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Contacts

Bird Rock, St Kitts, St Kitts and Nevis, West Indies

info@lakehealthandwellbeing.com

+1 869 765 8702

World Obesity Day Image
Childhood ObesityObesityYou're Sweet Enough

World Obesity Day Activities

Every year, the 4th March is set aside as World Obesity Day and this year the theme was ‘Everybody Needs to Act.’

Obesity is defined by the World Health Organisation as ‘abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.’ Today, obesity is one of the major global health challenges that we face with 800 million people across the world being affected. Those affected by obesity are at an increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and hypertension and it can also negatively impact mental health.  Additionally, obesity itself is seen as a non-communicable disease.

The cause of obesity is multi-faceted and complex. A variety of factors such as genetic risk, biology, an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, mental health and the environment all contribute to the development of obesity. Therefore, to tackle obesity a comprehensive, all-of-society approach is required i.e. ‘Everybody Needs to Act’

In St. Kitts and Nevis, we have not escaped the reach of obesity. Like many Caribbean countries our obesity rates are high and one of the highest in the world. Research has shown that 45% of adults and 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese, and this is contributing to the high rate of NCDs in the Federation. Sadly, data shows that NCDs contribute to 63% of deaths in St Kitts and Nevis and 83% of hospitalisations. To improve the health of our nation action is required and, therefore, on World Obesity Day, led by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, we joined civil society organisations from across the region to call on Caribbean leaders to introduce evidence-based healthy food policies. These include:

  • Front of package warning labels which easily alert consumers to foods that are high in salt, sugar, saturated fat and trans fat
  • A tax of at least 20% on sugar-sweetened beverages to deter the purchase of these drinks
  • The restriction of the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods in and around schools

These policies have been shown to facilitate healthy behaviours and contribute to the creation of a healthy food environment, in short, these policies make it easy for the public to be healthy.

Also, as part of World Obesity Day, we hosted a childhood obesity webinar entitled ‘Community-Based Approaches to Tackling Childhood Obesity.’ This webinar aimed to showcase the work of CSOs in St Kitts and Nevis and explore the lessons we can learn from these efforts. Featured in this webinar were:

  • Lessons Learnt from Nevis Academy’s No Sugar Challenge – Dr Andrea Bussue, Principal of the Nevis Academy Primary school
  • Improving the health of children through medical education – Ifeanyi Ndukwu, President, Because We Care
  • Rotarians Tackling Childhood Obesity – Dominic Matthew, Rotary Club of Liamuiga
  • Nutrition for School-Aged Children – Renell Daniel, Public Health Nutritionist
  • Lessons Learnt from the Diabetic Screening of School Children – Dr  Reginald O’Loughlin,  Public Relations Officer, St Kitts Diabetes Association
  • Advocating for Evidence-Based Health Policies, Isalean Phillip, Advocacy Officer, Lake Health and Wellbeing

This was a very informative event that highlighted the important role that civil society plays in tackling important public health issues. If you missed this event, you can watch the recording below. 

 

WPA LHW Image
News

We Become A Member of the WPA

 We’re delighted to announce that we are now a member of the World Patients Alliance and thus join over 300 organisations aiming to ensure that patients have access to safe, high quality and affordable healthcare.

About the World Patients Alliance

The World Patients Alliance is the umbrella organisation of patients and patients’ organisation around the globe. The Alliance provides a platform to empower and raise the patients’ voice and ensure that patients have an active role to play in all stages of healthcare and that includes planning, provision, monitoring, research and evaluation of health services. The Alliance represents patients from all world regions and across all disease areas.

The Alliance was founded on the following key principles:

Access to healthcare:
Every patient should have access to healthcare that includes timely, effective, affordable, optimal, and innovative treatments for their condition.

Patient centered healthcare:
Patients and healthcare providers must work in partnership to ensure the patient’s individual specific health needs and desired health outcomes are the focus for all healthcare decisions including physical, emotional, psycho-social, and economic aspects.

Financial hardship:
Patients should have health coverage options that provide them with health care while protecting them from financial hardship.

Empowered patients:
Patients should be supported and empowered to express their needs, concerns, and preferences and provided with the opportunity to have a voice in the decision making of their treatments

Patient safety and quality:
Patients should be provided with treatments that are safe, high quality and appropriately monitored

Patient education and information:
Stakeholders should ensure patients are educated in understandable and accessible ways about their condition and treatment options. They must be provided with information that is simple, relevant and comprehensive.

