By Rukayat Moisemhe

Members of the Institute of Directors (IoD) on Saturday in Lagos embarked on a 10-kilometre walk to restate their commitments to a healthier work-life balance in the country.

Dr Ije Jidenma, President, IoD, during the ‘walk for life’, said the event was the institute’s contribution to the agility of directors.

Jidenma, revealing that the event was holding simultaneously in Abeokuta, Port Harcourt and Abuja, emphasised the need for lifestyle modification to bring out the best in individuals.

She urged directors across various sectors of the economy to embrace exercise as a lifestyle to achieve a certain level of alertness and agility needed to drive organisational growth and development.

“Directors are encouraged to replicate this walk as often as possible especially in today’s world where there are no boundaries between work and life.

“Directors are encouraged wherever they may be to take care of their bodies because an agile body gives rise to an agile mind,” she said.

Mr Nnamdi Okafor, Chairman, Health and Social Security Committee, IoD, said the event was part of activities to mark the institute’s 40 years  celebration  across the country.

Okafor noted that Nigerians were disposed to all sorts of physical and mental issues which hampered their performances and restrained them from optimal health.

“This exercise is to reduce stress and we hope this would catalyse us so we can continue on a routine basis to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

“Exercise is the cheapest and safest medicine we can take for our life and I laud the enthusiasm of directors to embracing healthy living,” he said.

Dr Banji Awosika, Nephrologist, Iwosan Lagoon Hospital, who spoke on  “embracing wellness”, described wellness as an active process that takes into consideration everything needed to obtain and maintain optimal health.

Awosika stressed the need to adopt a healthier lifestyle via constant exercises, consumption of vegetables and high fibre fruits, enough water, adequate sleep of up to eight hours daily and the use of cannabis under a medically controlled environment.

According to him, the best form  of nutrition is via antioxidants that decreases inflammation linked to causes of most deaths.

“Inflammation is the process the body goes through to get rid of waste and it’s like fighting a war and the ground (body) where you fight the war would be battered as it tries to achieve balance.

“While inflammation could be chronic or acute; chronic inflammation is the issue that can cause heart disease as it causes the arteries that carry blood to the body to get clog up.

“We must therefore embrace ways to decrease inflammation by cutting down the amount of animals we eat and limit its consumption to once a week or twice at most.

“Another way to cause inflammation to go down is the daily consumption of plants, vegetables and fruits in any form and quantity which goes into your system to fight inflammation.

“You prevent disease by decreasing what causes it and this means you need to eat with an active intention to eat to live,” he said.

Awosika urged the directors to not wait until a stroke or heart attack before embracing exercising, saying exercise is far more of the talked about thing but one of the least done thing.

He added that the body was meant to move and if one does not move the body; it begins to fail as movement is an amazing medicine.

“You must try to do something that you enjoy, such as walking, running and even sex which is very enjoyable and allows for the release of some chemicals such as dopamine into the bloodstream to make you feel good,” he said.

The nephrologist also recommended one ounce per kilogram of water as long as the kidneys were at optimal performance, eight hours of sleep, meditation, good relationships with people and God as well as a can-do mindset.

“We must become intentional about being consistent with good habits and avoid smoking as it affects every single organ in the body as it causes damages to the blood vessels throughout the body.

“Unforgiveness, jealousy or any dark feeling does so much worse to the body and the mindset is very important in the whole picture as we need to do what we need to do to have health,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Folasade Adeniran