Yesterday, we were delighted to attend the St Kitts World Cancer Day Luncheon. This was an event organised as a celebration of hope to honour the lives of cancer survivors in St Kitts and Nevis. The event was organised by the Health Promotion Unit at the Ministry of Health with support from Lake Health and Wellbeing and the Department of Youth Empowerment.

The event featured talks from high-profile guests including the Minister of State with responsibility for Health, Social and Community Services and Gender Affairs, Minister Wendy Phipps and Chief Medical Officer Dr Hazel Laws.

We also heard from cancer survivors who shared their experience very powerfully through poetry and testimonies. Carla Astaphan recited her poem Left Breastie which she wrote shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and Agness Farell spoke of her experience of being diagnosed in 1998, she recounted her ups and downs and the formation of her support group Reach for Recovery.

In addition to these presentations, the Coordinator of Community Nursing Services, Nurse Eulynis Brown gave a very informative overview of cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine which will soon be introduced in St Kitts and encouraged attendees to support the Ministry in its roll-out as it’s a very effective method of preventing cervical cancer.

The highlight of the event was the presentation made to the longest living, oldest and youngest cancer survivors. It was moving to see the longest living cancer survivor being recognised, she was diagnosed 21 years ago and faced both breast and lung cancer. Despite all her challenges, now at the age of 82, she is so positive, happy and full of life; a true hero and inspiration to us all.

This was a positive and uplifting event which demonstrated the strength of the human spirit and we were honoured to have attended and been asked to deliver the vote of thanks.

Today is World Cancer Day, a day that gives the entire world the opportunity to come together to show solidarity on an issue that pretty much touches everybody – whether that be directly or indirectly through a family member, friend or colleague who has been diagnosed. The day aims to be a positive day with the focus being on empowerment, celebrating the lives of those who have been diagnosed and highlighting that everyone has a part to play in fighting cancer.

The theme for today is “We can. I can.” and is part of a three-year campaign exploring how everyone can contribute to reducing the global burden of cancer.  Organisers of World Cancer Day, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), have developed a set of key messages that show exactly how everyone, as a collective or as  an individual, can play a role in reducing the impact of cancer. These messages are:

We Can:

• Inspire action, take action
• Prevent cancer
• Create healthy schools
• Create healthy workplaces
• Create healthy cities
• Support others to return to work
• Challenge perceptions
• Improve access to cancer care
• Shape policy
• Build a quality workforce
• Make the case for investing in cancer control
• Join forces to make a difference

I Can:

• Make healthy choices
• Understand that early detection saves lives
• Ask for support
• Return to work
• Take control of my cancer journey
• Love and be loved
• Make my voice heard

The aim of these messages is to reduce the millions of preventable cancer deaths that sadly take place throughout the world each year by giving everyone clear information and pushing governments to make cancer a priority.

World Cancer Day in St Kitts.

As you may know, we are now based in St Kitts, and for World Cancer Day we are delighted to have partnered with the Health Promotion Team at the Ministry of Health to take the key messages of World Cancer Day out in the community.

We started with a social media campaign using the wonderful resources developed by the UICC and of course the #WeCanICan theme but added #SKNCan (i.e. St Kitts and Nevis Can) to raise awareness of what residents of St Kitts and Nevis can do to reduce their cancer risk.

As part of our social media activity we took the messages (physically, on selfie cards!) to the streets of Basseterre and asked members of the public, businesses and government departments what messages resonated with them and did they feel they might consider taking forward to do their part in beating cancer. We then took pictures of people holding the selfie cards with the message that best represented what people thought would be most effective and these were used to raise awareness last week, in the run-up to World Cancer Day.

This was a great way to raise awareness in the community, it was fun and a bit light-hearted, but still got important messages across to the public whilst creating some teachable moments as people asked questions about what they could do specifically to prevent cancer.

We’re also in the process of organising a cancer awareness lunch to be held on 11^th February where we’ll be celebrating survivors, providing information on what the public can do to reduce their risk of developing cancer and promoting early detection through awareness of signs and symptoms and seeking help promptly.

