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We’re happy to announce that our My Healthy Heroes badges and fridge magnets are now available at Best Way Pharmacy in St Kitts.

These badges and fridges magnets are a great keepsake for children and act as a  reminder for kids of what they should and shouldn’t be eating as part of a healthy diet. We’ve tried to use a bit of humour with these items and hope it’ll put a little smile on children’s faces.

Our My Healthy Heroes program aims to educate and empower children to make healthy choices by tapping into their creativity to highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle in a fun and engaging way.

At the beginning of the year, we ran a 6-week pilot of our My Healthy Heroes program with fourth-graders from St Kitts. This pilot project aimed to test our resources and characters (Healthy Heroes, Sugary Drinks Assassins and Junk Food Villains) and determine whether our approach would be effective at educating children about healthy eating and more importantly facilitate a change in their behaviour.

One of the items we tested with children during our pilot was our badges, and they were a hit. Children wore the badges to the sessions every week and did their best to win more by answering questions about healthy eating, it was fun.

If you’d like to find out more about our My Healthy Heroes project, you can read about our pilot here.

So, if you’d like a fun trinket for your children or students, then please do visit Best Way Pharmacy in St Kitts (near the cinema) and pick up a badge or fridge magnet. Additionally,  bulk orders are available for health awareness events and for use in the classroom if you’re a teacher. For more information, please email us

Finally, we’re hoping to begin work on the next phase of our project in a couple of months and more information will be made available about this soon.

The 1^st  of August is Emancipation Day in the former British colonies in the Caribbean. It’s a day where we commemorate the passing of the Slavery Abolition Bill in 1833 by the British government. This act formally abolished slavery in British colonies with, on paper, enslaved people gaining their freedom through British Law from 1^st August 1834.

In reality, enslaved men and women over the age of six were forced to work for their former masters, uncompensated, for a further four years as part of an apprenticeship period.  Real freedom was granted on 1^st August 1838 when the British government passed a bill for complete emancipation. Following the passing of this bill, 750,000 Africans were freed, but with no real power to exercise their freedom, many were forced to work for their former slave masters for exceptionally low wages. This colonial period lasted until the 20^th century and during this period Black people in the Caribbean were denied political, economic and social power.

The impact of slavery on the progress of people of African descent has been immense and this year, in St Kitts and Nevis, Emancipation Day was used to reflect on reparations and how the effects of slavery can be addressed.

Reparation is the process of repairing the damage caused by slavery – a crime against humanity. The reparation movement has a long history with former colonies advocating for justice and European countries failing to take responsibility for the crimes they committed in their quest to enrich their nations.

To tackle the issue of reparations in the Caribbean in a more structured manner, the CARICOM Reparations Commission was established in July 2013 and their mandate was to:

“Prepare the case for reparatory justice for the region’s indigenous and African descendant communities who are the victims of Crimes against Humanity (CAH) in the forms of genocide, slavery, slave trading, and racial apartheid.”

This mandate led to the formation of the CARICOM Reparations Justice Program which includes a Ten-Point Action Plan.  This plan outlines clear steps that are required for reconciliation and justice for nations affected by the transatlantic slave trade, and we were delighted to see that action point five covers the public health crisis.

Reparations and Public Health

The recognition of the impact that slavery has had on the health of the people of the Caribbean is very important. The Caribbean has one of the highest incidences of hypertension and diabetes in the world and both of these conditions are risk factors for a number of other diseases.  Our ill-health is a direct result of slavery with the CARICOM Reparations Committee explaining that the unaddressed “nutritional experience, physical and emotional brutality, and overall stress associated with slavery, genocide, and apartheid” has created a non-communicable disease pandemic.

Research into the lifestyles of enslaved Africans demonstrates that their poor nutrition and emotional brutality started during their journey across the Atlantic.

The conditions on the slave ships were deplorable.  Enslaved Africans were chained together on decks that were overcrowded, unsanitary, unbearably hot, lacked oxygen and they were subjected to frequent physical and sexual abuse.  During the three to six-week journey across the Atlantic, enslaved Africans were fed boiled rice and salted fish which was the start of their new life of poor nutrition.

