Make Polio a failure!

Posted on November 2, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

A couple of years ago, I was notified of a case that involved one of the hospitals on our private Health Insurance scheme and the child of one of our enrollees. This child had a fever that had been on for a couple of days and so the parents were not comfortable anymore and decided to go to the hospital. Predictably, the hospital decided to place this child on antibiotics irrespective of the fact that nothing pointed to the fact that this anything more than a viral infection.

This child could take orally and could very well have taken this unnecessary antibiotic by mouth, but for some reason (whether by request from the child’s parents who wanted something they perceived to be more potent or as a show of ‘we know what we are doing here’ by the hospital staff), a decision was made to administer this drug through intramuscular injection (in English, injection into the muscle…in this case, the butt specifically). To cut a long story short, a while later we got involved as we received a letter from the company of the child’s parent stating that the hospital was incompetent and administered an injection that made the child lose function of her lower limbs. We stepped in and eventually, the gist of the story was that this child was incubating the wild polio virus and the intramuscular injection this child had received converted this to paralytic polio! In English, this child now found it difficult to walk. Just like that!!!

Okay, why am I telling this story? Well, first it was world Polio day on the 24th of October…sometime last week. As the events to mark the day were rolled out, I thought about this case I’d just told you about and I wondered about that child and how much use of her limbs she has now. And then I wondered how many other parents coerce their health care providers to give ‘stronger’ medicine in the form of injections so that their children would be better, quicker? How many healthcare providers fall for this ‘persuasion’ or even sometimes, downright ‘instructions’ from their patients or patient’s parents? How many even have an idea of how Polio is transmitted and how they can effectively guard against this? If you don’t have the right knowledge, you’ll fall for anything. A good example of this is a story I heard about a quack practitioner somewhere in the country a couple of years ago who made money off hardworking traders by claiming that he could help them wash out the impurities in their blood. For the people who fell for this scam, he would admit them into his ‘hospital’ and then set up an infusion with diuretics in it. In simple terms, diuretics are drugs that make you urinate a lot. So the guy sets this up and then fixes a urinary catheter (a tube that collects urine from a person’s bladder into a urine bag) for them so they can see the quantity of urine their bodies were making. The impurities were meant to be in the vast amounts of urine being poured out! I am just shaking my mind at the amazing gullibility and ignorance that makes us fall for anything and makes unscrupulous people take advantage of us. By the way, this guy was picked up by the police some time back.

But, I digress…back to the Polio discourse. How is the polio virus spread? It is spread through faeco-oral contact. I will describe this. A child with the wild polio virus defecates and sheds the virus in his or her poo. This faeces can contaminate water sources or can get into food as a result of inappropriate or lack of hand washing and basic hygiene and this cycle continues. Once one case is diagnosed, it is thought to be an epidemic already as one can be a carrier of the virus for a long time before symptoms actually show. The initial symptoms include fever, tiredness, headache and limb/neck stiffness.

Not everyone infected with the virus actually develops paralytic disease. There are some pre-disposing factors to the development of paralytic disease and they include intramuscular injections (like the baby in the story above), injuries, strenuous exercise, pregnancy, immune deficiency and removal of tonsils. Does this mean we should trash our exercise routine (you wish :D) or not get pregnant (let’s watch you convince your spouse :D)? The point being made is that these groups of people are prone to this and should ensure that they practice proper hygiene and sanitation to prevent this, given its mode of transmission.

All children below the age of 5 years should be immunized and booster doses given whenever the Government sends out her officials to do so. It’s not cool to send them away as if they were some troublesome ‘pests’ disturbing your peace. Their jobs save lives. If enough children are immunized, the cycle of infection can be broken and our children will live healthier, longer and better lives. Remember, there’s no cure for polio…only treatment to deal with the symptoms.

Here’s to a healthier generation…..and a healthier you!

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Baby in the tummy; it’s all up to mummy…is it?

Posted on October 26, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

Do you remember your first pregnancy? This question is directed at the ladies (obviously :D). We know how all the pains and stress of pregnancy melted away once we held our babies. I remember mine very vividly.To start with, I had no idea I was pregnant. I was doing my house job/internship then and I worked in the Emergency Room (ER). This particular ER was extremely busy, a lot of times and specifically at this time in question. So, I couldn’t afford the distraction of a fever…because that was what I kept experiencing. Fever and that peculiarly Nigerian symptom of internal heat J. I shrugged it off and kept going. But these symptoms were going nowhere! It worsened such that when I smelt perfume, I would throw up and I had this absolutely disgusting taste in my mouth. Sounds like malaria, yes? Well, I freely confess to not being the best patient and so I didn’t run a test neither did I treat myself. I just figured it would go away (Quick disclaimer: please don’t practice this when you are pregnant or at any time at all :D)

Anyways, matters came to a head when I practically shut down my kitchen. I couldn’t stand the smell in there. My kitchen was filled with lots of essences for baking: vanilla, strawberry, banana, orange etc. The mix of the essences were just not agreeing with my nose. Every time I went in there, I headed straight to the bathroom to vomit. And the bathroom? That was no help either. The detergent I was using at that time suddenly became nauseating to me. Well, I felt I could do without cooking and shut down my kitchen, but hey, I had business to transact in my bathroom every day and so something had to give. I got rid of the detergent and had to switch to something else. And finally at this time, some part of my medically trained brain asked the question, ‘are you pregnant?’ I was in shock! My husband was in Port Harcourt while I was rounding off my internship. I didn’t quite plan for dealing with this on my own and so I sorta prayed for this cup to pass me by…at least for the moment.

