Senior health practitioners, Dr. Aba and Yalley, have debunked claims that eating groundnut gives pimples. Educating the public on the second episode of Vodafone Healthline’s ninth episode, the experts provided an indepth explanation to the various causes of pimples which could not be hanged on the necks of groundnut alone.
General Health Practitioner, Dr. Kwekuma Yalley, speaking on the flagship CSR programme of Vodafone, indicated that generally groundnuts do not cause one to get pimples. He added that with females for instance, acne or pimples can be realized as pre menstruation symptoms and during puberty which has nothing to do with ground nut consumption.
However, he was quick to add that when people with inflammatory acne take groundnut in large quantity, it then exposes them to acne, emphasizing that this is usually on a few cases and therefore groundnut cannot be said to be the cause of pimples.
Taking her turn, Dr. Aba Folson, Senior Physician/Cardiologist, indicated that the process through which pimples develop is by the imbalance of hormones and glands leading to infections on the skin, hence pimples cannot occur whether or not one eats ground nuts.
On the topic of allergies, she said: “They happen in many ways and of course if one is allergic to groundnut, the person can develop some rashes on the face or body which may be considered as pimples, however, allergies manifest differently so it is not every rash on the face that we call pimples,” she said.
Nevertheless, Dr. Yalley and Dr. Folson, were both of the opinion that nuts are general one of the things that people react to as a very potent allergy, therefore when one gets persistent acne from consuming any form of nut, they should see a doctor for advice.
It is worth commending that during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and beyond the Vodafone Healthline’s number, 255, has been of great support to many citizens receiving about 33,000 calls from many Ghanaians who are having one complication or the other and needed health counsel because they could not go to the hospital and they were assisted by professional health practitioners.
About 75 percent of the calls were about issues of symptoms, cause and prevention of COVID-19. Others were concerns about hypertension, cholera, symptoms about malaria, premature ejaculation, and issues of menstruation.
CEO of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, indicated that Vodafone is a proactive organization so once the country recorded its initial cases, a risk assessment meeting was held and management quickly took the decision to allow staff work from home, providing them with the necessary requirement to enable them do that effectively.
She added that Vodafone did not only take care of its over 1000 staff by making them work from home only but health professionals were contracted on standby to always check up on the staff immediately.
For clientele, Vodafone doubled data bundle offers at the same price and further provided free online portal access to all the tertiary institutions across the country.
“Vodafone is a brand with a purpose and did not only operate in the country for profit but human impact focused and as such has always been committed to supporting the people of Ghana. When the COVID-19 started, we even provided a free video calling centre for parents who had their children schooling in China to enable them communicate with them and know about their wellbeing. The supports are numerous and I cannot mention all,” he said.