You Can Get Involved

There is still time to get involved in this campaign.

You can visit the World Cancer Day’s website, download a selfie card, take a picture and post it on social media to show what you can do to help in the fight against cancer. Don’t forget to include the hashtags #WorldCancerDay, #WCD2018 and #WeCanICan. If you’re in St Kitts and Nevis, then go ahead and add #SKNCan.

For all the St Kitts residents out there, you can attend our cancer awareness lunch next Sunday. Stay tuned to our events page for all the details!

Welcome to our first ‘Inspirational People in Healthcare’ piece of 2018.

Today we are delighted to feature Dr Busayo Mobolaji-Lawal and Dr Tunrayo Mobolaji-Lawal, sisters who are still early in their medical careers but making a huge difference to their patients and community.

Dr Busayo Araoye (Nee Mobolaji-Lawal)

Dr Busayo Araoye obtained a BSc in Biological Science from the University of Ghana, studied medicine at the University of Ghana School of Medicine and Dentistry and is currently an Internal Medicine Resident at St Vincent’s Medical Centre in Connecticut.

While studying Busayo gained valuable experience as an Internal Medicine Exchange Student at Hospital Clinico Universitario Lozano Blesa in Spain and as a post-graduate intern in Internal Medicine at the St Nicholas Hospital in Nigeria.

Her desire to become an Internal Medicine doctor who serves not just her patients but her community as a whole was shaped during her clerkship. Of that experience she says:

“I encountered the most medically and socially complex patients. I gained exposure to patients from diverse cultural and financial backgrounds which helped me develop a sense of compassion, empathy and humility. It also broadened my perspective of health care accessibility and it awoke in me the urge to advocate for my patients and my community.”

She also has research experience having been an integral part of teams exploring: the quality of life of caregivers at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana; the different types of cervical cancer diagnosed at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria; stroke and cocaine use; and antibiotic resistance.

Her case presentation on antibiotic resistance was recognised at the American College of Physician’s regional conference in 2017 where she was a semi-finalist in their abstract presentation competition in Connecticut.

Through a range of voluntary work Dr Araoye has counselled communities on healthy lifestyle practices, engaged in free health screening and played an instrumental role during a cholera outbreak in Ghana. She was also an Electoral Member of the University of Ghana International Medical Students’ Association and a mentor to many being an inspirational and effective role model to young students with an interest in medicine.

We applaud Dr Araoye for the difference she has already made and look forward to seeing her continued success and future achievements as she progresses in her career.

Dr Tunrayo Mobolaji-Lawal

Dr Tunrayo Mobolaji-Lawal graduated Summa Cum Laude (with highest distinction) from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a BSc. in Biochemistry in 2011. She then studied medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine graduating in May 2017 and is currently an Emergency Medicine Resident at Yale New Haven Health.

In preparation for pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine Dr Mobolaji-Lawal held a number of shadowing and voluntary positions. As a sophomore in college she gained experience in the Emergency Department of Stony Brook University Medical Centre. This experience shaped her view of medicine and the type of doctor that she wanted to be, one who puts her patient’s first. Her third year clerkship was at the Cleveland Clinic Emergency Department, of that she said:

“Every hour brought in something new to the ED. The diversity of clinical encounters – unique patients with varying disease processes, range of illness severity and assortment of procedures – further attracted me to Emergency Medicine.”

Whilst performing chest compressions on a seriously ill patient as an Acting Intern at The Metro Health System Emergency Department  she realised that she was exactly where she wanted to be (involved in patient care and making a difference)and this solidified her passion for Emergency Medicine.

Dr Mobolaji-Lawal is also passionate about addressing health inequalities and ensuring that medically under-served communities are able to access healthcare services. To that end, through her voluntary work she has provided healthcare and screening services to deprived communities.

Throughout her academic life she excelled being awarded the SUNY’s Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, which recognises the integration of academic excellence with accomplishments in the areas of leadership, athletics, community service, creative and performing arts, campus involvement or career achievement. She was also awarded the Provost’s Award for Academic Excellence, an award given annually to a very select number of students who have shown true academic excellence, not just in the classroom but in research, creative activities or in building an academic community. Additionally she was awarded the Andrea Roher Scholarship which is awarded to an undergraduate student dedicated to the field of Health and Wellness. Finally Dr Mobolaji-Lawal was the recipient of the Bernadine P. Healy and Floyd D. Loops Scholarship and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine Full Tuition Scholarship.

