 Hello and welcome to Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I am your host for today, Jolene Beset Joseph. Now, May has been designated Hypertension Month by the World Hypertension League. With this in mind, the Saint Lucia Diabetes and Hypertension Association usually has a lot of activities happening around that time of year. However, due to the fact that so many people suffer from the illness and also there's a lot of education that needs to be got out there that is not the only time of year that the Association does a lot of work in sensitizing the public. And just to prove the point, I'm actually joined here today by Claudine Mathre, who is the Foot Health Practitioner and Client Service Rep at the Saint Lucia Diabetes and Hypertension Association, and also Elizabeth Ludovic, who is the Chair of the PR and Fundraising Committee. Ladies, thank you for joining me today. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Brilliant. Now, let's talk, first of all, about the medical condition, hypertension. I know a lot of people most probably know a lot about it, but just to sensitize people more so again, tell us a little bit about hypertension. What is hypertension? Okay, hypertension is a common disorder in the blood, which is where the blood pressure is abnormal. And when the blood pressure is like 140 over 90, that is abnormal. And that is the beginning of the end, if you don't take care of it. Okay, all right. So sometimes you mentioned high blood pressure, because it's actually sometimes called high blood pressure, right? Yes. Okay, now what actually causes the illness? The illness is caused by ourselves. Okay. Some of it is hereditary, but mostly what we eat, what we do. We don't exercise, we don't eat right, we eat the wrong things, and we don't do what Mother Nature say we supposed to do. And that would cause a lot of disorder in our bodies and put pressure on the heart, where we know the heart is the main organ where the blood goes through to our whole body. And if there is pressure there, it will cause the heart to function irregularly. And if the heart is not functioning properly, that means we have problems in the blood flow. For example, plaque in the veins where the blood flow from parts of the body back to the heart and back out. And that would be caused by what we eat and what we don't do. If we don't exercise, we're not allowing the veins, the arteries to allow the blood to flow the way it supposed to. So if we don't exercise and we don't eat right, we don't drink water, this would happen. Salt and sugar are main contributors. Our foods have salt because it's natural. Our fruits and vegetables have sugar because it's natural. But we tend to have an extra want, an extra taste. So we add salt, we add sugar, and that causes problems for us. Now something that you mentioned there, I don't know if Ms. Matri can elaborate on that. Exercise was mentioned. Now people hear exercise and they straight away want to know do they need to sign up to a gym or whatever. But when you talk about exercise, you're not talking about people being extremely like in the gym working out to extremities are you? Not at all, I think that's why I avoid the wood exercise and I say activity. Because people tend to think that you have to join a gym, you have to be busting yourself on a treadmill. But I think it's activity and it has to be incorporated in our daily routine part of what we do. And even on Tuesday night I was telling a group, you may not be able to take 30 minutes at once, but you can do it twice, 15 and 15, 10, 10, 10, or 5 by 6. But just getting at 30 minutes, it goes such a long way because the lack of exercise could wreck havoc on our bodies. And we really need the exercise. And as Ms. Lodofig said, hypertension is a lifestyle disease. By far it is a lifestyle disease. And a lot of the salt intake, it's a culprit. And as we speak, lots of persons with hypertension don't know they have it because they have never checked. So they walk around saying, well, I don't have high blood pressure, that doesn't bother me. And they might not live to know they had it. So that's why we're here. Now Ms. Lodofig actually mentioned something that she said that it could well be hereditary. So if you have somebody in your family or members of your family that have it, that may be because you tell me people don't check, that might be a reason why you should always check. You should always check. And in the Caribbean, some of us, mostly men, but some women don't like the doctor. We don't like the doctor. And maybe it's because of our culture, cost of living. We always feel doctors are expensive. But you know, you can have the apparatus and have people in your neighborhood that can do it for you, that can help you. And some of us don't like to ask for help. And that is so sad. And when you don't ask for help, you don't get. And you will be there, and you just need to be checked to know where you stand. Years ago, people used to say, oh, everybody should check for HIV. I think hypertension is worse than that. And we need to take an approach like that because hypertension can cause so many different diseases. A lot, heart attacks, stroke, all kinds of things. And now they've just found out dementia is getting very prevalent. And if you have high blood pressure and it's not checked, it can lead to dementia in your older age. So high hypertension could actually be the cause of many other illnesses. Yes, it can. Cancer. I was just about to