Two medical experts highlighted the importance of the presence of safe and accessible sidewalks and parks for the prevention of developing the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and other lifestyle diseases.
"We really need more sidewalks, we need more parks and that probably requires a systematic change and maybe a comprehensive plan not just for the fatty liver but also for lifestyle diseases in general," said Dr. Janus P. Ong in a webinar hosted by the University of the Philippines (UP) entitled "Fatty Liver: Why Should I care?"
Ong is the head of the Liver Research Program at UP Manila National Institutes of Health and a hepatologist-gastroenterologist at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
Since having excessive calories is one of the main factors in developing NAFLD, he said these spaces will help people who want to exercise and lose weight but have no time to enroll in a gym class.
There is no cure for NAFLD at the moment but Ong assured that it can still be reversed through lifestyle intervention.
According to UP, NAFLD has a linkage with diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, and one in every three Filipinos can develop this disease.
He also noted that there is no solid evidence yet as to how glutathione affects liver health.
"Because we do not have data on whether they're effective or not, we really cannot say that they're also safe," he said.
Dr. Elizabeth Paz-Pacheco, a consultant from the PGH Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, added that a determined mindset to avoid food that causes fatty liver is also one important step aside from exercising.
"Unless we really change our mindset in terms of papaano ba maging healthy talagang kumain, that's one part of it only and the other part, of course, has to do with physical activity (Unless we really change our mindset in terms of how to eat healthily, that's one part of it only and the other part, of course, has to do with physical activity)," she said.