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.

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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

The Just Dance Crew is our new innovative Public Health Tech project that uses 3D animation to promote physical activity and exercise in children by teaching them to perform short dancercise (dance + exercise) routines. We’re using animation because research has shown that children engage more with animated characters and we’re focusing on dance because it is a fun way to get children active.  Additionally, research shows that dance has a number of health benefits: it’s an excellent form of exercise, improves fitness, leads to weight loss, strengthens bones and muscles, is beneficial to mental health and improves social skills.

The routines will be 1-5 minutes long and will focus on cardiovascular exercise; muscle and bone strengthening; and flexibility and relaxation exercises.  The routines can fit into both the school and home environment. At school, the videos can be used during devotional, at breaks and over lunchtime. While at home, children and parents can use the videos during their leisure time and the whole family can get involved creating a fun, family experience.

Current Progress and Next Steps

So far we have created two demo animations focusing on a simple muscle strengthening exercise – squats – as a proof of concept and towards the end of 2020, we’ll be working with the Ministry of Education to develop more animations as part of a pilot project to test the effectiveness of this approach.

After the pilot, we will conduct a thorough analysis of the project and our plan is to then use the evaluation of the pilot to inform our next phase which will be to create a comprehensive collection of animations and develop an online learning platform to disseminate the videos.

We will also create educational material, guides and lesson plans for both teachers and parents to ensure the videos are used effectively. The videos will be easily accessed by teachers, to use in the classroom, or parents, through the internet or they can be downloaded and saved on to any device. Through the learning platform teachers, parents and guardians will be able to evaluate children’s progress with respect to their technique, consistency and their recall of the benefits of different types of exercise.

The Impact of Our Project

We hope that through this project, we can tackle childhood obesity in our local (St Kitts and Nevis) and regional (the Caribbean) area.

Childhood obesity is a challenge in the Caribbean with 1 in 3 children being overweight or obese.  The rate of childhood obesity in the Caribbean is higher than the global average and is on the rise. Being obese and overweight in childhood is linked to several conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and it negatively impacts a child’s mental health.

Childhood obesity is also a significant challenge in St Kitts and Nevis. A PAHO report revealed that 33% of secondary school children in the twin-island state were overweight and 14% were obese. In 2017, a UNICEF report published that 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese.  Being overweight and obese puts children at an increased risk of developing NCDs which are becoming an epidemic in the Federation with 83% of deaths being due to NCDs.

To combat childhood obesity, we must ensure that children adopt a healthy lifestyle and one approach is to get more children participating in exercise or physical activity. This is a priority as the Ministry of Health has reported that 58.4% of teenagers in St Kitts and Nevis are physically inactive.

We believe our project offers a simple, inexpensive and fun option for schools to get children active and teach important aspects of PE.

More Information

You can view the demo videos below and you can download our PowerPoint presentation below which provides more details about this project.

If you have any questions, about this new initiative, please don’t hesitate to send us an email

The squat challenge: How many squats can you do, properly,  in 60 seconds? Let us know 🙂

We’re delighted to invite all women who have been affected by fibroids to the Global Fibroids Alliance’s first event, a webinar on Fibroids and COVID-19.

The Global Fibroids Alliance is a new network of organisations working together to raise awareness of fibroids and advocate for the changes that are required to improve the health, wellbeing and quality of care for all women affected by fibroids. Want to find out more? You can visit our campaign page from last year here

This webinar will be held on Saturday 18th July at 11am US Eastern Time (4pm GMT) and 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.

The Joan Ajose-Adeogun fund is being established in loving memory of Joan Ajose-Adeogun who sadly passed away from multiple myeloma on 11^th September 2019.  Her diagnosis of multiple myeloma was devastating and within months Joan had lost her ability to speak and walk, her brain function and was in unbearable pain.

Understanding the many challenges that patients and their families face, we are raising funds to support multiple myeloma patients.

Grants will be available to help improve the wellbeing of patients and their families and will cover some of the costs of:

• Home care
• Medical facility/care home fees
• Retreats and respite breaks for patients and their families
• Palliative care
• Psychological support and counselling for patients and families
• Brain stimulation therapy
• Treatment and medication
• Physiotherapy
• Transportation costs (for family members to visit patients and specialised transportation for patients)
• Equipment such as wheelchairs, stairlifts, healthcare beds
• Bathroom adaptions and other required home adaptions for patients
• Patient’s utility bills
• Doctor’s appointments
• Medical treatment abroad

Priority will be given to patients residing in St Kitts, Nevis, the British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria and Ghana, countries that were near and dear to Joan’s heart.