Additionally, Dr Mobolaji-Lawal was the president of the Minority Health Interest Group at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College, held a number of positions representing her Medical School and was involved in teaching and tutoring students.

We look forward to seeing Dr Mobolaji-Lawal excel as an Emergency Doctor and wish her every success with her career.

Today’s blog is the second in our gardening and health blog series. We hear from Abi Begho who discusses what motivated her to set up her backyard vegetable garden and how she got started.

I’ve never been a huge fan of gardening, in fact gardening never really entered into my thoughts until recently. There has been a lot of change in my life with my husband and I moving from the UK to the Caribbean. We moved for many reasons with the main reasons being to improve our quality of life, escape the city where everything is so fast-paced and to get back to what is really important  – fulfilling our purpose in life and having a positive impact on the world around us.

As we planned our move the idea of being sustainable and self-sufficient appealed to us – we’re going to have the space so why not try growing all our fruits and vegetables? I liked the idea of it, but in my mind I thought: this is going to be a chore and a lot of work, and I really don’t know where to start.

Getting Started

Once we moved I turned to my trusty friend, YouTube, and started exploring how to start a vegetable garden and there was so much useful advice.

I focused on fruits and vegetables that we eat already  (tomatoes, okras, peppers, onions, broccoli etc.) and read up on how to grow these from seeds, but also consulted with my brother-in-law who is working on his PhD in agricultural economics.

My research was really eye-opening and highlighted just how much I didn’t know about the food we eat and where it comes from – who knew that okra actually starts its life as a beautiful flower and this flower turns into an okra pod ? Amazing!

Armed with videos, information and lots of advice, I began. My first project was tomatoes. I literally just sliced up a tomato, making sure each of the slices had seeds in them and buried the slices in soil – a very simple tip I picked up from YouTube. I have to admit I was extremely skeptical – can I really grow tomato plants from these slices buried in a bit of soil? Well, to my surprise, less than a week later the seeds in the slices had germinated and I had the cutest little tomato seedlings growing happily in my container. That was towards the end of October and as I type I have nine tomato plants that are over a foot tall with 23 little green tomatoes  developing and two huge green tomatoes which look  like they’re ready to turn red any day now –  great results! I am so proud and feel a huge sense of accomplishment that I have made such significant progress in growing my tomato plants from seeds.

So far, I have to say, I absolutely LOVE gardening. I have found it to be extremely relaxing, I wake up early every morning and spend some quiet time in the garden with my vegetables (that sounds a bit creepy, I know!).  My surroundings are beautiful, the weather is great and the plants look like they develop a bit more every day, which I find really fascinating. It’s nice starting the day with the peace and tranquillity of engaging with nature and I now truly appreciate the beauty of God’s creation.

Oh, and let’s not  forget that gardening is actually hard work so I do get some serious exercise, particularly when I am creating the vegetable beds –  I have to do a lot of digging, weeding and  raking . You won’t believe how much weight I’ve lost since I started gardening, I can hardly believe it myself.

In my next blog…

My gardening journey has just started and in my next few blog posts I’ll share my experience until I hopefully get some produce (how exciting!). I’ll also share the health benefits of what I am growing, what I have learnt and the dishes I make from the vegetables I have grown – it may just inspire you to grow your own fruits and vegetables too.

Next time I’ll be discussing my lovely tomatoes and giving you an update on their growth.

See you in the next blog and happy gardening!

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If you missed the first blog post in this series, you can read it here to find out more about the health benefits of gardening – there are many!

The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a method used throughout the world to determine whether a person is at a healthy weight for their height. It is calculated by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height giving a value that is expressed in kg/m². It tends to be used as a measure of a person’s total body fat.

People are assigned to one of four BMI categories (shown below) which helps to identify whether they are overweight or obese.

