"Herbal Medicines Have No Side Effects" - Obiora Atuchukwu, CEO Ako Group Of Companies

In the global battle to sustain health care, herbal medicines have consistently proven to be very efficacious and effective in treating several deadly conditions because of the natural properties they possess.

Chief Executive Officer of Ako Group of Companies, Obiora Atuchukwu, whose firm is the sole marketer of two of the most active Indian herbal medicines for diabetes and piles, asserts that herbal medicines do not have side effects.


For this reason, Atuchukwu says that he remains committed to fighting deadly diseases with natural medicines, which he noted are very safe.


He posited that he chose to start with medications for diabetes, piles and urinal tract infections because they are prevalent and have caused more harm in the African society.


Atuchukwu also stated that his decision to combat diabetes was informed by the recognition, as certified by the World Health Organisation, WHO, that diabetes is the eight most deadly disease in the world because it is common among people in low to middle income countries of the world, ranking after diarrhea, which is the 7th deadliest disease and second killer of children under five years.


Atuchukwu explained that diabetes is a group of diseases that affect insulin production and use. “In Type-1 diabetes, the pancreas can no longer produce insulin. However, the cause is not known.”


According to him, in Type-2 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or it cannot be used effectively. “Research says that Type-2 diabetes can be caused by a number of factors, including poor diet, lack of exercise, and obesity.”

The Indian ayurvedic medicine dealer also expressed that diabetes can be managed in so many ways, especially with the use of natural medicines like Dykure, which is effective for treatment of diabetes without side effects.

Atuchukwu also explained that it is necessary to do a quick body scan against diabetes miletus, as prevention is better than cure. “After taking bath daily, check your body from head to toe, look for cuts, sores, blisters, and in-grown toenails.”

He also advised that one should not forget the places where moisture can hide and germs can grow in the body. “Check under your arms and breasts, and between your legs and toes.

Look extra closely at your feet and use a mirror to help you see all over. And if you have cuts or scrapes, treat them quickly. Also, take a moment to moisturize dry skin.”

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Deep Slow Breathing Reduces Blood Pressure - Experts

With the number of Nigerians suffering hypertension (also known as high blood pressure) being on the rise, medical experts said learning how to regulate breathing could be the cure if the condition is diagosed early enough.

According to a new study published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’, researchers at the University of Melbourne and Macquarie University, in Australia, stated that the neurons, which control breathing also control blood pressure and, therefore, breathing deeply can help to lower blood pressure levels Hypertension has been labelled a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke.

High blood pressure is a common disease in which blood flows through blood vessels (arteries) at higher than normal pressures.One in three adults worldwide is affected by high blood pressure and implicated in over 18 per cent of death globally, but according to the World Health Organisation WHO, the number of Nigerians living with high blood pressure is estimated at about 56 million.

“It causes blindness, irregular heartbeat or eventual heart failure. It can be countered by reducing high salt intake and high calorie food and avoiding sedentary (inactive) lifestyle.”
The researchers said it was vital that effort is placed into identifying people at risk early before it’s too late. The ‘mailonline’ reports that breathing and blood pressure are functionally linked through the sympathetic nervous system, which sends signals to the heart and blood vessels.

 The researchers discovered that when neural activity was interrupted in young adults, they could control blood pressure. The altered neural activity leads to increased fluctuations in blood pressure with every breath taken.

“By interrupting the activity between these two groups of neurons during adolescence, we were able to dramatically reduce development of high blood pressure in adulthood,’ said lead researcher Professor Andrew Allen of the University of Melbourne. Professor Allen added that the research paralleled what professional athletes and eastern philosophies have long understood about the link between breathing and heart rate.

“Biathletes have to regulate their breathing to slow down their heart rate before rifle shooting, and eastern meditative practices such as yoga and pranayama have always emphasised the interaction between the two,’ he said.

Biathletes are people engaging in winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.

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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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