Best of Health 2010

❏ Plan ahead for disasters

January 27 -

The recent earthquake in Haiti reminds us of our vulnerability to catastrophes. The desperate situation in our sister nation should be a trigger for us to prepare for any eventuality. Everyone should make plans for times of turmoil.

As men, you will be required to meet much of the logistical dilemma which major disasters present to the nation. We all need a disaster plan. Plan ahead with the worst-case scenario in mind. Ask yourself, what if? Having a written plan will help to reduce panic and guide you to react appropriately. Make sure that family members are aware of the plan and regularly review it with them.

❏ Anti-cancer vaccine approved

March 10 -

The anti-cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix, was recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in girls and women 10 to 25 years old. The vaccine is currently being used here but is available only through private health practitioners as it is still not on the health ministry's national immunisation programme.

Dr Sharmaine Mitchell, obstetrician and gynaecologist and GlaxoSmithKline's designated local Cervarix expert, said that the FDA's approval in effect doesn't change the use of the vaccine here as it had already received European approval in 2005. She also indicated that the vaccine was already in use in other countries in the region.

❏ Dealing with job separation

March 31 -

The recession is still forcing many companies to take the difficult decision to separate workers from their jobs. Call it what you may, downsize or rightsize, this may be a response to prevent a capsize of the company. Like any other loss or separation, the pain and anxiety of job loss is real.

When a worker loses his or her job, he not only loses his source of income but is also separated from friends and the organisation. Loss triggers a process of grieving, and for some people this can be painful. In addition to losing a job, the worker has to face many uncertainties such as continuing to pay bills, taking care of self and family and coping with each day. Those who survive job separation suffer too. They have to deal with the loss of their colleagues and the uncertainty of their own job security.

❏ Sandi runs a 'Relay for Life'

May 5 -

Sandi Taylor is busy as a bee these days, stirring her 10-member committee into a frenzy as they prepare for the Jamaica Cancer Society's Relay for Life, a major fund-raising event. As chairperson for the survivorship committee, a subcommittee of the Relay for Life, her job is to take care of the cancer survivors who will be attending the annual relays in June. It is a job she takes seriously.

Sandi, 46 years old and the mother of two daughters, is herself a cancer survivor in her seventh year. She didn't feel a lump in her right breast back in November 2003, but was alerted that something was wrong when she noticed a breast irregularity. She didn't delay. She went to the doctor, first did a mammogram, then in less than a week she had a biopsy confirming the tumour and went straight to the hospital for the mastectomy.

❏ Jamaica's 1851 cholera outbreak

November 3 -

In the digital collection of the United States National Library of Medicine is an interesting 74-page book on Jamaica's last cholera outbreak in the early 1850s. With the recent outbreak of cholera in neighbouring Haiti and forecast of rainy days ahead (with implications for infectious disease outbreaks), this find, the Statistical Report of the Epidemic Cholera in Jamaica, published in London in 1852, should hold our attention.

Jamaica's cholera outbreak was part of the second cholera pandemic, known as the Asiatic cholera pandemic, which ran from 1829 to 1851 and reached Europe, including London and Paris, in 1832. Jamaica's death toll was high - 40,000 deaths, one-tenth of the island's 400,000 population. It was noted that few countries hit by cholera at the time surpassed Jamaica's cholera death rate.

❏ Surviving breast cancer with yoga

November 3 -

There are many amazing stories of women who have survived breast cancer and used yoga and fitness to cope with the disease and find peace.

Dedicated yoga student at Shakti, Yolande, for instance, who was diagnosed with the disease at age 42, chose not to go the conventional route of chemotherapy and radiation.

Instead, she took her healing into her own hands by changing her diet, reducing her stress levels and adding yoga and spinning to her life. Today, at 47, she is radiant, always smiling, and you would never know that at such an early age she faced her own mortality.

❏ Obeah, duppy and your health

November 24 -

It is widely held in our culture that people can set demons, evil spirits or the spirits of the dead on another individual or that the spirit of the dead can torment or occupy the life of another person. Many people even believe that demon and spirit possessions can cause physical and mental illness.

In the health system, we have to deal with people who will question the doctor's diagnosis by saying, for example, "Doctor, this sickness mix or it bigger than you?" This sometimes appears true if the doctor cannot offer a proper explanation for the illness or if the treatment does not appear to be effective.

❏ Lowe's anti-cancer product launched

December 8 -

Dr Henry Lowe's boyhood fascination with ball moss, a weed commonly seen in Jamaican gardens and on electric power lines, matured into a man's dream with the unveiling last month of the nutraceutical product, Alpha Prostate Formula. The product, expected to promote men's prostate health, will be on the market in the next three months.

"The nutraceutical is basically a semi-crude product with bioactivity which will be put in a capsule along with other ingredients in the formula. In other words, it will be like a multivitamin in a capsule or one of those herbal products in a capsule, except that it is partially purified," Lowe explained in an interview outside the launch.

Email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com

Best of Health 2010

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