2022 World Diabetes Day:

 The theme for this year UpTo 2023 is ACCESS TO DIABETES CARE.

We keep raising our voices and keep calling on policy makers and the government to give non-communicable diseases such as Diabetes the attention it deserve.

Access to medication is hard especially in this biting economy. If appropriate policies are translated from paper work to implementation, the burden of diabetes especially for  those who are insulin dependant if not total lifted, will be a tremendous relief.

According to WHO's recent analysis; Approximately 6% of the world’s population ─ more than 420 million people ─ live with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. This number has quadrupled since 1980 and is estimated to rise beyond half a billion by 2030. While premature mortality from other major noncommunicable diseases is decreasing, early deaths from diabetes have increased by 5% since 2000. More people are living with diabetes, and more people with diabetes are dying earlier than they would have if they had access to high quality, equitable care and treatment. 

It is our hope that while we await a cure, policy makers, government and other relevant stakeholders will prioritize access to quality diabetes care especially at such a challenging time as this. 

2021 WORLD DIABETES DAY

 

Great diabetes warriors and care givers,
It's world diabetes day 2021, and we are excited. We are not there yet, but we believe we are moving forward and making progress.
With this year's theme, we want to as always call on the government, policy makers and law makers to ensure that treatment for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension receive required attention. If we can't get the drugs and other medications entirely free, let's get reasonable subsidy on them.
Living with non-communicable disease is not a choice or as a result of act of carelessness as the case maybe( considering type 1 diabetes), the government and those in affairs of policy making and implementation must rise up to the task especially in the face of the increasing hardship as a result of the economic challenges in Nigeria and Africa at large. While provisions are been made to curtail communicable diseases, let's not forget that there are people who live daily on pills and injectables, not by the choices they make but of necessities.
It is our hope that our voices be heard and something done about the rising prices of this medications so that while the rich are buying without reservations, the poor too can afford to have their daily pills.

I want specially thank my colleagues in the war front, those whose relentless efforts in their little ways are bringing about the change we desire and deserve in the diabetes community.
Many thanks to companies such as Roche and host of many others that always find the opportunity to give back, we appreciate your efforts.

Finally, we appreciate all the care givers that supports everyone living with diabetes or any other non-communicable disease, thank you for the great job, your support keeps many people's hope alive. While we hope for the days we will begin to reap the fruits of our demand for the diabetes community and other NCDs, we congratulate all those living and fighting DIABETES, YOU ARE THE REAL WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS and we celebrate you today with great joy.💙

© Precious Diabetes Foundation
#WorldDiabetesDay2021
#roche
#pjoshdiabetesfoundation
#diabetesandhypertensionhelpsociety
#worldiabetesfoundation
#NationalAssembly

2020 WDD: NURSES MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

 The theme for 2020 world diabetes day is DIABETES: NURSES MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.

Most people living with diabetes often require the service of a nurse especially those who have complications and are hospitalized. 

Nurses are involved in all round care for diabetics, starting from simple checking of the blood glucose level, counseling, administration of medicine to patients, assist in clean up of patients, etc. Nurses are just wonderful professionals.

Generally, in Africa and Nigeria in particular, there is excessive workload on our nurses, in my opinion this is the reason why it is perceived that nurses in the general hospitals are harsh on patients where as it's a function of work overload in most cases. In most hospitals, you can fine a nurse or two on night shift, having the responsibility to cater for all the patients in a single ward, this ought not to be so.

I want to use this opportunity to call on employers at all level in our health facilities to look into the problem of work overload as it concerns nurses. When a nurse have too many patients to care for, it does not only frustrate the nurse but also reduces the quality of care the patient is suppose to get. It is also important that health care facilities maintain the practice of retraining their nurses through organisation of workshops, seminars and continuous development programs.

Most importantly, it is advisable that everyone have basic knowl

edge of  diabetes, it's signs and symptoms and it's management and care, this will help cut down the burden on nursing care and also prevent complications on the part of the patient. 

