Cancer Research UK has reported that its scientists have developed a very comprehensive method of predicting a women’s risk of developing breast cancer.
This work was recently published in Genetics in Medicine where it was explained that by combining information on family history, genetics and other factors like weight, age at menopause, alcohol consumption and use of hormone replacement therapy, scientists are able to determine a woman’s breast cancer risk.
What makes their prediction more precise than previous methods is that researchers, for the first time, included 300 genetic indicators for breast cancer in their risk calculation.
This piece of work has led to the development of an online calculator that General Practitioners (GPs) in the UK can use in their surgeries. Currently this online calculator is being tested by GPs, nurses and genetic counsellors before it is released nation-wide. The hope is that this tool will enable healthcare professionals to explore early detection and prevention strategies for women based on their risk and therefore improve survival rates for breast cancer.
Although this work is very exciting more work is needed, as expressed by lead author, Professor Antonis Antoniou, who said:
“It could be a game changer for breast cancer because now we can identify large numbers of women with different levels of risk – not just women who are at high risk.
This should help doctors to tailor the care they provide depending on their patients’ level of risk. For example, some women may need additional appointments with their doctor to discuss screening or prevention options and others may just need advice on their lifestyle and diet.
“We hope this means more people can be diagnosed early and survive their disease for longer, but more research and trials are needed before we will fully understand how this could be used.”
Additionally, Dr Richard Rope, Cancer Research UK’s GP expert warned that:
“Research like this is hugely exciting because in the future it will enable us to offer much more tailored care which will benefit patients and make best use of the services that we have available.
“Although having an increased risk of breast cancer means a woman is more likely to develop the disease – it’s by no means a certainty. A woman at high risk may never get breast cancer just as a woman at low risk still could. But any woman with concerns should speak to her GP to discuss the options.”
For more information on this work, you can read Cancer Research UK’s research paper here
Hon. Hazel Brandy-Williams, the Junior Minister for Health in Nevis, has joined FIT’s National Weight Loss Campaign (a project that we have been working on).
Hon Brandy-Williams will be leading by example and allowing the cameras to follow her journey as she endeavours to lose weight and get fit and healthy.
Find out more about day 1 of Hon Brandy-Williams’ journey and why she decided to take part in the video below.
The National Weight Loss Campaign starts on 26th Jan and you can join too by registering at to take part by emailing admin@fitwellnesscenter.com or calling (869)-662-8749
We’ve been working with the FIT Wellness Centre in Nevis and assisting with their National Weight Loss Campaign. We’re delighted to let you know that this campaign gets started on 26th January at the FIT Park, Bath Plains, Nevis.
Director of the FIT Wellness Centre, Mr David Walwyn, was recently interviewed about the campaign and you can read a nice write-up of his interview by Nevis Pages below.
To register for the National Weight Loss Campaign, please visit the sign-up page here
Update: The start date for the National Weight Loss Campaign has been pushed back, a new date will be released shortly.
Article by Nevis Pages:
David Walwyn of the Fit Wellness Center on Nevis, in a recent interview, explained that the National Weight loss campaign will be officially launched at the Fit Park, on the 26th of January.
This follows an official media launch late last year, which basically introduced the proposed program to the general public.
The major health related project is a collaborative effort between the Fit Wellness Center and the Ministry of Health, under the leadership of the Hon. Hazel Brandy Williams, the Minister responsible for that significant Ministry.
Walwyn explained that the main goal of the upcoming campaign is to ensure drastic weight loss in as many affected individuals across the island, as it is a well-known fact that an alarming number of persons on the island are obese and grossly overweight.
Hence the resulting huge numbers of hospital admissions and resulting deaths from the various non communicable diseases and related complications such as hypertension, diabetes; kidney failure etc.
The Hon. Hazel Brandy Williams has purposed in her heart to break this vicious cycle and has teamed up her Ministry with the FIT Wellness Center, to seek to break this scourge and the two main areas of concern in the program, will be PROPER NUTRITION, which will seek to break the habit of the American styled diet, as persons locally are eating too much processed foods and EXERCISE, which will seek to break the trend of inactivity, among many of the residents on the island.
In so doing, a collective figure of the number of pounds to be lost during the campaign, will be set as an initial target.