say that as you said cancer, the World Health Organization, there's a statement that they made and they said, if I should tell you stop smoking because you'll get cancer, you would, but you don't associate high blood pressure. And high blood pressure can cause so many other stuff. So it can really damage your body. So just as you take note, if somebody says cancer is coming, stop smoking, you really need to start taking note because we might overlook it because you don't see it. You don't see it, sometimes you don't feel anything. And that's why it's called a silent killer. Excellent brilliant. It's called a silent killer. So it's only after you die that you say, oh, that's what killed him. Yes, so it's important that we check. Now, Miss Matthew, you mentioned something there in regards to what it is that we really should look out for and such like. So when we come back, we're going to go to a break in a little while, but when we come back, I would really like for you all to get into details about maybe some of the symptoms that people should look for just in case they've not feeling well and it might be hypertension. As I said, it's time for us to take a short break. We will be right back. Hypertension is a deadly disease that is common in San Luisio. We depend on blood pressure monitors to determine if our blood pressure is too high or too low. Should the rating on these measuring devices be incorrect, we are literally putting our lives at risk. Doctors, caregivers and patients, catch your blood pressure meters verified by the San Luisio Bureau of Standards to ensure the accuracy of measuring devices. Look for a green pass sticker on the blood pressure meter at your next visit to the doctor. The correct reading can mean the difference between life and death. For more information, contact the San Luisio Bureau of Standards at 456-0546 or email SLBS at candw.lc or visit the website at www.slbs.org.lc San Luisio Bureau of Standards, making quality and standards our way of life. Welcome back to Issues and Answers. Today we are speaking Hypertension. Ladies, before we went to the commercial break, I was saying I would really like for you to point out what the symptoms that maybe people should look out for that might actually indicate that people might actually have hypertension. Sometimes you meet somebody and they tell you they have a pain behind the neck. They have a pain on their shoulder. They have tingling in their toes. These are some signs. Sometimes you get up and you say, you have a headache on one side. Some people get nosebleed. All these things are signs that you need to check. All these are signs. Even irregular heartbeats, that's one of the signs. Or even nausea, dizziness. These are signs that people have to look out for. But the most important sign that we want to tell you about is nanotall. Yes, as you are saying. Large number of persons you are walking about with no signs and symptoms. They are fine every day. But the pressures are sky high. They hit in the roof. And they are fine. They are absolutely fine. And that's some of the people that get the stroke. Yes, yes, yes. It will just hit you. And you get a stroke and you say, oh he was just fine a while ago. But that thing has been happening in his body for years. But the fact that it was never checked, that's why it ended up with a stroke. It doesn't have to. I know persons who have been hypertensive for years and they are fine. But they take care of themselves. They are watching the salt intake. They are exercising, drinking adequate water, sleeping well. And they are fine. So you can't live a normal healthy life with high blood pressure. Now tell me a little bit about, you mentioned some of the things that people could do. Tell me about what are some of the treatments that will be suggested? Not even so much, so in a medical capacity. But what are some of the treatments or things that people could do who have high blood pressure if they would like to bring it down? You mentioned sleeping, you mentioned drinking plenty of water. What are the things that people do? Exercise, sleeping, drinking enough water. Keeping a positive mental attitude is very important. Okay. Very important. They might be taking all the tablets and you walk down the road and you saw me and you just tend to get tensed up and you're all angry and anxious and your pressure is going up. And I have no idea. I'm fine about my business, but your pressure is ready to burst your veins. So it really is a fact that stress can actually cause. Oh, stress can. Stress can definitely cause it. Okay. Now as I said, I know it's vital to check with your GP but I also know there may be, apart from water and stuff, are there natural things that people can eat that will help bring down pressure? Cut out red meat. Oh, okay. Okay. Go back to basic, back to the plants. Okay. Back to basics. Yes, back to the plants. It's your cucumber, your shining bush, what a lot of young people don't know now. Aguma, Zerbaq West and all these things that our four parents used to use. The good stuff? The good stuff that we don't want to use now. Okay. And these things, strangely, I went to a doctor and she said to me, oh, you're fine, but you should get some coupier. When she told me coupier, I never knew the right name. Spirulina. You can look it up and you have it all in your flower plants, all in your backyard. You could drink it under water, you could steam it and eat it like a vegetable. And these things, when I showed it to my