Category: Health

  • Five side effects of chewing gum

    Five side effects of chewing gum

    Either for fun or to aid digestion, it’s important to note that chewing of gum comes with side effects.

    Here are five side of gum chewing for addicts:

    1. It aid weight gain

    chewing gum as a dietary aid can backfire in a bad way. The chewing motion and constant saliva trick your brain to think that you are very hungry.

    And peppermint gum leads you to go for junk food, rather than healthier options like fruit because the taste is horrible. Bubblegum chewers also tend to eat fewer meals a day but load up on calories when they do eat.

    2. Influences digestive system

    For someone who has a sensitive stomach or indigestion, when you chew, always swallow small sips of air and fill your stomach with gas that can cause bloating.

    The sugar alcohols that are often used as sweeteners act as purgatives in the gum often causes cramps, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

    Read Also; Five side effects of energy drink

    3. Causes jaw problems

    Constant chewing of gum can lead to a disorder that affects the jaw joints and surrounding muscles. Any movement of the jaw- eating, laughing, or even talking- comes with a severe pain that sometimes spreads to the neck and shoulders.

    The risk is always high especially if you chew it during times of stress, as people tend to unconsciously clench their teeth when nervous.

    4. It Impacts your brain

    Constant pressure on the jaw increases the number and frequency of migraines and tension headaches.

    In the worst case, it can lead to chronic headaches. So if you’re already predisposed to migraines, it’s best to avoid gum altogether.

    5. It affects your teeth

    But if your gum contains sugar, it has a negative impact on oral health. Bacteria that live in the oral cavity digest sugar before it reaches the stomach, causing plaque buildup on your teeth. It also increases tooth decay over time.

  • Students sensitised on menace of childhood cancer

    Students sensitised on menace of childhood cancer

    In commemoration of the 2022 world literacy and pediatric cancer day, Ikeja Unique Lions Club sensitised students of Ogudu Junior High School on how to fight menace of childhood cancer.

    The club also donated learning materials to the school as a means of supporting their learning activities.

    President of the club, Lion Abiodun Francis Wilkey explained that the club, which is about humanitarian services, felt the need to take the message to school children because of their level of assimilation and knowledge in related subjects taught in school.

    “They are the level of people you can get to understand the message you are trying to pass.

    “Their level of assimilation is high and they can understand what we have just said because they are being taught biology, chemistry and these kinds of subjects enable them to understand what we are telling them about cells, cancer and all that.”

    Read Also: ‘My near-death experience with breast cancer’

    The Speaker, Dr. James Banjoko who spoke on topic: “Early sign, symptoms of childhood cancer” explained that Childhood cancer is a leading cause of death in children.

    He stated that caring for children with cancers have very significant emotional trauma and financial drain on parents and care givers of these children, hence the need for awareness.

    “In 80% of cases, a child’s cancer diagnosis is delayed until the disease is very advanced and has spread to other parts of the body. As a stark comparison, this only occurs in 20% of adult cancer cases. Childhood cancers tend to be more aggressive than adult cancers, so this late diagnosis can significantly affect the 5-year survival probability of the child

    “Each year, approximately 400,000 children and adolescents of 0-19 years old are diagnosed with cancer”

    While highlighting the 12 major types of cancer that are prevalent to children, Dr. James explained that Leukemias (cancer in the blood) and brain tumors account for more than half of all cases.

    “The most common cancers of children are: Leukemia, Brain and spinal cord tumors, Neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, Lymphoma (including both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin), Rhabdomyosarcoma, Retinoblastoma, Bone cancer (including osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma). Leukemia is the most prevalent one and the median age at diagnosis is six years old”

    “The symptoms include: Change in bowel or bladder habits, sore that does not heal, unusual bleeding or discharge, thickening or lump in the breast or elsewhere, indigestion or difficulty in swallowing, obvious change in a wart or mole, nagging cough or hoarsenes, fatigue.”

  • New product launched to solve blood crisis

    New product launched to solve blood crisis

    To lessen the blood donation challenges and blood shortage, a pharmaceutical firm, Sterling Biopharma Limited, has introduced Fejeron Blood Tonic into the market to support the country’s about 66.8 per cent economically active population.

    The Chief Operating Officer of the firm, Adebayo Adepoju, said the nature of stress and fatigue that Nigerians encounter  daily requires that their physical and mental well-being is well supported to function at its best.

    According to him, this is why Fejeron Blood Tonic is uniquely formulated for everyone regardless of age or gender.

    “At Sterling Biopharma, we believe that everyone deserves to be able to buy simple prescription drugs without breaking the bank. This is why from the moment we entered the Nigerian market, and with our wide range of products, we have made our intentions clear and that is to make quality pharmaceutical products affordable for Nigerians. So, Fejeron Blood Tonic is the latest proof of our commitment to this mission.

    “Despite its premium quality, Fejeron is one of the most affordable blood tonics you will find in the market, and this is deliberate. All Nigerians should be able to take care of themselves,” he said.

    Also, the Product Manager, Olumide Ogunremi, linked the embrace of the product to its quality and appeal to the needs of Nigerians.

    “The quick acceptance of Fejeron Blood Tonic in Nigeria is not a surprise to us. The enthusiasm to try out the product and the return purchases across the biggest pharmaceutical markets in Nigeria validates the quality of the product and timeliness of its emergence.”

  • Lagos tasks health facilities owners on safe practices, medication-related harms

    Lagos tasks health facilities owners on safe practices, medication-related harms

    The Lagos State Government has advised health facilities owners across the state to prioritise safe practices for better healthcare in line with global best practices.

    The First Lady of Lagos State, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, gave the admonition during the World Patient Safety Day celebration.

    The event, which was organised by the Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA), held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island.

    She stressed that relevant stakeholders in healthcare delivery services need to be conscientious on the prevention of medication-related errors, which can lead to greater health problems.