Hon. Hazel Brandy Williams will be leading by example and has already REGISTERED FOR THE PROGRAM and her progress will be closely monitored on social media, to the point where her private life will not be so private anymore, as her exercise program and eating habits will be closely monitored and her weight loss progress will be closely monitored and publicized.
Minister Brandy Williams is hoping that many persons on the island will follow suit, as the national campaign is absolute FREE OF COST and involves quite a number of medical professionals who will be there to assist and assess persons on the program, giving free advice and counselling as regards exercise and diet and even psychological counselling where necessary.
The program will involve lecture session; exercise programs and a host of fun activities and persons will be continually monitored and assessed as regards their general progress and an official assessment will be conducted at the end of the first six months.
Interested persons are urged to use the opportunity to register quickly as this may be the difference between a life of pain and misery and a healthy lifestyle.
So far, this blog series has mostly discussed the benefits that gardening can have on your physical health. However, getting green fingered can also have a hugely positive effect on your mental health and wellbeing. This month’s post is brought to you by the folks at Capitial Garden Services and focuses on the mental health benefits of gardening which they illustrate very effectively in their infographic here.
The famed biologist, E.O. Wilson, once quipped that “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” He coined the term Biophilia to describe human kind’s innate need to connect with the natural world, positing that this is why we tend to find it soothing to spend time in the great outdoors.
Numerous studies have highlighted various mental health and therapeutic benefits of gardening. For example, gardening has been found to energise the body and mind. The process of tending to plants has also been proven to help people develop nurturing skills. It has even been found to improve sleep quality. These outdoor activities can help to reduce stress by providing a much-needed refuge from the stresses of the fast-paced modern world.
In particular, gardening is a perfect opportunity to practice mindfulness. By completing tasks that connect you with the natural world, you can engage all of your senses to appreciate the various sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of your surroundings. There are a few things you can do to put a mindful spin on common gardening jobs. For example, before getting started take a few moments pause to breathe and meditate. It’s also a good idea to incorporate elements into your garden design that stimulate the various senses, for example wind chimes or scented flowers.
To learn more, take a look at the infographic below from the team at Capital Garden Services which offers some great insights on why gardening is good for your mental wellbeing and provides several tips on how to garden for good mental health.
Infographic
Check out Capital Garden Services infographic on gardening for good mental health below.
The Caribbean Moves campaign is growing with a third Caribbean country launching their version of this initiative. On 7th December 2018, Trinidad and Tobago joined the Caribbean Moves family with the launch of TT Moves at the Brian Lara Promenade, in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh explained that this campaign is just one of their approaches to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases in their Caribbean nation. He stated that this campaign is a continuation of their plan to move the public from an unhealthy to a healthier lifestyle, explaining that:
“When I say a healthier lifestyle, I mean how we eat, how we exercise, controlling our stress levels, moving away from this, as social-media electronic toys which shackle us to a device and we sit down.
“We have to start to exercise some more. Simple walking, simple jogging. We have to bring into our diets healthier options like fruits. Today we are giving out fruits and fruit trees. We want people “to gradually change their lifestyles, not change today for tomorrow.”
The launch of TT Moves follows the launch of Barbados Moves in October 2018 with more Caribbean nations expected to join the movement in 2019.
Caribbean Moves is an initiative launched in 2018 that is based on the successful Jamaica Moves campaign and focuses on physical activity, healthy eating and age appropriate health checks. They’re in the process of establishing a secretariat and their remit is to develop an implementation schedule, coordinate activities and strengthen existing work in the Caribbean Region.
Picture Credit: Anil Rampersad, pictured is Terrence Deyalsingh, the Minister of Health for Trinidad and Tobago
At the end of every year, we use the opportunity of one year coming to an end and being on the cusp of a new year to look back and reflect on our achievements. The reason why we do this is because, throughout the year, we can be quite critical about our progress and fail to recognise what has gone well – this can be very demotivating. So, every year we look at our achievements to bring in some balance, learn some important lessons and go into the new year with some positive energy.
This year has been an interesting one, as it was our first full year in St Kitts. For those of you who may not know, we were based in the UK and moved to St Kitts at the end of 2017. Our aim for 2018 was to explore the public health landscape in the Caribbean and to understand how we can make a useful contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of the citizens of St Kitts and Nevis, and the wider Caribbean community too.