Partnership and collaboration:
Patients should partner and collaborate with all stakeholders for the provision and access to safe, quality, and affordable healthcare.

Patient engagement:
Patients should be supported and provided the opportunity to be engaged at all levels of decision making concerning their healthcare.

No discrimination:
Patients seeking care must not be discriminated against on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, income, health status, education, geographic location, legal status or other similar factors.

We’re delighted to be a member of the WPA and are looking forward to being a part of this new and growing network of organisations.  You can find out more about the WPA by visiting their website or Facebook or Twitter pages

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LegendaryTalkShow
NewsYou're Sweet Enough

We Were on the Legendary Talk Show

On 16th Feb 2022, our Advocacy and Research Officer, Isalean Phillip, was the featured guest on the Legendary Talk Show on Nevis’ 2020 Vision Radio.

During this interview Isalean discussed NCDs, our You’re Sweet Enough campaign and many other interesting topics. 

If you missed this interview, you can listen to the recording by clicking on the picture below. 

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Tyrrell Williams
BlogYou're Sweet Enough

Dance Competition Prize Giving

As part of our You’re Sweet Enough campaign, we hosted a virtual dance competition and last week, we had a great time presenting the winners of the competition with their prizes.

It was so rewarding to not only see the excitement of all the children as they received their prizes but to also hear them singing our jingle and remembering the core message of our campaign.

We are very grateful to Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine for their generous donation of laptops, tablets, projects and watercoolers as prizes. The kids loved them! Additionally, we would like to thank the Curriculum Development Unit at the Ministry of Education for partnering with us for this fun and engaging campaign activity.

Congratulations to all our winners. You did a great job!.

Alcohol
Diet

No Amount of Alcohol is Good For Us

Many of us grew up with the notion that a small amount of red wine is good for the heart and can decrease our risk of developing heart disease, but a new policy brief published by the World Heart Federation  (WHF) has corrected this myth.

In their brief, the WHF highlights the mounting evidence that has led to the fairly recent conclusion by global health researchers and the World Health Organisation that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption; any level of alcohol consumption affects our health.  

In recent years, researchers have shown that alcohol consumption is linked to an increased risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, digestive diseases, and intentional and unintentional injuries and some communicable diseases. Additionally, consuming even small amounts of alcohol can increase our risk of stroke, heart failure, coronary disease and other cardiovascular diseases.

If alcohol is so harmful to our health, then how did many of us come to believe that alcohol is beneficial to the health of our heart? The WHF’s policy brief explains that over the past thirty years some researchers, the alcohol industry and the media have been aggressively promoting the misleading message that alcohol can prolong life by reducing our risk of cardiovascular disease, with them pushing that red wine, in particular, is a heart-healthy beverage because of its resveratrol content and other alcoholic beverages are heart-healthy because of their high-density lipoprotein ( HDL) content. The WHF policy brief explains that these claims have now been refuted with high-quality research that shows the many negative health outcomes of consuming any amount of alcohol.

As part of their policy brief the WHF is calling for stricter alcohol restrictions and are specifically recommending the following with regards to advocating for change:

  • Advocate for the adoption of WHO’s SAFER Guidelines
  • Call for strict regulation of alcohol products
  • Advocate for minimum pricing of alcohol products
  • Build capacity internally and among peers to promote cessation of alcohol use and abstinence from alcohol
  • Promote community, national, and global best practices and materials, such as the PAHO “Live better, drink less” campaign, and advocate for their uptake
  • Communicate evidence on the harms of alcohol use, including the clear messages that no level of alcohol is safe and alcohol consumption increases the risk of CVD
  • Prioritise alcohol control in national agendas for health and support policy coherence between health and other sectors
  • Facilitate screening for the use of alcohol and other substances as a part of risk mitigation during the health assessment of individuals visiting a health care centre
  • Set the example of non-collaboration with the alcohol industry and/or its public relations groups.

We applaud the WHF on publishing this policy brief and dispelling a very pervasive and harmful myth about alcohol. We hope that everyone – policymakers and the public- acts on this information and works towards eliminating the consumption of alcohol.  From our point of view, we encourage  healthy drinking and recommend that everyone select water as their drink of choice and both reduce their sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and abstain from alcohol.

For more information, you can read the WHF policy brief here  and you can find out about our healthy drinking campaign, You’re Sweet Enough here.