    She explained that the theme of the World Patient Safety Day, ‘Medication Safety’ with the slogan ‘Medication without Harm,’ was well-thought out as there is an urgent need to raise global awareness on the high burden of medication-related harms due to medication errors and unsafe practices.

    “This event is a prompt for stakeholders to take urgent action to reduce medication-related harm through strengthening systems and practices of proper medication use and also raise global awareness of the high burden of medication-related harm due to medication errors and unsafe practices,” she said.

    The First Lady, who was represented by Dr. Ibijoke Ajumobi, commended HEFAMAA for seizing the opportunity of the global celebration to put a premium to the safety of patients in both public and private hospitals in the state.

    She, however, urged health care providers to operate according to the guidelines of the government.

    “As a critical agency of government that is charged with the responsibility to set and enforce standards in the health sector, it is commendable that HEFAMAA is seizing the opportunity of this global celebration to put a premium to the safety of patients in our health facilities both private and public,” she said.

    The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, explained that the state government would not relent in its role of ensuring that residents get access to quality healthcare provided by professionals in accredited facilities, reiterating that the government has the safety as its strategy for health care delivery.

    Abayomi said further that the state government is regularly regulating the activities of all health facilities in the state, including the traditional alternative and complementary health practitioners, adding that the government, through the Ministry of Health, also organises regular Continuing Medical Education for healthcare providers to improve their capacity in efficient service delivery.

    “The Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of health, has an overall safety strategy for patients in in the state. We have three tiers of care and an additional emphasis on traditional medicine. So, whether it is orthodox or traditional alternative medicine, the responsibility of government is, first of all, to make sure that the personnel in these facilities are adequately trained and continue to receive continuous medical education whether they are authorised practitioners or traditional practitioners and in the process of doing that, we need to ensure that their qualifications are right and the facilities in which they are working are accredited and registered,” he said.

    Restating the commitment of the government in the fight against quackery, the commissioner urged care givers to  ensure the correct medication to their patients and also consider the side effect of the medication they were administering by weighing off the differences between curing a condition and the side effects of the medication.

    Also, the Chairman, HEFAMAA, Dr. Yemisi Solanke-Koya, stated that the agency is leveraging  the event to raise public awareness, motivate and collaborate with stakeholders in the reduction of unsafe medication practices and errors across categories of health facilities in the state. “The year 2022 world Patient Safety Day celebration has been thoughtfully designed to engage public and private healthcare providers, patient advocates, policy makers and partners in strengthening the systems, human factors and environmental conditions that influence the safety of medication use in Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole,” she said.

    The Executive Director, HEFAMAA, Dr. Abiola Idowu, commendedheath facilities owners who have been complying with the guidelines of the government.

    She, however, urged them to adhere to the health laws and not relent in the standard of services they provide.

  • Thank goodness, bread prices going out of reach!

    Thank goodness, bread prices going out of reach!

    So, bread prices are up! Please forgive me if I sound as though I have been living on the moon or on the planet just discovered which is said to be about 40,000 times larger than our earth. Like everyone else, I am still very much an earthman. I am only being cynical that the world has not come to an end simply because the price of bread is getting beyond the reach of many people and, if I am to be honest, I am somewhat secretly happy that many people would cut it off their diet.

    That was what I did in 1977 after I bought a book at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka  (UNN) bookshop titled …NINETY DAYS TO A BETTER HEART. It was written by JOHN LOUGHRAN, as a case history of his health as a child, almost lifeless, weak, sick with heart and blood circulation problems , all attributed to white flour bread as a staple food, and, of how, within only 90 days, he got his health back when his mother changed his bread to whole corn, home ground and home baked bread.

    From 1977, I sparingly ate white flour bread and switched over to whole wheat bread until about the mid 1980s when I learned wheat had been genetically modified and had become a worse enemy of health than white flour bread.

    For white bread lovers, LOUGHRAN tells the story of how wheat becomes white flour and bread, of how nutritionally endowed whole wheat is, and how devitalised and nutritionally poisonous to body and health it becomes by the time “white” bread arrives on the dining table. And, according to him, population studies reveal that people exposed to ” white” flour bread for about 40 years develop cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) problems such as enlarged heart, heart disease, blocked coronary (heart) arteries, palpitations, heart failure, heart attack, blockages and plague in the arteries, narrowing of the arteries, elevated blood cholesterol levels, venous insufficiency, organ disease, inflammation almost everywhere in the body, rapid aging etc.

    Can this be true? I do not know if such studies have been carried out in Nigeria. But a simple rule of the thumb guess suggests that Loughran may be correct. When I was a child, white bread was not eaten by a majority of Nigerians everyday. It was possible it was in the homes of the elite. For families such as the one I grew up in, “white bread”, like “white” rice, was eaten once a week, on Sundays at best. In those days, heart attacks and hypertension and their likes were euro American diseases with no serious foothold in Nigeria. Today, however, these diseases are seen in persons as young as forty something. What has made the tables to turn upside down? One of the reasons is that more people today than before eat white flour foods several times in one day. A standard Nigerian breakfast is (white flour) , bread, margarine, egg, milk , tea and sugar , all foodless foods in several respects. Now, let us see what we miss in the diet when we eat “white” flour bread, but is abundant in whole wheat from which white flour is made

    CHROMIUM

    Since 1843, a scientific experiment has been going on in the United Kingdom on the observed reduction of minerals such as iron and zinc in wheat inorganically grown in the winter months. Named BROAD BALK, it seeks to determine the effects of artificial fertilizer and organic manure on wheat and its nutritional quality. The studies found nothing wrong with wheat and the soil but with pesticides and attempt to make wheat produce more carbohydrate stock per acre for an increasing population of developing countries. To worsen matters, the food industry could not keep the reduced nutrient values over long periods of time for transportation over the oceans and seas and storage in warehouses before conversion to wheat bread. For the nutrients, reduced as they had become, decayed and despoiled in the wheat. So, the food industry removed the nutrients by refining the wheat into white flour , which could keep for longer periods. The process of refining the wheat caused more nutrient losses. Some of the nutrients lost are CHROMIUM, LECITHIN, VITAMIN E, WHEAT GERM OIL and the B-COMPLEX VITAMINS, among others. Thus, avid bread eaters may become nutritionally deficient in these nutrients. To help them not be, the food industry adds artificial equivalents of these natural substances to white flour in the bakery. But this is an almost useless effort because artificial chemical structures cannot perform the functions of natural substances, nor will they be as readily bio available as the latter. Thus,the bread eater has been short changed in the struggle for money between the bread producer and the bread consumer.

