“Nationals should revert to traditional diet for good health”…says visiting Health Specialist
By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com
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| Co-director of UHI and Public Health Professor at Harvard University Dr. David Williams |
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TWO medical practitioners of the visiting United Hands Incorporated [UHI] are of the view that nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis need to exercise more and should return to traditional diet to ensure a healthy lifestyle.
In an exclusive interview, one of the Co-directors of the UHI and Public Health Professor at Harvard University in Boston, Dr. David Williams, told SKNVibes that nationals of the twin-island Federation should revert to some of the things their grandparents did in order to enjoy the blessings of good health.
“If the people of St. Kitts and Nevis can go back to some of the things their grandparents did they will improve their health. Our grandparents got a lot more exercise than we did because they walked a lot more than we do.
When I say exercise some people may think that I mean for them to go to gym or jog or do something very physically active, but brisk walking is a very excellent form of exercise,” he said.
The Vincentian-born medical practitioner also pointed out that the older generation’s diet was much better than what is currently
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| Co-director of UHI and Elementary Medicine Physician Dr. Don Bovell |
consumed by nationals of and some residents in the Federation.
“One of the other things that our grandparents did is that their nutrition…their diet was better than ours because they ate more foods as they were grown. They ate more naturally occurrent fruits, vegetables and provision. Today we are going for the fast foods, the refined foods and the quick modern packaged high-calorie with preservatives and lots of added sugar, salt and fat, which is part of the root of our problem.”
He added that life is much more stressful today than it was in the past and “stress is not only in what happens to us, but it is our attitude towards it, how we view it and how we approach the challenges we face. Therefore, there is a lot we can do to take control of our health, and that is what we at the United Hands Incorporated want to encourage people to do. You have one life to live…take care of it”.
Dr. Williams noted that some people take better care of their automobiles than their bodies.
“The belief I would say to Kittitians and Nevisians is that some of us take better care of our cars than our bodies. We don’t put corn oil and coconut oil in the car, we put the gas what the manufacturer required and similarly our bodies. Unlike cars, we only have one body, we cannot get another model. Therefore, let’s take care of the bodies that God has given us by eating well, by living well, by getting adequate sleep and by living a balance life.”
Dr. Williams emphatically stated that health is the foundation to everything one could accomplish, and if one does not have good health one could not take advantage of the opportunities that life has to offer. ~~Adz:Left~~
“One of the tragedies of the West Indies today and most Western industrialised countries is that most of the health problems we suffer from are preventable. There are chronic illnesses linked to the way in which we live. The big killers in St. Kitts and Nevis and throughout the region today are heart disease, cancer and strokes, and underlying these killers are high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity,” he said.
He also referred to infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, as another of the major issues in the Caribbean.
Dr. Bovell also agrees that diet and exercise are essential ingredients to good health. He however strongly believes that people should exercise four days per week for 30 minutes each day to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Dr. Bovell, who is also a Co-director of the UHI and an Elementary Medicine Physician in Florida, was born to a Guyanese mother and Barbadian father.
He said his practice is primarily concerned with patients who suffer heart attacks, strokes and motor vehicle accidents.
Dr. Bovell said he likes the health missions that his organisation has been involved in over the years because he gets the opportunity to render advice to many people.
“I like these mission trips that we do because I get to emphasise preventative health measures in order to prevent the three conditions that I see in the emergency department. I think a lot of areas where we don’t succeed as well, is where we don’t emphasise health measures as physicians.
“For example, something as simple as exercise four times a week, 30 minutes at a time, decreases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. If someone were to bottle that or put it in a pill and charge people money, they will pay for it; but it is something they have control over. So, I think sometimes it’s so simple that people do not believe it is true. But the Centres for Disease Control estimate that if Americans would start exercising, overall, we would prevent 50,000 deaths per year” he said.
In response to what motivated him to become involved in free healthcare service, Dr. Bovell said it was to get the word out about preventative health measures.
“My motivation came from seeing people at their end by not following preventative health measures. Additionally, I associate with Dr. Williams and his focus also is public health. I think that public health measures are the key as a nation and as a community as well as an individual, and that’s how you make an impact on your health. Therefore, as a physician, I am not here only to treat patients but also to counsel and advise them on ways to better health.” ~~Adz:Right~~
Williams and Bovell are part of a US-based 40-member team of health professionals that arrived last Sunday in St. Kitts to provide free health screenings to residents of the Federation.
The team has been offering services in vision evaluation and free glasses, blood pressure checks, glucose/cholesterol screenings, ultrasound imaging, dental evaluation and treatment, nutrition and weight loss counselling, and medical examination.
On Monday, hundreds of residents in St. Kitts flocked the Newtown Health and Community Centres for treatment, while many more had gathered at the Old Road Health Centre and the Cayon Health and Community Centres on the following day.
The health professionals also treated persons at the St. Paul’s Community Centre yesterday and today they are over on Nevis doing the same at the Beulah Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Gingerland and Charlestown Health Centres.
The health team’s one-week visit to the Federation is sponsored by the St. Kitts and Nevis Seventh Day Adventist Church in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
A community thanksgiving service is also scheduled to take place at the Rivers of Living Water Church’s Convention Centre, Lime Kiln Industrial and Commercial Park from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 2.
United Hands Incorporated is a non-profit organisation based in the US. The all-volunteer group makes one mission trip per year and, prior to St. Kitts and Nevis, the team had travelled thrice to Jamaica and once to Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, South Africa and Ghana during its 10-year existence.
According to Dr. Williams, the leadership of the organisation comprises persons who originally came from the West Indies and it was formed because they wanted to create an opportunity for its members to give back to various communities.
“We believe that we have been blessed by God with the talents and skills that he has given us, and once a year we raise our own money, pay our fares and expenses to be in places like here to engage in an effort to help improve health,” the doctor explained.
The 40-member team of health professionals is scheduled to depart St. Kitts for the US on Monday, August 4.