And so it was at this moment I decided to go get these symptoms checked out. As I already had it in my head that I was pregnant, I decided to go do a scan to confirm (or not) this…not the most orthodox way of confirming pregnancy I know :D. And, yes, I found out that I was pregnant! The rest as they say is history!

So, I always empathise when I watch TV shows that tell us how some women were far along before they knew they were pregnant. The ones that actually put to bed before they knew they were pregnant stretch the imagination but may not be far-fetched. For a first time mother, this is particularly important as she may not know what signs to look out for, what’s normal and what’s not. Putting it in context…I am a medical doctor and I didn’t even know I was pregnant 😀

This post is about the glorious state of pregnancy, the normal signs and the red flags. The red flags are the signs that may spell trouble and which should be checked out immediately without waiting for the next pre-natal (antenatal) clinic visit.

We’ll start with the normal:

Breast tenderness: this is inevitable as your breast ducts prepare for the job of lactation. Bra sizes could go up from 1 to several sizes up. Be sure to get a good support bra and keep going up sizes as your breast size increases. This will help reduce sagging.

Discharge: A thin milky discharge is normal during pregnancy. But if this becomes yellow, greenish or foul smelling, please see your doctor.

Heart burn and Constipation: These happen due to one of the hormones produced during pregnancy. The antenatal vitamins also play a part in worsening constipation 😀

Frequency of urination: As the baby grows in the uterus, it presses on the bladder making you feel like urinating more often.

Tiredness: As your body works overtime to support a growing life inside you, you would feel exhausted.

Food cravings and aversions: Well, I certainly had loads of aversions with my first pregnancy. I can’t remember any cravings as I couldn’t get any food to stay down. However, some people develop a craving for the oddest, craziest foods when pregnant. Go easy on eating for two though…the healthy living dictum of eating loads of fruits/vegetables and low calories does not change during pregnancy. The more you gorge or give in to the food cravings, the more work you have to do to get it off after the baby. However, if you find yourself craving things like clay, sand etc, please see your doctor as it could be a sign of iron deficiency anaemia.

Morning sickness/nausea: This is due to the hormones of pregnancy (again!). This may be mild or so severe that the person actually gets hospitalised. If your nausea is severe, please see your doctor. But generally, you can help push this back by eating some bland food especially in the mornings when it is worse like crackers or cheese.

Now for the red flags…these have to be heard and checked out by your obstetrician immediately:

Significant bleeding. If you’re not sure what is significant and what’s not, please see your doctor all the same. Better safe than sorry.

Severe abdominal pain: This could be a sign of a threatened miscarriage

Severe nausea/vomiting: This could lead to dehydration which could affect the baby adversely

Severe dizziness

Too little weight gain or too much weight gain: Try to keep weight gain between 11 to 15kg during the pregnancy. Your doctor could have recommended more or less depending on your pre-pregnancy state.

Pain or burning sensation when urinating: This could be a urinary tract infection. It needs to be dealt with.

Vaginal discharge: Foul smelling, yellow or greenish colour could indicate an infection and could affect your baby.

High fever: This could signify an infection.

So ladies, enjoy this fabulous state of pregnancy. Guys, give them all the support they need…and deserve. By the way, did I forget the amazing mood swings that are a very normal part of this state? Guys, be sure to respect and lovingly manage that. It’s all those hormones running amok in the body :D. You play a huge role in ensuring a successful outcome of pregnancy.

As for me, I’m done with all that stuff. I’m a grandmother in waiting! Loads of years before we get there!

So, keep healthy people and don’t let pregnancy get you down. It’s really not a sickness :D. And the products of this process live forever in our hearts.

Here’s to a healthier you!

 

 

 

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Sugar Rush!

Posted on October 19, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

Years ago, Diabetes Mellitus (DM) was a disease associated with old age. For young people, this wasn’t really an issue and it wasn’t very common to see children with insulin injections setting up shots etc. But it’s not such a rarity any more.

A couple of weeks ago, in church, the pastor shared a story of a child brought into the hospital who did not have any obvious signs of illness but on investigation, it was realised that she was diabetic. The blood glucose was so high she had to be kept back in the hospital for treatment to start. The poor girl was confused…’why am I being kept in the hospital when I’m not even ill?’ (at least she didn’t feel ill). But for her parents, things had changed…very radically! This beautiful child they had was now going to be consigned to a life of pills and injections. 

Now, pills and injections are a good thing if they preserve life and indeed improve or at least do not negatively alter the quality of life of the person taking them. But perhaps there’s something we can do to stop the relentless march of this scourge?

To put things in context, let’s discuss briefly what Diabetes Mellitus is. Usually, the food we eat is converted to simple sugars inside our bodies. An organ of the body, the pancreas secretes insulin which moves these sugars into the cells. In DM, this doesn’t happen as the body does not respond to the stimulus of glucose in the blood by releasing insulin or is unable to produce insulin. There are 2 types of DM: type 1 and type 2. In type 1, which usually occurs in children, the insulin secreting cells are destroyed. So there is no insulin to send the glucose into the cells. In the latter, the cells of the body that produce insulin are no longer able to do so when there is a load of sugar in the blood. They become insensitive to the sugar stimulus. There are also gestational DM and MODY – Maturity Onset Diabetes in the Young. We won’t go into these last two. 

