We welcome back our guest blogger, Stacey Mensah. This week Stacey reflects on the new research conducted by Imperial College London that found we need to eat more than 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day to achieve a significant health benefit.

Welcome back to the Lake Foundation!

I hope this week hasn’t been too depressing for you with the arrival storm Doris. This has been a week of great reflection for me as I look back on how I became the person I am today. I’ve been particularly looking at my eating habits and how they formed. This comes at quite an interesting time as new studies have found that eating greater amounts of fruit vegetables can lower your risk of disease. Honestly, I’ll give them an A for effort. Studies like this one are not going to comfort you when it’s a movie night and you have no food; or, when you’re coming from work and you ‘happen’ to stumble across the infamous golden arches. Ultimately, people are going to treat studies such as these as a pick ‘n’ mix or an all you can eat buffet. So, here is what’s on the menu, or rather what the study has found.

Eating 10 portions of fruits and vegetable​s every day​ could significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, a new study has found. The study, that was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, also identified which fruit and vegetables provided the greatest protection against disease.

The research found that apples, pears, citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables may help protect against heart disease, cardiovascular disease, ​and early death. The foods that were found to prevent cancer were green vegetables, yellow vegetables such as peppers and carrots, and cruciferous vegetables.

Other studies have also supported this thesis, as a separate study that was published in the Thorax journal, found that a fruit and veg rich diet is linked to a much lower risk of chronic lung disease. I’m guessing this isn’t something we haven’t already heard before. I don’t know about you but what I’m particularly interested in is how we fit 10 portions of fruit and veg into our daily intake. With all the dinners and drinks the working women have​ scheduled during the week you really don’t want to be that friend who is taking out her Tupperware containers at the dinner table.

Having just lost 10 pounds from switching up my eating habits I would suggest making your meals in advance – which means making them from scratch and staying away from processed foods. At the beginning, ​it’s best not to be over ambitious as you will have lots of leftover food. Another suggestion would be to invest in a smoothie maker. Thankfully I was gifted a Nutri-bullet a while back so it has made eating vegetables and fruit much easier. The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to ​strike a balance – you don’t want to overload on sugar.

Comment down below on how you manage to eat 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

We would love to hear from you….

In this week’s blog, our Cycling Coordinator continues her discussion on the benefits of cycling.

It’s 2017 and we kick-started the year as we intend to go on with more cycling adventures in Croydon and beyond. Following our blog about the mental benefits of cycling, we are looking at the physical benefits of cycling.

Gently does it

Cycling is low impact but effective.  Low-impact describes an exercise where at least one foot remains on the ground. So some argue that cycling is no-impact as both feet sit on pedals! When you sit on your cycle your weight rests on a pair of bones in your pelvis instead of your legs. This takes the pressure off your joints. In turn, it reduces the risk of injuries that can affect your movement. In fact, research suggests low impact sports can promote the healing of damaged joints.

Look great on the outside

Cycling is generally a great full-body workout. It works and tones leg muscles, your bottom and upper body. It can assist in weight loss as it increases the body’s ability to burn calories and fat. A lesser-known fact is that exercise promotes the flow of oxygen and nutrients to feed your skin cells. This can make you appear more youthful. It also promotes the creation of collagen, which can prevent those pesky wrinkles.

Be great on the inside

Prevention is better than cure. A low impact activity like cycling can improve and prevent cardiovascular diseases. The British Heart Foundation found that cyclists have half the risk of heart disease compared to those who don’t exercise at all. If pilates or yoga isn’t your thing then cycling is a good way to strengthen your core muscles. This can improve your balance and your coordination. Surprisingly, regular cycling can improve your fitness levels to match someone 10 years younger.

