Walking-A New Honiara Phenomenon Which Could Save Lives

By Harold Maesulia. Follow me on twitter.



"The story of catching a bus...in today's Honiara is not an exciting
 one. Photo: SIBC Online.

The story of catching a bus from the Central Market to KG IV in today’s Honiara is not an exciting one.

One Social Network user was very straight forward about it, saying that “the struggle is real”. In fact he also had a photo to go along with his post, and you might have already guessed its content-a countless number of frustrated people waiting in vain at a bus stop, which seemed to be overwhelmed with people but vehicles.

Some people blamed it on the numerous potholes dotting Honiara’s only highway, while others would probably like to point fingers at Bus operators for allegedly deciding to make life difficult for the public commuters of Honiara by scaling down their services to destinations with very deplorable road conditions such as KG IV.

While this may have been an abrupt result of a lot of factors, it’s heart-warming to see that many Honiara faithful are deciding to adapt to the frustrating life by acquiring a new lifestyle- walking to and from work.

The practice is gaining so much popularity that before and after work, you will find more people on the sidewalks than the weary-looking vehicles braving the frustrating potholes of the city roads.

“I know it’ll take forever to wait for a bus at the Central Market so I started walking to my work place at Kukum from the City Council area,” one public commuter told FR.

“We’ll probably have better roads towards the end of the year, but while waiting, I’ve decided to come to work this way for now,” he continued.

Far from the complaining attitude, the same commuter however sees an upside from his decision to switch from boarding the bus to commuting by feet.

“I work five days a week and I sometimes attend to other duties during the weekends. You see I rarely have time to even exercise so I see this situation as my chance to stay active,” the commuter told FR.

But others are not seeing things through this commuter’s lenses, “it always take forever to wait for a bus along the main road of Honiara and who has the energy to walk from Point Cruz to Ranadi in the morning? It’s ridiculous!” another commuter complained.

While the issue of walking to and from work is a matter of personal choice, FR decides to investigate why choosing to do so is the best decision that any Honiara resident can make.

Ok let's face it! The 2015 WHO Steps survey for Solomon Islands evidently shows that the issue of Non Communicable Diseases is fast becoming a crisis in this country.
 
Yes you heard it right. We do have a crisis in Solomon Islands! Yes, there's a fight going on here. But we're not fighting against other human beings, we are tussling with NCDs! 

NCDs or Non-Communicable Diseases (diseases which cannot be passed from one person to another), have been around for sometimes now. Someone told me that in the 80s, the sight of NCDs is a rarity. People hardly heard of foot ulcers slowly becoming gangrenic. People hardly heard of dozens of leg amputations per week. People hardly heard of stroke.

Yes, people hardly heard of these complications because NCDs were not that common at that time.

But now quite a good number of people admitting at the National Referral Hospital have NCDs-diabetes, heart attack and stroke just to name a few.

NCDs have reached a crisis level in this nation today because, more than anytime in the young history of our nation, more and more people being succumbed to the detrimental risk factors of NCDs. This is evident by the ever increasing influx of NCD patients in our main hospitals, a trend which seem to exhaust the limited resources we have at hand to care for our sick ones.

This alarming trend clearly shows that people are either engaging in poor dietary practices or they're more sedentary (inactive) in nature-two of the many factors which are found to be strongly associated with NCDs.

While we may immediately want to scout for means to equip our main health centres with the right resources to look after our NCD patients, we must equally render the same attention to finding ways to help people abandon the factors that may predispose them to NCDs.

And while we think of ways to prevent these diseases, the good news is NCDs can be prevented.

The findings of a 2006 study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology show that “overall physical activity levels are an important determinant of longevity, and that health benefit can be obtained through an active lifestyle, exercise, or combinations of both.”

This study found that those who lead an active life and who at times involve in certain forms of exercise are more likely to live longer than those who do not.

What does this mean? Well it means that exercise, which can be in different forms like walking, cycling or running, can help keep doctors away from us. Simply put, exercise do help lengthen our lives.

The Diabetologia reveals another insightful finding about physical activeness. For those who still have an  early stage of type 2 diabetes, “long-term intervention in the form of diet and physical exercise is feasible even on a large scale.”

The study further adds that with proper diet and exercise, “substantial metabolic improvement can be achieved which may contribute to prevent or postpone manifest diabetes.”

This means that even if you have type 2 diabetes, physical exercise and a proper diet can help you manage your diabetes. 

Yes again you heard it right, a good diet and staying physically active can give you power to avoid or even postpone the sight of diabetic complications like blindness, amputation of limbs, impotence (lack of erection for males) just to name a few.

It is obvious that we do have a lot of good reasons to get into the habit of walking. Not only does it help lengthen our lives but even if we already have some form of diseases, our decision to stay active will help us manage our physical conditions.

So the next time you find it hard to catch a bus to get you around town, why not buy an umbrella to shade off the sweltering Honiara heat, and just enjoy a good long walk.

We will do ourselves a lot of good if we never underestimate the benefits of walking.