Every year, on 14^th November, the world comes together to recognise World Diabetes Day.  Created by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organisation in 1991 to address the escalating threat that diabetes poses, this is a day that aims to raise awareness by reaching a global audience. This year’s theme is: ‘Women and Diabetes – Our Right to a Healthy Future.’  ‘Why the focus on women?’  You may ask. The stats say it all.

Women and Diabetes

Currently there are over 199 million women living with diabetes throughout the world and research suggests that this could rise to a staggering 313 million women by 2040. Diabetes is the ninth leading cause of death in women with 2.1 million deaths per year being due to this condition.  Forty per cent of women with diabetes, around 60 million women, are of reproductive age. The complication here is that women with diabetes are more likely to have fertility problems and without access to pre-conception planning there is a higher risk of death and illness for both mother and child during pregnancy.

Additionally, one in seven pregnant women develop gestational diabetes. This is a type of diabetes that only develops during pregnancy. If it is not managed properly it can negatively affect both the expectant mother‘s and baby’s health.  In most cases, after pregnancy, gestational diabetes resolves on its own, but the mother is then at a higher risk of developing type two diabetes.

Finally, women with type 2 diabetes are ten times more likely to have coronary heart disease than  women who don’t have diabetes.

Due to these facts and figures there is a need to focus on women, raise awareness and ensure that health services are equipped to address the specific needs of women with regards to diabetes.

Black Women and Diabetes

Black women are at a significantly higher risk of developing diabetes than their white counterparts. In the US, diabetes affects 25% of black women in the 55 and over age group and it is the fourth leading cause of death in black American women of all ages.

Black women in the UK are also at increased risk of developing diabetes  and diabetes rates in the Caribbean and Africa are also high.

It is thought that the increased risk in black women is due to multiple factors including genetics and black women being more likely to have high blood pressure,  to be obese and be physically inactive.

What Can We Do?

Diabetes can be prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle. We should endeavour to:

• Maintain a healthy weight
• Eat a healthy diet
• Get active: it doesn’t have to be structured exercise, just anything that increases your heart rate such as gardening, brisk walking, dancing, cycling, playing with the kids

Let’s all spread the word about the prevention of diabetes so that we can stop more women, especially black women, from developing this condition.

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References

International Diabetes Federation

American Diabetes Association. Diabetes in African American Communities Advocacy Fact Sheet.

We are delighted to announce our next fibroids Twitter chat will be on  Wednesday  29th  November 2017 from 7pm-8pm (UK time). We will be joined by special guest Imani Sorhaindo with host, our own Abi Begho, founder of The Lake Foundation.

Imani Sorhaindo is a teacher, Curriculum Manager, Life Coach and Facilitator of the Ipswich Black Sisters Fibroid and Womb-Wellness Support Group.

Imani has been working as a community development worker for the upliftment of the African community for over 28 years.

Imani has her own personal life experience of working towards shrinking fibroids, and eradicating stress and toxicity through a range of life-changing techniques and lifestyle living including breathing, meditation and energy balancing.

Over the past 13 years she has been researching the world of women’s health; particularly around fibroids and healing. The Black sister’s fibroid group which she runs in Suffolk has been running for its first year; with pleasing results. She has recently delivered a short lecture at the Black History Walks Nzingha Lectures in London.

Imani is also half-way through writing her book around the theme ‘Holistic approaches towards the elimination of fibroids. In 2018, Imani will be hosting her first Fibroids conference in the Caribbean island of Dominica.

This Twitter chat has been organised to allow for an in-depth discussion with Imani on her personal experience with fibroids, her work facilitating the Ipswich Black Sisters Fibroids and Womb-Wellness Support Group, her upcoming book on holistic approaches to fibroids and her first fibroids conference in Dominica.

We’ll be putting questions to Imani 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.

We look forward to tweeting with you!

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition published an excellent report on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and trade policy in the Caribbean. This briefing document discusses how trade policies affect the public’s health and what needs to be done to ensure that policies have a positive effect on the health of countries’ citizens.

The report clearly explains, with examples, how specific policies can influence our health. For example, low taxes on items like sugary drinks, alcohol, tobacco and processed foods lowers their cost enticing the public to purchase them. The consumption of these items, over time, increases our risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as  type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. The report details how policies like this in the Caribbean have had a detrimental effect with families shifting from a traditional plant-based, home-made diet to a processed, meat-based diet.

