Over 70 percent Of Nigerians Depend On Traditional Medicine - Dr. Bola Olaosebikan, MD/CEO Healthcare Herbal Products

(Being the concluding part of the interview between Dr. Bola Olaosebikan, the founder of Healthcare Herbal Products, and Nigeria Natural Health Online’s editor, Dumbiri Frank Eboh. The second and the first part were published on Wednesday and last Saturday respectively)

Government Can Still Do More For The Nigerian Herbal Industry

It is true that government is trying it’s best to promote the herbal industry in Nigeria; but I think it can still do more for that sector of the economy. And that is why Healthcare Herbal Products has taken the initiative to launch an advocacy for State government in the country to bring out policies that will encourage and promote the practice of natural and herbal medicine in their respective states. This will make every state to develop their own medicinal plants; there should be medicinal gardens in every state. Practitioners in the industry should also be registered; they should be brought together so that training and retraining programmes can be organized for them. The experts among them should be invited to set up the system in different places, this will go a long way in safeguarding the health of the people and reduce, if not eliminate, the incidence of quackery and excessive claims by people who just want to sell anything to the unsuspecting public. Some of this people bring out a product and say it can care a thousand and one ailments, which is untrue of course but it is still happening in many rural communities in Nigeria.

But if government brings in openness and infrastructure, the situation will improve. Government can even set up a laboratory where practitioners will come and do their tests. Most of these people do not have the money to go to private labs to do their test. This will also help to gain the confidence of most traditional medicine practitioners most of whom are hiding their formulas for fear that these formulas might be stolen if they should go to private labs to do their tests.

Over 70 percent Of Nigerians Depend On Traditional Medicine

Developing traditional medicine in Nigeria is very important because it is a sector that is taking care of over 70 percent of the Nigerian population.

This is glaring because of the poor health system in this country. What is the strength of our health system? How many Doctors and Hospitals do we have for the entire population of Nigeria which is over 180 million people?

The TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants) are also playing a major role in our rural communities. Many deliveries are taking place by TBAs in the rural areas. These should be trained so that we can reduce infant and maternal mortality. Women suffer a lot in rural areas because there are no hospitals, there are no maternities. I once worked in a state where I was a member of the hospital management board and I was the Chairman of the district. The Oba of that town said one of the seven things he wanted to achieve for his people was to have a health centre and I eventually helped him in achieving that. It was even one of the things that CNN documented when they came here to interview me. In that town, the women usually trekked a long distance before they could get health care which of course is not good especially for heavily pregnant women that are near delivery. But the story has now changed for the people of that town called Imota, located near Ikorodu in Lagos.

So government can train TBAs and give them delivery kits to enhance their practice. Some of them are using blades that are not sterilized to cut umbilical cord which could lead to tetanus. If proper care is not taken, both mother and baby could be infected with life threatening diseases. Indeed there need to be a collaboration between traditional medicine Practitioners and government in terms of establishing centers where practitioners can access them.

The China Example

In China when you get to a hospital, you can decide whether you want to see an orthodox doctor or a traditional medicine practitioner in that same hospital. All you do is make your choice. If one of them cannot do it, you are referred to the other. You find that traditional medicine now uses modern technology, practitioners now use labs, they now tell their patients to go and do scan. They don’t just throw something on the floor to diagnose your ailment as it was done in the past. Now they use X-ray, they use ultrasound. Same way, orthodox doctors are also integrating herbal medicine into their practice. So you may say that the orthodox are practicing traditional medicine while the traditional medicine practitioners are practicing orthodox medicine. This kind of collaboration is called Complementary Medicine and it is the way to go in our present society. We also tell traditional medicine practitioners not to go beyond their bounds; they should not go into surgery in other not to endanger lives.

So, there should be a clear goal and objectives for government at various levels to enhance the practice of herbal medicine with clear goals and clear vision. And I think the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology is doing something in this respect the Federal Ministry of Health is also on it. At the global level, there is a proper recognition of natural medicine by the World Health Organization (WHO). There is even a day approved by the WHO to celebrate natural medicine; it is called Traditional Medicine Day.