We look forward to having a week long discussions on diabetes, nursing care and how  patients and their care givers can help reduce the burden on nurses. 

DIABETES CONCERNS EVERYONE, please take action to help prevent it and it's complications.

© PRECIOUS DIABETES FOUNDATION

#diabetes

#diabetestalks

#WorldDiabetesDay

#diabetesadvocatesnigeria

SARS-CoV-2, on wearing mask and gloves

Hey Guys,
Let me quickly address some issues on wearing of mask and personal protection as the SARS-CoV-2 infection continue to rise in Nigeria (may God help our effort to bring it to control) , please read through and be guided.

ON WEARING OF MASK
Must I wear mask?
The answer depends on your location, if you are coming out to the public knowing you are going to be meeting a lot of other people who will be talking to you, OHOOOO YES, WEAR A MASK!!!
We are currently at the level of community transmission, what this means is that you can get infected right at your door step, so please wear a mask when you are out, you never can tell who have the virus without symptoms.
I know wearing this mask can be very uncomfortable, especially the cloth mask, that's why you should catch some air in your safe zone like when in your car alone or walking alone on the street, but once you are around anyone, be sure to use your mask.
And please if you wear mask ensure your NOSE and MOUTH is covered else you are not masked yet, and if you must remove it, DO NOT touch the body of the mask, touch only the strings.

ON WEARING HAND GLOVES
In the prevention of this COVID 19, wearing of hand GLOVES is a disaster happening everywhere including on you who is wearing it. My teenage cousin was telling me she feels wearing hand gloves is safe because she saw some of our law makers wearing it on television during their plenaries, well I don't know what their doctors and medical advisers are doing about that.
Wearing hand gloves is dangerous even to you who is wearing them. With your hand gloove you can pick up all the bugs and deposit them on your phones, your hand bag, your pockets, your car keys, pen and many other stuff that you don't care to sanitise before touching them with your bare hands after you remove the gloves. Another example is wearing gloves to the market or grocery stores, you touch from one product to the other, transferring bugs to the food packs and foods without packs and you still use same infected gloves to touch your pocket/bag and the money you take out to pay or the change you return to your pocket, I mean!!! Wearing and removing hand GLOVES in disease prevention have techniques medically, else you will end up contaminating what you are protecting.
Please keep all the gloves away, WASH YOUR HANDS regularly and in the absence of water and soap, use your HAND SANITIZER.

As a diabetic or a diabetes care giver know that you (or your loved one living with diabetes) is highly at risk of complication when infected with the virus, so please stay as safe as possible.
May God continue to protect us by his mercies and grace.

#diabetescare
#COVID19
#SARSCoV2

Dietary management approach tip

I was reading up Gout and it's management, ooooh boi, you need to see all the list of foods to avoid, virtually all food except veggies and fruits, even at that some fruits are also listed to avoid.

In management of diabetes some care providers and care givers still ask their patients not to eat carbohydrates, some poorly informed patients eat only beans and it's likes until their organs develop problems.

You don't "always" have to boycott eating any type of food. Diabetes can be effectively managed by making food choices based on your current blood glucose level. Until a cure is found, fight right, you will surely win always.

Understanding Cholesterol

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is an important constituent of our body's cell membrane. It is an oil based substance which travels in the body through lipoproteins.

Cholesterol can be good or bad. When it is high, cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease and can cause heart attack.

Cholesterol is fat-like in appearance. It is produced by the body and can also be consumed in food. It is essential for:
- Building component of cell structure
- Producing hormones
- Vitamin D production
- Food digestion

Two types of lipoproteins carry cholesterol:

1. Low density lipoproteins (LDL) which carries "BAD" cholesterol
2. High density lipoproteins (HDL) carries "GOOD" cholesterol.

*Lipoproteins are molecules that transport fats in extracellular fluids.

