Types of ABI/Stroke

ABI stands for Acquired brain injury.  ABI occurs due to external forces such as a car accident, physical by another person, fall from a high building etc. A stroke occurs as a result of damages or injuries to blood vessels click for further reading on ABI/stroke.

Stroke is medical know as a cerebrovascular disease that occurs due to a lack of oxygen and nutrients reaching the brain. The blood vessels that transport oxygen and nutrients may be blocked or bleed due to various socioeconomic or medical conditions.  One example of socioeconomic condition should be stress or cholesterol build up in the blood vessel due to food lifestyle choices click for more images. 

 TBI: TBI stands for Traumatic Brain Injury. Traumatic Brain Injury occurs due to external force such as car accident, physical by another person, fall from high building etc. What happens is impact the normal structure of the brain and result in a significant shift of movement which may tear, bruises, movement, dislocation, or become swollen which affect the supply of oxygen and nutrient to the brain click to see images.

Hypoxia/Anoxia

Hypoxic is a lack of supply of enough oxygen to the brain. Both conditions may occur despite the supply of blood. The brain injury occurs quickly because there is no oxygen reaching the brain and it’s a life-threatening condition. Anoxic brain injury occurs due to a lack of oxygen to the brain click to images.

Alcohol-Related Brain Injury

Heavy drinking can affect brain functions & the nervous system that includes; -difficulty walking, poor vision, not reacting to a situation as a normal person would do and memory loss 0

 

Degenerative neurological diseases click for more images

As we get older, our brain gets wore-out as indicated in the pictures. 

Experience of stroke

One of the fasting growing public health concerns in Papua New Guinea is cardiovascular disease.   Due to poor lifestyle choices, heart attack or stroke is fasting growing medical conditions and killing many highly skilled workers.

Many people are not educated about the kind of food choices, socioeconomic stresses such as dysfunctional family relationships, work stress, and lack of self-care etc.

The story that runs through these pages is about a recent heart attack on a senior public servant who works and lives in Port Moresby- the nation’s capital city.

His name is Phi…. (nickname). He’s not a drinker (beer), chews buai or smokes. He’s a family-oriented man.

He did not care about his health because he’s not the kind of person that eats anything he finds.  All he cares about is work, family and life in general. He never goes for health checks, yet the services in Port Moresby is widely available.

However, he’s overweight (Body Mass Index - overweight). He has work-related stress. He did not care to seek counselling service, because he did not realize how important counselling service would help him.

Without knowing what will happen to his life, he conducts business as usual and lives a happy life with his family.

Just recently, he was rush to the Pacific International Hospital after he had experienced sudden numbness or weakness of his face, arm and leg. He was diagnosed as having a stroke. He almost died but fortunately, he survived to see more images.

Lesson learnt
He did not manage his lifestyle well than ending up in the hospital.
He paid huge financial medical bills.  
He’s now discharged and back to normal life but on medication and lifestyle modification plan.

Advice
If you have any health issues, seek medical advice earlier than waiting too late.

Basic Facts about diabetes in Papua New Guinea.

Diabetes affects All our body.

Diabetes is fastest developing disease in Papua New Guinea. According to Papua New Guinea Risk Factors STEPS REPORT (February 2014), detailed research done in the National Capital District by a collaborative effort between the National Department of Health (NDOH), Papua New Guinea (PNG), HOPE Worldwide, PNG, and World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes in Papua New Guinea was found in Wanigala in 1961. Many Wanigala communities become victims of diabetes. Later the disease was found to be common within the Tolai community in East New Britain Province.

Today [December 2019], diabetes has spread fastest than a man would imagine and it's affecting the lives of many Papua New Guineans. This is a result of many Papua New Guinea eating more processed foods than organically grown foods.

Papua New Guineans are now depending on process foods than originally grown foods. Many people including the youths are not working in the garden/land to produce organic food. However, at present (December 2019] there are 100% organic foods sold at local markets and there is no need for people to depend on process food.

In the last two or three decades, people who have become victims of diabetes were due of a lack of education and awareness. Even now the government of Papua New Guinea through the Department of National Health, they are not doing enough to drive lifesaving health education and awareness down to the rural level.

Consequently, many Papua New Guineas are yet to be educated about their lifestyle choices. Many do not know process foods contains sugar and salt. The worse affected are the Health Workers. If the people who are well informed to educate us are victims, then, there is no choice left, we must get educated for the good of our health. 

So let's look at following questions:

What is diabetes? 

How diabetes damages the human body?

How to prevent diabetes?  

What is Diabetes?

According to World Health Organization, Diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads over time to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves. 

How diabetes damages the human body?

Diabetes can damage our nervous system, cause male impotence; reduce visual medical condition; result in disability, especially the lower limbs; cause high blood pressure, damage kidneys, affect memory, diabetes can affect the entire body system.

How to prevent diabetes?  

It starts with lifestyle choices. To decide lifestyle choices, one must be aware of the health consequence of poor lifestyle choices that will come about.  

Buai causing poverty in Papua New Guinea society.

Many Papua New Guineans are engaging in four social activities

that are detrimental to their health, wealth, family and the country. Most of these activities are influence by the social and cultural environment. They are unaware of what they’re doing until in late-stage where their health is affected, or financially broke down, or children welfare is affected, especially, when kids are push out of the school due to school fee issues.

