so it would become their way of life as they grow into adulthood.

He emphasizes that the children will be motivated to learn the importance of good nutrition, regular active physical activity and other healthy lifestyle practices only if they see their parents and elder siblings practicing them.

For example, snacking on junk food while watching TV, or drinking soda and other sugary drinks, is a common practice in many households. The parents must do away with these practices and even limit watching TV to one to two hours daily.

If the children see them spending the whole evening watching telenovelas, they will tend to adopt the same practice as they grow older. They may not be watching TV for hours, but they will think that playing video games every night “to sawa”—while their parents watch telenovelas—is acceptable.

Such practices of children make them potential candidates for developing cardiometabolic problems like overweight and obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol problems.

The prevalence of these problems, which usually coexist in a condition called metabolic syndrome, has been shown to be increasing in children and adolescents in the Philippines.

Good example

So parents, said Dr. Abarquez, should not abdicate this major responsibility to set healthy lifestyle examples to their children. The worst a parent can do is not to practice what he or she preaches, like smoking while telling their children, “Don’t follow what I do. Don’t smoke when you grow up!” These smoking parents are unwittingly pushing their children into taking up the vice, and they usually do so behind their parents’ backs.

If the parents are consistent in their healthy practices, the children can learn good habits that will last them a lifetime. More than any material inheritance, such healthy practices and other core values can be the best legacy parents could leave their children.

E-mail [email protected] or post a message on Facebook community page Dr. Rafael Castillo.