The report states that the Caribbean shockingly has the highest mortality due to NCDs in the Americas,  the Caribbean has some of the highest rates of obesity and there are significant levels of tobacco use and binge drinking.  There is an urgent need to address these issues and exploring trade policies is just one strategy that can be introduced to improve the public’s health.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s report explores policies around three main areas:

• Unhealthy/healthy food
• Alcohol
• Cigarettes

These recommendations are based on global approaches such as the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, the WHO strategy to reduce alcohol consumption and the ICN2 Framework for Action. The HCC’s recommendations for the Caribbean are illustrated below.

This report was an excellent, comprehensive, clear and informative report that gives concrete actions that can be taken to tackle NCDs through policy changes.

You can download the report below.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition in collaboration with the NCD Alliance have released an  action plan for preventing childhood obesity in the Caribbean. This action plan is based on a number of frameworks developed by organisations around the world to ensure consistency. The plan aims to foster a collaborative approach to tackling childhood obesity with recommendations for civil society working in partnership with governments and the private sector.

This action plan is of utmost importance as a third of children in the Caribbean are overweight or obese. Children who are overweight or obese are at an increased risk of being overweight or obese adults and of developing a non-communicable disease (NCD) later in life.

The Priorities of the Plan

Rates of childhood obesity are increasing in the Caribbean; this needs to be addressed to improve the health of the Caribbean community. If left unchecked the Caribbean will see a huge increase in NCDs leading to avoidable ill-health and premature death. The Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s action plan aims to address this. Their plan focuses on seven priority areas. These include:

Trade and fiscal policies e.g. taxation of unhealthy food

Nutrition literacy e.g. mandatory front-of-package nutrition labelling

Early childhood nutrition e.g. interventions related to breastfeeding and complementary foods

Marketing of healthy and unhealthy foods and drinks e.g. banning of marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks to children

School and community based interventions e.g. mandatory physical activity in schools  

Resource mobilisation for interventions addressing childhood obesity

Strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation: e.g monitoring progress through the use of the CSO Childhood Obesity Prevention Scorecard

Next Steps

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition team, based in Barbados, will take the lead on implementing this action plan and will form a regional Steering Committee with members coming from the around the Caribbean representing the private sector, government and civil society organisations. They will also form a civil society organisation action network for childhood obesity prevention who will work on promoting relevant policies and interventions.

We’re really happy to see this action plan published. It provides a good foundation on which to start work on the prevention of childhood obesity in the Caribbean and we look forward to getting involved in this work.

More Information

For more information please visit the HCC website here, download the action plan below or email  hcc@healthycaribbean.org

Yesterday, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition launched an online portal of all the non-communicable disease  (NCD) commissions in the Caribbean. The portal gives information on all active boards, groups or bodies that have been established to coordinate their countries’ plans for the prevention of NCDs. The aim of this portal is to raise awareness of the work being conducted on NCDs so that those interested in this area can learn more about the work being conducted in the Caribbean, and by whom.

The development of the portal was developed to support one of the recommendations of the 2007 Port of Spain Declaration: Uniting to Sport the Epidemic of NCDs which stated that:

 “We strongly encourage the establishment of National Commissions on NCDs or analogous bodies to plan and coordinate the comprehensive prevention and control of chronic NCDs.”

This portal highlights the progress that governments across the Caribbean have made in taking forward this recommendation and the Healthy Caribbean Coalition will keep the portal updated to ensure it gives a true reflection of the work being conducted across the Caribbean.

For more information about the portal and to access it, please click here

After their successful 12-week, pop-up wellness hub last year, which was a health and fitness club, spa lounge and workshop zone all rolled into one, Noire Wellness will be hosting a fibroids wellness hub. This will be held on Sunday 26^th November at Wiseworks and will cover a range of topics including diet, exercise and the emotional impact of fibroids.

The wellness hub aims to empower women affected by fibroids giving them the information and practical support that they need to improve their well-being.

Noire Wellness is an organisation that aims to improve the health and wellness of the African and African-Caribbean community through the offer of local wellness hubs, community consultancy services and a growing wellness business network.

