Dr Chris Adomako, a Sport Medicine Physician at Trust Hospital in Accra on Tuesday said a healthy lifestyle and regular exercises would ensure one growing gracefully in old age.
He said those who take good care of themselves while growing stood the chance of restraining the debilitating effects of diseases
associated with ageing.
Dr Adomako made the observation when speaking at a lecture on: “Ageing and Its Associate Diseases,” as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Retired SSNIT Staff Association (RESSA) in Accra.
He called for regular medical check-up, saying early diagnosis and treatment were key in the fight against diseases.
Dr Adomako said cancer was the result of unregulated cell division which was not supposed to be and in the worst cases, left the area in which they occurred and spread to other parts of the body.
He said although not all cancers shared exactly the same steps, there were some general features that were shared in the development
of many types of the disease.
Dr Adomako touched on breast, prostate, colon, bladder, cervical, uterus, stomach, gastric and liver cancers and noted that despite
their debilitating effects early diagnosis was apt.
He said people with family history of diseases were susceptible to attack and among obese women, those who start menstruation early
and had late menopause risked contracting breast cancer.
On prostate cancer, Dr Adomako noted that 80 per cent of men aged 80 were vulnerable, adding that there might not be any signs until probably when the cancer had spread and cautioned men to look out for excessive, uncontrolled urination and in the latter stages pain in the joint and bones.
Smokers and industrial workers, as well as those who have had repeated urinary tract infections also stood the chance of having
cancer of the blood adding that 56 per cent of people above 70 years with chronic diarrhoea, previous cancer, those with low fibre intake
could also be symptoms of colon cancer.
On cancer of the bone marrow, Dr Adomako said fractures from minor injuries and anaemia could also be symptoms while those with blood group A and smokers were susceptible to stomach cancer.
He said dementia was not a specific disease but a descriptive term for a collection of symptoms that could be caused by some
disorders that affected the brain.
Dr Adomako noted that not all forgetfulness were associated with dementia because people who had it had significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interfered with normal activities and relationships.
They also lose their ability to solve problems and maintain emotional control, and may experience personality changes and
behavioural problems such as agitation, delusions, and hallucinations.
“While memory loss is a common symptom of dementia, memory loss by itself does not mean that a person has dementia. Doctors diagnose
dementia only if two or more brain functions - such as memory, language skills, perception, or cognitive skills including reasoning and judgment - are significantly impaired without loss of
consciousness,” he added.
Dr Adomako said younger people should give the elderly all the support when they go through the ageing process because it had emotional and psychological effects.