The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Medicine

  • MEDICINE SEMINAR Eagles’ doctor, physio in London

    MEDICINE SEMINAR Eagles’ doctor, physio in London

    SUPER EAGLES’ medical doctor, Dr. Ibrahim Gyaran and physiotherapist, Mr. Wale Oladejo are in the United Kingdom for a three-day seminar on football medicine.

    As the Nigeria Football Federation countenances a very busy summer with the Senior National Team due to engage in a high-profile international friendly match in the United States of America, two crucial 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches and the prestigious FIFA Confederations Cup, the two key officials are in the London to further improve their knowledge of treatment of Super Eagles’ players.

    The theme of the seminar, taking place at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre and Wembley Stadium, London between 20th – 22nd April, is “Football Medicine Strategy on Muscle and Tendon Injuries in Football Players”.

    Oladejo said: “We are very grateful for this opportunity to brush up our knowledge and capacity for taking good medical care of our National Team players. It is a marvellous opportunity.”

    The seminar is being sponsored by The Football Association and F-MARC, world football governing body, FIFA’s medical group.

  • Exercise is strong medicine for heart health

    Exercise is strong medicine for heart health

    One of the most powerful treatments to help prevent heart disease doesn’t need a prescription. Cardiovascular exercise – such as walking, swimming, biking – can be a remedy for a major heart risk.

    “In our program what we preach is that inactivity is one of the major risk factors for heart disease. Thankfully that’s a risk factor that we can do something about. And it’s never as much work as you think it is to be able to get the medicine from exercise, to get the benefit,” says Registered Physiotherapist Mireille Landry, exercise coordinator for the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative (WCHI) at Women’s College Hospital. “Within our cardiac rehab and primary prevention setting one of the things we hear most often is ‘Oh, that’s not as difficult as I expected it to be.’”

    Exercise benefits the heart in many ways. One major benefit is simply improving circulation and how your body uses oxygen.

    “That’s how you come out with the benefits of perhaps feeling less fatigue, less short of breath and having more energy: that’s usually related to the body’s ability to draw oxygen from your circulation. So physiologically that’s one of the main mechanisms of how we improve health,” Landry explains.

    The heart is a muscle, and by exercising you improve its strength and its ability to be an effective pump. Exercise helps your body work more efficiently, says Landry. That can improve your resting heart rate, and may also help to control blood pressure and cholesterol, manage healthy weight and delay or manage diabetes. But the benefits don’t end with the heart. Exercise has also been linked to reduced risk for some cancers, including breast and colorectal cancers, as well as for conditions such as osteoporosis.

    It’s also linked to being able to carry on activities of daily living in the community. For people who are aging who have low fitness and may have chronic conditions, making improvements to your fitness level can bring more independence.

    “It extends far beyond heart disease in terms of its effects,” Landry says. “It’s really medicine for many ailments that can affect the body.”

    People may think it’s difficult to start to get fitter, especially if they are inactive to start with. However, it doesn’t have to be hard or complicated, and Landry says inactive people have the most to gain.

    “If you’re inactive to start with, just a little bit of exercise will really bring a lot of benefit,” she says.

    “For people who are inactive, the first thing we say is anything is better than nothing. You need to start in small steps. We know that when it comes to accumulating physical activity for heart health, bouts as short as 10 minutes count. So you don’t have to figure out 30 to 60 minutes of available time to do activity to get benefit. If you just have 10 minutes in your day, that’s a good place to start.”

    Landry recommends choosing a 10-minute period to go for a walk – whether it’s in the morning or between errands at lunchtime or getting off the bus or subway a stop or two early. Do that every other day for a couple of weeks. Then try to step up to 10 minutes every day, and do that for a couple of weeks.

    “And then ideally over the next weeks after that you’re adding an extra 10-minute bout and so on and so forth. Ideally you’re accumulating 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity or exercise,” she says.

    Moderate exercise means you feel like there’s some effort involved.