• Underweight – less than 18.5
• Normal weight – 18.5 to 24.9
• Overweight – 25 to 30
• Obese – 30  and over

It has been a useful, easy method of exploring weight and body fat, but its limitations are well known. Criticisms of it include:

• It doesn’t take into account factors such as age, sex and ethnicity
• It doesn’t look at the type of fat a person has
• It doesn’t differentiate between excess fat, muscle mass or bone mass

This means that the BMI may overestimate the amount of body fat athletes and body builders possess and underestimate harmful body fat in people who have a normal BMI.

Children and BMI

When looking at children, a different scale is used that takes into account the fact that children are constantly growing, and that boys and girls develop differently, so the BMI scale for children takes into account age and sex.

Researchers in the UK have found that the scale for children doesn’t accurately reflect the obesity levels in black and Asian children living in the UK. This is a problem as we can’t accurately identify children who will be at higher risk of health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease later in life.

Research into Children, BMI and Ethnicity

Researchers in St Georges and University College London, funded by the British Heart Foundation started work in this area a few years ago and published their work in March 2017.

Having identified that BMI may not be providing accurate measurements for ethnic minority children they sought to develop a method to adjust BMI values based on ethnicity.

In order to create the BMI adjustments they had to go back to basics and look at the actual body fat measurements of children. They identified 1,728 children aged 4 to 12 years old. They then explored the relationship between  BMI and body fat in each ethnic group (White European, Black African and South Asian). Using this data they were able to calculate the BMI adjustment needed for each ethnic group.

From their work they were able to confirm that BMI underestimated body fat levels in South Asians and overestimated body fat levels in Black Africans.

Based on their findings the research team developed a BMI calculator for children with an adjustment for ethnicity. Parents, teachers and healthcare professionals can use this simple tool to obtain accurate BMI readings for black and Asian children.

The research team followed up this work with research that they published in November 2017. This was a larger piece of work to explore the extent of the problem of using BMI in assessing the body fat of children.

They used data from the National Institute of Health Research’s National Child Measurement Programme.  Every year this programme assesses the weight of children in the UK who are aged 4-5 years old and 10-11, and attend a state-funded primary school.

The research team applied their new BMI adjustment to the weight measurements for children weighed between 2012 and 2013. This included 583,899 children aged 4-5 years old and 485,362 children aged 10-11. Their findings are summarised in the tables below.

Percentage of boys who were overweight or obese

Ethnicity	% Overweight and Obese
	Without Ethnicity Adjustment		With Ethnicity Adjustment
	4-5 years old	10-11 years old	4-5  years old	10-11 years old
Black African	31%	42%	11%	32%
South Asian	19%	42%	39%	52%
White European	23%	33%	–	–

Percentage of girls who were overweight or obese

Ethnicity	% Overweight and Obese
	Without Ethnicity Adjustment		With Ethnicity Adjustment
	4-5 years old	10-11 years old	4-5  years old	10-11 years old
Black African	29%	45%	12%	35%
South Asian	19%	34%	35%	44%
White European	21%	30%	–	–

Their results showed that the BMI overestimated the percentage of black children who were overweight or obese by 10-20% (depending on age and sex) so a significant number of black children are being misclassified in the government’s national weight assessment programme.

They concluded that BMI does not accurately reflect body fat in ethnic minorities and by using adjustments a more accurate measurement of the body fat can be determined.

Our Thoughts

This body of work highlighted the gaps that exist in medical research and the problem of using one ethnic group as a standard for health. This work clearly shows the need to explore ethnicity and health, it demonstrates that by not taking race and ethnicity into account key differences are being masked and we therefore don’t have a true picture of the health of our community.

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Sources

1. Body mass index adjustments to increase the validity of body fatness assessment in UK Black African and South Asian children (22^nd March 2017)
2. Patterns of childhood body mass index (BMI), overweight and obesity in South Asian and black participants in the English National child measurement programme: Effect of applying BMI adjustments standardizing for ethnic differences in BMI-body fatness associations (2^nd November 2017)
3. New BMI readings for children of different ethnicities (March 2017)
4. BMI Adjust (March 2017)
5. Body Mass Index Considerations for Practitioners
6. Body Mass Index Advantages and Disadvantages (July 2017)
7. BMI failing to reflect childhood obesity levels in ethnic minorities (Nov 2017)
8. Children from ethnic minorities may have been wrongly labelled obese, according to new research (Nov 2017)

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2018!