It is expected to be celebrated every August in every country. It is left for individual government to key into it and implement it. Indeed if we must achieve health for all, it has to be through traditional medicine because it is cost effective. But government must ensure that practitioners meet standard requirement.      

Healthcare Herbal Products In The Near Future

We see Healthcare Herbal Products becoming a household name, we see it becoming the first port of call for users, we see it distributed in every pharmaceutical shops in Nigeria. We see it being prescribed by doctors across the country. We also have a plan to have our own institutes so that we can do more research and training programmes. That way, whenever we talk of herbal Healthcare in Nigeria, we will be the flagship brand in the country.

Of course there are big brands currently in the country; they are doing very great and I commend them. But at Healthcare, we are positioning our brand as natural herbal solution with a scientific foundation. That actually is the difference between us and the crowd.

We also have a publication that educates people on health and wellness. It is the first health magazines in Nigeria, its started in 1986 and has been running for 31 years. It was the magazine that actually gave rise to the product because people were saying they had read the articles but they wanted something that would help them tackle there health issues some of which orthodox medicine could not tackle. That was how we decided to look into that area in order to bring genuine change and relief for the people. And ever since, it’s been a wonderful experience. Our dream is not just to be the best in the country but to spread all over Africa.

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37 Years Old Ugandan Woman Gives Birth To 38 Children

A 37-year-old Ugandan woman, living in Kabimbiri village, Mukono District, outside of Kampala, has made world record for having 38 children. According to the Daily Monitor of Uganda, the woman identified as Mariam Nabatanzi Babirye had her last baby via Caesarian section in December 2016, after which doctors cut her uterus from inside.

Ugandan woman Nabantazi, second left at the back row with her 38 children She has had six sets of twins, four sets of triplets, three sets of quadruplets and single births. Ten of these are girls and the rest are boys. The oldest is 23 years old while the youngest is four months.

The Monitor said she was married at the age of 12 in 1993, to a man who was 40 years old. “I did not know I was being married off. People came home and brought things for my father.

When time came for them to leave, I thought I was escorting my aunt but when I got there, she gave me away to the man.” In 1994, when she was 13, Nabatanzi gave birth to twins.

Two years later, she gave birth to triplets and a year and seven months after that added a set of quadruplets. This, she says was nothing strange to her because she had seen it before in her lineage.

“My father gave birth to 45 children with different women and these all came in quintuplets, quadruples, twins and triplets,” said the woman, who is called by fellow villagers as Nalongo Muzaala Bana, “the twin mother that produces quadruplets” Dr Charles Kiggundu, a gynecologist at Mulago Hospital and President of gynaecologists and obstetricians, said it was very possible for Nabatanzi to have taken after her father.

“Her case is genetic predisposition to hyper-ovulate (releasing multiple eggs in one cycle), which significantly increases the chance of having multiples; it is always genetic,” he explained.

The doctor told Nabatanzi that she could not be stopped then because she had a high ovary count which would eventually kill her if she stopped. “Having these unfertilised eggs accumulate pose not only a threat to destroy the reproductive system but can also make the woman lose her life,” Dr Ahmed Kikomeko from Kawempe General Hospital explained.

“I was advised to keep producing since putting this on hold would mean death. I tried using the Inter Uterine Device (IUD) but I got sick and vomited a lot, to the point of near death. I went into a coma for a month,” she said.

Ugandan woman Nabantazi, At the age of 23 with 25 children, she went back to hospital to try to stop producing more babies.

“I was checked in at Mulago Hospital and advised to continue producing since the ovary count was still high.” A Uganda County Councillor Samari Musenero said Mariam Nabatanzi from Kabimbiri village, about 50 kilometres north-east of the capital Kampala, had all the children with the same man.

“The woman is struggling to support her offsprings because she receives no financial assistance from the father of the children,” the politician said. He explained that politicians from the district had mobilised government funds to provide Nabatanzi with maize seeds to plant.

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New Glaucoma Test Could Prevent Blindness

Scientists have affirmed that it is possible to treat the main cause of permanent blindness from Glaucoma before affected persons notice any loss of vision.

These are the findings of a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal ‘Brain’. The ‘NHS’ reported that a proof of concept study of early testing for glaucoma – the most common cause of sight loss – had promising results.