So, is the popular story that when I take a lot of sugary things then I can become diabetic true? Well, it’s not a lie. But it’s not just the sugary nature of the food that’s a problem. These foods are processed, depriving the body of the real nutrients they require. They are empty calories and so eating them floods the blood stream with sugar which quickly dissipates leaving the person hungry again and desiring yet another sugar fix! Other starchy foods are also culprit. Eating too much leads to over flooding of the blood stream with simple sugars which may overwhelm the pancreas that produce insulin. Complex carbs on the other hand cause a more gradual increase in blood sugar, which is better for you.

So what to do to prevent Diabetes Mellitus in our children and in ourselves…especially for those who are already pre-diabetic (people with higher than normal glucose levels but not high enough to be called diabetic) or have a family history of DM (bearing in mind that this will mostly work for type 1 DM)? Two words of advice: stay active and stay lean.

Staying active involves ensuring some physical activity everyday. Most of us live sedentary lifestyles now and hardly engage ourselves in activities or encourage our children to. All those video and computer games we buy for our children have taken over their lives…well, sort of. They plop down in front of them merrily chasing the characters along their way and watching all manner of shows: learning things we want them to (maybe) and the ones we’re shocked actually gets shown on TV!

Staying lean involves eating healthy…ensuring that we enforce portion control. Half our plates should be filled with veggies, a quarter with protein and a quarter with complex carbs (yam, potatoes, beans etc). Discover the different veggies available in the market or grocery shop and find a way of incorporating these into your meal plan. 

Others measures include: quit smoking, reduce alcohol intake and reduce the consumption of processed foods. 

So next time you feel the need for a sugar fix, remember the fact that this second of pleasure may end with a lifetime of pain.

Here’s to a healthier you!

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Save lives: clean your hands!

Posted on October 12, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

It will be global hand washing day on the 15th of October. A friend of mine jokingly said to me, ‘seriously?!’ WHO has time! Hand washing day indeed! Why can’t they face more important issues?’ Are you in the same boat with my friend? Well here’s news for you!

Diseases like respiratory infections and diarrhea cause up to  20 percent of the burden of disease in children. It has been found that in places where hand washing was instituted, this burden of disease has been cut by about 50%. This is a huge number…from hand washing alone! In hospitals, it was also found that the spread of hospital acquired infections was encouraged by lack of hand washing and so WHO instituted a global campaign for health workers clearly specifying when hands have to be washed. 

So, practical lessons: mums wash your hands before you make your baby’s/family’s food, after you change baby’s diaper, after you blow your nose, after cleaning etc. Ensure that people don’t come in from the market (or wherever) and head straight to pick up your baby and kiss your baby…no matter how well meaning their gestures might be. Encourage them to wash their hands before they do so…or you could buy a hand sanitizer and get them to use it on their hands before picking up your precious bundle of joy. It may be awkward when you start off insisting on these, but pretty soon everyone gets used to it…trust me, I know from personal experience 😀 (I probably got away with more because my in-laws probably just thought I was a weird Okoro girl). Tips: remember that sanitizers are only useful for hands that are not visibly dirty. For visibly dirty hands, you’ve got to wash! Also remember that when choosing the sanitizer, look for products that have up to 60 percent alcohol and ensure that when you use it, you rub until your hands are dry.

We should ensure that we teach children and indeed remind ourselves to wash hands after playing or doing stuff outside the house, before eating, after using the toilet, after playing with pets or disposing of their wastes (in fact children should not be encouraged to play too close to their kennels or sheds), before cooking and even after handling dirty laundry! The list is endless…but that’s also because the possible means of contaminating our hands are endless and the germs find easy routes into the body once we touch our hands, mouths, eyes etc. So we can’t be too careful…and just in case you wondered, ‘no, you don’t have to wear a face mask like dear Michael Jackson and/or gloves all the time’ to protect you from the many germs that exist! 😀 That might be…well, for want of a better word, perhaps just a teensy weensy bit extreme! 😀

Finally, remember that hand washing, to be done right, has to be with soap! If you haven’t washed with soap, you haven’t really done much. Tips for effective hand washing: wet your hands with water, apply soap, then scrub thoroughly paying attention to your nail beds, in between fingers, palms and back of hands. Then rinse thoroughly before drying your hands.

Borrowing very liberally from WHO’s hand washing campaign, I say ‘save lives: clean your hands!’

Here’s to a healthier you!

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A time for reflections!

Posted on October 5, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

It has been a few days of reflection for me. It started with the plane crash in Lagos of Thursday and the news that most of the passengers perished. I found myself wondering about those who died. What was or were the last thoughts they had on their minds before their souls floated away? Stories have it that before one dies, the person’s whole life flashes by, in seconds before their eyes. Did they have regrets? Dreams they had dreamt that they never actualized? People they had quarreled with for such a long time that they could not even remember the reason for the quarrel. People they loved that they never quite got to tell how much they were loved on a regular basis? Or perhaps, happiness? That they had achieved so much in a short time? Relief, not to have to deal with the issues pulling at them in certain areas of their lives?