How you can help?                                                                                          

We would be delighted if you would make a donation to support this cause and ensure that those affected by multiple myeloma can receive the support that they need during a very traumatic, devastating and difficult time.

You can also invite your friends to make a donation or have some fun and host a fundraiser  – a cake sale, fundraising party, dinner or gala, an auction, a sponsored run or walk, a coffee morning; the sky is the limit.

We’d love to hear from you so please do leave a comment in the section below to share your experience with multiple myeloma, your reason for donating and to share any fun fundraising events you’ve organised.

Thank you

Thank you for your support, let’s make a difference together.

If you’d like to be kept up-to-date with our progress, please sign up to our newsletter here.

Fund Management

This fund will be managed by Lake Health and Wellbeing, a registered NGO in St Kitts and Nevis, and financially reviewed annually by Pelican Accounting and Business Services.

Online payments are being managed by JAD Cash,  a comprehensive e-money solution for the Eastern Caribbean countries.  All online payments will, therefore, be processed in Eastern Caribbean Dollars (XCD). Please note that $1 USD = $2.7 XCD and £1 = $3.40 XCD.

Up Next

In our next blog in this series, we’ll be discussing what multiple myeloma is.

Following on from the publication of our ‘Fibroids and COVID-19’ infographic, we’re delighted to notify you of the publication of our latest fibroids infographic.  

This infographic, entitled ‘What You Need to Know About Fibroids’ covers what fibroids are, the different types of fibroids, risk factors, symptoms and tips for women living with fibroids.

The aim of this resource is to provide women with a simple overview of fibroids and to address the concern that women expressed to us about the lack of accurate reliable information on this important women’s health issue.

We had the pleasure of working with newly qualified doctor, Sofia Miah, to create this resource. Sofia carried out some desk-based research in order to prepare the content and designed the infographic.

Sofia’s experience of working on this short project highlighted some very important lessons for those working in the healthcare field, with Sofia stating that:

“As a newly qualified doctor with clinical experience in women’s health, I was shocked by the higher incidence of fibroids among African-Caribbean women and how little it is spoken about in medical education and the workplace. Black women are disproportionately affected by fibroids and more likely to have hysterectomies. This is worsened by the lack of high-quality, comprehensive and accessible information out there on fibroids for patients. As healthcare professionals, we need to be more open and vocal about the impact of fibroids on patients and their quality of life. We need to be better.”

We are very grateful to Sofia for working with us on this project and to the experienced gynaecologist who reviewed the infographic. You can download the infographic below and if you have any questions or comments about this resource, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by sending us an email

Produced and edited by Sheila Marshall and written and presented by Robert Beckford this insightful audio documentary explores the black pentecostal church’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The documentary discusses how the church should respond to this pandemic and assesses whether the response so far has been effective. It also seeks to answer the controversial question of whether churches should get involved in political and social justice matters, and how best they can do this without compromising their beliefs and perceived role in the community. There was the feeling that the church should move beyond its comfort zone and take the lead during global emergencies and lead the drive in moving the agenda forward to benefit the black community.

The documentary also looks at the power of contemporary gospel music and explored some of the gaps in the repertoire which prevents the genre from having a significant impact during challenging times. For example, there is a lack of music that articulates the current emotions that people are feeling and the reality of people’s lives. This point was expanded into a wider point of the church overlooking the powerful emotions, stress and anxiety many are experiencing by focusing on upbeat messages. It was identified that this denial of our emotions can lead to many questioning their faith, but can also affect the mental health of black Christians in general.

We thought this was an excellent exploration of the role of the black church, which is one of the most powerful organisations in the black community but hasn’t engaged effectively with political and social issues. During the current times, where racial inequalities and injustices have been fully exposed through COVID-19’s disproportionate effect on the black community, the white privilege so boldly displayed by Amy Cooper and the brutality of police racism, the church is needed now more than ever before.

You can listen to this audio documentary below.

Better Must Come! Black Pentecostals, the Pandemic and the future of Christianity from Aniku Ltd on Vimeo.