HEALTH TRENDS

Wisynco supports heart care

Here, an employee of Wisynco Group Limited has his blood pressure checked by Nurse Mara Francis of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica (HFJ). Wisynco facilitated the screening at no cost to some 150 employees as part of their Heart month activities earlier this month at their corporate offices in Lakespen, St Catherine.

Welch's, a global leader in fruit beverages distributed locally by Wisynco, will donate three per cent of Welch's sales for the month of February to the Heart Foundation of Jamaica.

The initiative is geared towards increasing awareness of heart and blood-vessel diseases and canvassing support for programmes that seek to address these conditions.

Heart disease is a leading killer of women in Jamaica and registers high mortality rates for males as well. Through this campaign it is hoped that the HFJ will increase resources required to educate the populace and provide support in heart care where possible.

Jamaica Medical Foundation launches $100m initiative

The Jamaica Medical Foundation, the outreach arm of the Insurance Industry, recently launched an initiative to raise $100 million.

The objective of the move is to create a larger pool of funds to enable the foundation to continue to provide medical interventions and equipment to medical institutions out of the income of the seed fund without reducing the base money.

The foundation is reaching out to individuals and corporations alike to become members and to donate to the fund so in their own way they could provide relief for persons facing medical challenges which they are unable to deal with due to circumstances beyond their control.

The foundation, chaired by Oliver Jones, has been around for just over 25 years and has a capital base of $20 million, even after a quarter century of gifting. The Foundation's chairman invited both corporations and individuals to become members, to build a broad-base philanthropy.

The launch received donations and pledges of approximately $1 million from the audience, who listened attentively to the message from guest speaker Professor Winston Davidson from the School of Public Health at the University of Technology. He echoed the message of Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson that Jamaica needed to focus on dealing with non-communicable diseases, which were now responsible for 60 per cent of deaths globally.

Jamaica participates in historic million woman march

Jamaica will participate in the first ever Million Woman March for Endometriosis (Worldwide Endo March), which will take place on March 13 in more than 53 cities around the world, including Kingston.

Organised by country captain Shauna Fuller Clarke through the Shauna Fuller Clarke's BASE Foundation, Patron Lady Allen will be walking on the day to support approximately 100,000 young girls and women in Jamaica who suffer from endometriosis.

Fully endorsed by the Ministry of Health, the march will involve women, men, families, schools, churches and corporate Jamaica, who will walk from Devon House to Emancipation Park via Trafalgar Road and Knutsford Boulevard.

A rally will follow at Emancipation Park where invited guests will speak on the importance of women's health, highlighting chronic pelvic diseases, and participants will be fêted by special guest artistes.

Endometriosis is quite common. An estimated one in eight women and girls are affected and suffer from mild to severe pain as a result of the disease, which translates to more than 200 million women worldwide.

If not detected and treated properly, endometriosis can be a serious, painful and debilitating disease with severe medical consequences.

Poor sleep leads to widespread pain in elderly - study

A new study published in the Arthritis & Rheumatology journal showed that non-restorative sleep, the kind when you wake up feeling tired and worn out despite getting your usual amount, contributes to a higher risk of widespread pain in older adults.

The British researchers defined widespread pain as the kind that affects multiple parts of your body, such as fibromyalgia.

The study looked at the physical and mental health of more than 4,300 adults older than 50 and found that after three years, 19 per cent of the participants had developed some kind of new widespread pain.

The researchers explain as people age, muscle, bone and nerve pain become more prevalent and that getting enough sleep might be one of the most important factors in treating pain.

The British researchers say managing other issues such as anxiety and physical health is also key to decreasing widespread pain.

But it is possible for sleep to be too much of a good thing. Last October, a study by the US Centres for Disease Control found too little sleep and too much sleep are linked to chronic diseases, such as diabetes.