Hunger and poverty, a major health concern

By Nilma DOLE

Do you know what it feels like to be hungry? Do you know that every year 15 million children die of hunger? Why do people go on hunger strikes? There is hunger everywhere, on the streets, in your neighbourhood and it could even affect you at home. The fact that you cannot afford to eat a meal qualifies as hunger and it could sometimes mean the difference between life and death.

Someone in the world dies of hunger every 3.6 seconds and it is estimated that some 800 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.

The World Health Organisation estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving.

Over four million will die this year.

Nutrition facts While overall health indicators are generally positive in Sri Lanka and immunisation coverage is high (over 90 percent), maternal and child malnutrition and neonatal mortality represent Sri Lanka's most pressing health issues, along with wide disparities in the health and nutritional conditions of children living in the conflict-affected and poorer areas. *Around one-third of women are both underweight and anaemic * Nearly one out of five children is born with low birth weight - a reflection of maternal under-nutrition during pregnancy * Nearly one-third of children under five are underweight * Around 24 percent of children under five and 55 per cent in the 6-10 age group are anaemic Neonatal mortality contributes to up to 70 percent of deaths among children under 12 months Courtesy: UNICEF and Department of Census and Statistics Sri Lanka

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture, one in 12 people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under five.

The Hunger in Global Economy estimates that the Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people.

Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40 percent, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world.

About three billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2 per day.

Half of all children under five in South Asia and one- third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

In Sri Lanka, even though we have the best maternal mortality rates and low infant mortality deaths, we are striving to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on nutrition by 2015. In retrospect, low birth weight affects 17 per cent of babies, and one in six women have low body mass index.

The percentage of underweight children below five has been reduced nationally from 34 percent in 1987 to 21 percent in 2007.

However, the percentage varies across districts, from 12 per cent in Gampaha (Western province) to 33 per cent in Badulla (Uva province).

In other nutrition indicators, 19 percent of children of under five years are stunted, varying from eight per cent in Colombo to 41 percent in Nuwara Eliya in the plantation areas.

In Sri Lanka, hunger and poverty has contributed to malnutrition and this has been identified as a major health problem in post-independent Sri Lanka. Despite achieving MDGs in the area of significant reduction in fertility rates, maternal and infant mortality levels, and improvement in the standard of education and women's empowerment, malnutrition is still an issue in Sri Lanka.

Whether the rising cost of living and poverty has a direct impact on nutrition levels is a matter that needs considerable research but in a land of plenty, it is difficult to determine what the exact cause of nutrition is, because of lifestyle habits and the change in trends from eating the traditional rice and curry to more 'convenient' forms of food.

In Sri Lanka, 'junk food' is still a luxury, but what about rice and curry? Do we know what goes into our vegetables? From pesticides to insecticides, the standard of traditionally nutritious food has dropped with the use of chemicals.

According to the Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2000, 22 percent of married women in the reproductive age group are malnourished, while 17 percent of children under five have been born as low birth weight babies. About 69 percent of children are malnourished in Sri Lanka.

Naturally, when a mother is under-fed, this affects her unborn child and a child born with a low birth weight can contribute to their ill-health later in life.

This can contribute to retarded mental and physical growth in the most decisive years of life, and might contribute a range of problems later, especially if the child is a female.

The nutritional status of a person depends largely on the quantity and quality of food in the market, purchasing power of the household which would determine the accessibility to food, and the distribution of food within the household. According to the findings of the Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 2002, about 24 percent of households in Sri Lanka fall into the 'poor households' category which amounts to nearly one fourth of the total population.

However, food intake and the quality of food is not the only influence on the nutrition levels of an individual. What makes a bigger impact is the fact that living standards, water and sanitation habits, birth weight, birth interval, parity, the child's gender, weaning practices and mother's education are some of the contributory factors that has some sort of influence in nutrition.

The good news is that the trends in malnutrition have improved with long term nutritional programs and with help from stakeholders, there has been interest in battling malnutrition.

It has been shown that Sri Lanka has posted better nutrition statistics than what was seen in the early nineteen eighties. It appears that malnutrition, both chronic and acute states develop during the weaning period and rises sharply in the second year of life. Thereafter, the affliction rates show a decline to some degree in the third year, to rise again in the fourth and fifth years. The same trend pattern is observed in all survey data since 80/81.

