Dr. Josephine Akpalu, at the Endocrinology Unit, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has indicated that high blood pressure and kidney failure issues among young ones in the country are on the rise due to lifestyle related issues.
Speaking on episode nine of Vodafone Healthline, she explained that putting on extra fats can lead to a lot of health conditions in the body which mostly affects delicate organs such as the heart, liver, kidney and event joints.
Outlining the factors responsible for this recent phenomenon, she pointed to the abnormal desire to gain weight among the youth leading to taking of drugs. Other weight gaining situations she added include, hormone related diseases, kinds of food consumed as against level of output, thus imbalance between what people eat, the time they eat it, volume consumed and activities they perform after eating.
“Extra fats in the body are risky but where the facts go to in the body is also important, some of the facts go under the skin and some go inside which is called abdominal fats. And these abdominal fats are usually linked to the aforementioned diseases.
Both the fats under the skin and the one inside are harmful to the body with the abdominal fats usually getting stuck to the heart, kidney, liver and other organs in the body and start causing harm to the organs because these fats active and produces some hormones/juices that affects the way the body usually works,” she said.
In relation to people who are born plump, she indicated that they also have some level of fats in them and so should exercise regularly to maintain their shape rather than increasing the fats as a result of what they eat. In addition, she advised that young ones try to eat a balanced diet containing specific amounts of protein, vegetables, carbohydrate, fish/ meats.
The Healthline train moved to Tamale in the Northern Region to the rescue of Fuseini Abdul who was suffering from multifocal chronic bone inflammation called osteomyelitis, causing him to have deep wounds all over his legs and hand.
Narrating his own story, 14-year-old Fuseini indicated that he was in class six when the illness started and he couldn’t stay in class with the situation and had to stop the school. Later, he was taken to another school where he was admitted to class four instead, but even there he could not attend classes regularly because of the condition and had to stop.
Mohammed Abdul, father of Fuseini, stressed that as the peasant farmer he is, the family arrived from the farm on the particular day when his son started complaining of feeling feverish and since then has roamed all over and paid a lot of money for herbal remedies but have seen no positive results.
Unfortunately, the situation only became worse as he has run out of funds and cannot seek professional health assistance considering the cost involved as estimated by the health facility management.
“The Doctors informed us that they will call for assistance on our behalf. So, we were there when Vodafone came and they confirmed that indeed they will pay all the bills required for the child’s treatment and the turning around of our desperate situation. May God bless and help them with whatever they required for my son’s recovery,” he said.