Then the people they left behind….the sheer disbelief when the news first gets to them. They’ve got to be wrong! This can’t be! The race to the phone to call the loved one. The prayers and conscious willing of the phone to ring. The images of the last time they spent with these people. The thoughts of how, perhaps, they could have stopped these loved ones from making the trip? Taking that particular flight? Just kept them beside them for just one moment longer? Inevitably, there would be stories of those who narrowly missed taking the flight. Then there would be the inevitable questions, conscious or subconscious, by the ones who lost people to the crash about why their loved ones just couldn’t have been spared this fatality.

This moment of sober reflection was worsened by the fact that my mum tried to pull a fast one on us. My mum cannot abide the air conditioner in a car and needs to have the windows wound down on all sides so she can feel fresh air on her face. My driver was to pick her up from my sister’s to take her to my house. Unfortunately it was raining. So, my driver, like any other good driver worth his salt, figured that it was okay to break the ‘wind down the windows’ rule. Within a few minutes, my mum was sweating buckets and gasping for breath. My panicked driver drove straight down to my office and I had to leave with them to ‘re-hydrate’ her. The good news is, she’s okay. But, it could have been different. I found myself thinking about all the things I wanted to do for her, that perhaps I hadn’t got around to doing yet. All the times that I may have been too busy to listen to what she had to say….and the list goes on and on.

So guys, love like you have never done before. Seize each moment and make it special. Be sure to tell the people you care about, that you love them and do all you can to stay healthy. We have no idea when it will be ‘time up’ for any of us because a lot of those factors are outside of our control.  But we can certainly do something about the other factors that are within our control. Don’t rob your loved ones of the opportunity to love you or be loved by you.

Here’s to a healthier you!

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You are what you read.

Posted on September 28, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

If we were to take this title literally, what would you be? Should we attempt to give names to people based on what they read? Hmm, interesting thought…but we probably won’t get to the business of the day! So, reluctantly, I give this up!

I love travelling. No, let me amend that. I love the freedom I have when I travel, oftentimes. On the flight, I know that for the couple of hours it takes me to get to my destination, I am very unlikely to be disturbed with a phone call. (By the way, can someone tell the airlines that it is not a cool idea to enable phone calls while in the air?  I’m not sure whether this has finally been done or whether it is still a plan. Either way, please someone let them know what I think. I don’t want anyone getting in touch with me while I’m in the air. That’s me time! :D). I love the fact that when I check into my hotel or wherever, I don’t have to make dinner or worry about breakfast etc. I can decide to eat or not. But the very best part of all this, is what I have saved for last. This is when I catch up on all my reading…and please note that I don’t mean heavy duty reading. Very light, fun filled easy on the eyes reading. I touch base with John Grisham and his humour that keeps me doubled over in laughter, the suspense of Fredrick Forsyth’s novels, the intrigue of Jeffrey Archer’s characters etc. I read, I sleep and then of course, I attend to the business that brought me there. But I just love the freedom to read a novel.

Friends who knew me from way back always ask me whether I still read novels as much as I did back then. I would read novels even when I was supposed to be preparing for exams. That was my way of unwinding after tedious reading and this habit followed me all the way to the university (By the way, note that this is not a recipe for success. Actually, it is a recipe for disaster and I issue the immediate disclaimer that nobody should be found reading a novel while preparing for exams! :D) I don’t read that many novels anymore. Too many things pulling at me.

I started off with Ladybirds. We had a whole library filled with all the classics…Snow white (with the 7 Dwarfs and with Rose Red), Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks etc. Then I moved on to Pacesetters. These novels introduced me to the world of adult reading. It was a mixed grill of action, suspense and romance. Ah, romance. What Pacesetters introduced, Mills and Boon took to a whole new level. I’d like to ask a question though, ‘has anyone ever seen ‘that’ tall, dark and handsome chap (rich to boot of course)’ that we all read about in M & Bs? If you see him, summon him into my presence 😀

Back to our gist. This post is not about me or my good/bad reading habits. It is about this habit in our children. Children do not just read anymore. There are a ‘gazillion’ things pulling at them but reading…novels or anything is not one of those things. And it is not just here…it’s everywhere. My children and I took a quick vacation and on one of our outings, all three of them had a book in their faces. When they said hello to a lady in the elevator with us, she actually commented that it is so good to see children reading. That made my heart glow. I mean I would love to tell you that I’ve got these perfect children who read all the time and don’t have to be reminded. I really wish I could tell you that :D. But the truth is that, it is not that way. My first daughter would fall into that category (I saw her attempting to read a novel while taking a bath once. That settled it! I had to ban reading from certain activities :D). For the other two, it is carrot and stick approach. You’ve got your daily chores for the week and then you’ve also got to read a book during that week. If you do your chores satisfactorily, there is an allowance at the end of the week and then if a book was successfully finished, there’s an additional little something. Am I bribing these children to read? I try not to think of it in that sense. I like to think that I am encouraging a good habit in them…and by the way, during that holiday, they did not get any allowance for chores or anything else. So I must be succeeding in encouraging this habit….I think 😉

We are bringing up a generation of children who do not read, cannot write in complete sentences and are too lazy to reason through an issue when they can google it. I am sure my children think I’m a pain when I insist that text messages must be written in long hand. I mean, let’s face it. Letters are so last year (so they tell me) that beyond marking their English comprehension work (if you do), the only written correspondence you’re ever likely to have on a continuous basis with your children are text messages and perhaps emails. So they had better be good!