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News

We Welcome Two New Board Members

We are delighted to welcome two new members to our board of directors, Dr Fanta Waterman and Ms Michelle Sutton. Both bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the public health and health education fields and will be an asset to our NGO as we continue our work to improve the health and wellbeing of our local, regional and online community.

 

About Dr Fanta Waterman

Fanta Waterman PhD, MPH is an award-winning researcher who is passionate about making health literacy achievable for everyone and investigating opportunities to improve the health and quality of life of underserved populations. Dr Waterman is currently the Founder and Managing Director of Serrette Brown Research and Consulting, a health research consultancy service. 

Launching her career in Public Health Systems and Services Research (PHSSR), Dr. Waterman has held positions in local government agencies, consulting firms, non-profits, large manufacturers, and start-ups.

 

With numerous publications, Dr. Waterman is also a seasoned lecturer, having taught as an adjunct Associate Professor within the City University of New York from 2008 to 2013.

Dr. Waterman was born to Trinidadian and Gullah (South Carolina, US) parents and grew up in Harlem, NYC. Her favorite foods are callaloo (with crab!) and macaroni pie.

About Michelle Sutton

Michelle earned her Bachelor of Physical and Health Education with further graduate studies in Health Education and certification in Holistic Nutrition. Michelle is currently the Ministry of Education’s Health and Wellness Curriculum Coordinator, where she feels  she can support the development of a strong foundation in health and wellness for children and young people. Michelle is also a Registered Massage Therapist and has been involved in health and wellness all her life.

We are delighted to have them on board and look forward to working with them over the coming years.

DrinkWaterMindBusiness
BlogDietYou're Sweet Enough

The Role of Artists in Promoting Healthy Habits

On 1st January 2022, popular soca artist Patrice Roberts released the video for her new song, Mind Your Business. We listened with great interest when the song started and we heard the catchy chorus of ‘Drink Water and Mind Your Business’ and thought with pleasant surprise: ‘Wow! Now that’s different!’

For us, this song was well-timed because, for the past year, we have been running a public health campaign entitled ‘You’re Sweet Enough.’ This campaign aims to educate the public about the health impact of consuming too many sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) as research has shown that the overconsumption of these types of beverages is linked to weight gain, obesity and the development of non-communicable diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and hypertension.

A major part of our campaign focuses on encouraging the public to reduce their SSB consumption and to drink water instead. And, in order to encourage this behaviour change, we have explored various avenues including composing a catchy jingle, utilising animation, hosting public engagement events and advocating for evidence-based health policies that have been shown to be effective at reducing the public’s consumption of SSBs; policies such as an SSB tax, restricting the sale and marketing of SSBs in and around schools and front of package warning labels. Whilst this all-encompassing approach is making a difference, we are competing with the high volume of marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages, and there is a need to see how these messages can be balanced with more healthy lifestyle messages in mainstream media. In the Caribbean region, one way to do this is to use music to reach a wide audience as music, particularly soca music, is ingrained in our culture.  

Therefore, through our jingle, we worked with local artist Dejour, who provided the vocals for our jingle, to help amplify our campaign message in a fun and engaging way. Through music, we were able to reach all age groups and genders, and we were able to extend the message further through dance. In essence, we were able to link a positive health message to ‘coolness’ and,  through our ‘catchy’ jingle, the healthy drinking message of our campaign was remembered by our audience with members of the public anecdotally reporting that they remembered the jingle when they were making beverage purchases or they sang the jingle to their children to encourage them to select water.

In order to build on this success, we need more positive health messages in the mainstream that amplify our healthy drinking message. Enter: ‘Drink Water and Mind You Business’ by Patrice Roberts.

As mentioned previously, we were very surprised, and pleasantly so, by Patrice Roberts’ new song. We were surprised because, historically, when we explore the messages of mainstream music, when it comes to lifestyle habits, the messages predominantly promote unhealthy behaviours. Specifically, when we look at drinking messages in music, many songs promote the consumption, and most times, the overconsumption of alcohol.  For example, a study conducted by the Boston School of Public Health reviewed 720 songs from Billboard Magazine’s year-end charts from 2009 to 2011 and found that 23% of songs mentioned alcohol and that urban music (rap, hip hop and R&B – the genres of music that we are more likely to listen to in the Caribbean) had the highest percentage of alcohol mentions, with 38% of these songs referencing alcohol. Additionally, when looking at Caribbean music, a Guyanese study reported that 37% of Guyanese chutney songs contain references to alcohol. Music is a powerful influential tool and research has shown that songs containing references to alcohol have a direct impact on the public’s alcohol consumption.