Once they arrived in the Caribbean, as we know, the brutality continued and so did the lack of access to nutritious food.   Research has suggested that their meals rarely varied and consisted of salt meat or salt fish and Guinea corn, and sometimes yam, bananas or plantains. If slave masters were feeling particularly generous, enslaved Africans were given treats such as tobacco, molasses and rum. As time progressed, enslaved Africans had to find and grow (yam, okra etc) more food to supplement what they were provided with and be creative in their meal preparation. This creativity has led to our modern-day dishes such as jerk chicken, souse, pig foot soup etc. which satisfied their hunger but wasn’t always healthy.

The lack of nutritious food led to many health problems and this combined with the brutality and trauma of slavery led to high infant and maternal mortality, and this high maternal mortality rate in Black women still persists today.

Today, a shift from homemade foods to a more Westernised diet rich in processed foods that are high in sugar, salt and saturated fat has exacerbated our diet-related health challenges. Additionally, the multigenerational trauma caused by four hundred years of slavery, which has been articulated by Dr Joy Degruy’s concept of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,  links the behaviour and attitudes displayed by Black people today to slavery and highlights another important non-communicable disease that is a legacy of slavery – mental illness.

As the origins of the current public health crisis in the Caribbean can be traced back to slavery, the CARICOM Ten-Point Reparations Action Plan calls for “the injection of science, technology, and capital beyond the capacity of the region” to address this crisis.

We support CARICOM’s Ten-Point Action Plan and will continue to do our part to tackle NCDs in the Caribbean.

Sources

1. Bristol City Council. Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery: The End of Slavery [Online]. Bristol City Council. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020]. Available from: http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/against-slavery/freedom-from-slavery/apprenticeship/slavery-end/
2. CARICOM Reparations Commission. Ten-Point Action Plan [Online]. CARICOM. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020]. Available from: https://caricomreparations.org/caricom/caricoms-10-point-reparation-plan/
3. Guzman, RF. The Feeding of Slave Populations in the United States, the Caribbean and Brazil. Some Remakes on the State of the Art.   Lat. Hist. Econ. 2012; 20(2):5-35.
4. Lewis, T. (2005). Transatlantic Slave Trade [Online] Britannica. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/transatlantic-slave-trade
5. The University of Glasgow. Enslaved People’s Lives. [Online]. The University of Glasgow. [Viewed on 28^th August 2020]. Available from: https://runaways.gla.ac.uk/minecraft/index.php/slaves-lives/

Update 7th September 2020:   On 4th September, the  CDC revised their alert for St Kitts and Nevis to “No Travel Health Notice: COVID-19 risk is very low.” We applaud this revision as this more accurately reflects the current COVID-19 risk in St Kitts and Nevis. 

On 6^th August 2020, the CDC issued a Level 3 warning alert with regards to St Kitts and Nevis and its COVID-19 risk. According to the CDC’s website, a Level 3 warning indicates that the COVID-19 risk is high in St Kitts and Nevis and because of this risk, they recommend that travellers avoid all non-essential travel to the twin-island state.

Upon hearing this alert, we and most of St Kitts and Nevis were baffled. Currently, St Kitts and Nevis has no active cases of COVID-19 and to date has only had 17 cases, with no deaths and no community spread, all cases were travel-related.

To try and understand why the CDC assigned this Level 3 classification to St Kitts and Nevis, we reviewed how the CDC determines its Travel Health Notice Levels for COVID-19 and this is provided below:

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* All criteria are assessed over the last 28 days (2 incubation periods for COVID-19).

Secondary Criteria are qualitative and come from official destination sources (e.g., ministry of health websites).

• Measures of a destination’s healthcare capacity, such as available hospital beds and ventilators.
• Measures of a destination’s public health infrastructure, such as testing capacity, contact tracing capacity and documented exported cases (cases identified in travellers to other countries).

Notes:

• Destinations that fall below the Level 1 primary criteria and meet secondary criteria have no THN.
• Destinations can only de-escalate if their new case count is decreasing or stable.

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When we compare the above criteria with the data from St Kitts and Nevis, we see the following:

• In the 28 days leading up to the CDC issuing the Level 3 alert, St Kitts and Nevis had two new cases of COVID-19 (this would put St Kitts and Nevis below the level 1 low-risk benchmark of 3-6 new cases over the last 28 days).
• The new case trajectory has been stable for months because our borders are closed and will remain closed until October 2020, although nationals abroad have been returning home after gaining approval from the Government.
• St Kitts and Nevis’ healthcare capacity – we have an entire ward dedicated to COVID-19 at the JNF Hospital and our Medical Chief of Staff has reported that the number of ventilators per capita is high, and is, in fact, higher than many countries in the Western world
• Our public health infrastructure – the Ministry of Health has a comprehensive contact tracing program which is implemented as soon as a new case is suspected, our testing capacity is high with all those who require testing being offered it and this includes mandatory testing for all approved incoming travellers.  Additionally, every incoming passenger enters a mandatory 14-day quarantine in a Government facility that is monitored by healthcare professionals and law enforcement

Comparing the CDC’s own criteria with the data from St Kitts and Nevis, it is clear that the Level 3 alert misrepresents the situation in St Kitts and Nevis, and we would encourage the CDC to correct this.