We can’t promise you’ll achieve the stamina of a professional cyclist nor the lean body of a central London courier, but The Lake Foundation Cycling Club is a good start towards your fitness and wellbeing goals for 2017. For more information on how to join email events@thelakefoundation.com

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Sources

http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=fitness_defined_lowimpact_and_highimpact_exercises

http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-top-5-benefits-of-cycling

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/the-mediterranean-diet-good-for-your-body-and-mind.html

https://caloriebee.com/workout-routines/Can-Cycling-Help-Tone-Your-Legs-Stomach-and-Butt

http://www.livestrong.com/article/417895-what-parts-of-the-body-does-bicycling-work/

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/30-reasons-to-take-up-cycling-23965/

Last week, researchers published the results of their analysis on vitamin D which assessed the overall  effect of vitamin D supplementation on the risk of developing respiratory tract infections such as the cold and flu.

In their analysis, researchers looked at 25 studies and this included 11,321 people aged 0 to 95 years old from 14 different countries.  They found that daily or weekly vitamin D supplementation lowers a person’s risk of developing acute respiratory infections. The effect was most profound in people with the lowest levels of vitamin D with their risk being halved. People with higher levels of vitamin D also benefited, their risk reduced by 10 per cent.

Researchers explained that vitamin D may protect against these infection by helping the body make anti-microbial substances that protect the body from bacteria and viruses.

As a result of their findings, researches stated that this strengthened the case for fortifying more foods with vitamin D, but whilst the researchers were very positive about their findings the UK Government was very cautious saying:

“The evidence on vitamin D and infection is inconsistent, and this study does not provide sufficient evidence to support recommending vitamin D for reducing the risk of respiratory tract infections.”

Vitamin D is very important in protecting our bone and muscle health as well as boosting the immune system.  It i also thought to have additional health benefits such as protecting against diabetes,  asthma, some cancers and heart disease.  To reap the benefits of vitamin D, Public Health England has recommended that people’s average intake of vitamin D should be 10 micrograms.

Vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, is made in the skin as a result of exposure to sunlight and this is the main source of vitamin D for many people in the UK during the spring and summer. During the autumn and winter months, to get the recommended amount of vitamin D, Public Health England recommends consuming foods which contain vitamin D naturally or are fortified with it.

It is particularly important that the black community in the UK ensure they are getting enough vitamin D. This is because the melanin in our skin, which protects against UV light, also affects our skin’s ability to make vitamin D. So with the same sun exposure as someone with lighter skin we produce less vitamin D. This means that black community are more at risk of having a vitamin D deficiency and should consider taking vitamin D supplements all year round.

In today’s blog post our guest blogger, Stacey Mensah, discusses depression and very powerfully shares her personal experience with us. Get involved in the discussion and please do leave a comment below for Stacey.

Today’s blog post comes in somewhat of a sombre note. The topic we’ll be discussing is mental health, but more specifically depression. Many see this as simply a word, unable to comprehend the intensity of such a thing. Some, ​however, have experienced the feelings of hopelessness and darkness that come with this condition. Depression, whatever that may look like is real, you may not be able to understand it but it’s there lurking in the background. Coming from an African family but also a Christian one, my perception of mental health has always been an interesting one; and when I had depression as a child my mother was not quite convinced. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing with you, my experience of depression and my mother’s perception of it and what we have both learned from the experience.

The World Health Organization defines mental health ‘as a state of well-being; of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’ Going on from this, depression can be understood as a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. This typically affects how you think, feel and behave. This could lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. This topic has always been of great importance to me not only because I’ve experienced this, but as a society, I feel like it’s so easy to focus on the outward appearance. If you’re smiling, then everything must be ok – surely. If you ask someone how they’re doing and they reply with, ‘I’m fine’, then all must be well. I have found that in the past this has not been the case at all. Anyone who has been around me for an extended period of time will know that I have a tendency to frequently ask the questions – How are you feeling? What are you thinking? How do you feel about that? And no, this is not because I’m a maniac who wants to get inside your head. It’s because I know it’s far too easy to hide your negative emotions and to some, in the end, this does become destructive.