    CHROMIUM is a natural product MOTHER NATURE puts in all CARBOHYDRATE FOODS. Its function is to ease the flow of INSULIN from the blood stream into the CELL through the CELL MEMBRANE. Insulin is produced by the PANCREAS. When there is not enough chromium consumed with a carbohydrate meal, insulin may be stuck in the blood stream. Yet, insulin is the hormone that leads blood sugar into the cell where chromium, along with other substances, including coenzymes will burn it in energy “factories” known as MITOCHONDRIA. Let us remember the picture…insulin will literally hold blood sugar by the hand and lead it across the cell membrane into the cell, where insulin, along with other substances will burn it into energy, water and carbon dioxide.

    • Insulin cannot cross the cell membrane on its own. So, literally speaking again, it would be held by the hand and ushered in by chromium.
    • We are now talking of three friends working together in this business… CHROMIUM/INSULIN and BLOOD SUGAR working together.
    • Where the food industry has deprived “white” bread of about 96percent of the chromium which naturally occurs in whole wheat for this purpose, what is the effect on the health of bread eaters?
    • INSULIN and BLOOD SUGAR will get stuck in the blood stream. Inside blood vessels, INSULIN will act as a “fertilizer” for the growth of soft muscles of these vessels. Acting thus, the muscles will grow rapidly like mushrooms do in the fields when rain falls upon them. These soft muscles will grow downward, upward and side ways. The soft muscles will grow towards themselves. Doing so, they would NARROW the blood vessels which are now said to be MUSCLE BOUND. Not many people realise that “muscle bound” blood vessels are a cause of HYPERTENSION, which is difficult to manage or cure. How will these muscles be regressed.

    ¶ This is one of the reasons Alternative Medicine prescribes CHROMIUM in the form of chromium picolinate etc for hypertension as it is also for DIABETES ,to save whatever can still be saved.

    • As the costs of importing this plant medicine was getting out of hand, local anti hypertensive whole plants have been offering support to challenged persons.
    • The chromium story does not end here. Blood sugar hanging up in the blood stream portends DIABETES, which may cause blindness, damage peripheral nerves, the kidneys and other vital organs.
    • May the excess sugar load not also be converted to CHOLESTEROL, under certain conditions of liver subnormalcy and create cardiovascular problems, including heart problems and strokes. It may. Cholesterol challenged persons face graver insults from statin drugs which may impair heart function. Their saving grace when they turn to Alternative Medicine are food supplements such as lecithin, vitamin E, B-Complex vitamins and chromium, nutrients which were removed from whole wheat in the process of converting it into “white” flour for “white” bread. That is why persons hooked on white flour foods need to know what they are up against and, every month, budget for their nutritional food supplements. The exposure to white flour is terribly widespread today. We consume it not only as “white” flour bread but also PASTA, NOODLES, SHARWAMA, MEAT PIES etc what goes for “white” flour foods goes , also, for FOREIGN RICE which is a carbohydrate load with too little chromium and B-Complex vitamins in it.

    Let me digress a little. About 200 years ago, Japanese and other Asian populations suffered from a terrible nerve damaging disease which also destroyed the heart. It made the legs and the hands to swell and become paralysed. It also caused convulsions and ravaged the heart, sometimes killing the patient.The cause was first thought to be germs. It intermittently tormented even the emperor and killed his niece aged 31.

    Millions may have died before a doctor discovered that chickens fed remnant food from a prison kitchen suffered from the disease ravaging prison inmates. When a doctor asked inmates to lift their arms and legs, they responded: Beri Beri(I can’t, I can’t). The disease called beri Beri was later known to be caused by “white” rice diet which is deficient in vitamin B1 or thiamine. Countries which suffered beriberi epidemic continue to pump “white” rice into Nigeria and Nigerians of 2022 continue to hate Nigerian rice which has vitamin B1and other nutrients. What a people!

    WHEAT GERM OIL

    The food industry also damaged “white ” flour by removing wheat germ oil from wheat. There is oil in every living thing as its “essential” component. Crude oil is the oil in trees, plants and leaves which died millions of years ago and are encrusted deep in the earth. There is oil in orange peel and even banana peel. There is oil in the human eye , brain, liver etc. The oil from plants is meant to replenish oil in the human body. That is why mother nature endows WHEAT with WHEAT GERM OIL in its core. But since this oil can go rancid easily if not consumed soon after wheat harvest, the food industry removes it from the plastic “white” flour.

    Wheat germ oil is made of such components as VITAMIN E, OCTONASOL, B-COMPLEX vitamins (about 50 percent), OCTOCANOL, B-COMPLEX VITAMINS, such as unsaturated fatty acids such as LINOLEIC ACID and LINOLENIC ACID. Vitamin E is a blood thinner and important food for the muscles, heart, womb, the brain, the eyes, breasts, testes and practically all organs. Wheat germ oil produces energy, and had been demonstrated to reduce blood plasma cholesterol as well as help in the management and cure of fatty liver. The testes need vitamin E to not Shrink or atrophise. How many men consume enough vitamin E in Nigeria? Any wonder that testicular size grows smaller and sooner with age and sperm production reduces when young men are supposed to be in full bloom? When women who are seeking help for the infertility of their spouses ask me if the testes are not meant to be tangible and visible, I guess what they are talking about. When leg or arm muscles are weak, may we not think of vitamin E along with potassium, vitamin B1 (thiamine) and other B complex vitamins. Are these nutrients present in “white” flour bread? We know of many health problems, including cancers, caused by a deficiency of essential fatty acids (EFAs). Yet, mother nature gave them to us free of charge in and plentifully in organically grown natural wheat grains.