It is important to note that the UK Government has listed St Kitts and Nevis as one of the countries that is exempt from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s advice against all non-essential international travel based on their determination of the low COVID-19 risk in St Kitts and Nevis.

Who is the CDC?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is America’s leading public health organisation. They fall under the Department of Health and Human Services and their aim is to:

 “Protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.”

They are very influential not only in the United States but across the globe which means that when they issue a statement, it is viewed with a high level of credibility and this influences the public’s behaviour. Therefore, the CDC has a responsibility to provide accurate evidence-based information, and we believe this alert fails to do this.

Why Is It Important to Correct the CDC?

We believe it is important to correct the CDC because of the implications of the Level 3 alert. Firstly, it is false and misrepresents the risk of COVID-19 in St Kitts and Nevis.  Secondly, this alert comes with a recommendation that travellers should avoid non-essential travel to St Kitts and Nevis, this advice is detrimental to the economic recovery of St Kitts and Nevis.

The borders of St Kitts and Nevis have been closed since 25^th March 2020. Closing the borders was an extremely hard decision for the Government as tourism is one of the major industries in the Federation.

Since the closure of the borders, thousands of residents whose livelihoods depend on the tourism industry have faced job losses and it has been an exceedingly difficult five months.

The Government, health officials and the National Emergency Operating Centre has been carefully planning the re-opening of the borders and this is scheduled to take place in October 2020. The re-opening of the borders is expected to give the economy a much-needed boost and help those in the tourism industry get back on their feet. The CDC’s Level 3 alert may have unnecessarily hindered those plans by deterring travellers and this will put the recovery of St Kitts and Nevis’s economy at risk and affect the livelihood of thousands of citizens.

We believe that it is also very important to correct the CDC’s alert because this represents a long history of countries like America and the UK, continuing to discredit countries in the Caribbean and Africa.

For too long America, the UK and others have perpetuated a negative and condescending narrative of Black countries, insinuating that we are ill-equipped to lead our countries.

When we look at the response to COVD-19, many Caribbean countries including St Kitts and Nevis, have had very low rates of the disease, and this is not by some stroke of luck. Leaders in St Kitts and Nevis listened to the evidence provided by WHO, PAHO, CARPHA and local medical experts and took appropriate action. They developed an evidence-based strategy which included early border closures, and a host of non-pharmaceutical measures to control and contain COVID-19.

Soon after St Kitts and Nevis’ first case was confirmed at the end of March, all schools and non-essential businesses were closed, and a State of Emergency was introduced which led to a series of week-long 24-hour curfews and partial curfew days.  During this time, the Government, churches and local charities provided food and support to the vulnerable, a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund was established,  moratoriums on utility bill payments were announced, there were official daily COVID-19 briefings and a 24-hour COVID-19 hotline was introduced.

The restrictions on the public were slowly lifted as St Kitts and Nevis became COVID-19 free and businesses and other organisations were only allowed to open after being inspected and found to be compliant with the Government’s COVID-19 guidelines.

Furthermore, the wearing of masks is mandatory in public spaces, social activities are restricted, hand sanitisation is a requirement in all public buildings, the public has been encouraged to wash their hands thoroughly and frequently with soap and water and to practice physical distancing.

All of these measures have been effective and reduced the transmission of COVID-19 in St Kitts and Nevis.

St Kitts and Nevis’ approach to COVID-19 has been far superior to America’s approach which has been plagued by false information, denial of the seriousness of the disease, inequities, the inability of States to implement an evidence-based strategy, a lack of contact tracing, a lack of ventilators and a lack of willingness by the public to adhere to basic prevention measures.