Risk factors for high cholesterol
- Family history
- Life style choices; diet
- Sedentary life style

Causes of high cholesterol
- Consumption of food high in:
a. Cholesterol such as animal fat, meat, cheese
b. Saturated fats in diary products, fried foods, certain processed food.
c. Saturated fats present in some baked foods, deep fried foods, processed foods etc
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- liver or kidney disease
- Pregnancy or conditions that increases female hormones
- Certain drugs that lowers HDL and increase LDL

How do I feel when cholesterol is high?

High cholesterol is one of the causes of :
- "He just slumped and died"
- "Sudden death"

In other words, one can be living with a very high blood cholesterol without knowing until he/she develops complications and visits the hospital. In the event of high cholesterol, plagues deposit in the wall of arteries and cause narrowing of the walls which in turn reduced blood flow, causing artherosclerosis and other complications such as
              -stroke
              -heart attack
              -death
So, frequent blood test (lipid profile in this case) will help detect high cholesterol and of course prevent this risk.

How do I control high cholesterol?
The first major way is prevention, to prevent is to eat healthy. So most of the things we eat and call enjoyment are "killer mates".

In the event of high cholesterol, life style modifications such as diet and exercise will help a lot. If this fails your doctor can prescribe medications such as statin to lower the cholesterol levelq.

Food(s) that help reduce and maintain cholesterol are:
- Nuts: cashew, groundnut, walnut etc
- Vegetable oil
- Soy
- Beans
- Vegetables: okra, eggplant
- Oats
- Fibre rich foods: wheat
- Fruit like apples, grapes, strawberries
- Whole grains: corn, barely, millet

In all, maintaining a healthy weight and avoids habits such as smoking eiwi help a great deal.

Normal values for cholesterol are:
Total cholesterol------- <200mg/dl
HDL-------------------------- 40-80mg/dl
LDL--------------------------- 50-150mg/dl

We are here to help you win DIABETES!

"Ij please call me", that was the message my friend dropped on my inbox. I didnt take her serious because I felt if she is serious she will call me.

Her next message read, "you no want call untill I die here, I need your advice on diabetes". Immediately I read diabetes, me wey no get call credit, piam! I loaded my phone, called her asap.

She have been diabetic for 5years, it started with gestational diabetes, never able to reverse it, had all her three kids premature. We spoke at length, I asked questions about how she have been managing the diabetes. She never got any tangible counseling, have been doing the dietary aspect all wrong without considering her blood glucose levels. As at when we were speaking her fasting blood glucose was at 9.8mmol/L. Did I add she developed hypertension as well. All this have affected her eyesight.

By God's grace I was able to put her through the sure things she can do to be in charge of her health, 2-3weeks later, her story is different, blood glucose levels have dropped to 4.5mmol/L, blood pressure is also down.

As a diabetic you are your own doctor, look for people who are informed and learn from them, tryout healthy options, select and stick to those that best keep your blood sugar in check. Read books and surf the internet on ways to manage diabetes naturally.

As a care giver living with someone who has diabetes, your responsibility does not end in providing for them, encourage them, support them especially with respect to meals, let them don't feel left out, join them to make and eat healthy meals, it will help you as well.

Type 2 diabetes is reversible, any one can achieve that. Having problem managing your health, contact us today for the help you need.
#diabetestalks
#diabetes

Smoking Alert!

It was 7.10am on a working day, a well dressed young man was puffing smoke!
My boo was like, ADDICTION, VERY BAD.
My thoughts: What if he is diabetic?
He might have heard but not informed of the hazards of smoking.

Some people many times refer to smokers who are close to their hundreds as an evidence of smoke not so harmful, my answer is, he have been fine with smoking, what if you keep copying him and become a victim of your own habit.

Again others say something must kill a man, well there is no problem with been ready and facilitating your death, my concern is disturbing the people in your life with the burden of the sickness you will create before you eventually die.
You want to wreck peoples pocket before your exist abi, Olorun ma je!