It was a hard year, but it turned into one of the best learning experiences ever! We explored everything (from podcasting to webinars). It didn’t all work out, but our efforts helped us gain some clarity which has led to us developing a focused strategy for the next two years.
And so, with your support and encouragement we’re happy to say we had a good year and are proud to present you with our 2018 achievements:
We were invited to the Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s childhood obesity ‘Beyond the Call-to-Action’ event in Barbados where we took part in a panel discussion on the importance of alliances and collaborations in addressing critical public health issues.
We explored podcasting and interviewed some fantastic guests, but soon realised that we don’t have the time to host a weekly, nor bi-monthly podcast but will continue releasing episodes sporadically.
We added a new area to our portfolio – Public Health Tech – to explore how we can bring technology and public health together by exploring tech based products and services to educate the public about their risk of developing disease, to raise awareness of health issues and to provide engaging ways of communicating health messages.
We launched a Public Health Tech mini-project, the development of a Diabetes Risk Assessment Tool, and this tool went live in December 2018.
We launched our online shop, The Lake Shop For Good, which aims to promote a healthy lifestyle by selling products that remind us all to live healthily. Our shop also helps us to continue to do good in our community with all money raised going towards our public health projects.
We had a really productive year with some highs and lows, which helped us make significant progress through the many lessons we have learnt from them.
We’re very much excited and looking forward to 2019, and we wish you all a happy New Year and a healthy, happy, peaceful and successful year ahead.
With Christmas being just around the corner, we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
As we get ourselves prepared for this beautiful season over here in the Caribbean we’re taking some time this week to remember the real meaning of Christmas. It can be easy to get caught up in the commercial side which, more often that not, leads to an unnecessarily stressful period instead of one filled with love, hope and charity.
A recent church service we attended really resonated with us, we were reminded that during this season we should take the focus off ourselves and give back – visit the elderly, donate gifts to those in need and spend some time with patients in hospital.
If we are to focus on ourselves, we were advised to make this a time of self reflection – how can we become a better person? Are there relationships in our life that need restoring? So over the next few days we’ll be exploring these questions and ensuring we have a healthy balanced holiday season.
Staying Healthy Over the Holiday Season
Every year we give the same advice on how to stay healthy over the Christmas and New Year period, and this year our advice remains the same – watch your portion sizes, include lots of vegetables with your Christmas dinner (try Brussel sprouts, parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes and baked/grilled plantain), and for dessert try some fruit salad or healthy alternatives to traditional desserts (maybe a cashew cheesecake instead of a traditional cheesecake).
Additionally select white meat and fish instead of red meat and keep active (try walking or cycling throughout the two week holiday period) and importantly don’t neglect your mental health, have a bit of me-time and relax.
We hope you have a lovely Christmas that is stress-free, peaceful, filled with love and enables you to spend some quality time with your loved ones.
OH Services, an organisation that aims to support people through the difficult periods of their life by offering counselling services, has recently started an online forum for women who have been affected by fibroids.
The forum is a closed private group that will enable women to connect with each other, share experiences and gain access to the expertise of OH Services.
It’s hoped that by having a space to share the ups and downs of having fibroids, women will be given an outlet to express their feelings and receive support in order to address the emotional impact of fibroids.
If you’ve been affected by fibroids and would like to try out this forum, you can find it on OH Services’ website here.
We’re delighted to be working with OH Services to support them in facilitating the discussions in the forum and look forward to connecting with women online.
Hello all and welcome back to our gardening and health blog series. We’ve had a fantastic year exploring the great outdoors and the health benefits of gardening. This blog post is the second of our two-part blog on fruit trees. Our final blog in this series, coming up next month (hopefully!), will focus on herbs.
Last time, we discussed our mango and sour orange trees and today we’re going to discuss two more trees that we have growing in our (Abi Begho’s) garden in St Kitts – soursop and guava. These are trees that we inherited from the previous owner of our house and we were so pleased to have these growing nicely on our property. They have given us much joy allowing us an easy and fun way to introduce a few more fruits into our diet.
Soursop
Some background
Soursop is a fruit known by a few names – custard apple, guanabana and Brazilian paw paw. It is a green, prickly fruit with a white flesh that forms on the graviola tree. It can be used to make a juice, ice-cream, sorbet, syrups and sweets.
It contains vitamin C, dietary fibre, iron, vitamin B, B2, magnesium and potassium.