I experienced depression from the age of 11 until the age of 20. I know I don’t have the condition anymore as I don’t have that persistent feeling of sadness. Although I do realise that depression does not have an expiry date, everyone does experience it differently. This post is not about telling you how we all experience the condition but rather encouraging you all to not be so eager when it comes to labelling or formulating certain medical conditions. One size does not fit all. During this period, I experienced intense feelings of loneliness, rejection and just overall darkness. The interesting thing however is that though I have always had my family around me, but that didn’t matter at the time. I was mostly inwardly focused, focusing on my own feelings – exaggerating my feelings of negativity and isolating and marginalising my positive emotions. They did not matter. I would always focus on the negative. This would be accompanied by 3 am phone calls to family members about how everything I did in my life was so wrong. The more than occasional bursts of tears would follow and just general misery. Although I was deep in the pits of depression I never did seek professional help. I didn’t want to be labelled as damaged or different. This was, of course, to do with the stigma of depression in society. I can talk about it now because I can look back at that time and think wow. I’m glad I went through that because it made me a stronger person and I’m able to empathise with people with mental health issues. It also brought my mother and me​ together. Here is what she had to say:

‘When you had depression, honestly, I felt helpless. I didn’t know what to do. I was always worried about what you were going to do as you were quite unpredictable. The only thing I could do was pray for you and answer those 3 am phone calls. Although you do mean everything to me, I had to understand that there was only so much I could for you. At the beginning, it was incredibly difficult as I just thought you were being dramatic and didn’t want to be put into certain social situations. After a while, though I learned to listen to you and from there we just had to work through it together.’

To describe depression as being a rough journey would be an understatement. It’s not easy. Some people have to seek medical help for it whereas others do not. Everyone is different. Families and cultures deal with it differently. The key thing that helped me during this time was having a strong support network – made of family and friends. What are your views on mental health? Comment down below or on our Facebook page and let’s open up the discussion.

See you soon x

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The Lake Foundation would like to say a big thank you to Stacey for sharing her experience with depression, we hope that through her experience you have gained some insight into this condition.

For more information about depression you can visit Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and Croydon Drop In  

Over the past month or so we’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of interesting events to discuss a range of health issues and in today’s blog, we’ll give you a quick summary of a childhood obesity event we attended a few weeks ago.

Reducing Childhood Obesity

On 18^th January, we attended the Croydon Children, Young People and Families’ Network reducing childhood obesity event. This event brought together organisations in Croydon who are tackling childhood obesity to share experiences and also to understand Croydon’s new childhood obesity strategy.

The main speaker on the day was Bernadette Alves, Consultant in Public Health at Croydon Council, who took us through the Croydon Healthy Weight Action Plan for Children and Young People which aims to cover their plans from 2017 to 2020.

The Scale of the Problem

Bernadette Alves started by setting the scene with some background information stating that childhood obesity is a major priority for Croydon being one of their five main priorities for children in the borough. She explained that obesity causes children harm impacting their physical health, mental health, behaviour and day-to-day life (such as school attendance). She explained the extent of the problem telling us that 20.3% of children in reception (4-5-year-olds) are overweight or obese and 39% in year 6 (10-11-year-olds). When we look across the borough there is a lot of variation with Broad Green, New Addington, Selhurst and Thornton Heath having the highest levels of year 6 obesity levels and Sanderstead having the lowest year 6 obesity rate.

Croydon’s Action Plan for Childhood Obesity

We then heard how Croydon Council aims to tackle childhood obesity with their new strategy. Bernadette explained that their core priorities would be :

• Sugar: to sign a sugar declaration and develop a borough wide sugar smart approach
• Targeting and Integration: they will ensure that services are targeted to those most in need and develop an integrated interactive pathway of all services that are available to support children to reach and maintain a healthy weight
• Physical activity: roll out the Daily Mile campaign to schools
• Engagement of residents and the community: they will raise awareness of the impact of childhood obesity and support and empower residents to make behaviour changes.

