Back in June of this year the Lupus  Foundation of America and the American College of Rheumatology launched an awareness campaign  (Be Fierce. Take Control) aimed at African American and Latino women, who are both at an increased risk of developing lupus.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of lupus to facilitate early diagnosis. An early diagnosis is important as it ensures that lupus sufferers can avoid some of the long-term effects of the condition. Lupus can take many years to diagnose as the symptoms are very vague and similar to a number of other conditions, this makes diagnosis very difficult.

The campaign has used social media and digital advertising to reach young black women. They have also created a website with useful resources such as:

• A ‘Could it Be Lupus?’ questionnaire which allows young women to determine whether their symptoms could be those of lupus.
• A lupus symptoms tracker to help women monitor their symptoms and to use at their next doctor’s appointment to explain their symptoms
• A guide to help those with symptoms prepare for their first doctor’s appointment

Although these resources were developed for African American women, they can be used by black women throughout the world who think they may have the symptoms of lupus.

What is Lupus?

Lupus is a chronic (it lasts a long time) disease where the body’s immune system doesn’t function properly and begins to attack healthy cells, tissues and organs.

There are four types of lupus:

•  Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) – affects a range of different organs in the body
•  Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) – affects the skin causing rashes and a change in the colour of the skin.
• Drug- induced lupus is caused by certain types of medication (for example hydralazine and procainamide which are used to treat heart conditions).
•  Neonatal lupus is a very rare type that affects new born babies

Black Women and Lupus

Black women are three to four times more likely to develop lupus than their white counterparts and results from the Lupus in Minorities study has shown that black women develop this condition at a younger age, experience more severe symptoms and overall develop more complications.

Researchers are trying to understand why it is more common in black women and why it is more severe. It is thought to be due to a combination of genetic and environmental differences.

More Information

For more information about the ‘Be Fierce. Take Control’ campaign, visit their website here and you can view the campaign video, Fierce Women Tackle Health, below

You can also get more information about lupus on website here, from Lupus UK or the Lupus Foundation of America

On 5^th December, South Africa’s parliament passed a bill to introduce a tax on drinks with a high sugar content.  This comes after 18 months of negotiations which included four consultations with the public.

The tax will come into effect on 1^st April 2018 and will impose a levy of 2.1 cents per gram of sugar on all sugar-sweetened drinks; the first 4g of sugar per 100ml will be exempt. What this means in practice is that the price of the average can of coke will increase by 11%.

The South African government expects to raise a significant amount of money from this new tax which will be invested into health promotion projects to tackle obesity and facilitate the prevention of non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

With South African being one of the top 10 consumers of sugary drinks in the world, it is hoped that this tax will lead to a reduction in the consumption of these drinks which will play a part in improving the health of South Africans.

Tracey Malawana, the coordinator of the Healthy Living Alliance said:

“We applaud Members of Parliament for putting the health of millions of South Africans before the narrow interests of the beverage and sugar industries.

“Thanks to Treasury and MPs, South Africa is on the right path to reverse the alarming numbers of diabetes cases and other NCDs associated with obesity. We now look to the President to sign this important law without delay. “

South Africa joins a growing number of countries who have introduced a tax on sugary drinks. These countries include Mexico, Barbados, France, Denmark, Hungary, Portgual, Saudi Arabia,  India, Thailand and others.

Sugar taxes are just one part of the global strategy to improve the public’s health through government policy. Health policy experts recommend that governments explore policies around three main areas: unhealthy foods, alcohol and cigarettes, and within these three areas to explore policies that restrict access, ban advertising (particularly to children) and increase taxes.

South Africa will have to wait a few years to determine the effect of introducing the sugar tax but initial evaluations from Mexico, who has had a sugary drinks tax for a couple of years, are very promising. An analysis of the sugar tax in Mexico found that sugary drinks consumption dropped by 5.5% one year after the sugary drinks tax was introduced, and in the second year sugary drinks consumption fell by 9.7%. Based on this,  the introduction of this tax  in South Africa brings the nation one step closer to tackling one of the key risk factors for non-communicable diseases and obesity.

Welcome to this blog series on gardening and our health and well-being. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be taking you on a personal journey as we explore the health and well-being benefits of gardening for ourselves. We’ll tell you how we started, show you our garden, what we’re growing and share some of what we’ve learnt along the way. Today we start off with a quick introduction. Enjoy!

When many of us think of gardening, we think of it as hard manual labour and a chore. We wonder why anyone would spend a weekend in the garden when they could be doing something else. Well, research (and personal experience) has shown that gardening is not only fun but can play an important role in improving our physical and mental health. The benefits are so effective that a whole industry of therapeutic horticulture exists and has been in existence, in some form or another, since the early 19^th century.

