Regular and adequate physical activity is crucial to life-long physical and mental health. Physical activity promotes blood and oxygen flows, burns energy and helps enhance mental well-being – all essential to reducing the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). It also builds immunity and strengthens the body’s response to communicable diseases. Insufficient physical activity is one of the leading risk factors for death worldwide, including in the WHO South-East Asia Region, where NCDs cause around 8.5 million deaths every year, many of them premature. Children aged 5-17 require at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity daily aerobic activity. Adults aged 18-64 need 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity weekly aerobic activity. Older persons aged 65 and above require at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity weekly aerobic activity. All age groups can benefit from regular muscle-strengthening exercises.
On the International Day of Yoga, WHO joins its Member States and civil society partners in the Region to highlight the physical and mental health benefits of yoga, and to promote yoga as a tool for encouraging regular and adequate physical activity. Yoga can help a person lose weight, improve immunity and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Yoga can also relieve depression, anxiety, fatigue and sleep disturbances, especially when it incorporates breath control and/or meditation. Yoga can be practiced anywhere and at any time – a point emphasized by this year’s celebration, which focuses on practicing yoga at home, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. People of all ages can partake in yoga, irrespective of their socio-economic status, gender or beliefs.
Since 2015, when the world celebrated the first International Day of Yoga, the value of yoga as a complementary therapy has been increasingly recognized, and the practice of yoga has in many countries become a key part of preventive and promotive health, whether as part of an organized welfare programme or as a self-help intervention. In the South-East Asia Region, the increased uptake of yoga will aid national efforts to reduce the NCD burden and enhance mental health, and will also promote healthy ageing, which is especially important as countries navigate rapid demographic changes.
Efforts to promote physical activity – including yoga – have in recent years gathered pace across the Region, in line with the Region’s Flagship Priority on preventing and controlling NCDs, for which high-impact, cost-effective “best buys” are key. All Member States have incorporated specific points on the promotion of physical activity into national multisectoral NCD action plans and implemented innovative measures to promote physical activity in schools, workplaces and public spaces. All countries are committed to achieving the global target of reducing physical inactivity by 10% by 2025 and 15% by 2030, for which they are leveraging the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030 and its ACTIVE toolkit.
The impact of COVID-19 underscores the importance of promoting good health throughout the life-course. Though all people can be infected by COVID-19, the risk of becoming severely ill increases for those with pre-existing NCDs, including cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes and cancer, and also among older persons. Though the Region has a relatively young population, the prevalence of NCDs is increasing mortality, particularly among populations who disproportionately suffer from them. To complement the Region’s ongoing pandemic response, WHO will continue to support Member States to promote healthy lifestyles, including physical activity, and will help maintain and strengthen services for NCDs, especially at the primary level, in line with the Region’s 2016 Colombo Declaration.
As WHO and its Member States and partners celebrate the International Day of Yoga, we must also reflect on and harness the wider potential of traditional medicine to advance preventive and promotive health. The Region continues to integrate evidence-based traditional medicine into health systems as part of its pursuit of universal health coverage, which is another Flagship Priority. All 11 of the Region’s Member States now have national policies on traditional medicine. Nine have formal training and education systems for traditional medicine practitioners. Six have co-located traditional medicine services in their health systems at some or all levels. In support of these and other initiatives, WHO will continue to draw on its Region-wide network of Collaborating Centres to increase research on the efficacy and safety of traditional medicines.
To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3, the South-East Asia Region is committed to leveraging preventive and promotive health interventions, which are especially important in the battle against NCDs. Yoga is a powerful way for people of all ages and incomes, whatever their gender or ethnicity, to get the physical activity they require to reduce the risk of NCDs and enhance mental well-being. On the International Day of Yoga, WHO reiterates its support to Member States as they strive to prevent and control NCDs, and as they work to integrate evidence-based traditional medicine into health systems. Yoga must be part of our onward journey towards a healthier, more active Region, for which all people, of all ages and incomes, must be included.