Picture stories of Precious Diabetes Foundation's activities

Warning signs of diabetes complication

*photo: viewers digression is advised

Diabetes is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease, blindness and amputation in adults.
Warning signs of diabetes complications are:
1. Eye problems eg blur vision or flashes
2. Tingling or numbness on your feet and hands.
3. Wounds or sores that don't easily heal

4. Chest pain
5. Tiredness

What can you do?

Keeping your blood glucose as normal as possible is the best way to avoid complications.
In cases where the complication have developed already, lowering your blood glucose level will help prevent further progression of the complication.

#diabetescomplications
#Diabetestalks

Diabetes and Erectile Dysfunction.

Quite a number of people who have erectile dysfunction don't want to talk about it, not even to a health care provider.

Erectile dysfunction is to mean the inability of the penis to achieve firm and sustained erection, sufficient to sexual intercourse.
Put in broken English, erectile dysfunction na when penis no stand well enough during sex.

Premature ejaculation is different from erectile dysfunction. That you experienced occasional erection problem is not to mean you have erectile dysfunction, but it could get worst if not checked.
Men who have diabetes and above the age of 40 are at the risk of developing erectile dysfunction.

Causes of erectile dysfunction in men with diabetes are:
- blood vessel damage
- nerve damage
-low testosterone
*cardiovascular disease and neuropathy are risk factors for erectile dysfunction.


Other causes of erectile dysfunction are:
*Alcohol
*Smoking
*Medications for treating high blood pressure, peptic ulcer, depression and anxiety.
* Stress
*Anxiety

Diagnosis
Your health care provider may ask you to see a neurologist. Test that can be conducted are:
-Ultrasound
- Drug test: this involve injecting drugs into the penis to check if the cause is blood vessel damage related.

Prevention of erectile dysfunction
*Keep your blood glucose level close to normal  as possible
* Quite smoking
* Quit or reduce alcohol intake

Treatment
*Medication
*Stress therapy
*Psychotherapy
*Testosterone injections
Some supplements have been found to be very helpful though they are quite expensive.

Can a child have diabetes?

O yeah, diabetes can occur at any stage of life. The type of diabetes that occur in children is called type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes.
 After asthma, diabetes is the second most common chronic disease in children- American Diabetes Association.

Photo: Know your blood glucose level campaign, April 2011 at Akwanga, Nasarawa State, Nigeria.

People with type 1 diabetes are unable to produce insulin (the substances that unlocks the body cells so they can take up glucose from the blood stream), therefore glucose pile up in the blood, causing diabetes.

Symptoms
1. Extreme thirst
2. Extreme hunger
3. Blurred vision
4. Frequent urination
5. Tiredness

 Causes
Scientists are of the opinion that the cause of this lack of insulin is because, for some unknown reasons, the body's immune system in these patients sees the cells (islets of Langerhans in the pancrease) where insulin is produced as foreign body and begin to destroy it, this destruction may take months or years.

Risk factors include:
1. Family history and gene
2. Drugs and chemicals
3. Viruses
4. Race and ethnicity
5. Auto antibodies

Management
Most kids just like adults are not diagnosed early, some even go into coma as a result of very high glucose levels.
People with type 1 diabetes usually get very ill if their diabetes are not well managed.
Management, unlike type 2 depends largely on insulin therapy. Exercise and nutrition also compliments the insulin here.

Contrarily to type 2, juvenile diabetes cannot be prevented. If your child is having any symptoms of diabetes, in addition to the regular malaria and typhoid test in hospitals, let him or her take a #bloodglucosetest, it helps.

URINE TEST AND IT'S SIGNIFICANCE

URINE TEST
Most times when people hear 'bring your urine' they think of pregnancy test or infection. While this is correct, that urine can be used for testing pregnancy or infection, I like you to know that's not the only thing you can test urine for. Urine can also be used for culture to identify bacteria or can be screened for many other parameters.

Urinalysis as it is medically called is a simple way of screening the urine for some actors of medical importance. These actors include:

1. Blood: finding blood in the urine of a woman may not pose any medical threat if she is menstruating. Blood in urine can indicate an infection or other problem with the kidney.