    “It should feel like some work, like you’re maybe getting warm, you might be getting to a point where you’re perspiring or sweating a little bit, there’s a definite change in your breathing where it’s deeper, but you can still carry on a conversation at the same time. So working harder doesn’t mean it’s so hard that you’re short of breath,” Landry explains. “Something we use in the gym is called a talking test, so if you’re able to talk while you’re exercising that’s a good sign. You shouldn’t be able to sing, and you shouldn’t be gasping. It’s called a sing, talk, gasp test.”

    It’s specifically aerobic exercise that reaps all these benefits. That means using large muscle groups rhythmically over time, as one does when doing activities like walking, swimming or biking. Other types of exercise such as yoga or working with weights are great for stretching and strengthening, but don’t provide much cardiovascular benefit.

    “When we talk about fitness, aerobic or endurance exercise is the big one,” Landry says. “Then there’s strengthening and stretching, that are other pieces to the puzzle so that you can age in a way that you’ve got the endurance to do what you want to do, but you also have the strength to bring you up the stairs and the flexibility to tie your shoes. It all blends together when you talk about general fitness.”

  • Alternative Medicine practitioners seek for recognition

    The Alternative Medicine Practitioners of Nigeria has re-emphasised its desire to be accorded the status of an independent body. It has therefore called on the Federal Government to do “what it is supposed to do in order to move this medical sector forward.”

    Professor Joseph Okoro Akpa made the call at the matriculation/graduation ceremony of the Luminar International Centre for Health and Alternative Medicine, Ndiulo Imeama, Mgbowo in Enugu State.

    Akpa, who is the founder of the centre said: “Lack of action by the government had been the greatest hindrance to the progress, promotion and efforts towards moving the practice of alternative medicine forward in this country.”

    He also blamed his colleagues and members of the public for lack of action in enhancing the development of the sub-sector.

    Continuing, he said: “The federal and state governments have failed to do what they are supposed to do to move this medical sector forward.

    “In the case of the public, they lack the drive to form themselves into pressure groups that could influence government to do something, considering that they have been benefiting immensely from our services.

    On the part of the practitioners he said: “Many of our alternative medical practitioners in Nigeria have failed to contribute positively towards the success of our struggle. Some of them have just relaxed in the comfort of their clinics busy making money without caring; so long as they are not harassed by the law enforcement agents.

    “Some form opposition groups against those who use their time, energy and resources in making spirited efforts to keep our medical practice going. Some others form themselves into betrayal party while others form themselves into intimidation and exploitation party to shortchange the uninformed practitioners.”

    Professor Akpa, however, expressed his happiness that crisis that engulfed the National Complementary and Alternative Medical Association (NACAMA) which, he said, nearly caused its disintegration has ended. The association, according to him, was able to handle the crisis that nearly brought extinction to the practice of alternative medicine practice in Nigeria.

    “It is my pleasure to inform you that all disagreements both in court and police have been resolved. Peace and unity have returned in our midst and in our association.”

    He enjoined the graduating students to uphold the ethics of the profession and enter the world to empower and mend souls.

    He urged them to regard themselves as disciples of God and see alternative medicine as a battle which will liberate them from the grip of orthodox practitioners.

    Prof. Akpa reminded the graduating students that they would be monitored wherever they are practising.

    The graduation and matriculation ceremony was preceded by seminars and lectures during which various papers were presented.

    The seminars and workshops were moderated by the spokesman of the alternative medicine practitioners, Dr. Bade Adewale.

  • 5,000 patent medicine stores shut in Kano

    Over 5,000 patent medicine stores have been shut at the popular Abubakar Rimi Market in Sabon Gari, Kano.

    The move, it was learnt, was to protest the government’s December 31 deadline to quit the market for allegedly selling fake and counterfeit drugs.

    The government’s decision followed increasing drug abuse and addiction by the youths.

    This, it was learnt, has put the state among the highest with illicit drug use and consumption in the country.

    The Nation investigation showed that the Kano branch of the Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED) took the decision to make the government rescind its decision and dialogue with the association to resolve the impasse.

    The government, it was learnt, may have been misinformed that members of the association sold fake and counterfeit drugs to the public at rock-bottom price.