    OCTOSANOL, a component of wheat germ oil, also found in some plants such as SUGAR CANE, consists of about 57 percent of another substance called POLICOSANOL. While OCTOSANOL has found uses in athletic performance and in diseases such as PARKINSONS, reduce “bad” cholesterol, improve the health of fat cells, it has been tried for “AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS”. This is a degenerative condition of the nerve system in which early signs may be twitches and cramping in arms and legs. The disease may degenerate into loss of motion in the limbs and in such other places as the respiratory system, resulting in death, as nerves and muscles are involved. POLICOSONOL is present in foods such as rice bran, green tea leaves, sorghurm grain, sugar cane and wheat bran, among other foods. It has been used in the treatment of leg pains, especially in intermittent claudication (pain in the ankles), to reduce excess cholesterol, improve blood circulation etc.

    Thanks to LOUGHRAN. In his book NINETY DAYS TO A BETTER HEART he obliges a sub section he titled…YOU ARE AS OLD AS YOUR VEINS. Aren’t we really? when the food industry deprives us of these nutrients, pass them off as wastes for animal feed and , later, brings them back to our dining tables after it became clear that we are prepared to pay for them, doesn’t this make our veins to age faster?

    LECITHIN

    Wheat is not done with nutrients for humanity. Although LECITHIN is more abundant in soyabeans, it occurs , also in wheat, to dissolve or emulsify potential fats in wheat in the blood stream. But, like other nutrients, lecithin is taken out in “white flour”, leaving “white” flour consumers prone to high blood cholesterol, fatty liver, heart and circulation problem challenges, including blood clots and plagues, and stroke. Lecithin, combined with Curcumin, makes the latter more effective as an anti-inflammatory. Dilauroyl phosphotidyl choline, one of the components of lecithin, is cited as good for liver health. Choline and inositol, other components, work for brain health. Lecithin is important for cell signalling in immune function, otherwise the body may misrecognise its own parts as it’s enemies and open fire on them, as occurs in immune system disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Lyme disease.

    We can go on and on. I guess you would like to know why, as I loathe “white” bread and white flour foods, I do not eat wheat bread, since all these nutrients are supposed to be intact inside it.

    WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

    Up till the late 1970s, I turned to wheat bread because of the known hazards of white flour bread. I jettisoned whole wheat bread from the early 1980s because of information that it had been genetically modified for bigger harvests per acre.  Scientists say the GM wheat will help to end the problems of COELIAC DISEASE. This is a digestive condition in which GLUTEN on glutein rich foods damage the small intestine of predisposed persons. Gluten is found in such foods as wheat, barley, rye among others. They say the modification of natural wheat would make it not only resistant to environmental hazards such as diseases and pesticides but would, also, make it yield about four times more per acre. On top of all this, they say, GM wheat would come with a balm of Gilead for coeliac disease sufferers.

    But the opponents of GM wheat say what has happened is a part of a Euro American plot to give poor nations political independence with one hand and take it away with another. To take it away, the argument goes, seeds are modified and given to poor nations. This would lure these nations to abandon their natural seeds. GM seeds hardly are able to self-reproduce after two generations. So, the poor nations would continue to depend on the producers of GM seeds for their agricultural needs and feeding, which is loss of Independence in real terms.

    Where I have problems with GM wheat is in the way it is reported to damage the digestive system it is said to protect against GLUTEN, a Hallmark of which is COELIAC disease.

    Many people eat whole wheat foods without bothering to find out if they are good for them. Some proteins in wheat called gliadins damage the intestine of about 1 in 100 persons causing coeliac disease and even cancer. Scientists are trying genetic modification of wheat to make eating it trouble free. So far, genetic engineering is reported to disable 25 genes which cause the troubles. And with evidence that the disabled genes are rebounding more, a bigger scientific war is being waged on wheat to make it edible at all costs. In other words, man is fighting nature, creating a new genetic structure and code in wheat which must inevitably produce a new structure and code in the human body. As I am well aware that whatever is false must inevitably collapse, I have educated my pallate that ORE ENU, OTA INU (the pallate’s friend is the enemy of the intestine, and that ONA OFUN, ONA ORUN (the gateway to the throat is the gateway to heaven and to hell). These are great words of wisdom in Yoruba culture. May I also add that IFURA L’OOGUN AGBA (caution is the voodoo of the elderly). Thus, if you ask me for my opinion on rising bread prices, I would say: THANK GOODNESS…LET THEM GO BEYOND REACH!

  • ‘Lifestyle changes can prevent cardiovascular diseases’

    ‘Lifestyle changes can prevent cardiovascular diseases’

    Lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, Chief Medical Director of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH, Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, has warned.

    Fabamwo gave the advice during the kick-off of the ‘Cardiac Mission’ intervention in partnership with the Cardiovascular Education Foundation, aimed at offering treatment to less-privileged patients with cardiovascular diseases.

    According to the World Health Organisation, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading causes of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives yearly. CVDs are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions.

    More than four out of five CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes, and one-third of these deaths occur prematurely in people under 70 years. The most important behavioural risk factors for heart disease and stroke are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol.

    Worried by the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in the country, the CMD said that Nigerians need to make lifestyle drastically changes to prevent the syndrome: “There are many measures that need to be taken to reduce the number of cardiovascular diseases. We need to change our lifestyles drastically. One of the things we need to do, which is drastic, is to take another look at all these eateries that are in town. The kinds of food they are selling are not necessarily healthy foods.

