Get Screened

Screen screen screen

I put my life into retrospective when we lost a staff at my hospital due to uncontrolled hypertension. She is a young lady in her late twenties. Then I said this is a lady who checked everyone's blood pressure before they see the doctor but didn't know her own blood pressure.

This article is about what trend the whole world is towing now as far as health is concerned.  Health care is becoming more preventive than interventional. People spend very little to get tested routinely for illnesses rather than to spend millions to get healed. It is a very rare practice in our part of the world, thats why people come down with fungating illnesses with poor prognosis. At the hospitals people don't know their blood groups, their sickling statuses, hepatitis B statuses, and even their weight or height. Am sure no one will fault anyone if he doesn't know his or her HIV status.

This is a drive to empower Ghanaians to take charge of their health and know they are the major stakeholders of their lives. It should be routine to walk into a facility to do a pap smear as early as your mid twenties. You should be able to do a breast exams and follow up with a cholesterol test in your mid thirties.

I know my Ghana will get there!!!! Go Ghana

5 danger signs about your health (PART II)

A BMI(body mass index) of 26 and rising

Get a bathroom scale and do this simple test on yourself. You would have heard about this fancy body mass index thing. What is it really? This measures your weight comparing it to your height. It is the norm for tall people to be heavier than shorter people because of more bone and muscle tissues. The formula which is quite technical is BMI= (Weight in Kg) divided by (your height in meters squared). Don’t worry about committing to memory this cumbersome formula because there are a lot of websites which will give you a value once you provide your height and weight. (http://bmi-calculator.en.softonic.com/). Now to the interpretation of the values you get. A BMI value of less than for 20 means you are underweight. The normal value is between 20 and 25. A value of more than 25 means one is overweight and above 30 confers obesity.

BMI VALUE	REMARKS
<20	UNDERWEIGHT
20-25	NORMAL
25-30	OVERWEIGHT
30-35	OBESITY
>35	MORBIDLY OBESE

BMI is usually used to determine whether a person is overweight, but the calculation does not measure body fat. However, the correlation between BMI and body fat is very accurate. Measure a person’s Body Mass Index is a straightforward procedure and does not require any specialized equipment or tools, and this simple screening can determine if a person is overweight, or may become overweight, which can help to prevent future health problems associated with that condition.

PERSISTENT FEVERS

Do not attribute every feeling of rise in temperature to malaria. Its very easy to make malaria the culprit whenever we feel feverish  for obvious reasons. This persistent fevers could be a sign of more serious disorders. You could be having very early signs of leukemias or disorders that reduce your immunity. Get to talk to your doctor(am assuming you have already formally or informally contracted a medical doctor you can discuss issues with)

OVEREATING COUPLED WITH THE URGE TO ALWAYS DRINK WATER

This is usually a red flag if these two symptoms present at the same time. Usually there is a third symptom of always urinating especially in the night termed as nocturia. This could be the first symptoms of Diabetes Mellitus( simply Diabetes). Diagnosis of diabetes is usually very simple, inexpensive and  very helpful in preventing all its debilitating complications.

The series continues. Watch out for the rest of the series. Follow us on @ghhealthdiary.blogspot.com, @carlnutsugah, and carl nutsugah on facebook