Reading also teaches them to ‘travel’ the world and visit other cultures and indeed learn to appreciate other cultures, people, traditions and religions. It develops their imaginations and gets them to, hopefully, think out of the box. Let’s have some more Einsteins please. People who will redefine the face of the earth; thinkers who will go after their dreams rather than expect them to be handed to them on a platter of gold; readers who are leaders and who will birth the next generation of readers. When you read, you have a rich store of words that are useful in different circumstances. Let’s top having those….’emmm, what’s the right word to use?’ moments (I am guilty too …sometimes!)

We, the parents, are no better. We only read fashion magazines and the gossip rags. Before you look for the rotten tomatoes to pelt me with, please note that I’m not averse to a good gossip now and again, but we’ve really got to feed our brains. Read management books, or self-development books or even novels. Or newspapers…what’s up with PDP, new or old? What’s happening in Jos? Iran? Syria? Beyond being a good conversation starter, it shows how knowledgeable you are and generally improves mental health. It is disheartening especially when young people come in for job interviews and have no idea of topical issues; some cannot even tell you anything about the company they profess to want to work for! It is mind boggling. There’s just no quest for knowledge or excellence.

We can actually inculcate this love for reading in children very early by reading to them when they are very young. As you tuck them into bed and they say their prayers, then settle in for a short or long read to them. This encourages bonding with your children, creates an intimate time when they know they can ask you any question, they develop longer attention span and indeed logical reasoning.

So lead by example and create a reading time for the whole family…you know, the same way you all gather watch TV? And if you’re not married, read too. It’s never too late to start a good habit. Feed your mind and build your mental health.

Here’s to a healthier you

 

 

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My food and I…BC and AC

Posted on September 21, 2013 by chatwithdrketch
I remember those years before I had my first baby! I see some of those pictures and I gaze in awe. Those must have been the days when my mum would jokingly say I made skirts out of half a yard of fabric! I had my first baby and once she was six weeks old, I was back on the beat doing my exercises to get back to my BC (before child) status. My Yoruba aunt-in-law could not understand this and my utter lack of disregard for the plates of amala et al she attempted to serve up for my eating pleasure. I was determined to get back to my BC status and the earlier that happened the better. This worked pretty well in this instance and before long, I was exactly how I wanted to be.
 
Then came along baby number 2…and suddenly, it wasn’t so easy to get back to my pre-pregnancy state. I managed it at the end of the day though…but it was with tightly gritted teeth, loads of sweat and oodles of perseverance. I realized at this time that my days of eating like a horse and burning it all off were gone. Oh, I used to be able to wolf down calories that even the fast food joints would shudder at, and not show a bit of spare flesh. What happened to that fantastic metabolic rate? It up and died on me because, it now appeared that even when I smelt food, I added weight ! 😀 Honestly…I could almost swear!
 
Then came baby number 3 and my metabolism finally gave up. Every food I ate was duly converted to calories and stored in embarrassing areas of my body like my lower belly and my hips. I’m one of those lucky ones that their arms and wrists don’t really ‘swell’ up whenever they add weight…but consider that I was unlucky in every other way as I added weight in every other place 😀 Again, I worked at it, even harder this time and I was motivated by the fact that I’d been bought a couple of clothes to wear post pregnancy, and so they provided sufficient motivation to get with the crunches and sit-ups. And finally, the clothes fit!
 
In between, I tried some magic berry pills that were supposed to speed up your metabolism so fast it made your head spin! Mark you, I’m a doctor so I wasn’t looking for anything that had any side effects that could affect my health. Nope, I wanted to do it naturally, but hey, if a pill helps, why not?! Yes? Well, I can tell you for a fact that my head spun, not from how fast my metabolism was converting fat to muscle but by how I could have ever considered there was an easier way…than sweating and grunting through it!
 
Did it get better afterwards? Nope, it became a constant battle to get the weight off and make it stay that way. I have this friend who wolves down everything in sight and yet, nothing happens. But not me! I finally made my peace with this new me…Ketch AC (After Children :D) a couple of years ago and realized that this is my new reality…I add weight when I smell food 😀 So I can either stay down and whine about it or get up and do something about it.
 
And do something about it, I did. I committed to exercising at least five days every week or walking at least 5000 steps every day. I committed to reducing my portions and eating right. I made friends with beans, vegetables and fruits. Now, for some reason I never liked fruits. I could go for months (I think it would be absolutely embarrassing to say I could go for perhaps a year) without tasting (yes tasting…not even eating) a single fruit and then on some other occasions, I would get the craving for oranges and sit down with a knife in front of a basket of oranges and finish it off! I had to find a way of incorporating fruits into my diet. And that’s when I really discovered smoothies. Now my life is not complete without my brew on a daily basis. I have even gone days on smoothies only…the weight just peeled off and I assure you that even the most recalcitrant tummy would go flatter (depending on how much work has to be done, of course) on a diet of smoothies!
 