Thrive, a charity that was founded 35 years ago, uses gardening to bring about positive changes in the lives of people with a disability, who are experiencing ill-health, are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable. They describe the health benefits of gardening as:

• Better physical health through exercise and muscle strengthening
• Improved mental health through a sense of purpose,  achieving a sense of peace and tranquillity, restoring attention and stress alleviation
• The development of life skills

Gardening and Physical Health

Gardening is no joke! It can be really hard work. Mowing the lawn, digging, weeding and raking can leave you feeling physically exhausted. This is a really good thing as it means you’re getting some serious exercise.

 A research study published in 2014 showed that digging and raking equated to high-intensity exercise whilst other activities such as weeding, sowing seeds, harvesting, watering and planting transplants were found to be equivalent to moderate-intensity exercise. This means that spending time working on your garden every day could enable you to achieve the government’s recommended amount of physical activity (150 minutes a week), and because of the variety of tasks performed in the garden you’ll be getting both a cardiovascular and muscle strengthening workout.

Regular gardening has an impact on our physical health as the exercise we achieve from it can improve the health of our heart, help with weight loss and reduce our risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, fibroids and a number of other health conditions.

The Mental Health Benefits

Gardening makes you feel good.  The excitement of seeing your seeds sprout, the peace and tranquillity of having some quiet time in your garden, the accomplishment you feel when you harvest your first-fruits and gaining a new-found appreciation for nature all contribute to improving your emotions and state of mind. This is backed up by research too.

In 2013, researchers published a review of ten high-quality studies on garden-based mental health interventions. These studies all explored the benefits of gardening on people with mental health difficulties. All of them showed an improvement in the symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as a range of benefits including emotional, social, vocational, physical and spiritual.

Gardening and a Healthy Diet

Many people who delve into the world of gardening explore growing their own fruits and vegetables.  Growing your own produce is a fun and rewarding way of introducing more fruits and vegetables into your diet;  it can be a way to introduce a lot of these into your diet as one, say, tomato plant can provide an abundance of tomatoes, meaning your diet can be more plant-based. This type of diet has a number of health benefits including reducing the risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

In addition to this, as you’ll be growing these yourselves you can avoid some of the harmful pesticides that are commonly used in commercially grown fruits and vegetables, avoid genetically modified products and you’ll get very fresh fruit and veg which many have said are tastier than store-bought products.

The Development of Life Skills

To grow anything requires you to develop and utilise a number of skills. These include problem-solving (coming up with solutions when your plants don’t look right), patience, discipline, time-management, research (understanding the plant you’re growing), perseverance and a basic understanding of plant biology. Gaining these skills improves confidence and there is the added benefit that some of these skills are transferable to other areas of your life. Being empowered with these skills improves a person’s overall well-being, improving their outlook on life and leading to significant personal development.

Conclusion

Whilst at first glance gardening may not seem that inspiring when you explore it further you can see the huge benefits it can have on your well-being. So… if you’re looking for a  fun, yet practical way to get fit, active and healthy why not try a bit of gardening. We’re trying it and we love it!

See you next time and happy gardening!

Let us know your thoughts on gardening for health benefits in the comments section below.

We are absolutely delighted to welcome Candice Bryan to our fibroids Ask the Expert Panel. With over 20 years experience in the field of sport and wellness, Ms Bryan will provide her expertise to  those who have questions on how exercise can be utilised for the prevention and management of fibroids.

Candice Bryan is the founder of Noire Wellness which seeks to improve the health and wellness of African and African Caribbean communities living in the UK.  In 2017, she launched the #FibroidSeries wellness hub providing women with informative and engaging physical activity workshops and live demonstrations as a holistic approach to managing the effects of fibroids.

She is a thought-leader and speaker on a variety of topics related to sport development, inclusive fitness and wellness diversity.  She draws her fitness experience from over 20 years working across the sector including the management of a multi-award winning disability fitness project where she supported over 120 disabled people to become qualified fitness instructors.

As a dedicated researcher in the field of sport and wellness and the current chair of Active Harrow, Candice oversees the implementation of their physical activity and sports strategy and delivery of action plans.  More recently Candice has joined the I.D Radio team as their first wellness presenter hosting weekly shows to connect with audiences across the globe inspiring desires to be well.

We’re delighted to have Ms Bryan on board and if you have any questions on fibroids and exercise please do submit them here, and for more information on Candice and Noire Welllness, please visit www.noirewellness.com or follow her on twitter @KandiceBryan

Story update:  The Canadian government’s alcohol  and  cancer warning label experiment has been halted due to pressure from the alcohol industry who threatened legal action for defamation and trademark infringement.

