Bidii interviews Marlene Ellis, of Black Breast Cancer (BBC) – Blackbreastcancer.com – who has been fuelled by her own experience of breast cancer to create a much-needed resource to support Black women (and men) around the world!

What made you create the BBC?

The website Blackbreastcancer.com is what I wanted, when I was first diagnosed. You don’t really have to think about it, until you are suddenly diagnosed with it and join a club you didn’t want to belong to. The first thing, in this day and age, was to go to Google to find out something. I realised as soon as you are diagnosed, you are on this conveyor belt.

You think “hang on a minute. I don’t know!” I thought I knew something, but when you are personally impacted, the first thing I wanted to do was speak to my own people. It was extremely important I speak to other Black women about what they did. What happened to them in these circumstances? What am I supposed to ask? I’ve lived in Brixton twenty odd years, I know lots of Black women, and yet I only knew one person that I could go and speak to. And it shocked me. I could not see anything on Google. I did not have anybody in my immediate life. It’s not like I was living in the Outer Hebrides. I was living in Brixton, but I didn’t know where to turn to. So that was the motivation. The website represents what I wanted to see when I was diagnosed.

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Sankofa Hypnobirthing founder Tracy Awere (sankofa-hypnobirthing.co.uk/ about-me) was empowered through her own pregnancy journey. Trained in hypnotherapy and hypnobirthing, Tracy started teaching both in 2014. She has since been providing her service to women and couples as they prepare for their birthing experience and beyond.

What is Hypnobirthing and what are the benefits?

Hypnobirthing is a fully comprehensive childbirth preparation course that not only educates mums-to-be about the biomechanics of birth and what will happen, but also teaches them how to mentally prepare for birth with a confident and positive mindset.

This mindset work is particularly important because, sadly, childbirth in the Western world is often portrayed as being scary and agonising. When we frequently see or hear such stories of birthing women in distress and cursing out their partners during labour, this idea is drip-fed into our minds and affects both men and women. I mention men here because, as fathers, they will also have concerns for their child and for their partner who is having the baby

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An interview with nutritional consultant Jo Dash, with extensive years of research experience in the science of melanin and food.  Bidii explores, with Jo, the practice of intermittent fasting, including its effectiveness for helping people in a variety of ways.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a structured calorie restricted diet. It is about balancing a window of eating period, with hours of rest. So, for example, the 12 to 8 pm method would be the most popular one. So, you would have a 12pm, midday, to 8pm eating window. Not to eat throughout the window but just a period where you can have a meal – followed by 16 hours of fasting, where you don’t have any calorific drink or food. You can have herbal tea or water, but nothing that is calorie based. Because when you don’t eat, and you fast, the body responds to it as stress. But not stress as you know it, but biological stress. So that means it forces the body to go into self-preservation mode and self-detoxification. So intermittent fasting is saying I have a designated time to feed myself, followed by a long period of abstinence of food, or any sugary food or calorific food. That is what intermittent fasting is really about.

What are the health benefits people can achieve with intermittent fasting?

There are so many benefits. Too much to list. But the key thing is to say it is holistic. When you do intermittent fasting, of course, weight loss is the number one thing. You will drop the weight because you have less insulin in the body. The second thing is you go through this thing called autophagy, which slows down the process of ageing. It revitalises the body by renewing cells and clearing debris in the cytoplasm of the cell, which is great because the accumulation of waste in the cell is what ages you. So autophagy allows cell repair and growth, and creates a more harmonious environment for the body.Read More

For some women transitioning back to natural hair is a breather from chemical treatments.  But to grow a healthy head of hair, does take time and care.  Speaking with Trichologist consultant Nicola Smart of Smart Hair Clinic to provide the below transitioning tips that you can easily adopt.

1. Take it easy – the line of demarcation (the hair between the virgin roots and processed ends) is very delicate. If you choose to transition over the long term, expect for some of that processed hair to break naturally but being gentle especially when hair is wet, can help mitigate against that.

2. Moisturise – I think we all now understand how imperative moisture is for flexibility and elasticity in a hair strand. Hydrate your hair and scalp with regular cleansing and seal that moisture in with butters, creams, oils (providing you don’t have any scalp issues) of your choice. Also maintain moisture levels between wash days.