I’m not and never have been a huge fan of fad diets. I think they place a lot of restrictions on you which make them impracticable and thus easily abandoned. So, for all of you who have written in asking for how to lose all that belly fat and perhaps if there’s a magic pill, here’s my answer. It is hard work…plain and simple.
 
First focus on portion control. Start by reducing the size of your plate. If you eat with a bowl, go for a plate. If you eat with a flat plate with a circumference that could hold the globe 🙂 go for a smaller one etc. Then make sure that you focus on eating healthier foods. Half the plate should be filled with veggies, a quarter with protein and a quarter with carbs. Focus on complex carbs like brown rice, potatoes, yams, oats etc. Your palm is actually a good measure of how much you should eat and before you pelt me with rotten tomatoes for saying this, I’ve actually got very small palms so I’m suffering through this too 🙂
 
Then, exercise. This could be in the gym or through your regular activities. If you are a stay-at-home mum, dancing while doing your house chores, may not be what you have in mind when you look at a full house of chores, but it could start you on your fitness journey. And if you have a house help, don’t send her to do everything, get up and do some stuff yourself. Taking a walk in the evening when everyone is back, is also helpful. Going to the gym is a great way to start your day. In the office, move around some more…to the printer, to the bank, to the restaurant for lunch. Don’t call for everything.
 
And then, try and reduce your stress level…I can almost hear your ‘yeah, right! How do I do that?’ Well, stress is a normal part of life and in fact is needed to give you the regular push to get and go every morning. Find out your sources of stress and figure out solutions to them. For those you can’t find solutions for, let them go. No problem has ever been solved by stressing out over them. During stressful times, we are more likely to make wrong food choices. You may feel too lethargic to go anywhere and want to grab a quick food fix on your desk…where you’ve been sitting all day!
 
So that’s it…in as simple and plain a way as I could put it. These are the ABCs of losing weight…and we all keep working at it. I still have 1kg of my summer holiday weight left to lose before I continue my regimen from where I left off (Did I really misbehave that much during the holidays? SMH)
 
So, join me and let’s keep each other honest!
 
Here’s to a healthier you!
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Smell you later!

Posted on September 14, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

Have you heard the saying, ‘guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days’? I’ve always found it funny and wonder whether those house guests who overstay their welcome have ever heard it. Anyways, this post is not about guests, wanted or unwanted 😉 Ever since our healthy tips aired on cable TV, I have received lots of questions by viewers about the causes and prevention of body odour. And so, I have decided to treat this topic today.

Are you a fan of Fresh Prince of Bel Air? I love it…but it did take me a while to figure out that in the opening sequence when he leaves the taxi holding on to his nose, he was saying ‘smell you later!’ as opposed to ‘see you later’….not as smart as I love to think, aye 😉 And so I have liberally borrowed that line for my title 😀

Have you ever walked into a roomful of people and find yourself looking for the nearest exit or a spot right in front of the fan or air conditioner? The problem? The smell in the room…and yet the occupants appear not to sense any problem in the atmosphere. Have you even been in this same room of ‘smells’ with an air freshener…perhaps the one that automatically dispenses lovely perfume into the atmosphere and notice how the air just becomes worse as the nice and the horrible smells mix? This last situation must take the price for the worst assault on the human nose….ever!

But guess what? Quite a number of people with body odour, either have no idea that they smell or have no idea why they smell. Did you know that sweat on its own is odourless? And so, if we were to potentially, put a bucket of sweat in any place, no odour or smell will emanate from it. Did you also know that there are bacteria that live naturally on the skin? I can almost hear your, ‘seriously?’ 😀 Yes, seriously. These bacteria include Staphylococcus, the same organism that the alternative medicine practitioners have convinced us is a clear and present danger to us all! These bacteria generally mind their business on your skin until there is a breach in the integrity of your skin (which in everyday English means, a cut, bruise or any injury to the skin. I couldn’t resist the doctor-speak :D) and then they become troublesome and problematic! Back to our sweat discourse, it is when sweat mixes with these bacteria that the stench of sweat is produced.

So how can we prevent this public health menace? And yes, it isn’t quite so obvious…otherwise we would not be discussing it! 😉

First a good bath in the mornings and evenings is always a good way to start and end the day. During this activity, focus should be laid on the ‘potentially smelly’ areas like underarms and private areas. The former should be scrubbed and the latter gently rinsed out with water….nothing more than that is needed really. Do not forget to also brush your teeth (at least twice a day), brush your tongue, use mouthwash and floss daily.

Then, use a deodorant or antiperspirant. This does not prevent the formation of sweat but deodorants mask the smell of sweat on the body and antiperspirants reduce the production of sweat. It is thought that using antiperspirants in the evening after a bath gives it enough opportunity to work while the body is ‘asleep’ before you wake up and start working up a sweat! Be sure to shave your underarm and groin area hairs frequently as they trap sweat and encourage smells.

Change undergarments frequently. Honestly, panties and underpants should be changed whenever you take a bath. And please remember to wash the discarded ones when you change.

The clothes to wear on this newly and nicely scrubbed body should be spanking clean too…dontcha think? So, clothes that have been worn and sweated on with the smell of dried and caked sweat will most definitely encourage a body odour. Change your gym clothes after every work out and wash them. Tennis shoes should be cleaned and aired.

