Heart to Heart

The ICHA Blog

As happens everywhere, health care workers share lifestyles with their clients.  It's just one of the features of community health.  Into the raucous joy of Ghanian life, are creeping some less healthy habits.  Minimal exercise and fatty food additives are two main culprits.

Our visiting team has been treated to high fat, high salt snacks washed down with Coca-Cola after presentations of Preventing Heart Disease and Diabetes Mellitus 2.  The irony isn't lost on us, nor is this counter-productive situation unique to Ghana--just look at the foods served at Western medical conferences, and the American Academy of Family Physicians decision to 'partner' with Coca-Cola to produce patient education materials on healthy beverage selection.  The point is, often, patient education and community health improvement begins with the messengers.

Doctor, heal thyself! applies to both the Ghanian nurse covering her salad in dressing and the American doctor snacking on cream puffs at a Cardiovascular Disease conference.  Addressing health care workers' choices are excellent starting points for changing the choices and health outcomes of a community.