2. Glucose: when found in urine, this is not a diagnosis for diabetes. We Will trash this in our next blog. But sometimes little glucose in urine is not a great source of worry, like other parameters when present it is an indication for further test especially blood glucose test.

3. Protein: an indication for either infection, hypertension, liver or kidney problem.

4. Leucocyte: these are white blood cells. Their presence in urine calls for urine culture.

5. Ketone: I refer to this test as a glucose starvation indicator. Ketone bodies are the by product release when the body uses fat as an alternative source of energy in the absence of glucose. This is evident in starvation, prolonged exercise, low carbohydrate intake or in diabetes (due to lack of uptake of glucose from the blood).

6. Bilirubin: indicator of problem with the  red blood cells (in jaundice) or the liver.

7. Urobilinogen: same as bilirubin indicating problem with the liver or jaundice(there are different types of jaundice as a result of its different causes). Also urobilinogen presence in urine can be as a result of treatment with drugs that acidify urine.
*Normally the urine contain little amount of urobilinogen, but positive urinalysis test for urobilinogen and bilirubin calls for liver function test and of course other test such as hepatitis test and blood count.

Other parameters in urinalysis are:

8. Ascorbic acid
9. PH
10. Specific gravity

Make every time PLEASURABLE.

Recently I participated in the last world TB and HIV Day events. Attractive gifts was given out, the most attractive gift in that package for some people was the #sexlubricant.

They keep asking what its used for.
So who else on this platform don't know what sex lubricants are? I will tell you;
For the purpose of our cultural and moral values I will limit this write up to only SEX LUBRICANT USES FOR VAGINAL INTERCOURSE. (Understood?)

So what are sex lubricants?
They are specialized agents used for the purpose of reducing friction or to aid easy penetration during sexual contact. There are various forms this products are made from, it could be oil base, water based or silicone based.

WATER BASED LUBRICANTS
These are considered the best because they are water soluble meaning they are easily dissolved in water. This quality makes water based lubricants easy to wash after the show.

OIL BASED LUBRICANTS
These include lubricants such as petroleum jelly. It is usually recommended for those who don't have need for condom because oil based lubricants can cause breakage of the condom due to loss of elasticity of the latex.

USE OF SEX LUBRICANTS
I remembered one of those sections during my marriage counseling, someone narrated how a married woman was always complaining about pain and bruises resulting from dryness, and she asked;
1.Must someone always do it just because she is married?
2. What if am not in the mood?
Well if you (women ), agree with me, our default lubricant (saliva) does not really do a good job, thus reason for bruises. Lubricants do not only wet the environ but also turn you on into fiery mood.

Method of its application is not defined. Apply it the way it will suit you, but believe me you should only use it when you have need for it.

 A lot of people have wrong notion about sex lubricants, men in most cases feel younger women should be sexually active and so don't require any form of lubrication- wrong!
 There are many reasons why you may not have a pleasurable time, for example: tiredness, lack of arousal, emotional Stress, anxiety, financial issues, chronic alignment( like diabetes), fertility sample production (the only masturbation i excuse for men) and so many others. Sex lubricants also help women who are in their menopause. Good lubricants will do a good job if strategically applied, so suffering and smiling is unnecessary.
I will draw my curtain here, leave questions and contributions in the comment box.
#sexlubricants
#pleasurablelubricants
#easefriction

FACTOR AFFECTING FASTING BLOOD GLUCOSE RESULTS

Taking a FASTING blood glucose test?

See the factors that affect your results:

1. The time you ate your last meal before the test ie too early or late at the night. 

2. The type of meal you ate last before the test time (is it heavy carb, light carb etc)

3. Activities you engage in during the interface before testing.

4. Eating food before the blood sample collection. Note that water, tea, soft drinks, juice etc are all considered as food for the purpose of this test.

*Fasting duration before test is 8-10hours preferably over night.

*The longer the fasting time the lower the test values and the shorter the fasting time the higher the test values, so try to observe your fasting within the stipulated range.