    This informed the decision of the government to issue the December 31 deadline for the patent medicine sellers to quit the market without providing an alternative for their business.

    The Nation further discovered that the sudden closure of the medicine stores would not only affect Kano residents but also all the northern states that patronise the market, including government agencies.

    The patent medicine sellers noted that it would be better for the government to start an enquiry to test the drugs that are sold to the public in the market.

     

  • Stem cell experts win Nobel Medicine Prize

    Stem cell experts win Nobel Medicine Prize

    Two pioneers of stem cell research have shared the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology.

    John Gurdon from the UK and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan were awarded the prize for changing adult cells into stem cells, which can become any other type of cell in the body.

    Prof Gurdon used a gut sample to clone frogs and Prof Yamanaka altered genes to reprogramme cells.

    The Nobel committee said they had “revolutionised” science.

    The prize is in stark contrast to Prof Gurdon’s first foray into science when his biology teacher described his scientific ambitions as “a waste of time”.

    When a sperm fertilises an egg there is just one type of cell. It multiplies and some of the resulting cells become specialised to create all the tissues of the body including nerve and bone and skin.

    It had been though to be a one-way process – once a cell had become specialised it could not change its fate.

    In 1962, John Gurdon showed that the genetic information inside a cell taken from the intestines of a frog contained all the information need to create a whole new frog. He took the genetic information and placed it inside a frog egg. The resulting clone developed into a normal tadpole.

    The technique would eventually give rise to Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal.

    Forty years later Shinya Yamanaka used a different approach. Rather than transferring the genetic information into an egg, he reset it.

    He added four genes to skin cells which transformed them into stem cells, which in turn could become specialised cells.

    The Nobel committee said the discovery had “revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

    “The discoveries of Gurdon and Yamanaka have shown that specialized cells can turn back the developmental clock under certain circumstances.

    “These discoveries have also provided new tools for scientists around the world and led to remarkable progress in many areas of medicine.”

    Prof Yamanaka said it was a “tremendous honour” to be given the award. He also praised Prof Gurdon: “I am able to receive this award because of John Gurdon.

    “This field has a very long history, starting with John Gurdon.”

    It is hoped the techniques will revolutionise medicine by using a sample of person’s skin to create stem cells.

    The idea is that they could be used to repair the heart after a heart attack or reverse the progress of Alzheimer’s disease.

    Prof Gurdon, now at the Gurdon Institute at Cambridge University, said: “I am immensely honoured to be awarded this spectacular recognition, and delighted to be due to receive it with Shinya Yamanaka, whose work has brought the whole field within the realistic expectation of therapeutic benefits.

    “I am of course most enormously grateful to those colleagues who have worked with me, at various times over the last half century.

    “It is particularly pleasing to see how purely basic research, originally aimed at testing the genetic identity of different cell types in the body, has turned out to have clear human health prospects.”

    Prof Yamanaka, who started his career as a surgeon, said: “My goal, all my life, is to bring this stem cell technology to the bedside, to patients, to clinic.”

    The president of the Royal Society, Sir Paul Nurse, said: “I was delighted to learn that John Gurdon shares this year’s Nobel prize for physiology or medicine with Shinya Yamanaka.

    “John’s work has changed the way we understand how cells in the body become specialised, paving the way for important developments in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

    “My congratulations go out to both John and Shinya.”

    Prof Anthony Hollander, the head of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of Bristol, said: “This joint Nobel Prize traces and celebrates the wonderful scientific journey from John Gurdon’s pioneering early work to the sensational discovery of somatic cell reprogramming by Shinya Yamanaka.

    “It’s fantastic news for stem cell research.”

    Sir Mark Walport, the director of the Wellcome Trust, said: “John Gurdon’s life has been spent in biology, from collecting insects as a child to over 50 years at the laboratory bench. He and Shinya Yamanaka have demonstrated conclusively that it is possible to turn back the clock on adult cells, to create all the specialised cell types in the body.

    “Their work has created the field of regenerative medicine, which has the potential to transform the lives of patients with conditions such as Parkinson’s, stroke and diabetes.

    “This is a wonderfully well-deserved Nobel Prize.”