If you are a guy, please change your socks often too. You know that smell of a dead rat that people perceive when some people take off their shoes? Well, wearing those socks again and again would certainly make you one of these guys and does nothing to improve your smell rating 😀

If you are a lady, your monthly period is a smelly time :D…..but it doesn’t have to be so! Change your sanitary towel often and ensure that you take a bath as often as is needed to remain fresh every day. If after a change, a bath is not possible but you really feel you need one, you could use a moistened cloth or paper towel to wipe down your privates and surrounding areas. Even outside of your period, panty liners are a good way of ensuring your body’s natural secretions do not make you smelly.

If you use the gym or engage in physical activity that make you particularly sweaty, a visit to friends immediately afterwards is not a good idea as you would seriously stink 😉

Eating garlic and onion meals may also contribute to a smell around you. As a result of the fact that they contain some very active nutrients needed in the body, we may not be suggesting that you stop eating them 😀 Try something minty after these meals. It has also been suggested that perhaps eating some more veggies like carrots or taking lemon juice may neutralize the smell. Be sure to also scrub the smell off your hands too.

Let me know how these work out and remember that a positive self-esteem also smells absolutely amazing!

Here’s to a healthier you!

 

 

 

 

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10 going on 30!

Posted on September 7, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

My first daughter turned 11 earlier this year. Remember the one that I wanted to breastfeed forever and take to work with me? The very same one! She is 11! Where did all that time fly to? Not too long ago, I was changing her diapers and weaning her and teaching her to eat by herself etc. and now she’s all grown up…and actually has the temerity to call me her daughter sometimes! Yeah, she’s taller than I am…but, the cheek of her! 😀

With her adolescence, though, come some very difficult issues to tackle. Sex education et al. I mean, why do I want to discuss that stuff with my little daughter? When she was younger, it was easier to ‘avoid’ these conversations as I could just buy nicely worded and beautifully coloured books that talk about HIV/AIDS and STIs etc. and leave it at that. A few awkward questions and we’re all good to go. But I can’t hide behind the books anymore. This is the time for face to face, ‘I-want-to-know-how-it-works’ and sometimes despite the brave smile on my face, I cringe inwardly about what we are discussing!

However the statistics provide enough incentive not to give up and to keep conversation lines open. Did you know that the World Health Organization estimates that 16 million adolescent girls (young people aged between 10 and 19 years) give birth every year and most of them are in low and middle income countries (just in case you wondered, Nigeria is certainly one of these!). These girls, especially those in the 15-19 year bracket, are more likely to die from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth…and the terrible statistics continue.

This is about the age when adolescents discover alcohol and other drugs…perhaps by watching television, other adults, peers or even online. And this is the time they try their hands at experimenting these stuff. An adolescent under the influence of alcohol or indeed any other drug is more likely to make bad decisions about sex, than a sober one, thus complicating an already bad scenario.

This is the time for frank and open conversations. Recall when we were younger (that’s if you’re in my age group :D) and some parents would tell their children that if a guy looked at them, they’d get pregnant? Forget those old wives’ tales. They are not relevant today because these children probably know the names of things that you didn’t even know existed…maybe. So be open about the issues that you are concerned about and find out what your adolescent thinks about those issues…in as open and non-judgemental a way as possible. If you can get into their heads, you’ve got a better chance of figuring out what’s going on there and perhaps, tightening any loose screws 😀

Make out time to do stuff with them. I know we all get busy with work and stuff but the children really need positive mentors at this stage. Statistics show that children who spend more time with their parents and are involved with activities generally stay out of trouble more. Remember the saying, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop? Let them discover activities they are really good at: arts and crafts, sports, singing etc. and get them involved in organizations that encourage these.

And social media? I am very old school about this with regards to my children. Even the social media realise that there are specific ages at which these ‘children’ should be given the liberty to associate with people they don’t even know, and that’s why they have age limits. Stick with those and even then, discuss the positives and negatives of these new media. They have to be careful who they are friending, befriending, unfriending, whatsapping,  tweeting, twerking and emailing!

I had an interesting discussion about a week ago with some researchers from out of town (US) who came to research teenage pregnancy and Termination Of Pregnancies (TOPs). I wasn’t of much help though I pointed them in the direction of some Government centers, first because TOPs are illegal in Nigeria and secondly because the only information that might exist may be in the Government approved centres. But they asked me a curious question before they left, if someone you knew, a teenager got pregnant, what would you have them do? Abort the baby or keep the baby given their absolute lack of preparedness to deal with a baby? Tough one… and in very typical Nigerian fashion, my first thought was ‘I reject it in Jesus’ name!’ Suffice it to say that my answer was long winded and convoluted and probably ended up giving me a headache! My head still throbs when I think of it :D. But, more seriously, it is a wakeup call to everyone who has teenagers or mentors teenagers to face these issues head on and provide the right information. Focus on short term and medium term consequences as opposed to long term ones. It is usually difficult for the teenager to look far enough into the future to figure out how a pregnancy now messes with their ability get a good job later and fend for their family adequately. This has multiple rebound effects on their own children who will probably not be able to meet their own potentials later in life.