Have questions? Leave them as comments.

#fastingbloodglucosetest

DIABETES AND SEX

Sex is a vital part of life. It's climax is what makes the game desirable and pleasurable.
There are lots of factors that can contribute to sexual problems in both men and women. This factors include:
- hormonal changes
- medications
- emotional issues
- diabetes
The cause of your sexual problem will determine where you can effectively get help. For example if the problem is with hormone, for women, you can go to a gynaecologist, if its emotional, a mental health doctor will be of utmost help.
In our society, people find discussing sex quite embarrassing least opening up when they have a problem. It helps as soon as you notice any changes either with sexual desire or arousal, find a health professional who can help, else it can get worse.
For the purpose of this discussion, I will focused on diabetes as a factor of sex problem.
Some sexual complications due to diabetes are peculiar to gender.

For women
Most times the sexual problem in women have to do with emotions than the actual diabetes. They feel generally unwell, worried, depressed and so not always ready for sex. When a woman is not emotionally ready for sex, she is likely not to enjoy it physically.
Lack of sexual arousal in women can be caused by :
- Lack of desire for sex
- Medications
- Depression
- Pregnancy fear
- Hormonal changes
- Vaginal infections
- Urinary tract infection
To help solve some of the problems and improve on your sexual relationship below are some tips you can try:
- You can talk to your partner and discuss some of the things that make you feel romantic and get in the mood and practice them.
- There are medication especially those used for treatment of depression that will not affect your sexual health.
- Find out from your doctor how better you can prevent pregnancy as a diabetic
- Get proper treatment for vaginal infections to prevent pains during intercourse as well as itchy vagina.

PAY YOUR WAY TO HEALTH.

Fortify your health status with medical examination. Prevention they say is better than cure. We currently live in a society where people don't value health system until they encounter a problem.

TAKE ACTION FOR YOUR HEALTH

One of the things people find difficult is spending on their health especially when they perceive they are "healthy".

Some people can spend a fortune servicing their vehicle forgetting that the main vehicle (their body) need more attention. Some spend a lot of money travelling around the world in the name of holiday (not knowing that travelling itself is a stress) but can't spear a dime just to check their blood pressure.

A lot of people see health check as something that should be free therefore only spend money when their health or that of their family member(s) is deteriorating.

I agree nothing is wrong with you, but you can be more steps ahead with PREVENTIVE HEALTH CHECK.

Do you know hospital now is no longer mend for the sick and injured as the definition implies.
Checking your health status is of Paramount importance.

One of the sure way to preventing chronic disease and its complications is early diagnosis. Most diabetic and hypertensive patients are accidentally diagnosed. Do not wait to get to the hospital as a sick and injured person.

If you think you are too busy to check into a hospital facility contact us today to find out how you can get the help you need.
Email: pdfagainstdiabetes@gmail.com 

#healthyliving
#healthawareness

DIABETIC MENU GUIDE FOR NIGERIAN FOODS

  DIABETIC MENU GUIDE

Diabetics like every other person can enjoy every healthy meal but caution must be taken to   avoid hiking the blood sugar level.

·        Regular mild exercise for at least 30 mins daily is important

·        Avoid heavy breakfast and late dinner

·        Dinner must be served at most by 8.oopm

·        Eat small portions of food and snack in between meals

·        Most importantly, your daily diets should be guided by your daily blood glucose level, high blood glucose level should go with low carbohydrate foods and vice versa.

