On Tuesday, April 12th, Mission «Diabetes» visited the island of Chios. Mr. Christoforos Meroussis, Marathon Runner and 3-times winner of the Athens Classic Marathon, led the Mission. Mr. Meroussis visited the Primary School of Kallimassia, supporting the need to inform children about the importance of exercise and healthy nutrition for the prevention of Diabetes.
This visit takes place within the context of the panhellenic information campaign "Mission: Diabetes. You are part of the solution. Be a member of the Team!", which will visit 10 cities across Greece. The campaign runs under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Research & Religious Affairs, the Hellenic Diabetes Association, and the Panhellenic Federation of People with Diabetes, and is organized by Agoni Grammi Gonimi, with the kind support of ELPEN.
Informing the public about the prevention and management of Diabetes constitutes a primary goal for the scientific community, given that this disease is currently taking on epidemic proportions, counting aproximately 1.200.000 patients in Greece and 350.000.000 worldwide, with 90% suffering from Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is more common in developed countries, as it is directly linked to the «western lifestyle», that is, lack of exercise, sedentary routine and unhealthy nutrition, and is one of the major causes of death globally.
Mr. Meroussis inivited the students to become members of the «Diabetes» team, and to learn important information about maintaining a good health, through the engagement in their favorite sport and through balanced nutrition. Within this context, Mr. Meroussis delivered sports equipment to the students, such as elastic magic ropes, plastic hurdles, 6-pack junior sack race sacks, tug-of-war ropes, airballs, etc., as requested by the school.
Subsequently, the students discussed with Mr. Meroussis about the health benefits that systematic exercise offers. Among other things, Mr. Meroussis highlighted that: «Sports must be a way of living for all of us, young ones and older ones, since we can only gain benefits from integrating systematic exercice and balanced nutrition in our lives. When exercising, we are stronger; we are healthy and full of energy. If, as advised by physicians, we win over obesity, which is caused by sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition, then we will have offered ourselves the most valuable gift of all, since we will be helping to reduce the risk of presenting chronic diseases, like Diabetes.»
In parallel, aiming at enhancing the understanding of children on the importance of maintaining a normal weight, through exercise and good nutrition, so as to manage Diabetes, during the «Mission: Diabetes» program, an experiential educational game, entitled «Discovering the treasures of good health. Exercise and healthy nutrition» was carried out. This game has been specifically designed by Playroom, with the scientific support of HDA. Through art and games, students learned how the human body functions, how Diabetes appears, and the ways in which we can protect our organism from serious diseases that are associated with poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Using the information collected while engaging in this game, the students, as a team, created their own healthy human organism.