    “Also, our breweries that are selling alcoholic products, we need to look at them. In the developed countries, percentages are determined. The brewers are told that you cannot serve an alcohol-based drink that is more than a certain percentage of alcohol. But we’ve not started doing that in Nigeria. I get people who boast that when they go abroad that the beer they drink is not as strong as the one they drink in Nigeria. It shouldn’t be so. We should actually water down alcohol level of things along other things.”

    He lauded the Cardiovascular Education Foundation for accepting to collaborate with the LASUTH, saying 20 indigent patients would benefit from the intervention.

    “For the past nine years, Cardiovascular Education Foundation has been coming to Nigeria. But this is the first time that they will be birthing at LASUTH. They are birthing at the correct time because now we have in place an ultramodern cardiac catheterisation laboratory, which is what is required for the kind of procedures that they are going to perform.

    “The process had been on for some time; patients had been screened online, and they are already in place. But the beauty of it is that the foundation brought with them – a lot of expensive materials that the patients would have paid a lot of dollars for, which would have made the procedures very expensive.

    “They are donating these materials to ensure that the patients that will benefit from this programme are not necessarily the high net worth individuals; meaning that indigent patients are going to benefit from this programme. Since we started, many few cases have been done. We’re hoping that 20 lucky patients will benefit from this intervention.”

    The President, Cardiovascular Education Foundation, Dr Obinnaya Emerole, who is a United States-based consultant cardiologist, said collaborating with LASUTH would not only lead to skills transfer, but also develop better strategies to take care of patients with cardiovascular diseases.

    Emerole said the foundation was working towards making LASUTH a premier destination for cardiovascular education, training, research and patient care in Sub-Sahara Africa.

    “It is also an opportunity for skills transfer to some of the Nigeria-based cardiologists and at the same time, we will be able to learn from them. I must commend the effort of LASUTH cardiologists for having done the groundwork so that this intervention can commence immediately.

    “We will be providing care to a lot of patients and this will include Geographic Variation, implantation of pacemakers, and implantation of cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), among others.”

  • Nine ways to have a good, functional brain

    Nine ways to have a good, functional brain

    The human brain is the most important organ of our body and we all fail to think it also requires exercise or training and nutrition to function well. Thus, forming good habits and avoiding the following bad habits will prevent brain damage and keep it healthy.

    Here are nine ways to have a good, functional brain

    1. Do not skip breakfast

    Our brain needs appropriate nutrients at the appropriate time to function at its best. Due to a fast-paced lifestyle, most of us avoid or end up skipping breakfast to save some time. This leads to a low sugar supply and poor nutrient supply to the brain. The brain needs pure glucose to function. Poor nutrition can have long-term harmful effects on the brain like degeneration of the brain cells.

    2. Sleep adequately

    Sleep deprivation hinders the brain’s ability to perform normally. If you have ever lost your way home or forgotten your keys somewhere and cannot recollect where then lack of sleep has probably been behind this temporary memory loss. Sleep deprivation leads to cognitive issues. Without enough sleep, certain brain cells die and it then becomes harder for you to remember things. Psychological issues can also crop up due to bad sleep or sleep disturbances. So make sure you get your daily dose of 7 hours of beauty, as well as brain-friendly sleep.

    3. Don’t eat too much

    It’s said that “too much of anything is bad”. The same applies to our brain too. We tend to overeat if the brain is not functioning normally and vice versa, over-eating leads to brain damage. Over-eating leads to deposition of cholesterol plaques and thickening of blood vessels of the brain causing a reduced blood supply to brain cells. This can cause serious damage to the normal functioning of the brain. It is found that overeating leads to Alzheimer’s disease. Over-eating leads to obesity which in turn damages our self-image and self-confidence and can lead to depression and other psychological problems.

    Read Also: Doctors knock Minister for dismissing brain drain

    4. Reduce eating sugary foods

    Knowingly or sometimes unknowingly, we all consume sugar in most of our food and beverages. High consumption of refined sugar is known to destroy the ability of the brain and body to absorb proteins and nutrients. Poor nutrition will lead to malnourishment and brain disorders like poor memory, learning disorders, hyperactivity and depression. So, the next time you add a large coke to your happy meal, think again because it’s loaded with nearly 20 spoonfuls of sugar!

    5. Avoid Smoking

    This is probably one of the most harmful habits that we indulge in, as smoking not only causes lung diseases or heart diseases, it also leads to shrinkage of multiple cells in the brain and can lead to problems like dementia, Alzheimer’s and maybe even death. Excessive smoking indirectly causes neuro-inflammation which can cause an autoimmune disorder called Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

    6. Don’t cover your head while sleeping

    Sleeping with the head covered leads to an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide and it further reduces the oxygen concentration in the blood. If the oxygen supply is poor, the brain’s functioning capacity reduces. You may feel suffocated and sleep deprived leading to fatigue and drowsiness.

    7. Exercise always

    Exercise makes you more flexible and increases mobility. Without enough exercise, the mobility and brain’s power of movement reduces, and decreases stability and motor skills. Studies have shown exercise helps to keep us younger by releasing happy hormones called endorphins. Not just the brain, but exercise strengthens your heart and lungs too. Do you need more reason to exercise?

    8. Stop consuming alcohol

    The greater the percentage of alcohol, higher is the number of cells that die in the brain. Alcohol leads to chemical imbalances when continued for longer durations and large quantities. Brain volume decreases due to chronic alcohol intake. Anything more than 2 units/ day for men and 1 unit/ day for women is excess alcohol.

    9. Stop playing loud music with earphones or headphones

    Listening to music at a very high volume with your earphones or headphones might damage your hearing abilities permanently. It can result in some brain problems such as loss of memory and damage to your brain tissue in the coming future. This is because brain is the one, which takes effort to comprehend what is being said around you. If you apply excess pressure on your brain, it’s sure to get damaged.