We are seriously looking forward to the new year. For us there will be lots of change which is really exciting, a great opportunity for growth, learning and development.

New Location

In our previous blog we mentioned that throughout 2017 we slowly wound down our projects and activities in the UK as we prepared for our big move. We’re now based in the beautiful island of St Kitts and are exploring how our organisation can make a useful contribution to improving the health and well-being of the citizens of St Kitts and Nevis, and the wider Caribbean community too.

St Kitts and the Caribbean have similar health challenges to the African and African-Caribbean community in the UK – high rates of diabetes, obesity (including very high rates of childhood obesity),  some types of cancer (prostate cancer), heart disease and other non-communicable diseases. In addition, there is the issue of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever, Zika and chikungunya. We’re looking forward to seeing how we can support efforts to tackle these health issues by promoting prevention and early detection.

New Name

In just a few weeks’ time we’ll be known as Lake Health and Wellbeing. Whilst we’ll have a new name our mission remains the same: to improve the health and well-being of the black community. We’re almost there, our new logo has been designed, which we love, and we just have a few other logistical issues to iron out with the name change. At this juncture we’d like to say a BIG thank you to FutureSoft for the design of our new logo.

Some of our plans

As well as focusing on the Caribbean we won’t be turning our back on the UK. We’ll continue to support the black community in the UK from afar by providing health information through our blog, social media channels and Learning Zone, as well as teaming up with UK-based organisations like OH Services and Noire Wellness.

We’ll continue offering support  and information to women in the UK (and globally) affected by fibroids through our Fibroids Ask the Expert and fibroids Twitter chats. We’ll also be updating our fibroids booklet and creating a fibroids fact sheet series .  Our first two fact sheets should be launched by the end of January or in early February.  We’re delighted to have teamed up with OH Services to develop one of these fact sheets, Fibroids and your emotional well-being. This fact sheet will aim to help women identify, understand and address the emotions that may be associated with having fibroids. The second fact sheet we’ll be launching will be on exercise and fibroids. In this fact sheet we’ll discuss how exercise can help with improving symptoms and provide readers with simple tips on how to get active without aggravating their current symptoms.

Over the rest of the year our plan is to publish at least three additional fact sheets on:

• Diet and fibroids
• Fibroids and fertility
• Treatment options.

We’re also excited to be exploring the possibility of hosting a fibroids wellness retreat in St Kitts in collaboration with Noire Wellness. We’ll do an assessment and if there is interest, and this is feasible, then look out for an empowering event designed specifically for women with fibroids. If you’ve been affected by fibroids we’d be so grateful if you could complete our survey to help us with our assessment of the need for this type of event. You can complete the survey here.

Have a great year folks

We hope you have a wonderful year and hope you’ll take this journey of transformation with us in 2018. It’s going to be fun and we look forward to working with you, supporting you and serving you in the year ahead.

The late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti was a world-renowned paediatrician, health campaigner and a prominent figure in global health for many decades.

Professor Ransome-Kuti was born in Nigeria and studied medicine at Trinity College in Dublin from 1948 – 1954. He returned to Nigeria to practice medicine after his studies and then in 1960 he travelled back to the UK to begin his postgraduate training in paediatrics.  After his postgraduate training he once again returned to the country of his birth becoming professor and head of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Lagos; in 1978, he became their first professor of primary care.

In 1968 he set up an experimental family health clinic which led to the establishment of the Institute of Child Health and Primary Care at the College of Medicine at the University of Lagos. In 1976 he became the director of the National Basic Health Services Scheme Implementation Agency for Nigeria and was involved in a first attempt to set up a national health system for Nigeria.

