At least 35 percent of Beijingers are suffering from various
chronic diseases, a health official said.
While a quarter of Beijingers suffer from high blood pressure,
7.7 percent of them have diabetes, said Liang Wannian, deputy
director of Beijing Health Bureau, while releasing to the public a
report on the average citizens' health situation.
Liang said last Saturday that ambulances of 120 Emergency
Center, the city's major first-aid facility, made 3,714 trips over
the past week. Fifty-one percent of these trips were dialed for
patients who suffered from chronic cardiovascular and
cerebrovascular diseases.
He said there are genetic as well as environmental reasons for
chronic diseases. "We can do little to prevent certain hereditary
diseases, but a healthy lifestyle has proven effective in
minimizing the risk for many diseases," said Liang.
Smoking, drinking, obesity, inadequate exercises and high blood
fat are universally recognized as main risk factors for chronic
diseases, he added.
"If these factors are to be controlled, 40 to 70 percent of the
chronic disease sufferers will live a longer life and the incidence
rate of high blood pressure alone will lower by 55 percent," he
said.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2005)