The new study by researchers from Western Eye Hospital, Imperial College and University College London, reinforces the importance of having regular eye tests as these can often pick up glaucoma before it becomes a significant problem.

“You should have an eye test at least every two years,” the researchers recommended. Glaucoma is a condition that causes damage to the eye’s optic nerve and it gets worse over time. It’s often linked to a build-up of pressure inside the eye. Glaucoma tends to be inherited and may not show up until later in life.

Glaucoma is more common among people aged over 75. In glaucoma, the lightsensitive cells of the retinal nerve die, usually because of increased pressure in the eye.

The damage to the nerve, which is irreversible, causes progressive loss of vision and because people with glaucoma often don’t have symptoms in the early stages of the disease, a lot of damage may be done before it is picked up. Diagnosing glaucoma early would allow earlier treatment to relieve pressure in the eye, and may prevent sight loss.

The new technique involves injecting people with a fluorescent dye (thankfully into the bloodstream, not the eye), and taking images of the eye. Dying retinal nerve cells show up as white spots on the image. Researchers com- pared images from eight people with early glaucoma and eight healthy people, and showed that white spots were more than twice as common in people with glaucoma.

They also seemed more common in people whose glaucoma got worse quickly over time. However, the technique needs to be tested in large-scale studies to confirm the result as well as find out more about any safety issue.

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Excess Alcohol Increases Irregular Heartbeats

Researchers in Germany have found that getting drunk is associated with abnormal heart rhythms. These findings were published in the ‘European Heart Journal’.

Their study was conducted in a place teeming with potential research subjects. Relating his experience as part of the research team, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at University Hospital Munich in Germany, Dr. Moritz Sinner, said, “Basically we were sitting over a beer or two, ironically, and talking about how to design a study about relevance of alcohol consumption on heart rate. “Arrhythmia” means your heartbeat is irregular and this can be deadly.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the heart is beating too fast or too slow. It just means it’s out of its normal rhythm. It may feel like the heart skipped a beat, added a beat, is “fluttering,” or is beating too fast (which doctors call tachycardia) or too slow (called bradycardia). Similarly, an affected person might not notice anything, since some arrhythmias are “silent.” However, arrhythmias can be an emergency, or they may be harmless.

Sinner and his colleagues realised they could do their study at Munich’s Oktoberfest, the annual beer festival that attracts huge crowds of people who are enthusiastic about drinking.

The researchers found what they describe in the study as “a profound association of acute alcohol consumption with sinus tachycardia,” which Sinner describes as “increased heart rate with no justification.”

They also found that, while the heart rate generally varies as a person’s breathing rate changes, that ability decreased as people drank more.

In fact, the more alcohol people had consumed, the more likely they were to experience both symptoms, the data showed. Sinner said these same symptoms were often experienced by people who have had a heart attack in the past, or who have congestive heart failure, although there is no evidence that the participants in this study had any lasting heart damage from their visits to Oktoberfest.

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Why Infertility Is On The Rise - Dr. Bola Olaosebikan, MD/CEO Healthcare Herbal Products

(Being the second part of the interview – started last week Saturday – between Dr. Bola Olaosebikan, the founder of Healthcare Herbal Products, and Nigeria Natural Health Online’s editor, Dumbiri Frank Eboh)

Why Infertility Is On The Rise?

The trend now is that new diseases are coming up. You may call them emerging diseases. Just as you have emerging markets, you have emerging diseases too. These new disease, especially in the area of infertility, are becoming outstanding. And they exist amongst men and women. The major culprit is the kind of food we eat, this is the fundamental baseline of the disease. We are eating junk foods, we are eating processed foods, people are taking too much sugar and salt. All these are not helping the health system at all. Men are not having enough testosterone and when a man does not have enough testosterone, the man will not be potent and would not be able to produce enough sperm. He might even actually become infertile.

Climate Change As A Factor

There is also the issue of climate change, the climate is becoming warmer than before and this is bad for men because men do not need something hot in their reproductory tracks. That is why the testicles are in a sack outside the body where it is cooler than inside the body that is hot. The testis cannot function with too much heat.