Focus on them not being able to go to the prom, go to university…that can’t very well happen when they’ve got a baby to look after, right? How they will disappoint a mentor that they are particularly fond of and how most importantly, they will be devaluing their sense of self-worth.

As we keep having these discussions, hopefully we can help reduce the statistics and have a more productive generation.

Here’s to a healthier generation and a healthier you!

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The meat of the matter!

Posted on August 30, 2013 by chatwithdrketch

A couple of years ago, I remember complaining to a friend of mine about all the things I had to do and how there weren’t enough hours in a day to deal with them all. On that day, I specifically needed to buy meat, which would have meant a trip to the market and I didn’t have that time. She suggested some guy that she knew supplied meat to someone else in the office to come bring some for me. I was sceptical. I was very sure that whatever the guy was bringing for sale was the remnant of whatever had been sold in the market. Reluctantly though, I agreed… it was either that or cook without meat that day which for reasons I will not bother going into today was not going to fly.

And so the butcher came. First, I gave him the once over… you know that quick look that’s actually a long leisurely look into a person’s soul :D. And then I stopped short! I said to her: “his eyes are yellowish. Maybe he has hepatitis. What if he manages to contaminate the food with any of his body fluids, etc.” And my friend said something that was instructive. “How do you know who has what? You can tell this one by looking at his eyes… but what else do you know about the hygienic and/or sanitary conditions the beef goes through before it gets to you? Or even about the butchers? The butchers can actually transfer the hepatitis virus to each other if they obtain cuts and share the knives they use to cut up meat. In this way, a whole butchers’ stall can actually be filled with people harbouring the hepatitis virus.”

Cooking is an effective way of killing germs in meat. This pre-supposes that cooking was done for a sufficient amount of time for the meat to be done. Not for me all this rare and medium rare business… or worse still the completely raw tartare. Eew! My meat has to be DEAD! J And I am so not shy about saying so! Minced meat has more of a chance of harbouring germs even after cooking if it was not evenly cooked through. The story of people selling tuberculosis-infected meat is even more worrisome because this can be transmitted to humans, though not very commonly as I have explained above.

So who looks out for us, the busy career woman who is trying to juggle so many things at the same time? Thank God, my family and I survived our episodes of ‘meat on the fly’ but this is routine for a lot of people. The meat that these road-side hawkers carry around can be infected with all sorts of germs that are injurious to us and can cause disease. I cannot remember the last time that I saw a nice-looking Eko meat van. Those were the days when meat was transported in a very respectful manner such that when we bought and ate it, we did so knowing that it had been  prepared in the most hygienic conditions possible. But that is not the case anymore. The days of carrying meat on bikes and in other disgusting ways are back again and with them all the inherent dangers that are associated with unhygienic conditions. Where can I go to get a list of approved/certified abattoirs in Lagos? Or in any other state for that matter? When my butcher says, ‘we never kill meat today’, does that refer to meat that he butchered himself or the one he goes to get from an approved butcher? If he butchered it himself, how do I know whether he saw a sick-looking animal about to die and decided to kill it himself and then sell to poor unsuspecting me? Or maybe he even just cut up an animal that he happened across that was dead already? How do I know?

Remember the story of a whale that washed up on the beach a couple of years back and how people rushed in, literally, ’daggers drawn’, cutting up any part of it they could reach. The problem here is a combination of ignorance and poverty. It is only poverty that would make a man race to get meat that washed up from ‘God knows where!’ I appreciate that a hungry man is not the easiest to reason with because base needs have to be satisfied. And really the Government should do more in terms of wealth re-distribution and equity in the society. But, should we ignore all, at whatever cost? Life??? Ignorance makes one feel that meat is meat forgetting that whatever it is that made this animal die and get washed up just might be harmful to you too.

This conversation is not complete without mentioning chicken. This is a big culprit in the transference of Salmonella to humans. The means of transmission is so easy. It could be from the point of buying it when it is thrown into the same bag as the fruits. If the fruits are not properly washed afterwards then, salmonella could be transferred. It could be through using a chopping board that we used for raw chicken and then using same for cooked chicken without washing. Or it could even be through eggs… you know those eggs that have chicken poop on them that the egg seller proudly displays as a sign of the fact that the eggs are fresh and were just supplied today? Well, that poop is a rich store of all sorts of germs including Salmonella. And so touching this and somehow touching our mouths or other foods can lead to this infection. If you buy a live chicken and you remove the feathers yourself in hot water, be sure to scrub your hands thoroughly as infections can also hide there. An innocent looking egg can also harbour this infection and so it is important to thoroughly cook eggs before eating them (Did I hear you sob about liking your runny yolks? I knoooow! I love them too :D)

I have taken to buying my meat from big retailers that I know slaughter the animals themselves. At least when I walk in, I am not hit by the stench of the very thing I have come to buy. I have considered becoming a vegetarian…it’s certainly healthier and that way, I can comfortably stay away from all the inherent ‘wahala’ (trouble) I have enumerated above. But guess what? The meat of the matter is that I am a carnivore at heart 😀

Here’s to a healthier you!

PS. As soon as I finished writing this, about to post it, I saw the news headline about yet another whale that washed up on a Lagos beach about 2 days ago and how Lagosians rushed to feast on it. Some things just never change, aye?!

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