  • Onpassive disrupts internet for good from November

    Onpassive disrupts internet for good from November

    Onpassive has just announced its co-hosing of the 2022 Fifa World cup. This is a great stride  for a company which will be only a few days old in the market place before the start of World Cup. Before the news break, the news was that…

    The first volley of internet applications which ONPASSIVE, its designers, say would shake up or disrupt business life in the industry and other facets of human life should be released by mid November, 2022, according to chief executive officer ASH MUFAREH.

    It was his most important statement since the ONPASSIVE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS company set to work in 2018, determined to become the most gigantic internet business company on earth by the time it arrives in the market. Many people  Ash Mufareh shared his thoughts with considered him to be a pipe dreamer. But he kept emphasising that he had a CALL to cleanse the internet industry of corruption, cheating and greed, and to enact a new way of life and business that would rid humanity of corruption, cheating, greed and the worship of money. He said the worship of money had made mankind unable  to rise beyond a life of paying bills and freed to achieve their visions or dreams of higher goals. As for him, Ash Mufareh said his goal was to leave the earth a better planet than he found it.

    Many people shared his vision, and by June 22, 2022, when he stopped recruiting his “disciples” as it were, about 1.4 million persons in about 200 nations had signed up to be o founders of ONPASSIVE. Today, they are called “O – founders or ONPASSIVARIANS”.  I am one of them.

    It was this group Ash Mufareh addressed  to fire their enthusiasm and energy for a business “war” the world has probably never witnessed or will ever see. He is honest enough to admit that, in many cases, ONPASSIVE will not approach the market with brand new products. What that meant in simple terms was that these products were already in the market. But what will paralyse and eclipse them was comparable to, say,, the emergence of a motor vehicle or aircraft to train which runs on water, a free commodity in a world of archaic automobiles powered by petrol or diesel. ONPASSIVE has upscaled several existing applications with an Artificial Intelligence  (AI) technology which, as Ash Mufareh, says, will take the industry no fewer than three years to acquire. And by that time, he said, ONPASSIVE would have created “A NEW TOP” in a game of “CATCH ME, IF YOU CAN”.

    The global ONPASSIVARIANS audience anxiously waited for the “first volley” of ONPASSIVE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS to be named. Lately, there had been many guesses in unauthorised fora, and Ash Mufareh had been displeased with this, and had preferred to leave the decisions in the hands of the design engineers and their support staff in India. He, too, was in it with them as the project had become “a do-or-die” affair for him. Ash Mufareh had previously spoken of being not afraid to lay his life for the CALL, if need be. He said the internet industry was already sensing that ONPASSIVE would eventually take the market, and some persons had wished he would sell his ideas and walk away with billions of dollars in exchange. But, as he said on September 1, the Almighty Creator would not ask any of us whenever we returned to heaven how much money we made on earth, but about how we spent it and if the way we spent it made people happy, lifted them out of poverty and misery and enabled them to live a life free of cares or wants so they could actualise their dreams.

    THE ARROW HEAD

    One of the applications which I had thought would be in the arrow head was “O-CADEMY”. I had told some of the professors in Nigerian universities on strike for more than half of the year for bigger pay and better teaching facilities that any hard working one among them could earn up to N10 million a month if they could design course work with international and Nigerian flavour which O-cademy can help expose to the GLOBAL UNIVERSITY. In this global university are billions of persons, young and old, searching for knowledge. This application can expose every professor to millions, if not billions, of students against the background of under a hundred students in the archaic classroom of Lagos, Ibadan, Zaria etc they are used to.

    Personally, too, I had expected o-cademy to be in the arrow head or first volley of the internet “disruptive” applications from ONPASSIVE. It had been so much talked about at several webinars that I thought it would be in the front lines of this battle for change. In their places, Ash Mufareh with the wisdom of the man with the eagle eye on this project chose the following for the arrow-head.

    1) “O mail”

    2)”O net”

    3)” O connect”

    “O mail (for ONPASSIVE MAIL) will compete with such old variants as e-mail, Yahoo mail and Gmail. The advantages of “o mail” over these include Artificial Intelligence drive, larger storage space, “integration and e mail synchronisation across multiple devices, import contact from existing e mail addresses, just to name a few”. Other uncommon benefits are stated in the “O mail” platform in the ONPASSIVE website.

    O net

    This is in the market of FACEBOOK with “disruptive features” over which Ash Mufareh beats his chest. These features are about the same for all ONPASSIVE INTERNET SOLUTIONS, i.e integration of the entire digital eco system, speed, bigger storage space, clearer screens and pictures, access to bigger and safer integrated servers, protection against environmental hazards etc.

    O connect

    Here comes the ONPASSIVE version of zoom but with a much larger capacity for everything. For example, there is no language barrier even when more than 1000 persons from different language backgrounds are in a conference. O connect has a language connectivity. A participant only needs to click on his choice language and all the discussions by participants in their various languages are automatically delivered to him in his own language, putting him at ease and making him feel at home among strangers.

    An O connect literature says:

    “Worldwide connectivity is today’s necessity. O connect, developed by ONPASSIVE, is an HD Audio and online video conference tool that provides unmatched clarity and quality to every virtual connect.”

    O connect comes with a highly detailed dashboard that allows every user to manage and track their activity with utmost ease. With unlimited participant addition to a meeting, and its many features like dual-screen share, external link integration, easy invites, and others the tool simplifies every virtual collaboration. O connect offers an automated speech to- text  service in multiple languages bridging any vernacular gap between participants. Providing seamless connection with unmatched ease, O connect brings to the fore advantages of AI enablement that enhances the output of every virtual meeting in a world that gets smaller, with distance becoming immaterial as a limitation”.

    CONFIDENCE BUILDING

    It has taken four long years to get this far. The interest of some believers in the business model waned all the way. Ash Mufareh said they did not see what he was observing, and that they had to straighten or refire their vision. He was a methodical man, he said. And he liked to not make his followers despair by bringing everyday challenges to the table. This included the problem of COVID 19, internet King pins who wanted him to abandon his vision in exchange for humongous cash returns, and some trusted persons who became persuaded to serve Mammon rather than support the mission. About two weeks before the 1st September 2022 webinar, he was prepared to show such persons the door, and announced that the United States Government was following the progress of ONPASSIVE March to the market. Before then, the “O-founders” had been prepared for the launch with inspiring chats and subject discussion at various webinars worldwide.