The Council’s action plan, at the time, was in a draft phase and going forward they were conducting a consultation on the plan; the deadline for this was the end of January.  We also learnt that a Healthy Weight Steering Group was set up and is being led by Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group and Croydon Council; they will monitor the implementation of the action plan.

Unhealthy High Streets

Following Bernadette’s presentation there was time for questions and one of the issues raised was the large number of unhealthy takeaway restaurants in close proximity to schools.  In response to this Bernadette stated that there is a lot of work being conducted to create healthier high streets. She acknowledged that there is a major issue with fast food chains being placed near schools that target children with very cheap deals on their products.  Even data from the Royal Society of Public Health has shown that  Croydon has a particular problem with Central Parade in New Addington being the second most unhealthy high street in London.

Developing Better Relationships Between Local Government and Charities

Another issue that was raised during the Q&A was the lack of communication between small groups and the Council. It was felt that there needs to be a better working relationship between community groups and the Council that would enable all organisations working in this field to work effectively together, reduce duplication and align their objectives with the local approach. It was felt that the Council could provide more support to community organisations that goes beyond providing funding through their grants programmes but promoting projects and working in collaboration to ensure that projects are successful.

The event ended with a networking session where we could learn about the work being conducted by local community groups and charities.

This was a really interesting event and provided some good insight into local plans for tackling childhood obesity.

 

We are delighted to announce our next fibroids Twitter chat will be on  Wednesday 15^th  February 2017 from 7pm-8pm. We will be joined by special guests Dr Sydney Dillard, CEO of Fighting Fibroids, Candice Bryan, CEO and Founder of Noire Wellness and Leah Salmon, Founder of the Naturally You Coach with host, our own Abi Begho, founder of The Lake Foundation.

This Twitter chat has been organised to allow for an in-depth discussion on fibroids, diet and exericse.

We’ll be putting questions to our expert panel and you can put your questions to them 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.

We look forward to tweeting with you!

We’re delighted to announce that we have teamed up with Voices for Autism to host our first Autism Health and Wellbeing Conference. This event is aimed at parents, carers and teachers of children with autism and will cover a range to topics to empower attendees with the information they need to successfully care for a child with autism.

On the day we’ll be looking at therapeutic options and the impact of nutrition and physical activity on autism. We’ll also explore autism friendly initiatives and hear personal stories from parents.

Autism is quite common in the UK affecting approximately 700,000 people. It is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person sees the world. It also affects how a person communicates with, and relates to other people. It is a spectrum condition which means people with autism have a range of difficulties in common but it affects everyone differently. It can be hard for those caring for a child with autism to find support and advice on how to manage their child’s condition and so organisations like Voices for Autism have been organising a range of much-needed support services.

Our conference aims to connect parents, experts, teachers and carers to create the perfect environment for shared learning.

This conference will be held on Saturday 15th July at the Bernard Weatherhill Community Space in Croydon. More details will be available from April 2017, but please save the date.

For more information please email events@thelakefoundation.com

In this week’s blog freelance journalist Stacey Mensah discusses dementia. 

Welcome back, you lovely people! It’s the end of another week and I don’t know about you but I’m glad it’s here. I’ve also just realized that it’s the last weekend in January! How are we feeling about that? I don’t know whether to be excited by the fact that we’ll be saying bye-bye to January blues, or sad because we are another month closer to bikini season – or should I say overall season. Ha! Let’s leave the issue of bikini season to one side – for now – and let’s discuss dementia, and how regular exercise can reduce the odds of developing this disease.

Dementia 101

Dementia refers to a set of symptoms that include, but are not limited to, memory loss and deficiencies with thinking, problem-solving and language. Although these changes are incredibly minor to start off with, over time they do become severe enough to affect everyday life. Of course, the best thing to do would be to get a proper assessment of problems but the waiting times of the NHS stretching as far as two weeks it’s best to take preventative measures while you still can.