Menu	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast 7.30-8am	½ cup of oat porridge with milk and 1 cup of moimoi with 2 boiled eggs	1 cup of milk/tea with two slices of bread and ½ avocado pear	½ cup of quaker oat with milk and 1 cup of moimoi, 2 boiled eggs	1 cup of milk/tea with 2 slices of bread and 2 pieces  of fish in tomato sauce	2 bars of wheat biscuit with milk/ tea and 2 boiled eggs	4 medium size of boiled potatoes and vegetable stew with 2 pieces of fish	1 cup of milk/tea, 2 slices of bread and two pieces of fish in tomatoes sauce.
Snacks 11am	2 garden eggs	1 apple	1 small orange	½ cup of pawpaw	cucumber and nuts	garden eggs	½ cup of pawpaw
Lunch 1-2pm	11/2 cup of oat meal swallo with any  soup 2  pieces of lean meat or chicken	1 cup of unripe plantain pottage with vegetables and 1 small fish	1 cup of wheat swallo with soup and 2 pieces of fish

KNOW YOUR HEALTH STATUS

YOUR NEW YEAR HEALTH CARE RESOLUTION.

When last did you check yourself medically?

Someone once said and I quote,'What are my going to do in the hospital when am not sick'.

The big question is, are hospitals only mend for the sick? Refuse to fall into the category of, 'nothing was wrong with him, he just slumped and died'. That will not be your story in this 2018.

In this part of the world most people don't value the health sector, likewise their own health with regards to preventive medicine. They see hospital visits as a tour for the sick only. Some give reason's like, 'I never chop belleful na to go throwey moni for hospital i go do'. Too bad because when a preventable sickness come knocking, the door is already wide open and that time the money will either come out or he or she will go begging.

You don't have to be rich to take care of your health. You can do health checkup in any general hospital or healthcare center around you. Ask for general laboratory investigations to check your status. If you are thinking about the money, take advantage of the National health insurance scheme (NHIS) which helps crash cost.

The benefit of annual medical examination cannot be overemphasized. Check yourself and members of your family, if you are an employer encourage your staff to check their health status, you can pay for them to get checked, healthy workers of course is a source of increased input to achieve the output you desire.

Have you checked yourself this year?
If not, take action and prevent diseases and their possible complications.

If you are in the camp of people saying, 'I don't just go for checkup when am not sick because the doctors will always see something', if they see something, better for you, at least they saw it early, so they will make move to prevent further complications and damage.

Basic investigations you can do include:
*Blood pressure
*Blood sugar
*Urinalysis
*Liver function test
*Kidney function test
*Lipid profile
*Prostate screening (PSA for men above 40)
*Eye test
*HIV Screening
*HBsag screening (take vaccine if negative)
*HCV, VDRL
*Malaria test
*Widal test

We are available to offer professional help if you need one. Stay healthy this year, imbibe they culture of checking your health status.

#takeactionforyourhealth

DIABETES AND PREGNANCY

Normally diabetes put quite a lot of pressure on women. Pregnant women who have diabetes are at risk of having a miscarriage, stillbirth or a baby with congenital defects.

Women who have diabetes can have very safe pregnancy and very healthy baby once their blood glucose is managed properly all through the pregnancy.
It is important for women who have diabetes to plan their pregnancy ahead, this will help them keep the blood glucose on target levels:

• Fasting blood glucose 60-100/dl
• 2 hours after meal 100-140mg/dl
• HBA1c level at <7.0% 

If the blood glucose level is controlled and kept as close to normal as possible before pregnancy, the risk associated with diabetes especially birth defects can be prevented, this is based on the fact that baby's organ formation is usually in the first few weeks (6-8) of pregnancy. Achieving and maintaining good control levels will not only prevent birth defects but will also help control the weight of the baby in the second trimester.Pregnant women living with diabetes tend to have babies who are too big for normal delivery.

MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR DIABETES CONTROL IN PREGNANCY

• Monitor your blood glucose level more often. It will be great if you get a glucometer (blood glucose monitoring device) to keep track of your blood glucose level.
• Find a meal plan that works for you during the pregnancy. Eat small portions of food at a time and try to snack between meal instead of eating one heavy meal.
• Try taking dry food to avoid nausea or vomiting.  Note that dry food like crackers biscuits can help control nausea.

• Women with type 2 diabetes may need insulin during pregnancy, while those with type 1 may need to increase their insulin dosage. 

As a rule , visit your health care provider and determine what works best for you and follow the plan.