The retardation of growth which starts in the latter half of the first year, states that weaning food given to babies, may not be nutritionally adequate to meet the special dietary needs of the growing child. In a bid to help understand the right dietary guidelines, the Nutrition Division of the Ministry of Health has published a Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG) which is based on recommendations for healthy eating.

According to U.M.M. Samaranayake, the food-based dietary guidelines for Sri Lankans makes people understand more about nutritious food.

According to the recommendations, dietary advice based on food rather than nutrients will be more likely to be followed and more likely to lead to beneficial changes in food consumption patterns, nutrients intake and there by improve nutritional status of the population.FBDG was designed to be recommended to the community for the next five years and it is the duty of health and nutrition workers to appreciate the concepts and take it to the community as essential messages of combatting malnutrition and instilling healthy eating habits.

Tests on fake retina 'encouraging'

Tests on a device that could restore sight to patients suffering from a common cause of blindness have produced "encouraging" results.

A prosthetic retina designed to combat the impact of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is being developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde and Stanford University in California, in the United States.The condition affects the macular, a tiny part of the retina at the back of the eye, and damages a layer of light-sensitive photoreceptor cells that help the person see.

One in every eight people over 85 have AMD, while one in 500 people 55-64 also have it.

The device electrically stimulates the neurons in the retina left relatively unscathed by the effects of AMD, while an infrared beam is projected through the eye and transmits information.

It doesn't require any wires and is easy to implant, scientists said.Initial lab tests have been "encouraging", according to research published in the journal Nature Photonics.

Dr Keith Mathieson, from Strathclyde University and a lead researcher on the project said: "AMD is a huge medical challenge and, with an ageing population, is continuing to grow.

This means that innovative, practical solutions are essential if sight is to be restored to people around the world with the condition.

"The prosthetic retina we are developing has been partly inspired by cochlear implants for the ear but with a camera instead of a microphone and where many cochlear implants have a few channels, we are designing the retina to deal with millions of light sensitive nerve cells and sensory outputs.

"The implant is thin and wireless and so is easier to implant. Since it receives information on the visual scene through an infrared beam projected through the eye, the device can take advantage of natural eye movements that play a crucial role in visual processing."

The research was led by Professor Daniel Palanker, of Stanford. The Professor said: "The current implants are very bulky and the surgery to place the intra-ocular wiring for receiving, processing and power is difficult.

With our device, the surgeon needs only to create a small pocket beneath the retina and then slip the photovoltaic cells inside it."

-PA

Tea - for better health

by Dr. Kamanie Dassanayake

Nobody knows exactly where or when, the first cup of tea was brewed. According to folklore, Emperor 'Shen Nung' who reigned over China in 273 BC discovered the stimulating effect of tea accidentally when wild tea leaves fell into his pot of boiling drinking water.

Chinese have probably been drinking tea in some form or the other since the fourth century AD. And considering that wild tea grew in many parts of Assam, in India It is not unlikely that tea drinking in Sri Lanka and India is as old as in China.

The raw material for tea manufacture normally consists of two young leaves and an unopened leaf bud - the famous 'Two leaves and a Bud' formula. But, plucking of longer shoots containing 3 or even 4 leaves is not uncommon. The freshly harvested tea shoots can be processed into the various kinds of tea, namely, Black tea, Green tea, Oolong tea, and Instant tea.

The usual black tea we all drink...the material' undergoes 'Fermentation' while in the production of Green tea delicate and subtle in flavour, fermentation is purposely omitted. Instant tea like instant coffee is a dehydrated product containing only the soluble constituents of Tea. Today, the manufacturer of tea has approached people with various products and people use them with or without nutritional values. Every blend of tea is not refreshing when it comes to different flavours, herbs and method of preparation.

But there is one specific blend of tea that gives a phenomenal nutritional and medicinal value to people of Sri Lanka - that blends all qualities - Introduced as 'Cinnamon, black and green tea'.

When researching the nutritional values of the 'Cinnamon, black and green tea' there is hardly any drink that is not food. In terms of calories - tea provides some calories-no exception. A cup of tea containing two teaspoon full of sugar, two tablespoon full of milk, yields about 40 calories. Milk contains casein, which makes the tannin in the tea insoluble thus removing some of its astringency [acidic effect]. Apart from the milk and sugar generally added; the tea infusion contains marginal quantities of vitamins and minerals, but no significant quantities of extractable proteins, carbohydrates, or fats.