mother, I said, mom, you're serious and you never told me about it? A doctor sent me to get it. Right? So we could just try and go back to basics. Stop all the chicken, cut the red meat totally. That should be out. Okay. And most importantly too, we should limit our salt intake. Well, that too. Limited, limited, limited. And a teaspoon added salt for the day. That's six grams. So if you have to check through the day and look at all the labels of the added salt that we take in. In our peanuts and everything. If we add it up for the day you'll see how much extra salt you took in. So just think about it as an adult and six grams. That's the maximum you should have. So just think about it for the whole day. And then to cause your head to spin if you have to just check it. You'll find out that we have taken so much that our body does not need. And sometimes persons tell me they drink passion fruit juice without sugar. It helps lower their pressure. Some people with tamarind juice without sugar. It lowers. So most of the local juices like blending it and drinking some of it. It has helped some persons in lowering their pressure. Okay, brilliant. And something else, our vegetables we need to stop boiling our vegetables. Just steam it. Because when you steam you do your salt. Just steam your vegetables. Pumpkin, Christophine, Kairos. All these can be steamed, not boiled. Because when we boil it we destroy all the nutrients and we only taste the salt when we eat. That's all. And another rule is that when you cook don't add the salt. Add it after. So because when it's cooking and after it's cooked you add more salt. So after it's cooked you add a little salt to taste. And then that would be one of the ways you could reduce your salt intake. Okay, brilliant. Lots of information, brilliant. So now we've talked a bit about the medical condition itself. I just want to talk a bit about the association. Because even though I know you guys have been there for a while people might not know you are there and even the services that you can offer in such life. So can you tell me a bit about the association? I understand that it was launched in 1989. But what was the objectives back then and have they changed at all to what they are today? I think we pretty much just say that we wanted to reach the nation in making them more aware of diabetes and hypertension. Because we're focusing on hypertension in May which is the month we still have the mandate to help persons and family family members, persons living with the condition to cope with it better and persons who are around them to help understand what's really happening what's side blood pressure, what can it cause and what can I do as an individual to prevent myself from getting it and to have those living with it. So I think it's pretty much remained the same. We still have that same message that we want to avoid, prevent eradicating, we can say that word. We want to do those things and we want that nation to know the association as that. Okay, no problem. What kind of activities do you actually do throughout the year that people couldn't look out for? There's a lot of testing happening. We do a lot of health fairs even though it's not ours. We participate in health fairs. We do this month of May as hypertension and we do the month of November as diabetes. But as I got onto the board last year and I think we could do more. Okay. There's a lot more that could be done. We have been doing a lot of education. We have been doing a lot of testing. But after the education and the testing I think we can do a lot more like being more involved in their life like Claudine said. Being more involved and assisting the people living with hypertension or diabetes. Assist them more. For example, we have a lot of amputations. Amputations are expensive. I would be happy to be in a position on the executive when somebody has to pay for an amputation of $10,000 that we can assist. Like some other associations would assist if I should steal a chance there and with faces of cancer also and we assist from the time the person is diagnosed until we hold their hand until death. I would be happy to see something like that happen since hypertension is so deadly it leads up to cancer. If we as an association could do more financially for families not just because we have the doctors the nurses and everybody there at our disposal we need to be able to do more to assist people living with hypertension. If you can just hold that thought there because when I come back I want to talk about that a bit more again because I know that the association actually talks about the needs as well, looks into the needs of the society. We will be right back after this break. I am a child. I am HIV positive. I am a Muslim. I am a journalist. I am gay. I am a political activist differently abled. I am Chinese and me I am a little plus size. The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance of individuality and differences within all of us. A message brought to you by the Department of Health and Wellness. Welcome back to issues and answers. We are here with the St. Lucia Diabetes and Hypertension Association and we are talking about hypertension. Before we went to break we were discussing the many things that the association would like to do and I also mentioned looking through some of the documentation that the association has I was actually quite shocked to find out that the association puts a lot of effort into finding out what the needs