Speaking in an interview on state broadcaster, the SABC, Mol says health check-up assists in early detection of illness including diabetes.

According to Mol, people should not wait to start getting ill before they visit their doctors.

“We should do it every year regardless of whether we feel good or bad. We should do it to know our numbers. Just because you are not sick does not mean that you are healthy. Health is not a default setting; it is something we need to proactively pursue and keep checking up on.”

A report released by Statistics SA in 2023 looking at SA’s mortality rate during the period 2008-2018, revealed that deaths due to non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic lower respiratory diseases increased by 58.7% over the 20 years, from 103 428 in 1997 to 164 205 in 2018.

Mol says ailments including blood pressure could send one to an early grave.

“You need to check your blood pressure, blood glucose because of this thing called diabetes, I would check your weight, they do something called body mass index (BMI), your weight versus your height, waist circumference is more important than BMI.”

--SABC--