The kind of dress that we put on too, affects our fertility. Buba and Sokoto are good because they allow in air; but you find people wearing tight trousers. These tight trousers compress the testis and put pressure in the testis and the more pressure there is on the testis, the more difficult it is for a man to produce sperm. The nylon under pant that people put on too is not good. I advise people not to wear under pant or boxers and if they must wear them to go out, they should pull them off as soon as they come back home. Wear a long dress and let your balls be free so that blood can circulate in that area very well.

Sexual Promiscuity

Ignorance has caused a lot of infertility for most men.

Another issue is sexual promiscuity. A lot of randy men are having sex without using condoms and so they are picking infections from here and there. So, multiple sexual partners could lead to infertility.

A lot of people are no eating natural foods. I always advise people to eat fruits and vegetables. If you take fruits and vegetables every day, you are going to be very healthy. Banana is very good, so also are Pineapples, Watermelon, Cucumber, Cabbage and a host of others.

Stress

Stress, which is the mother of distress, is also a strong infertility factor amongst men and women. The economy is becoming very bad and people are working extra hard to take care of the family. Stress produces a lot of stressors or corticoids that counter male hormones and make them less fertile, Same thing for women. Some women have water coming out of their breasts when they are not feeding a baby and this is very bad. Any woman that is lactating (i.e water coming out from her breasts) when she is not breast feeding a baby, can never be pregnant until the liquid coming out from the breasts stop because the signal that is given to the brain is that she is breast feeding a baby; and when a woman is breast feeding, she cannot take in. When she has weaned the baby and the milk stops, that is when eggs are released and she becomes pregnant.

Disease As A Cause Of Infertility

Disease too can lead to infertility. Infections can block the tube for women. 70 percent of women are having issues with their reproductive system. It is either the tubes are blocked or they are having fibroid.

The Influx of Foreign Herbal Brands Into The Nigerian Market

Of course, there are so many foreign herbal medicine brands in Nigeria and there is a battle now in the market between Foreign and Indigenous brands. But the fact is that you should always strive to patronize Nigerian brands because they are more trusted than the foreign ones. Some times I call these foreign ones “Flowers” because they are just beautiful but there is nothing inside them. You cannot be sure of the efficacy. You cannot even be sure of their root, their source or where they are coming from. The address that is written on it may not be genuine. Somebody just puts a sticker there that say there are 20 different ingredients in it but you cannot be sure of it. The temperature from where they are bringing these herbs is different from our own temperature, the soil is not our soil. Some herbs and medicine are made for a particular part of the world. There are foods that we eat here that they don’t eat over there. There are disease we have here that they don’t have over there and vice versa. How can they bring herbal medicine for malaria from Europe into the Nigeria market and say you should buy it? Is there malaria in Europe? So how can they bring that kind of medicine and you think it would work here? It is only orthodox medicine that can work like that because they are chemical based and they are put together in factories all over the world. But every Nation has their own herbs, has their own herbal medicines. Every nation has their own foods, their own gardens. What the Chinese eat is different from what we eat here in Nigeria and what we eat here is different from what the Americans eat. That is how herbal medicines too, is.

Herbs can come from a foreign Nation but they have to be put together in another nation for them to be relevant in that other Nation. You can bring something that is grown in South Africa, you can bring something that is grown in Ghana; but it is when you bring it to Nigeria and add Nigerian herbs to it that you complete the formulation. There are some herbs you get from Jos, there are some herbs you get from Uyo, from Ogwashi-Uku, from Ado-Ekiti and indeed every part of Nigeria. All these are from our own soil and when you put them together, you have a herbal product that can effectively tackle health issues amongst Nigerians.

But these foreign brands are just here to trade, they are not here to treat our people. They are just doing E – commerce, they don’t care about our people. They promise people that when they get into the network marketing platform of these drugs, people can get cars and travel overseas. How does that impact on the health of Nigerians? I think clinical studies should be carried out on foreign herbal medicines coming into Nigeria before they can beat their chest in pride; but until then, you should patronize Nigerian herbal medicines formulated by Nigerians and made by Nigerian companies. These should be certified by NAFDAC. NAFDAC has given us standards and I commend them for the job they have done and for the job they are still doing. They have standardized the practice of herbal medicine in Nigeria by giving guidelines on how practioners should engage the industry. In the final analysis, the sky is the limit for indigenous herbal medicine in Nigeria; foreign ones can only queue up behind us…

(TO BE CONCLUDED ON SATURDAY)

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FG Bans The Use Of Chloroquine In The Treatment Of Malaria In Nigeria

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has announced the ban on chloroquine and artemisinin monotherapy used in the treatment of malaria.

