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!

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

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

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

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

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

What is Lupus?

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

There are four types of lupus:

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

Black Women and Lupus

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

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

More Information

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

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

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.

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.

 

Last night, we attended ‘Building Things for Nigeria 2.0’, an event that gave those in the tech industry the opportunity to showcase how they’re using IT solutions to address health, business, finance and social challenges.

One of the presentations that really stood out for us and really demonstrated the power that technology can have in public health was that delivered by the team behind the Playbrush.

What is the Playbrush?

The Playbrush is an award-winning device that aims to promote good oral health in children by making toothbrushing fun. It allows children to play entertaining and instructional games whilst brushing their teeth, these aren’t just games with no purpose but they actually get kids brushing for longer and properly.

The Playbrush is a Bluetooth device that can be attached to most manual toothbrushes and converts them into a game controller. It works by first downloading the Playbrush app to your mobile phone and then pairing the Playbrush, connected to a toothbrush, to your phone and then the games begin. Children can shoot Crobies, fly planes and save the tooth fairy by simply brushing their teeth.

Whilst brushing their teeth, motion sensors in the Playbrush record the duration and speed of brushing. A specific algorithm helps children brush for longer and more thoroughly, ensuring they cover all areas during brushing. Parents and children are given real time feedback through the brushing statistics and children can win rewards when they brush more regularly and accurately.

The games on the Playbrush are fun but educational  and using the theory of action and reaction they teach children the importance of oral health in a fun and engaging way.

Who is Behind the Playbrush?

Giving the presentation at last night’s event was the Nigerian Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Playbrush, Tolu Ogunsina, who worked with his two co-founders to make Playbrush a reality. Tolu described the inspiration behind the Playbrush, which was quite simple, observing children who were reluctant brushers and thinking about how to make a boring task fun.

They have also worked in collaboration with dentists, public health specialists, academics, investors, designers and engineers to create the Playbrush ensuring that the technology behind it does make a real difference to oral health, and their hard work and innovation has paid off as Playbrush has won multiple awards including:

• Winner of the Best Technology Innovation Award (Gamification World Awards 2015)
• UCL Bright Ideas Winner 2014
• eAward Winner 2016
• Dad Rated Bronze Award Winners
• Pioneers Vienna Competition Winner 2015

Now that is how you use tech!

We have heard so many horror stories of technology gone wrong and it was a pleasure to hear of the success of technology in changing health behaviour. The Playbrush has already exceeded expectations with the sales doing exceptionally well, dentist approval and interest from a number of dental companies. We wish them continued success and hope we see an improvement in the oral health of children.

Want to get your own Playbrush? You can pick up one on Amazon