The Caribbean has responded responsibly and effectively to COVID-19 and this is not an isolated incident. The Caribbean has many public health achievements. Looking specifically at St Kitts and Nevis, some of its key public health achievements include:

• The elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, receiving certification from WHO
• Mounting effective responses to the Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya outbreaks
• Increasing life expectancy
• Low maternal mortality
• A reduction in the number of deaths due to communicable disease

Conclusion

St Kitts and Nevis has been able to control the first wave of the Coronavirus and the reality is that currently, a person’s risk of contracting COVID-19 in St Kitts and Nevis is low and travellers to St Kitts and Nevis pose a greater risk to residents than residents do to travellers.

We appeal to the CDC to amend the risk level for St Kitts and Nevis to more accurately reflect the risk posed to those who would seek to visit St Kitts and Nevis once the borders open in October.

We have written to the CDC and encourage others to do so too.

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Header Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

The current environment that we live in is extremely negative. We are exposed to 24-hour news coverage of one disaster or catastrophe after the other –  the COVID-19 pandemic, police brutality,  racism, the explosion in Lebanon, the constant negative discourse in politics, Brexit and more.  This constant exposure to negative news is affecting the public’s mental health. 

The impact this negative news has on our wellbeing is separate to the effect each of the individual issues may have on those personally affected by these incidents – the news is exacerbating the effect of world events so, rather than informing and empowering us, the news is creating more anxiety.

A study conducted a few years ago on the psychological impact of the content of news programmes found that those exposed to negative news were more anxious and experienced a higher level of sadness². They were also more likely to catastrophize their personal worries, this means that even though viewers were not directly affected by the content in the news, the negative sentiment that the news conveyed negatively impacted other concerns they had.

The pandemic era is unique in that we are all personally impacted which is rarely the case when a disaster strikes. For many, disasters affect “other people” and we watch from afar in safety. Today, we are the “other people” and this has created a global mental health pandemic. A study conducted in the US which included 200 people from across the country found that levels of depression, anxiety and stress were significantly higher than in pre-COVID-19 times¹. The research found that:

• 50% of participants experienced moderate to severe symptoms of depression in the past month
• 32% of participants experienced moderate to severe anxiety symptoms

The psychological impact of both the exposure to negative news and the current COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and is likely to persist if we don’t take personal action. We can take steps to reduce our exposure to the amount of news that we can consume. The news right now is disproportionately negative and probably always has been, but now more than ever before, we need to seek out positive news and find some inspiration – we need a break from all this negative news!

We recently discovered a new radio show on WINN FM here in St Kitts called The Good News Show, and this was such a refreshing break from all the negativity. Host, Enoete Inanga, takes his listeners on a journey of positivity, highlighting good news, stories, people and ideas. He features positive global and local news stories and interviews inspiring guests who take us through their journey to success. We have really enjoyed listening to this new show and if you’re looking for some positivity you can check it out on Thursdays from 7pm to 8pm AST. Alternatively, you can watch recordings of the show on YouTube, the latest show can be viewed here:

Enoete Inanga seems to be all about positivity and he recently launched Bestimony  – a positive place to give affirmations and show appreciation to others.

So, in our quest to find positivity, we stumbled upon The Good News Show and Bestimony. Have you been on a quest to inject some positivity into your day? Let us know what you have found by leaving a comment below and let’s go on a positivity journey together.

References

1. Johannesen K. (2020) Stress of the Pandemic Has Negative Impact on Mental Health and Relationships, Study Shows [Online]. Available at https://news.iu.edu/stories/2020/06/iub/inside/29-stress-of-pandemic-mental-health-relationships.html (Accessed: 10^th August 2020)
2. Johnston WM, Davey GC. The psychological impact of negative TV news bulletins: the catastrophizing of personal worries.Br J Psychol. 1997;88 ( Pt 1):85-91. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1997.tb02622.x

On August 9th 2019, the Ministry of Health in St. Kitts and Nevis, in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister, officially launched St. Kitts & Nevis (SKN) Moves.

This initiative is part of the Caribbean Moves program which seeks to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by focusing on healthy eating, physical activity, and age-appropriate health checks.

August 9th 2020, marks the first anniversary of the launch and the Ministry of Health’s Health Promotion Team is engaging in a week of activities from Saturday 8th to Friday 14th August 2020.

Events include:

• SKN Moves Health Walk – Saturday, August 8th at 5:30 am – Caribbean Cinemas to Frigate Bay Lawn
• SKN Moves Virtual Fitness Fest – Monday August 10th – Friday 14th at 6am & 6pm
• SKN Moves Health Fair – Friday, August 14th from 9am – 4pm- Independence Square

Everyone is invited to take part in this celebration so please do come out, take part and get moving. We’ll see you there!