He also stated that about N300bn was being lost annually by the Federal Government in the treatment and prevention of the disease.

According to him, the losses are incurred in government’s efforts to address the scourge in the country.
Adewole spoke yesterday in Abuja, during the commemoration of this year’s World Malaria Day with the theme, “End Malaria for Good: What is your Role?”

“With a new emphasis on citizen accountability and rights I want you as a Nigerian citizen to challenge your health care provider and ask questions. When you have malaria and somebody wants to prescribe drugs for you, ask the health care provider: ‘Have you confirmed this is malaria?’ It is your right.

“As a citizen when your healthcare provider prescribes chloroquine or artemisinin monotherapy,  say no. Doctors and nurses have been told that chloroquine is no longer useful and that it is wrong to prescribe artemisin monotherapy. For the healthcare provider, do not treat malaria without diagnosis. Tell yourself, ‘I must not prescribe chloroquine. I must not prescribe monotherapy for artemisinin when what we should prescribe is a combination therapy”, the minister emphasised.

He said that although malaria remained a preventable disease, it had continued to be a huge problem in Nigeria where 90 per cent of the entire population of 180 million people, particularly pregnant women and children under the age of five, were at risk.

The minister said, “In Nigeria, malaria is responsible for around 60 per cent of out-patient visits, 30 per cent of childhood deaths, 25 per cent of death of children under one year and 11 per cent of maternal deaths. Similarly, about 70 per cent of pregnant women suffer from malaria, which contributes to maternal anemia, low birth rates, still births, abortions and other pregnancy-related complications.

“Financial loss to malaria is estimated to be about N300 billion annually in form of treatment cost, prevention cost and loss of man hours. Malaria is one of the principal reasons for the poor school attendance in many settings because it counts for 13 to 15 per cent of medical reasons for absenteeism from school.”

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Malaria Kills 300,000 Nigerians Each Year - United States Embassy

In commemoration of the World Malaria Day, the United States of America has said that no fewer than 300,000 Nigerians die annually due to malaria related illnesses.
 
This was even as it disclosed that about $495 million has been plunged into the fight against malaria in about 11 states within six years. In a statement made available to Newsmen yesterday in Abuja, by the United States Embassy in Nigeria, the Deputy Chief of Mission, David Young, further disclosed that over 80 million Nigerians are diagnosed of the disease every year. According to him, this year’s event, with a Nigerian slogan of “What is your role?”, is aimed at highlighting the global campaign to “end malaria for good,” by recognizing the individual and collective roles to end the scourge.

“Each year in Nigeria, more than 80 million people fall ill and 300,000 die from malaria. The U.S. government, through the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is committed to raising awareness about the proper prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

“Early and accurate diagnosis is essential for rapid and effective disease management and surveillance. Malaria diagnosis is vital as misdiagnosis allows disease progression from uncomplicated to severe forms, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality.

“In 2015, Nigeria adopted the T3: “test, treat and track” strategy for malaria case management. “Ending malaria will increase school attendance, boost worker productivity and significantly lower out-of-pocket cost for treatment.

This is why malaria prevention and control remain a major U.S. foreign assistance objective.” “The national guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of malaria recommends prompt diagnosis either by microscopy or malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (mRDT) before treatment, using first-line Artemisinin Based Combination Therapy (ACT) is administered.

“It improves overall management of patients with febrile illnesses, and helps reduce the emergence and spread of drug resistance to anti-malarial medications,” he said. Young further noted that to curb the menace:”The U.S. Government supports local partners to design and implement programs to improve public and private sector adherence to diagnosis and treatment guidelines.

“With an investment of over $420 million in Nigeria since 2010 and $75 million in 2016 alone, PMI delivered nearly 7.5 million RDTs and 12 million ACT treatment doses in support to 3,000 health facilities across 11 states in Nigeria,” he added.

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