With this being said, we can see that music artists have an important role to play when it comes to promoting healthy habits. Through responsible songwriting and music video creation, they can positively influence the behaviour of their fans and improve their health and wellbeing.  Let’s take a look at Patrice Roberts’ new song as an example. Since 1st January 2022, this song has garnered almost half a million views on YouTube and since this time Patrice Roberts has been encouraging her fans to drink water and stay hydrated.

Patrice Roberts’ fans, in turn,  have responded positively and have stated that, indeed, they too will be drinking more water this year in direct response to this new song.

“Imma sit back, drink water And mind my business!!”

 “For de New Year I gon drink water and mind my business.”

“Water is life…..drinking water and minding my business.” 

“Water (check), minding my business (been doing that all my life). Sounds about right to me. Great song!”

It’s early days and this isn’t too scientific, but we can see from a quick perusal of Patrice Roberts’ social media platforms that the song has had a large reach, has acted as a reminder to her fans to select water as their drink of choice this year and has created an intention amongst her fans to drink more water.

As the year progresses, we hope that more artists will make the decision to promote healthy habits amongst their fan base as for too long the music industry has glamourised negative behaviour.

References

 

  1. Engels RC, Slettenhaar G, ter Bogt T, Scholte RH. Effect of alcohol references in music on alcohol consumption in public drinking places. Am J Addict. 2011 Nov-Dec;20(6):530-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1521-0391.2011.00182.x. PMID: 21999498.
  1. Sanchara N (2016). The glamorization of alcohol in contemporary Guyanese Chutney Music. Accessed on 12th January 2022 from http://guyfolkfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Nadine-Sanchara-Glamorization-of-Alcohol-in-Contempoary-Guyanese-Chutney-Music.pdf  
  1. Siegel M, Johnson RM, Tyagi K, Power K, Lohsen MC, Ayers AJ, Jernigan DH. Alcohol brand references in U.S. popular music, 2009-2011. Subst Use Misuse. 2013 Dec;48(14):1475-84. doi: 10.3109/10826084.2013.793716. Epub 2013 Aug 23. PMID: 23971875; PMCID: PMC3830686.

 

ChristmasInYaKitchen
DietYou're Sweet Enough

Christmas Health Tips

We were delighted to join the In Ya Kitchen team, and members of the St Kitts Health Promotion Unit and Nevis School Meals Programme to share a few health tips to brighten the holidays. Check out this fun, informative video below. 

BudgetCover
Health Policy

Health Minister announces SSB Policy for 2022

During national budget presentations in the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly on December 15, 2021, Hon. Akilah Byron-Nisbett, Minister of Health et al. announced that the implementation of a Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Policy is on the agenda for 2022. 

In her presentation, the Minister of Health listed a few initiatives that the government intends to undertake as part of plans for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the new fiscal year. Plans include the reactivation of the local NCD Commission, the implementation of the national SSB Policy and a Tobacco Control Act. 

The Minister reported that improvements have been made in reducing the incidences and impact of NCDs in the federation. She notes that “epidemiological statistics have revealed that over the period 2015 to 2020…the number of deaths associated with diabetes and high blood pressure are notably trending downwards”.  The average mortality data for NCD related deaths is reported to have decreased from 83% to 63% within the stated period.  

View and listen to the excerpt clip below broadcasting the Minister of Health’s budget presentation on all plans to combat NCDs as part of the 2022 public health agenda.

Web Dance-Flyer–winners-V5
BlogYou're Sweet Enough

Dance Competition Winners

On 4th December 2021, we hosted a virtual event to announce the winners of the You’re Sweet Enough School Dance Competition.

This competition was a collaboration with the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education in St. Kitts, and participants had to learn the official You’re Sweet Enough dance, record themselves performing the dance to the You’re Sweet Enough jingle and then upload the recording to the competition’s webpage for a public vote.

We were absolutely delighted with the engagement from schools. We received 28 entries and were so impressed with the creativity, video editing and enthusiasm of all those who entered the competition. Additionally, they were very effective at communicating the message of the jingle of encouraging everyone to reduce their sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and to drink water instead. 

The winners of the competition are listed below and you can watch a recording of our short winners’ announcement event below too.