Soursop has received a lot of attention over the past few years due to its anti-cancer properties in laboratory settings. Studies have shown that either soursop extract or pulp can inhibit the growth or cause the death of some cancer cell lines. Whilst this is promising a lot more work is needed to determine if the extract can be used as a cancer treatment. Studies haven’t been conducted in humans and a recent review explained that “further studies are required to verify the exact properties and mechanisms of action” (i.e. we need to completely understand how the extract affects cancer cells). Therefore, patients should not use soursop capsules, at this time, as a treatment for cancer, as these have not been validated through research.
In addition, studies have found that soursop has a number of health benefits: anti-convulsant, anti-parasitic, anti-arthritic, anti-malarial, anti-diabetic and hepatoprotective (protects the liver). Historically the leaves, pulp and juice have been used in the Caribbean, South America and Africa for a number of ailments.
Our Soursop Experience
Soursop is a fruit that really grew on us; the more we ate it, the more we liked it.
We eat the white flesh, but we mostly make a lovely juice with it and tend to keep our juice recipe very simple. You can find lots of recipes online, so we won’t go into detail, but our juice just contains soursop, water and a bit of nutmeg, this is how we make it most of the time. For a more creamy, sweet and indulgent version we add some condensed milk and serve it with ice.
In terms of caring for the tree, it’s pretty low maintenance, our tree produces a lot of soursop and after a certain point the fruits start to ripen really quickly so if we don’t pay attention and check on the tree regularly the soursops spoil (I threw away 4 today ☹), and sometimes birds and bugs get to them before we get a chance to pick them. So you definitely have to keep an eye on them.
Guava
Guava is a lovely, fragrant fruit that is found in the tropical regions of the Americas and in the Caribbean. There are many variations including the Redland, Supreme and Red Indian. We haven’t yet been able to identify what variation our guava tree is, but ours has a strong sweet fragrance, white flesh and many small seeds.
Guavas can be eaten in a variety of ways. It can be eaten as is (skin and all), cooked to form stewed guavas and it can be used to make jam, pies, cakes, ice-cream and more.
We haven’t been very creative yet with our guavas and simply just pick them from the tree and eat them as they are. We mostly slice them up and have them with breakfast. Once we get a large number of guavas, we keep losing most of them to the birds, we are going to experiment and try making guava tart (BVI style), guava jam and guava juice.
Guava is high in vitamin C and contains potassium, vitamin B-6, vitamin A and dietary fibre, making it a healthy, tasty addition to our diet.
Conclusion
Having lived in London for over 10 years and not being able to appreciate the joy of having a garden, being in the Caribbean and being able to explore the great outdoors has been such a pleasant change for us. Being able to spend more time outdoors and have access to fresh untainted fruits has been a blessing enabling us to change our lifestyle and have a more plant-based diet. We love it!
Previous Blogs
If you missed the previous blogs in this series you can read through them here:
Deep, G. et al. (2016). Graviola inhibits hypoxia-induced NADPH oxidase activity in prostate cancer cells reducing their proliferation and clonogenicity. Scientific Reports, 16 (6).
Ioannis, P. et al. (2015). Graviola: A Systematic Review on Its Anticancer Properties. American Journal of Cancer Prevention. 3 (6), pp 128-131.
Morton, J. 1987. Guava. p. 356–363. In: Fruits of warm climates. Julia F. Morton, Miami, FL.
Paul, J. et al. (2013). Anti cancer activity on Graviola, an exciting medicinal plant extract vs various cancer cell lines and a detailed computational study on its potent anti-cancerous leads. Current Topics In Medicinal Chemistry, 13 (14).
In October, we started a new consultancy project with our client being the FIT Wellness Centre in Nevis. This piece of work has involved us assisting the FIT Wellness Centre in developing their non-communicable disease (NCD) action plan and with the implementation of their National Weight Loss Campaign, a key part of their action plan.
In November, we took part in a press conference to discuss FIT’s NCD Prevention Action Plan and the National Weight Loss Campaign and were delighted to be featured on the NNC News.
We’re really happy to share the news clip with you. You can check it out below.
If you’re based in Nevis and would like to take part in the National Weight Loss Campaign, please email us and if you’re creative and would like the chance to win $500EC, then you can enter the slogan competition for the campaign. You can find out more here.