Many drinkers are unaware that alcohol causes a number of cancers including breast and bowel cancer. In order to raise awareness of this the Yukon government, in collaboration with researchers, has introduced labels on alcoholic drinks warning that alcohol causes cancer. The labels also provide recommendations on safe alcohol consumption for men and women as well as advising that people should plan to have two or more non-drinking days a week.

This new initiative was a challenge to implement as Yukon is a small jurisdiction and couldn’t influence drinks manufacturers to change their labelling. Therefore the Yukon Liquor Corporation and Public Health Ontario researcher, Erin Hobin, affixed the labels to thousands of bottles themselves.

These labels are a world’s first. No other country warns drinkers, through labelling on drinks, that alcohol causes breast or bowel cancer; South Korea highlights the link between alcohol and liver cancer and the US only warns of the dangers of drunk driving and risks of drinking while pregnant.

Researcher Erin Hobbs explained the reasoning behind the labelling:

“Alcohol is such a big part of our culture in Canada. We’re inundated with alcohol marketing that shows us how much fun alcohol is. It’s part of most of our celebrations … (But) consumers have a right to know the health risks if they do choose to drink alcohol. If they do choose to drink, they can do so in a safer manner.”

Alcohol is not just linked to breast and bowel cancer, but has also been linked to cancers of the mouth, upper throat, food pipe, voice box and liver.  The number one cancer impacted by alcohol is breast cancer.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer  has classified alcohol as a type 1 carcinogen, which means there is the highest level of evidence to suggest that it does cause cancer.

It is hoped that governments will follow Yukon’s example as awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer is very low and people need to have this information so they can make an informed decision about their drinking habits, and hopefully protect their health.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, in a bid to tackle childhood obesity and its related health problems, has announced a ban on new fast-food outlets being located within 400m of existing or proposed primary and secondary schools.  The Mayor’s office has said that currently a quarter of fast-food outlets are within five minutes of schools.

In addition, the Mayor is proposing that when planning permission is granted to fast-food outlets, that they be required to sign up to the Healthier Catering Commitment for London. This is a scheme that recognises businesses in London that demonstrate a commitment to providing their customers with a healthier option by reducing saturated fat, salt and sugar in their dishes.

This ban is much-needed in London where there are 8,000 fast-food outlets throughout London with 2,000 of these being within five minutes of schools. This gives children quick and easy access to unhealthy foods, that are very cheap.  The Mayor’s office said that just one of these meals  contains 60% of our recommended daily calorie intake, half of our recommended salt and saturated fat intake and  no fruits and vegetables.

We know that many school children consume the unhealthy meals prepared by these outlets every day contributing to the childhood obesity crisis.

In London, a staggering 40% of children are overweight or obese when they finish primary school. This puts them at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and a number of other diseases.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said:

“Takeaway restaurants are a vibrant part of London life, but it’s important that they are not encouraging our children to make poor food choices.

“I am working hard to create a healthier London and this must start with the food that our children eat. As promised in my manifesto, I am using all of my powers through my new London Plan to prevent new takeaways from being built just down the road from schools as part of a package of measures to tackle the ticking time bomb of childhood obesity and help us all lead healthier lives.”

This scheme is very promising and if successful should ensure that we improve young Londoner’s health. There is also a need to ensure that existing fast-food outlets are targeted so that the 8,000 outlets in London play their role in improving the health of Londoners.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced that it is has started a review on the medicine ESMYA (ulipristal acetate). This drug is used to treat fibroids and the review was initiated following four reports of serious liver injury, three of these patients had to have a liver transplant.  An initial assessment of these cases was conducted and it was determined that ESMYA was the cause of the liver damage.  A more comprehensive and in-depth review will now be carried out.

The EMA has advised that women currently on ESMYA should speak to their doctor if they have any questions or concerns.

What is ESMYA?

ESMYA is a prescription drug that was first authorised in the EU for use in patients with fibroids in 2012. It is used to treat moderate to severe symptoms of fibroids and works by stopping the hormone progesterone from stimulating the growth of fibroids and this reduces their size.  It was initially licensed to be used before surgery to shrink fibroids, but can now also be used as a stand-alone treatment. It should only be used for up to three months at a time.  The use of ESMYA can be repeated but there should be breaks between each 3-month course of treatment.

The most common side effects of ESMYA are the absence of a woman’s period and thickening of the lining of the womb. You can speak to your doctor about what all the side effects are and these will be listed in the drug leaflet which comes with ESMYA.

ESMYA must not be used  by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, have vaginal bleeding or have womb, cervical, ovarian or breast cancer. You can speak to your doctor about other restrictions or these will be listed on the drug information leaflet.

More Information

More information about the assessment can be found in the information sheet below and you can visit the EMA’s website for more information.