On Saturday 18th July 2020, we were delighted to have assisted with the Global Fibroids Alliance’s first event which was a webinar on Fibroids and COVID-19. This webinar aimed to explore the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may be having on women with fibroids and discussed what women can do to improve their physical and mental health during this challenging period.

Speakers on the day included:

• Dr Fanta Waterman, Managing Director, Serrette Brown Research and Consulting LLC who provided an overview of COVID-19, the latest information with regards to the pandemic, fibroids management during lockdowns and quarantine and re-opening considerations.
• Muku Qes Ua, Psychotherapist, Herbalist and Homeopath who discussed natural and holistic approaches to managing fibroids
• Olivia Haltman, Integrative Humanistic Counsellor, OH Counselling Services who discussed emotions, fibroids and the lockdown and highlighted the emotional impact of fibroids, how this intersects with the emotional impact of COVID-19 and strategies for coping and improving mental health.

If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recording below and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send the Global Fibroids Alliance an email.

To keep informed of the work of GFA and to be alerted of future events, you can sign up to their newsletter here.

Over the past month, as we have been conducting our regular monitoring of the traffic to our website, we have noticed a lot of visitors are coming to our website to find out whether soursop or guava are beneficial for fibroids. So, today, we will visit published research to see if we can answer this question.

 How We’re Going to Approach This Question

The first thing to say about this topic is there isn’t a lot of evidence-based information out there. What we found were discussions by scientists about the possibilities, there wasn’t any concrete data that could definitively answer this question.

To explore whether guava and soursop may be beneficial in treating fibroids, we will focus on one scientific paper, which was the only one we could find that was related to this topic.

This paper was published by the Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy, in 2014.

Their paper, the ‘Use of dietary phytochemicals to target inflammation, fibrosis, proliferation, and angiogenesis in uterine tissues: Promising options for prevention and treatment of uterine fibroids?,’  is a review of a  selection of substances (phytochemicals) found naturally in certain fruits and vegetables which, because of their properties, could be useful in treating and preventing fibroids.

This paper is important in our exploration because some of the phytochemicals included in the researchers’ review are found in soursop and guava.

Some Background: What are Phytochemicals?

Before we summarise the relevant information provided in this paper, we thought it would be useful to define the term phytochemical. Harvard University describes phytochemicals as:

”…plant (phyto) chemicals: compounds in plants (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes) that contribute to their color, taste, and smell.”

Some commonly known phytochemicals are carotenoids, found in carrots, pumpkin, corn and tomatoes; flavonoids, found in citrus fruits, berries, apples and legumes and anthocyanins, which are found in berries, eggplant and red cabbage.

It is widely known that phytochemicals have a range of health benefits. These benefits include reducing our risk of heart disease, cancer and other chronic diseases and this is achieved because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects as well as a range of other effects.

What Does This Research Paper Tell Us?

The researchers who wrote this paper began their exploration by describing four possible factors that contribute to the development of fibroids. These are:

• A chronically active inflammatory immune response
• Fibrosis (a process that leads to the formation of scar tissue) which is a result of inflammation
• Increased rate of cell growth in fibroid cells
• The development of new blood vessels which feed fibroid cells

Researchers explained that if phytochemicals are able to address these four factors, they may be useful in preventing and treating fibroids.

Like many fruits, guava and soursop are rich in phytochemicals.  Guava is known to contain the phytochemicals lycopene, quercetin, anthocyanin, and many others.  Whilst soursop contains reticuline, coreximine, quercetin, gallic acid and others.

In their paper, researchers discuss a range of phytochemicals including ones that are relevant to guava and soursop – lycopene and quercetin. They explain that at the time of the publication of their paper, lycopene and quercetin have not been tested in fibroids, but based on what scientists know about these two chemicals they may be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of fibroids.  This is because when we look back at the four possible ways that fibroids develop, these two phytochemicals can potentially target these processes. They have both been found to have the following effects:

• An anti-inflammatory effect
• Anti-fibrotic effect
• Prevent the growth of different types of tumour cells (fibroids are benign tumours)
• Prevent the development of blood vessels that feed tumour cells

Researchers couldn’t make any conclusions on these phytochemicals with regards to fibroids, but their discussion has identified these and other phytochemicals which could be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of fibroids. These include:

• Allicin (found in garlic)
• Ellagic acid (found in strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries, pecans, pomegranates, walnuts, wolfberry and grapes)
• Indole-3-carbinol (found in cruciferous vegetables e.g. broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, bok choy, collard greens, kale etc.
• Lycopene (found in tomato, watermelon, papaya, pink guava, pink grapefruit and apricots)
• Quercetin (found in lemon, tomato, onion leaves, strawberries, soursop and tea)

They stated that based on the information they presented, there is a need to understand whether these phytochemicals are indeed beneficial for fibroids and this should be explored through future studies that carefully and accurately determine their mechanism of action and effectiveness in the treatment and prevention of fibroids.

What Does this Mean for Women With Fibroids?

This research study has raised the idea that the phytochemicals in soursop and guava may be beneficial in the treatment and prevention of fibroids. It doesn’t mean that eating soursop and guava will cure your fibroids, the reason for this, and this is discussed in the research paper, is that when you eat these fruits we don’t know if your body is absorbing enough of these phytochemicals to have a significant impact on the growth and development of fibroids.

What we can say is that if you have fibroids, if you haven’t already, we recommend that you adopt a healthy diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables, this can include soursop and guava, but should include cruciferous vegetables.  Studies have shown that making dietary changes can be helpful in improving some of the symptoms of fibroids as can introducing more exercise into your routine.

It is also recommended that women with fibroids avoid certain foods such as alcohol, caffeine, red meat and foods that may contain high levels of hormones like oestrogen.

If you have fibroids and would like to explore dietary changes and exercise as a way of managing your symptoms, please speak to your doctor first. She/he will be able to advise you on the best approach based on your specific situation as the success of these approaches will depend on the size of your fibroids and other factors.  You may also want to speak to a registered dietitian who along with your doctor will be able to provide some advice on the dietary changes that you can make.

Was this Helpful?

Were you one of the people looking for information on fibroids and guava and/or soursop? Was this article helpful? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. We would love to hear from you.

References

1. Agu KC, Okolie PN. Proximate composition, phytochemical analysis, and in vitro antioxidant potentials of extracts of Annona muricata(Soursop). Food Sci Nutr. 2017;5(5):1029-1036. Published 2017 Jun 29. doi:10.1002/fsn3.498
2. Chiari-Andréo, Bruna & Trovatti, Eliane & Marto, Joana & Almeida-Cincotto, Maria & Melero, Ana & Corrêa, Marcos & Chiavacci, Leila & Ribeiro, Helena & Garrigues, Teresa & Isaac, Vera. (2017). Guava: Phytochemical composition of a potential source of antioxidants for cosmetic and/or dermatological applications. Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 53. 10.1590/s2175-97902017000216141.
3. Deepa PC., Kumaria IR., and Lavanya B. (2015) Phytochemical Analysis, Antioxidant and Anti Microbial Activity of White and Pink Psidium Guajava Linnaeus. International Journal of Current Pharmaceutical Research, 7(2), pp 29-31.
4. Harvard Health Publishing., (2019). Fill up on phytochemicals [Online]. Harvard Medical School. [Viewed on 4^th July 2020]. Available from: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/fill-up-on-phytochemicals
5. Islam MS, Akhtar MM, Ciavattini A, et al. Use of dietary phytochemicals to target inflammation, fibrosis, proliferation, and angiogenesis in uterine tissues: promising options for prevention and treatment of uterine fibroids? Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014;58(8):1667-1684. doi:10.1002/mnfr.201400134
6. Jacoby VL, Jacoby A, Learman LA, et al. Use of medical, surgical and complementary treatments among women with fibroids. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2014;182:220-225. doi:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2014.09.004
7. Leitzmann C. Characteristics and Health Benefits of Phytochemicals. Forsch Komplementmed. 2016;23(2):69-74. doi:10.1159/000444063
8. Shen Y, Wu Y, Lu Q, Ren M. Vegetarian diet and reduced uterine fibroids risk: A case-control study in Nanjing, China. J Obstet Gynaecol Res. 2016;42(1):87-94. doi:10.1111/jog.12834

Today, we are delighted to publish the report of our My Healthy Heroes pilot project. This project ran from February to March 2020 and aimed to test our approach to promoting healthy eating in children.