But when it comes to this special blend of 'Cinnamon, black and green tea' anyone can enjoy a fresh, refreshing, plain cup of tea without any milk sugar or sweeteners.

More than any other product of tea in the market 'cinnamon, black and green tea' is fairly rich in most of the B Group vitamins. Apart from these, it is also a good source of Vitamin E and K and Beta Carotene[changes in to Vitamin A in our body]. The special blend contains traces of fluoride and manganese too. Fluoride helps in avoiding cavities in the teeth.

The accumulating scientific data on tea and its constituents- the vitamins, caffeine, and tannin-and on its anti-bacterial activity provides a new picture of the popular beverage. Over the past few decades the list of physiological disorders which cinnamon is contributed has been steadily decreasing.

Cinnamon has shown amazing ability to stop medication resistant yeast infections. It regulates blood sugar, making it especially beneficial for people with diabetes reduces the proliferation of leukaemia cancer cells.

Consuming a cup of cinnamon tea every morning before breakfast provides significant relief in arthritis pain. It inhibits bacterial growth and food spoilage. The special blend of black and green tea combined with finest cinnamon from Sri Lanka; and the very best Ceylon black tea is a spicy delight with an aromatic twist.

Using cinnamon as a tea, the manufacturer uses the bark. It has therapeutic properties and reported benefits of using it internally in the form of a herbal tea. Cinnamon black and green tea gives the beverage a very healthy boost and it helps nausea, because of the catechins in cinnamon. Cathechins also occur in tea and some well-known herbs and fruits were used as a treatment for fever and diarrhoea.

On the other hand, caffeine is sometimes prescribed therapeutically for the treatment of hypertensive headaches and tea is a legitimate means of supplying the medication.

Tannin in black and green tea destroys bacteria and virus, thereby inhibiting the growth of dental plaque.

Two types of tea with cinnamon has anti-oxidant properties which lowers the risk of heart disease and cancer. The bark of the stem and the oil obtained from cinnamon are useful as antiseptic, astringent and carminative. The oil obtained from leaves is used as a flavouring agent and provides best medicinal value for rheumatic pains. Though cinnamon is commonly used as a condiment, it cures gastric debility and flatulence and also has the property of destroying certain germs and fungi.

Fat removal procedures may decrease cancer risk

Is it possible that liposuction or other fat removal procedures are beneficial for treating obesity and reducing the risk of cancer? When it comes to humans, scientists can't answer that question. They know that obesity increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

But there have not been clinical studies to determine if the surgical removal of fat tissue would decrease cancer risk in humans.

In animal studies, however, Rutgers scientists, who have published new research online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have found that surgical removal of abdominal fat from mice fed a high-fat diet reduces the risk of ultraviolet-light induced skin cancer the most prevalent cancer in the United States with more than 2 million new cases each year.

"We don't know what effect fat removal would have in humans," said Allan Conney, Professor of Pharmacology and director of the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.

"We would like to encourage epidemiologists to study whether there is a lower incidence of sunlight-induced skin cancer in people who have had liposuction surgery to remove fat tissue."

For more than a decade, Conney and his colleague Yao-Ping Lu have been studying how caffeine and exercise, which also decrease tissue fat, work to block UV-induced skin cancer. Despite the multiple human epidemiological studies that link coffee intake to a decrease in nonmelanoma skin cancer risk, just how and why coffee protects against the disease is still unknown.

In this new skin cancer study, Rutgers researchers found that surgical removal of abdominal fat from obese mice fed a high-fat diet had between 75-80 percent fewer UV-induced skin cancers than mice that did not undergo fat-removal surgery.

Although scientists understand that tissue fat may play a role in tumour formation, there has been little research on the molecular mechanisms of how a high-fat diet increases the formation of skin cancer.

This new study suggests that abdominal fat in mice secretes proteins that enhance the risk of cancer.

Once the original fat tissue is removed, the biochemical properties of new fat tissue that appear after surgery are less harmful.

While it is well known that decreased calorie-intake, low-fat diets and physical exercise is recommended for treating obesity, preventing cancer by surgically removing tissue fat still needs to be explored.

"It would be interesting to see if surgical removal of fat tissue in animals would prevent obesity-associated lethal cancers like those of the pancreas, colon and prostate," Conney said.

"Whether removal of tissue fat in humans - which has certain risks - would decrease the risk of life-threatening cancers in humans is not known.

- MNT