What is Bipolar Disorder?

Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings including emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression). An individual with bipolar disorder will experience changes in energy, moods, and levels of activity that make day-to-day living difficult. This means that it affects how a person feels and the moods can shift massively. A person will experience episodes of mania and depression and when the mood changes, there will be changes in the energy levels and how a person acts. People with bipolar disorder may have trouble managing their day-to-day life activities at work or school, or Read moreā€¦

Cardiovascular Diseases

Key facts about cardiovascular Diseases. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally. Approximately 17.9 million people died from CVDs in 2019. This number represented 32% of all global deaths in 2019. Out of these deaths, approximately 85% were caused by heart attack and stroke. It is important to detect CVDs as early as possible so that management with counselling and medicines can be administered. Most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by avoiding unhealthy lifestyles such as use of tobacco, obesity and physical inactivity. What are cardiovascular diseases? The cardiovascular system is Read moreā€¦

Stroke

What is stroke? Stroke is also known as cerebrovascular accident. It occurs when part of the brain loses its blood supply and the part of the body controlled by the blood deprived brain cells stops working. This loss of blood supply can be as a result of lack of blood flow or rupture of blood vessels into the brain tissue.It should be treated as a medical emergency because it is known to easily cause permanent disability or death. When brain cells are deprived of oxygen because of blockage in blood vessels supplying blood to the brain, leading to stroke, then Read moreā€¦

The Hypertension Pandemic

Hypertension is commonly known as high blood pressure by most of us. Its not uncommon to hear someone say ā€œAlipatikana na pressureā€ or ā€œpressure yangu hukuwa sawaā€ Hypertension is a condition where our body is unable to keep our blood pressure levels within normal range. High blood pressures slowly cause detrimental changes in the body. This changes lead to destruction of essential organs in our bodies. As with most non communicable diseases, most people live with high blood pressure for a long time, years even without its diagnosis and only see a doctor when there is a complication. I recently Read moreā€¦

Non-communicable Diseases

Sometime back, it was common to hear one say ā€œthose are white man diseasesā€ in references to some diseases that were quite uncommon among us Kenyans, and generally uncommon to the African continent. Some might argue that before, these diseases were rare because they went undiagnosed. Either due to lack of knowledge about the illnesses or as a dismissal for another illness or because they were associated with a myth. Another school of thought  will argue that previous generations lived  healthier lifestyles. Whatever the argument, the fact is that the cases of non communicable diseases in Kenya are on the rise. Their occurrence Read moreā€¦

Cancer

What is cancer? Cancer is a disease in which cells in some parts of the body grow uncontrollably and abnormally, and can spread to the other parts of the body. It starts when something is wrong with the cell division process. This leads to development of abnormal cells that are not regulated by our bodies. Cancer can develop from any part of the body and it is named depending on the part of the body it develops from. For instance, cancer developing from the breast is known as breast cancer and it can spread to other parts of the body. Read moreā€¦

About Diabetes

Diabetes, the sugar crisis.

What is diabetes? Diabetes is a disease caused by high levels of glucose in blood. Blood glucose is derived from foods we eat, and it is the main source of energy for our bodies. Insulin is a hormone that helps glucose get into blood cells for be used for energy. In cases where the body does not produce enough insulin or the insulin is not used well, blood sugar levels rise and cannot get into cells. The problems associated with high glucose levels in blood include the following; Eye  problems Kidney diseases Stroke Nerve damage Heart disease Nerve damage. Symptoms Read moreā€¦

A DRINK TO HEALTH

Drinking plenty is a life hack. Improving your health might actually be a drink away. We however are not talking any liquid, since we all can binge on our favourite drink given the chance. Itā€™s recommended that we drink 6-8 glasses, unsweetened drinks daily. Imagine that! Thatā€™s about one and half to two litres a day. Whoā€™s got time for that! amazingly though, even if we are not conscious about taking in this amount, our bodies do find a way of ensuring we get close to this intake daily. We crave a soft drink here a juice there. Ice cream. Read moreā€¦

Chic Doctor

There is increasing evidence that integrated care improves child related quality of life and reduces health service use. However, there is limited evidence on family perspectives about the quality of integrated care for childrenā€™s services. This study aimed to understand children, young people, and caregiversā€™ perceptions of a new integrated care service, and to identify essential components of integrated care for children and young people with ongoing conditions.

Health Facts

There is increasing evidence that integrated care improves child related quality of life and reduces health service use. However, there is limited evidence on family perspectives about the quality of integrated care for childrenā€™s services. This study aimed to understand children, young people, and caregiversā€™ perceptions of a new integrated care service, and to identify essential components of integrated care for children and young people with ongoing conditions.