More than five hundred people I have counselled said, they learnt new bad social habits in our youths’ days in a peer environment. They registered their interest only to equal in the social class, the moment they registered their membership, they were chained to bad social habits for many years. Some of them, find it difficult to bail out. These people are not different to those living in Bomana prison. The four bad social habits are; chewing buai, smoking, drinking alcohol, and playing gamble.  

Buai/Betelnut

Buai is a tradition in Papua New Guinea and chewing is a social norm in many parts. Like in West tradition, beer or coffee brings friends together for business or politics, in Papua New Guinea Buai plays a pivotal role in mobilizing the communities to discuss community issues. Where there is the festive season, birthday party [etc.], chewing of Buai creates a school of social learning so the next generations learn to chew buai so the Buai is a culturally acceptable norm.

The Buai Chewers do not realize the Buai dig hold into their bank accounts. It’s costing lots of money per day. The Chewers think that spending K10.00 per day is manageable or within their financial capacity. However, one does not realize the annual cumulative financial cost of the Buai, indeed it’s an eye-opener to Clients that counselling session.

John is one of my Clients who has chewed for 20 years. He spends about K10.00 per day. An annual cumulative figure has created a financial hole in his bank account of K3,650.00. 

Multiplying the annual cost by twenty years of chewing Buai would cost him K73,000.00.

Chewing Buai is detrimental to our health. It can cause month cancer and raise blood pressure which in some cases may lead to fatal.  Buai can contribute to poor personal hygiene which causes stain teeth’s and clothes.

Smoke

Smokers never get a smoke holiday. Smokers never go without smoke per day. Smokers put tobacco before their life. Even the last money, they can spend on smoke than food or water.  Smoke is addictive and chained people’s live.  Those Smokers are no different to those in the prison.

Smoke can dig holes in Smoker’s bank account and easily drain all the money they have worked for. The smoke companies insert smoke chips into Smoker’s bank account. The account is linking every second.  The smoke affects every Papua New Guineas financial and end up empty pay packet every fortnight.  The worse thing one can do is get smoke credit at the black market.

For example; if someone smoke K10.00 every day, multiple by 365 days would cost him K3,650.00, multiple that by several years he/she has been smoking, the financial cost would increase. For example; 10 years times 3650 would cost the smoker K36,500.00.

So, if someone smokes both smoke and Buai at the same time and budget, it would cost the person K7,300.00. Base on the clinical assessment, the K10.00 cost per day for Buai or Smoke is just average only. One hundred people said they have spent more than K10.00 per day on smoke and buai. 95% of them said buai and smoke go well together.  Smoke can also affect Smoker’s health.  

Alcohol  

Drinkers spend too much money on one session. Many Papua New Guinea drinks to the last toea. One carton of beer is more beer coming. They can drink till the next day or until they are fully drinking. Once they drink the beer, the tape is running.  This means a large sum of money is gone into beer on one session and the remaining days to the next paydays, they go dry and drained and look for black market money loans at the high interest rate. Beer can also contribute to social problems like family violence, tribal fight [etc.] and also contributes to bad health.

Gambling

The common gambling in Papua New Guinea is a horse race and pokes machine.  The pokes machine digs huge holes in the lives of people. Pokes cause poverty in the lives of many workers. The National Gambling Control Board profits more than K100,000,00.00 million kina every year. Pokes machines are directly contributing to the poverty in Papua New Guinea.

These bad social habits are digging huge holes into ordinary worker’s bank account. Many are chained into these bad habits and it requires support from the government and other NGOs.

Mental health services lacking in Papua New Guinea

Mental health services are a missing link in Papua New Guinea. Millions of people silently suffering from mental health conditions. Even the department of health, a provider of health services in the country has lacked skill manpower and funding support to make services available throughout the country.

Both public and private sectors are yet to realize the need to employ well trained Mental Health Professionals/Counselors in their organisations. Many Workers are mentally affected, depressed and suffer silently, as a result, setback personal development as well as contributing meaningfully to their organizations.

There are no professionally trained graduated Clinical Psychologists attached in all the major public and private health facilities. The major health settings only provide physical treatment but forget about the heart of life -The Mind. As a result, there is no complete provision of medical treatment to those who visit them.

In addition, there is a lack of lifestyle health programs conducted in the country. Every year, death notices are published in the print media that high profile people like judges, lawyers and top elites are dying from a heart attack, stroke or diabetics etc. 

The top government officials lack knowledge of the kind of services requires to improve work performance that stimulates creativity and innovation.

In some sections of the community there are Social Welfare Officers, but no lifestyle health programs.

Generally, the workers in Papua New Guinea is unhealthy. Just walking down the street of Port Moresby, Lae, Goroka or Hagen their physical appearance is simply not encouraging; they are overweight, with big bellies hanging down, cannot walk properly which will affect their health.

Many of these officers do not attend yearly or even quarterly health check-ups or do not seek professional psychological counselling services so that many of their issues can be sorted out professionally, thus take full control of their life.

Papua New Guinea, as a country, needs counselling services and lifestyle health programs in every section of the society if the country wants to produce a healthy and fit society.