    Part of the confidence building was the announcement that ONPASSIVE had brought two floors for its Dubai operations in the world’s tallest building. BURJKHALIFA is 829.8 metres (0.83 kilometers tall and divided into 163 floors. Onpassive bought 134th and 151st floor. There are luxury residential apartments in the building which is visited by about two million tourists every year. Building BURJKHALIFA  took 12,000 workers toiling there everyday over six years at a cost of six and a half billion Dollars. The BURJKHALIFA is not a place for small businesses. This builds the confidence of “O-founders” that theirs is not a small Enterprise or one doomed to fail.

    WEBSITES

    Another confidence builder has been the sheer number of websites ONPASSIVE designed and built for “O-founders”. They number about 1.4 million. It is said that hardly any company has done this. The sites are individualised. That is no two sites are designed to look alike of the1.4 million  or no sites. Besides, for some items, each site has been changing configurations no fewer than two times a day for some time with the possibility of the frequency even increasing. The idea is to make the visitor stand amazed or dazed before them, hardly recognising in the mid afternoon what he or she observed in the morning. This is at no cost to the “O-founders”!

    Onpassive billboards are strategically located in Dubai, one of its soft launch pads which include Singapore, Bangladesh and India, the United States, among others. ONPASSIVE celebrated WOMEN’S DAY for Dubai women. For its activities in Dubai, it obtained permits from the city’s administration etc.

    A CALL

    Ash Mufareh stands steadfast in a “CALL” he says demands he fights and eradicates corruption, poverty and misery among humanity, beginning with the internet industry, as I will discuss below. He also senses a calling to fight poverty and liberate humanity from everyday financial woes. Among o founders are persons such as Catholic reverend fathers, Nigeria’s pastor Paul and Islamic clerics who have a faint idea what a “CALL” may be all about. The heavenly host who accompanied Baby Jesus to the earth came on a “CALL”. So did the three wise men and the 12 disciples. There may be calls in medicine for a cure for cancer for example. Who knows if Mikhail Gorbachev who has just passed, aged 92, was on a “call” to save humanity from a nuclear third world war by easing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics out of communism and dissolving the U.S.S.R, thereby easing the cold war?. Ash Mufareh says he would “rather die” than sell or mortgage his “CALL”, as it may be heinous to do so. He said again on September 1 that money should not be seen as evil or used to achieve evil but to be used for the enablement of vision and dreams. Is this a message he has brought to humanity so overwhelmed with the pursuit of money for money’s sake?

    INTERNET DISRUPTION

    When Ash Mufareh says ONPASSIVE will cause disruption  to the internet on global scale, he doesn’t mean it would engage in illegal business. What he is saying is that ONPASSIVE will come with so many internet business solutions that would be superior to any other over a three-year mark, yet come so cheap and revolutionising to ways and means that internet consumers would abandon the present variants and follow ONPASSIVE. And one of the ways he hopes to achieve this is by not “CHOPPING ALONE”, as we say in Nigeria, but by distributing the wealth from the internet common wealth among the poor peoples of the world.

    The following are not Ash Mufareh’s descriptions but my own opinions.

    Anyone who has read WALTER RODNEY’S book, HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA and CHIWEIZU’S book THE WEST AND THE REST OF US, both of which I read in the university, should suspect where Ash Mufareh is coming from. Industrial Europe took Africans as slaves to work in Europe and America. Industrial Europe bought African produce for next to nothing and brought it back with value added products at humongous prices. Industrial Europe scrambled for Africa and fought two world wars with Africa in tow over courses it neither knew nor understood. It took away African systems of government and replaced them with European’s. Today, Africans migrate to Europe on their own in a second, but wilful, second slavery this time. And as Chiweizu would challenge us to observe, most Alsatian dogs in Europe and America eat better and enjoy better medical facilities than many Africans, because the exploitation of Africa continues. Lately has been the practice of business in which the agents move cash capital out of Africa and pay Africans return on their investments through bit coin which does not enjoy wide acceptability as the U.S Dollar in their countries.

    I believe that, without saying it, Ash Mufareh may be inviting us to watch what the owners of Twitter, Instagram, telegram, zoom etc do to us. Google says about 220 million Nigerians subscribe to it and that about 99 per cent of Nigerian internet users use WhatsApp. These companies render good information services, no doubt. But the bottom line is that they cause humongous cash out flow from the continent, without in some cases paying tax or putting back a soothing balm on the bruised or bleeding economy. It is like a rape of the land once again in the information age.

    Like a William Wilberforce who helped to stop the slave trade in 1833, Ash Mufareh  plans to stop the internet exploitation, corruption and rape, and empower poor peoples and nations which are at the receiving end of the internet or information age. The 1.4 million o founders are his foot soldiers. He told them on September 1 that they would change the world and the “world will know your name”. They are the first line of ONPASSIVE customer base. They guarantee the company a unicorn business status and a huge customer base even before the start of business. The way things are working out, the 1.4 million o founders may be entitled to about 50 per cent of net earnings, with the company keeping the rest for itself, its design engineers and their support staff. The net earnings may run into billions of dollars over the next few years when ONPASSIVE may have as many as 200 products in the market. Next year, it would begin the manufacture of “physical products” in various locations on earth. These will be additions to internet products which will be emerging on monthly basis.