You can book your place on EventBrite here and for more information about the fibroids wellness hub, please download their flyer below or email  info@noirewellness.com

You can find out more about Noire Wellness by following them on Twitter, liking their page on Facebook or signing up to their newsletter here

Prostate Cancer UK is seeking to better understand the information and support needs of people who are, or have been, closely affected by prostate cancer across the UK.  Justice Studio has been commissioned by Prostate Cancer UK to undertake research into these unmet needs.

They are interested in hearing from both people who have been diagnosed with the disease and their supporters, such as a partner, family member or carer.

The aim of this research is to understand more about unmet needs in relation to a prostate cancer diagnosis. Unmet needs are defined as those needs that are not being met by the NHS, including a GP or other healthcare provider. The research consists of a survey, as well as face-to-face and telephone interviews with diagnosed people and the people who support them.

Prostate Cancer UK  are particularly interested in hearing from Black African/Caribbean men, gay and bisexual men and their supporters.

If you fit any of the above criteria and would like to take part you can complete the survey here. The survey should take 10 to 30 minutes. Responses are completely anonymous and will directly inform the charity about what support services they can offer in the future and where they focus their campaigning work.

For more information about this piece of work please contact Shirley Ahura on shirley@justicestudio.org

On 9^th October the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) launched their new campaign, Mosquito Mission. This campaign highlights the fact that the humble little mosquito is the Caribbean’s deadliest animal, being more dangerous than lions, snakes and sharks. This is because mosquitoes in the Caribbean transmit  a number of diseases, these are Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya.

CARPHA’s new campaign draws our attention to the three things the public can do to fight the threat posed by mosquitoes:

• End the breeding
• Stop the biting
• Take action

On their new website they provide extensive advice on each of the above areas. This includes information on preventing your home from becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes.  Mosquitoes breed in stagnant fresh water that has been standing for four to seven days. The message here is to dispose of any water that has collected around your house and to remove any containers that may collect rain water. CARPHA also stresses that the best way to prevent the transmission of a mosquito-borne disease is to avoid being bitten in the first place and this can be achieved by wearing long-sleeved clothing; using insect repellent containing DEET, Picaridin, IR 3535 and Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus;  using mosquito nets on windows and doors to prevent their entry into your home; and  to sleep protected by a mosquito net. CARPHA’s final message is that people should act quickly and visit a doctor should they think they have been bitten by an infected mosquito and feel unwell.

In addition to these messages, CARPHA is also raising awareness of the symptoms of mosquito-borne diseases, is providing information on testing and has information on what exactly Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya are. For this and more information please visit CARPHA’s website here , watch the video below or you can contact CARPHA by emailing them or calling +1-868 299-0820

On 25th October the Griot Institute is organising a Fibroids Fraternitee Forum which will offer a space and place for women to increase their knowledge about fibroids. This event will feature Dr Ruth Cochran who has worked at Lewisham Hospital for over 30 years and is the most senior consultant in gynaecology and obstetrics.  She has worked with generations of women with fibroids and  will answer questions on treatment options.  This forum is an opportunity to gain information, ask questions and to explore other ways in which women might improve their health and manage their fibroids.

The event starts at 6:30pm  on 25th October and will be held at the Civic Suite in Catford (this is next to the Town Hall). Free fibroid-friendly food will be available from 6:40pm.

You can find out more about this event and book a space on EventBrite here  or email griotonline@hotmail.com

Please note that this event has been rescheduled and will now be held on 26th November as a one-day event. For more information visit EventBrite

After their successful 12-week, pop-up wellness hub last year, which was a health and fitness club, spa lounge and workshop zone all rolled into one, Noire Wellness will be hosting a fibroids wellness hub. This will run over several weeks starting from 24th September and will cover a range of topics including diet, exercise and the emotional impact of fibroids.

The wellness hub aims to empower women affected by fibroids giving them the information and practical support that they need to improve their well-being.

Noire Wellness is an organisation that aims to improve the health and wellness of the African and African-Caribbean community through the offer of local wellness hubs, community consultancy services and a growing wellness business network.

You can find out more about Noire Wellness by following them on Twitter, liking their page on Facebook or signing up to their newsletter here

More information about the fibroids wellness hub will be available soon, but if you have any questions please email info@noirewellness.com