are in society for people suffering from hypertension. What have you actually highlighted things that are really needed in St. Lucia at the moment? Prosthesis. Too many people walking around with one leg on crutches and it is so hard so we would really look into there is a factory I would say that's producing it if we could partner with them because maybe we know more of the people than we do with them they only producing it so that's one area we could look at. Well as Ms. Ludovic said partnering four persons actually have been trained to actually make the prosthetic limbs here all the raw materialists coming in it was sponsored and we are very happy about that that locals have been trained to make those limbs high quality limbs who have had amputations can actually get fitted and get limbs made right here for them. My next question is actually going to be are the needs are being met as we speak? Yes because that's happening in collaboration with council for persons with disability the persons who trained from that association and that's happening right now. Okay that's very good as I said your association you have other members as well so if people want to try and get in touch with the association can you give me some insight into like how the association is made up I know you are the the chair of the PRO and fundraisers and such who else is actually in the association? Well we have a president vice president secretary chair of chair of committees different committees we have the northern northern rep southern rep we have on our executive on our board we have a representative from the ministry of health Okay brilliant and we have Lions club that assist us so by and large it's like a normal association with the board members and then you have the office staff and the office staff is the association the management team and the office staff and we are located on coral street 60 coral street 60 coral street and our telephone number the office is 452 7693 we sometimes have strips that we give away we all the time or most times have strips for sale we have glucometers for sale so that's part of what we try to get it cheaper to the public when we have when we have our health fairs it's free or not free it's sponsored for example if GIS wants to sponsor a health fair we would do it and you would ask us to come and do it for you for your staff and for example for people in this building so these are the things we do to really push the association later in this month we have two big health fairs in view of on the 31st at the two Marcy malls and we'll be having lots and lots of other people coming there to talk to do the testing to help people to bring their awareness out and we have been targeting the north a lot so we decided no we have to do the south and we're having two on one day and so for a look out we'll be doing you soon now if I was a person again suffering from hypertension and I just wanted information such as I can also just come into the association and talk to people as well if something was happening to me 834 from 8 to 430 sorry and then persons are encouraged to come in and we turn nobody away we do pressure checks on persons who they can't afford so we look out for the indigents we look out for the less fortunate we don't charge them they come in and oh we charge minimal but persons we can't afford we don't charge them we do the services for them and our doors are open you could also so if you're not hypertensive you could also go and get cloning to check your feet to tell you if you were in the right shoe or what shoe she thinks you should wear she's a foot specialist so I know that service is readily available to everybody and she's the only one on the island okay brilliant that's good to know it's very good because as I said in my opening it's there the service is there well there are persons who are not aware a lot of persons are not aware of the services that we offer we do apart from blood pressure sugar testing, cholesterol testing and we do body analysis where we do like the body age the whole body muscle the body fat we do a whole range of other services and we do corporate screenings we go to corporate companies we assist a lot of other companies so persons are starting to get aware of the services that we offer yes that is why I'm hoping the board with the association can do a little more financially for people living with it okay alright now our time is going to be running out very soon but before we go I just really want to talk to you about what in your opinion would you like to say to people out there I know we've talked a lot about exercise we've talked a lot about food but what would you like to tell people out there in regards to their health and so that they stay care of hypertension and if they do already have hypertension what their next step should be get tested know your numbers well when you get tested you go to the doctor get tested know your numbers go back to basics I would say the same visit your healthcare provider and the film actually for hypertension month know your numbers so return persons know your numbers and the only way you know that is if you go to your healthcare provider and check well thank you so much for joining me today because the information has been brilliant there's so much that you have actually informed us about so thank you thank you so much for having us well that's all from issues and answers today however stay tuned and hopefully we'll see you next time bye bye for now