While lecturing at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Professor Ransome-Kuti impressed Ibrahim Babangida and when Babangida came into power in 1985 he appointed Professor Ransome-Kuti as Nigeria’s health minister.  Professor Ransome-Kuti held this position from 1985 to 1992 and he has been described as the “best Minister of Health Nigeria ever had.”

During his tenure as the Minister of Health he made a significant difference to the healthcare landscape in Nigeria – national health policy was further developed and then implemented, relationships between sectors was strengthened and  healthcare coverage across Nigeria increased significantly. He also made a huge difference in tackling the stigma around HIV/AIDS and his efforts at fighting the emerging epidemic was described as “heroic.” He had a busy period as Health Minister with many other achievements including overseeing a successful anti-smoking campaign which led to manufacturers adding warnings to their products.

After leaving his cabinet position in 1992, he became the chairman of WHO’s Executive Board and in 1994 he was appointed chair of the World Bank’s Better Health for Africa Panel where he championed the idea of primary healthcare to other African countries producing a blueprint for all countries to follow.

Professor Ransome-Kuti received numerous awards including the WHO Leon Bernard Award in 1986, an award that recognises a person for outstanding service in the field of social medicine. In 1990 he won the UNICEF Maurice Pate Award in recognition of his work in improving the health and welfare of children. He published many medical papers and held numerous teaching positions including a visiting professorship  at Johns Hopkins University’s school of hygiene and public health in Baltimore.

He was an effective campaigner speaking out against corruption and defending democracy and the rights of poor Africans. Campaigning and fighting for those who didn’t have a voice was something he was passionate about and seemed to run in his family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was a women’s rights campaigner and was part of the team that negotiated Nigeria’s independence with the British. Whilst his brother was Fela Kuti the well-known musician, singer,  father of Afrobeat, human rights campaigner and political activist and his cousin Wole Soyinka is the Nobel Laureate, playwright, poet and political activist. 

Professor Ransome-Kuti was not only a brilliant man, but a nice person with his friends and colleagues describing him as a kind, caring, wise, gentle, humorous  and a direct individual. He was a family man and doting father being married to his wife Sonia Ransome-Kuti for 50 years and having three children – Dr Dotun Ransome-Kuti (Veterinary Doctor) , Dr Gboyega Ransome-Kuti (Medical Doctor) and  Bisoye Ransome-Kuti (Lawyer)

Professor Ransome-Kuti sadly died unexpectedly in 2003 from a pulmonary embolism whilst attending a WHO conference in London. He is greatly missed and his legacy lives on in Nigeria.

As the year draws to an end we just wanted to say a big thank you to you all for all your support this year. We really appreciate it. It has been wonderful working with you, serving you and in some cases having great discussions on how we can work together to achieve our aim of improving the health and wellbeing of the black community.

It’s been an interesting year for us as we wound down our activities in the UK in preparation for our relocation to another country.

As we wound down we did feel a sense of sadness as we have gained so much momentum in the UK over the past couple of years particularly with the work we’ve been doing around fibroids, getting the black community active through cycling, working with Diabetes UK to reach the black community in Croydon and providing support to African Caribbean cancer patients, but change is inevitable.

We’re now based in the beautiful island of St Kitts and are exploring how our organisation can fit into the Public Health landscape over here in the Caribbean.  We look forward to serving not just the Caribbean community but continuing to support the black community in the UK from afar through the wonders of technology.

We’ll still be offering support to women in the UK affected by fibroids through our Fibroids Ask the Expert and will be growing the membership of our expert panel to better serve you. We’ll also be  updating our fibroids booklet and creating a fibroids fact sheet series based on the topics that you’ve told us are important to you and we’re excited to be exploring the possibility of hosting a fibroids wellness retreat in collaboration with Noire Wellness.

Over the next few months look out for more changes. With our move to the Caribbean comes a change of name. From early next year our organisation will be known as Lake Health and Wellbeing, whilst we’ll have a new name our mission remains the same: to improve the health and wellbeing of the black community.

It’s exciting times for us and we’re really looking forward to the year ahead.

Once again, thank you for your support thus far and we look forward to connecting with you throughout 2018.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and a wonderful, peaceful, successful and healthy 2018.

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.

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.