    CUSTOMERS

    Although the register of o founders closed on June 22, 2022 and will “never be reopened”, as Ash Mufareh promised, probably to prevent big internet players losing out in the “disruptions” from buying ONPASSIVE up through the back door, there is a way anyone who meets the register can still do business with ONPASSIVE and earn good income. Such persons will be customers of ONPASSIVE products who persuade other persons to be customers of Onpassive through them. In simple terms, if you would like to become a customer of Onpassive now, you would have to go through an o founder. As an o founder for example, anyone who signs in to ONPASSIVE through me will become a CUSTOMER of whichever application he or she has interests in. Some, if not all, of the applications may be available on a free trial offer. Upon signing up at no cost other than that for the purchase of an application,  for, say, one month or one year, the purchaser becomes a CUSTOMER. If the CUSTOMER introduces the products to some other persons who make purchases, the CUSTOMER becomes a RE SELLER and will be entitled to passive bonuses from such sale for as long as the customer uses the application. Such a customer would become a reseller to some one else if he or she does likewise.

    Through this model, ONPASSIVE targets billions of the five billion global Internet services consumers every year with superior, cheaper and effective services. Beyond this goal, considered achievable in the shortest possible time, ONPASSIVE hopes by 2023 to produce for the market two new superior products and one physical product every month. Ultimately, it looks forward to hundreds of “above market value products in two years or so to become the world’s biggest or most gigantic internet company which would have disrupted or consumed the greed in the industry, corruption, freed poor peoples and nations from the stranglehold of greedy and vulturous business class and nations.

    Many Nigerians did not recognise the foregoing as the goal of Onpassive when their o founder country men and women began to tell them about it. They had been severally stung by many vultures and thought yet another scam was upon them. But how wrong they were! Luckily and happy, they have another wonderful opportunity to partake of the wealth from the common wealth of the internet industry.

  • Lagos to sanction health practitioners flouting practice standards

    Lagos to sanction health practitioners flouting practice standards

    The Lagos State Government has warned that sanctions await any Ilera Eko healthcare provider who flouts healthcare practice standards.

    The General Manager, Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA), Dr. Emmanuella Zamba, said the agency had been inundated with complaints from enrolees on the health insurance scheme.

    She vowed that the state would not relent in its determination to ensure that Lagos residents, no matter their status, have access to affordable and quality healthcare.

    She said: “We, therefore, cannot fold our arms and allow some providers to destroy the good intention of the state government and its determination to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).”

    She said enrolees’ complaints included hospitals not giving drugs, not admitting patients, not carrying out tests and collecting money from patients on some of the drugs or tests covered, among others.

    Read Also: Ehingbeti: Lagos begins five-day activation in Yaba, Obalende

    The LASHMA boss added that government would not hesitate to deal decisively with any of such hospitals that are hell-bent on giving the state government a bad name or any hospital whose workers treat ILERA EKO enrolees with levity.

    Commending the hospitals that are performing creditably and taking care of Ilera Eko enrolees, Zamba said the agency would ensure that quality healthcare is provided for Lagos residents as healthy residents would be more productive and make a wealthy state. She warned that no enrolee should pay for any medical condition covered such as consultation, laboratory tests, admissions for 15 days in a year, treatment of diabetes and hypertension as well as monthly refill of drugs, antenatal and delivery, including caesarean section, surgeries such as herniotomy, appendectomy and herniorrhaphy.

    Zamba appealed to enrolees to call the dedicated customer service toll-free line while at the hospital for any complaint so that LASHMA could resolve the issue before leaving the hospital. The General Manager said that enrolees can also send text messages only via WhatsApp  in case they want to obtain a benefits package, hospital list, information, enquiry or even complaints about the health insurance plan.

    She urged customers to know their rights, pursue and claim them as LASHMA is out to serve them better. Zamba said that the new National Health Insurance Act (NHIA) signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in May, this year has made health insurance mandatory for all Nigerians.

    She, therefore, appealed to all Lagos residents who are yet to enrol on the health plan to do so without further delay in order to adhere to the law and reduce their out-of-pocket payment for medical bills.

  • PPC to partner retail stores, pharmacies to improve cardiac health

    PPC to partner retail stores, pharmacies to improve cardiac health

    PPC Healthcare, a subsidiary company of PPC Limited is partnering retail stores and pharmacies to encourage regular heart checks for early detection of irregularities that may prove fatal if undetected at an early stage.

    The company said the deal would enable Nigerians detect arrhythmias early for quick medical intervention to prevent heart attack, stroke, or heart failure.

    Studies have estimated that between six and 12 million people globally suffer from arrhythmia, a condition in which the heartbeat of affected persons becomes irregular and arrhythmic. This condition could lead to a medical emergency, especially when undetected, resulting in heart failure or stroke.

    As the part of the collaboration, PPC’s channel partner will deploy a light-weight ambulatory cardiac monitoring device called Bittium Faros, for short-term and long-term cardiac monitoring.

    Read Also; Medic admonishes Nigerians on healthy living

    Bittium Faros is a high-end medical technology that provides accurate measurement of the electrical activity of the heart from 12 hours up to 30 days, giving comprehensive data that can easily be interpreted by cardiologists. Speaking on the strategic partnership, the Head of Sales-Medical Devices at PPC Limited, Bamidele Nse-Jacobs, explained that early action is important for the management of heart conditions.

    “We are excited to be partnering retail stores and pharmacies in the country as this will empower Nigerians to take charge of their heart health through regular checks. It has been discovered that many people die from cardiac arrest because they were unable to detect irregular heartbeats, heart-rate variabilities and other related symptoms early enough.

    “The major barrier experienced by people with a high risk of cardiac abnormality has always been convenience and access to diagnostic equipment and that is why this partnership will bring the heart-monitoring equipment closer to Nigerians. This alliance is part of our commitment to saving lives, encouraging healthy living and shaping the future of healthcare service delivery in Nigeria.”

    She added that cardiologists have found the device easy to use, cost-effective and valuable for their practice, complementing in-hospital patient management and medical research.

    Nse-Jacobs stated that the strategic partnership is a patient-centered approach to healthcare delivery as it extends access to live-saving diagnosis, reduces duplication of testing, and helps achieve improved cardiac health.