In a recent study, it was found that people who exercised regularly appeared to have lower odds of developing dementia than those that didn’t.  This study followed more than 1,500 adults, aged 65 and older. This isn’t to say that if you’re younger than 65 you can stop reading – carry on, you’ll be surprised.

The symptoms of dementia can be seen in those that are younger than 65. This is usually referred to as having young-onset dementia. The stressful events of life including weddings, job losses and divorce have also been linked to this development. Unfortunately, there is a wider range of diseases that trigger young-onset dementia. Most importantly, people with this type of dementia are far more likely to be diagnosed with a rarer form of the disease. In both cases getting a diagnosis would be the best thing too – regardless of how long you may have to wait, it is worth it!

Getting Real

Here at the Lake Foundation, we take health incredibly seriously. It’s not a fad, but we do struggle. We are simply normal peopleand at times we have questionable eating habits. And of course when I say we, I mean me. Eating healthily and exercising regularly as always been an obstacle for me. Actually, to call it an obstacle would be a major understatement, as obstacles are usually overcome within time. This obstacle has become that piece of furniture in the corner that you just can’t seem to throw away. When you wake up, it’s there. When you go to bed, ooooh wait…no, ​it’s still there. When my family and friends ask me about it, I rationalize its being; somehow relating it back to the core of my existence. I know, how dramatic, right?

I tell you this because we are all in this together. For the start of February, my plan is to change the rules that I live by. For a wise woman once said that some rules are nothing but old habits that people are afraid to change.

Have a great weekend!

The Lake Foundation has teamed up with Diabetes UK to run a 12 month Diabetes Community Champion project in Croydon that is aimed at the African and African-Caribbean community.   Through this project we’re hoping to raise awareness of diabetes and how it can be prevented, and for those with diabetes, provide information on  how best to manage their condition and secure better health outcomes.

We’re currently looking for volunteers to take on the role of Diabetes Community Champions.

Diabetes Community Champions will raise awareness of diabetes and this may involve giving presentations, hosting information tables at events, distributing leaflets and information, taking part in local radio interviews, writing blogs and exploring creative ways of engaging with the black community.  In addition volunteers, if interested, can work with local GPs to identify pre-diabetics and work with them on a one-to-one basis to reduce their risk through a behaviour change programme.

Community Champions can dedicate as much time as they are able to this project, but ideally we’d like volunteers to commit to at least 1 – 2 days a month to ensure we can make the most impact possible.

Full training will be provided to all volunteers.

If you’re interested in being a Diabetes Community Champion, please complete an online registration form here or email info@thelakefoundation.com for more information.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women’s Health is a cross-party group of MPs and Peers in the UK Parliament of Westminster. They have launched an inquiry into whether women are given an informed choice about the treatment options available for particular conditions. Fibroids and endometriosis are among the conditions the group would like to shine a spotlight on.

The group will produce a report which will assess if women are given an informed choice about treatment options and outline what improvements  need to be made.

As part of this inquiry the group is inviting interested parties to submit written evidence. Evidence can be submitted via the following links (endometriosis) (fibroids) or emailed directly to appgwh@mailpbconsulting.com using the pro forma below. Patient experience, anecdotal evidence as well as any sort of data would be gratefully received.

The group would like to hear about current practice as well as potential barriers and issues in order to understand what key recommendations the group can take forward. The group will be accepting written evidence until the end of February 2017.

If you’ve been affected by fibroids we strongly encourage you to submit written evidence on your experience when you were offered treatment. This will make a significant difference and help identify any issues that exist can be identified so that these can be addressed to ensure that the diagnosis and treatment pathway for all women is improved.

If you would like any further information about the inquiry or the group’s work more generally, please contact the group secretariat at appgwh@mailpbconsulting.com or call 020 7735 6963.