Through our My Healthy Heroes project, we aim to educate and empower children to make healthy choices by tapping into their creativity to highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

Our pilot was important in helping us test our resources and characters (Healthy Heroes, Sugary Drinks Assassins and Junk Food Villains) with children and teachers to see if we could successfully engage children and educate them about healthy eating, and more importantly, facilitate a change in their behaviour.

Although our project ended slightly early because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was very successful and demonstrated that with a little creativity, we can get children excited about healthy eating, to learn and retain important information about the harms of unhealthy eating, to reflect on their lifestyles,  to attempt to change behaviour and to rethink their food choices.

The main lessons learnt from this project were:

1. Children accept that they should be eating a healthy diet, but the depth of their knowledge of healthy eating, its benefits and the harms of unhealthy eating is low and therefore means this acceptance doesn’t translate into a change in behaviour or a motivation to eat a healthy diet.
2. The major factor that impacts children’s choice of what to eat, if they are given a choice, is taste, but children also recognise that some foods are more accessible and that the significant amount of marketing of unhealthy foods impacts their choices.
3. Students’ favourite foods vary. They selected both fast food and home-cooked meals as their favourite foods, and these were selected mostly based on taste. This means there is the opportunity to encourage more healthy eating if parents, schools and vendors explore creative ways to prepare healthy foods that children would deem to be tasty.
4. Children and parents overestimate how healthy children’s diets are; in reality, children are not eating a healthy balanced diet. Students are not eating the recommended 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables, and students are eating more unhealthy foods than they realise.
5. Children need constant reminders and nudges to make healthy choices.
6. A comprehensive marketing strategy for healthy food is required to compete with the marketing of unhealthy foods.
7. Creative approaches are needed to engage children and educate them on healthy eating. Our project has shown characters that children can relate to and are considered ‘cool’ will be effective at reaching children and creating an intention to change their behaviour.
8. Parents need support regarding time, knowledge and ability with healthy food preparation, and schools can compensate by ensuring there is a healthy environment in schools—healthy breakfast, lunch and snacks available in and around schools.
9. Healthy eating should be a core part of the curriculum in school and go beyond conveying simple facts; the approach should be interactive to create a long-lasting change in attitudes and behaviours towards food.

You can download our full report below to find out more about this project. In the meantime, we will be using the learnings from this work to develop this project further.

We would like to thank the Taiwan ICDF for funding this work and providing invaluable advice and support throughout this project.

July is recognised as Fibroid Awareness Month in some countries and it’s a great opportunity to put the spotlight on a health condition that receives little attention.

This year, we are delighted to be a part of the newly formed Global Fibroids Alliance whose aim is to raise awareness of fibroids and advocate for the change that is required to improve the health and wellbeing of women with fibroids as well as the quality of care women receive.

The Global Fibroids Alliance is a diverse group of health and wellbeing practitioners, researchers and consultants who have come together to strengthen the global approach to improving the information, treatment, care and support for all those affected by fibroids.  We hail from the Caribbean, US, UK and France and are calling for:

1. More awareness campaigns on fibroids
2. Fibroids education to be part of menstrual health education and delivered to all girls from the age of 10.
3. Every country to provide women with all the treatment options for fibroids.
4. Each woman suspected to have fibroids to be carefully assessed, and a treatment and wellness plan be developed in collaboration with the patient that suits the patient’s specific situation and is based on the concept of informed and shared decision-making.
5. Collaborative alliances to be formed between traditional and non-traditional/complementary therapists, gynaecologists and counsellors to ensure that women are receiving a holistic and comprehensive approach when deciding on their wellness plans.
6. More research to establish the cause of fibroids so that more effective treatments can be developed.
7.  More attention on the psycho-social impact of fibroids so that we can determine the full impact of fibroids and the support that women throughout the world require.

As part of Fibroid Awareness Month, we are delighted to invite women with fibroids to our first event which is a webinar on Fibroids and COVID-19.  This webinar aims to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic may be affecting women with fibroids and will discuss what women can do to improve their physical and mental health during this challenging period.

Speakers will include:

• Dr Fanta Waterman, Managing Director, Serrette Brown Research and Consulting LLC.
• Muku Qes Ua, Psychotherapist, Herbalist and Homeopath
• Olivia Haltman, Integrative Humanistic Counsellor, OH Counselling Services

You can register for this webinar here and if you have any questions, please email GFA2020@mail.com

We look forward to seeing you then and you can find out more about the members of the Global Fibroids Alliance here