The government of St Lucia has announced that they will be starting a campaign aimed at banning the sale of soft drinks in schools across the island.

This is part of a global public health effort to reduce the amount of sugar consumed by children. This worldwide effort has seen many countries explore various options to reduce sugar consumption such as taxing sugar sweetened drinks, clear front-of-package labelling, restrictions on unhealthy foods in schools and hospitals, tighter regulation of marketing of unhealthy foods to children, reformulation of foods by companies to make them healthier and increasing the availability of healthy foods.

Reducing sugar consumption, particularly in children, is extremely important as most people are consuming too much sugar which is linked to weight gain and obesity which increases risk of diabetes, cancer and a number of other non-communicable diseases.

This move by St Lucia follows that of Barbados and Jamaica who have both banned the sale of soft drinks in schools.  The Ministry of Health and Wellness in St Lucia has met with principals of schools to discuss the best way forward in implementing the soft drinks ban. They stressed that their intention is not to affect the success of local drinks manufacturers, but to build a healthier nation. They want to encourage children to drink more water and turn away from soft drinks and juices.

Chief Nutritionist, Lisa Hunt Mitchell said:

“Sweetened beverages are bad for the health in general, but soft drinks have added ingredients such as caffeine, phosphoric acid, and colourings that are far worse. These ingredients have very negative effects on the health.”

You can find out more about St Lucia’s Ministry of Health and Wellness here

Friday 1st December was World AIDS Day and this year’s theme was: ‘My health, my right’

This theme recognises the fact that many people living with HIV are denied their right to health. Their right to health includes access to good quality health services and medications and being treated with dignity and respect.

It was a particularly good day for the Caribbean as Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and St Kitts and Nevis were certified by the World Health Organisation as having eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.  This follows the success of the Caribbean nation Cuba, in 2015, who became the first country in the world to achieve WHO certification for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

This is fantastic news for the Caribbean where HIV is a significant public health challenge with 310,000 people living with HIV.  In 2007, it was estimated that 6,400 children in the region were infected with HIV, most of these through mother-to-child transmission. Children who are infected with HIV have a challenging start to life facing a life-time of medication, stigma, ill-health and possibly a shortened life span. With all this in mind, in 2010 the Regional Initiative for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean was launched.

This initiative is coordinated by the Pan-American Health Organisation and the United Nations Children Fund and its aim, at the time, was to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis in all Caribbean countries and territories by 2015 and to reduce the transmission rate to 2%. Whilst only one country, Cuba, made the 2015 deadline and the transmission rate is above 2% (it’s now 9%, 52% less than in 2010) great progress has been made: since 2010 new infections in children have been reduced in the region by 52% and 74% of pregnant women with HIV now have access to anti-retroviral drugs which significantly reduces chances of passing on the virus to their children during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

The Caribbean should be very proud as it is ahead of the rest of the world and we hope that other Caribbean countries will follow the example set by these six Caribbean nations and put policies and procedures in place to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to child. This is very important in giving all children the best start in life and is a key step in the prevention HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean.

For more information on this work you can download the document below,  visit UNAIDS’ website here or watch the short video below.

We’re so delighted to announce that our next fibroids Twitter chat will be with Candice Bryan on 13th December from 9pm to 10pm (UK time)

Candice Bryan is the founder of Noire Wellness which seeks to improve the health and wellness of African and African Caribbean communities living in the UK.  In 2017, she launched the #FibroidSeries wellness hub providing women with informative and engaging physical activity workshops and live demonstrations as a holistic approach to managing the effects of fibroids.

She is a thought-leader and speaker on a variety of topics related to sport development, inclusive fitness and wellness diversity.  She draws her fitness experience from over 20 years working across the sector including the management of a multi-award winning disability fitness project where she supported over 120 disabled people to become qualified fitness instructors.

As a dedicated researcher in the field of sport and wellness and the current chair of Active Harrow, Candice oversees the implementation of their physical activity and sports strategy and delivery of action plans.  More recently Candice has joined the I.D Radio team as their first wellness presenter hosting weekly shows to connect with audiences across the globe inspiring desires to be well.

This Twitter chat has been organised to allow for an in-depth discussion with Candice to highlight the great work her organisation is doing with their holistic approach to fibroids. We’ll be discussing Noire Wellness’ recent fibroids wellness hub, what she learnt from this innovative event and their future plans for supporting women with fibroids.

We’ll be putting questions to Candice and you can put your questions to her too. So if you have a burning question about fibroids or just want to get involved in the discussion then do join us on the day. To take part in the conversation please use the hashtag #FibroidsChat.

For more information on Candice and Noire Welllness, please  visit www.noirewellness.com or follow her on twitter @KandiceBryan