Prioritise Your Health Above Gains, NGO Tells Market Women

A Non-Government Organisation (NGOs), Health Tips By Sunset Affairs says Nigerian market women needs more health awareness to curb sudden death through underlying ailments.

The Convener and Director, Mrs Adenike Adeyanju, a US-based pharmacist of over 30 years, made this remark, while delivering an inaugural keynote address of the NGO in Lagos today.

The event held at Sheba Centre, Kingsway Bus Stop, Maryland, Lagos.

The Health Tips Seminar is tagged “Prevalent Health Issues Among Market Women: Possible Solutions and Health Management; Connections of Menopausal State of Women’s Health Issues.”

Adeyanju, a Registered Consultant and Community Pharmacist, Hills Borough GH County, Florida USA, who spoke on Blood Pressure, Stroke and Cardiac Diseases States and Preventions, said markets women were at high risks.

She said: “We are here because it has been burning in my heart to come back and give back to Nigerians, especially market women because of the nature of their work.

“Having left home when I was 14, now that I am older, I feel I can play a role in savings the lives of Nigerians. We have picked a community of people, the market women because I am a business woman.

“As market women, we do not have time to see doctor and check our health.

“We are taking care of everybody and nobody is looking after us. I felt women need to take care of themselves. We have to pay attention to our body to prevent hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol among other.

“So, we are going out to educate market women that health is important while doing our business.”

She said that the team, in collaboration with medical experts, would launch medical outreach to markets to conduct basic medical check ups and offer health assistance to market women who needed help.

Adeyanju said the team would start from Oshodi market to offer free medical check up including blood pressure, sugar level, cholesterol and others.

“If we see those who need help with blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, we will help them and make sure they see doctors and follow them until the challenge is controlled and they are well taken care of,” she said.

On the reasons for focusing on women, Adeyanju said, is that women go through a lot in taking care of homes, going for businesses and they sleep less, while men seem not to pay attention to them.

She urged market women to invest in blood pressure machines and watch their health regularly to live long so as to eat the fruits of their labour.

Adeyanju urged the government to have special healthcare schemes for market women to easily attend to their needs to save their lives.

Calling on the state governments to make quality healthcare affordable to market women, Adeyanju said that governments could partner with NGOs to give attention to women.

The Convener of the event said that the NGO planned to touch as many markets it could in batches with partnership with other NGOs.

“We need to save a lot of lives. Let all state governments take care of market women because they are the ones that keep the economy going.

“We do not want people to get sick and just drop dead. We need to take care of our market women and make them live long and keep the economy going,” she said.

She said that the group got support from some pharmacists, who donated drugs to be distributed to the people.

The medical expert said that controlling blood pressure and cholesterol was one of the most important ways to prevent heart attack, which she said starts slowly, with mild pain or discomfort of the chest.

“Over time, high level of bad cholesterol can build up on the walls of the blood vessels. The bad cholesterol can create clogs and make it difficult for blood to flow through where the body needs it.

“Sometimes these clogs can block blood flow, leading to a devastating heart attack or stroke, and that’s why it has to be treated.

“The best way to manage cholesterol is to know the numbers and track them,” she said.

Another speaker, Dr Dapo Ogunsola of Ibukun Clinics, who spoke on Diabetes Disease States urged market women to guard against diabetes by changing their lifestyles.

Explaining that diabetes is a disease condition, when the blood sugar level is too high, Ogunsola said that it is a chronic disease of carbohydrate metabolism.

According to him, symptoms of diabetes include excessive passing of urine, especially at night, excessive thirst, loss of weight which is unexplained and increased appetite.

Others, he said, include tiredness, poor healing of wounds, blurred vision, recurrent yeast/fungal infection as well as tingling sensation and numbness of hands and feet.

According to him, diabetes can be prevented with a healthy lifestyles which included regular exercises and eating of healthy foods, especially food that are lower in fat and calories, but higher in fibres.

He said that losing weight gives people a healthier heart, more energy and better confidence.

Also speaking, Mrs Mosunmola Dosunmu, Founder, Menopause Support Nigeria, who spoke on menopause, described it as a systematic body change due to aging with decrease in sex hormones in both men and women.

According to her, menopause differs in people due to the difference in lifestyle; health status and even ethnicity.

She said menopause is absence of mensural period for 12 months, hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and irritability, and difficult sleeping are signs of menopause.

Others, according to her, include, cognitive changes (difficult in remembering names, directions, losing focus and train of thought), vaginal dryness, vagina valvar itching, depression and headache.