3. Protein – protein goes hand in hand with moisture. Some strands do well with a mild protein treatment every wash day, for others it might be less frequent. Figure out which approach works best for your hair and use protein treatments to maintain the hairs tensile strength and support moisture retention. A good protein/ moisture balance will be crucial to keeping processed hair, in particular, strong during the transition.

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The food we eat is crucial to the quality of our day-to-day lives.  Bidii speaks with Raw Food Consultant Derin Bepo about eating raw, the affects on the body and how it can help us regain balance and control of our health.

How do you find people’s approach to the “raw food” lifestyle?

A lot of people come to me with illnesses and one of the first things I do, is to increase the amount of raw food they are eating. I think I have become a bit more mature. Before, I was a bit “raw-food zealous”, chanting “go eat raw food, go eat raw food!”

Now I get people eating raw food without even using the phrase “raw food”.  So, I’ll explain; to reset your body over the next 30days, you need to eat a bowl or large portion of fruit for breakfast, at least a litre of vegetable juice a day, then a large portion of salad.  Even if there is something cooked in the salad, have it be only 20%. They usually say, “oh, I can do that!”, but what they do not realise is that I have just inducted them into raw food eating.  If they can do that, their whole health framework changes because they are getting huge volumes of plant molecules in a raw form now, and it is getting into the body.  Some people after 30days start to feel different.  They, all of a sudden, start to get a huge amount of raw unprocessed plant molecules in their natural and hopefully organic form into their body and this has an exponential and radical change in how the body works, and begins to function at a different level.  The body begins to wake up and does what it needs to do; namely, the repair and reversal of diseased states.  So it is really that simple.  People think it is some kind of regime. And when I finish the 30days, it can go back to business as usual, and there are several scenarios after this. They often have a loss of taste for certain things like common foods.  They might ‘treat’ themselves to certain processed food after the 30days and they become violently sick and feel ill.  Then they get it, and the body is saying ‘hey, we don’t want that.  We never wanted it! Now we have gone really clean and clear, and you are dumping this back into the system?’.  So, the body will sometimes react violently and feel ill; and I welcome that!  That physical reaction is the body talking more eloquently, loudly and more persuasively than I ever can.

So, the key thing is, the body understands and functions optimally with plant molecules, those plant molecules in their pure form which are unheated.

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What information would you say is essential for women to understand about alopecia?

I think it’s important for people to note that alopecia is a general overarching term for hair loss and encompasses many conditions. Women specifically are complex humans in many ways and that includes in relation to hair. Ninety percent of my patients are female, and their hair loss cases are often far more convoluted than their male counterparts. In other words, there are often several factors that play a role in female hair loss. Women should try to look beyond the physical area of thinning, taking a holistic view of their health and lifestyle to pinpoint triggers behind the hair loss.

Secondly, paying close attention to and understanding your hair and health can really help women identify changes in their hair. There are some instances where women may wear their hair in protective styles regularly and although this is generally fine, problems are more easily identified when you handle your hair regularly. With more consistent handling of the hair you learn to better understand how it behaves i.e. when it requires moisture, a trim or a shampoo. Without seeing or handling your hair regularly, you can sometimes miss slight changes that could be addressed early on.

Lastly, don’t wait! If you suspect something isn’t quite right visit your GP or a specialist for a second opinion. There are so many instances of hair loss that go unchecked until the very final stages of the condition. It is far easier to mitigate against the spread of hair loss than to regrow hair.

What are the actions we can do to help prevent/reverse alopecia where possible?

While there certainly isn’t a magic potion or one fix for all, there are some types of hair loss that can be prevented with better handling. Traction alopecia for example, can be avoided by being kinder to your scalp when detangling and styling. Temporary hair loss associated with stress and nutrition can be mitigated against by having a good understanding of your body and its changes. Knowledge of self is sometimes key to identifying changes and combating alopecia. 

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At this time everyone has questions, comments and concerns about their health and appreciate the importance of an optimum immune system.  To help, a better understanding of the body and the function of the immune system is needed.

The immune system is made up of organs and processes that enable the body to fight infections and toxins; which are rid from the body through the lymphatic system.  Organs in the immune and lymphatic system include the thymus, bone marrow, spleen, and lymph nodes.

The immune system uses white blood cells to fight infections.  Certain types of white blood cells are called phagocytes which consume invading organisms and infections to the body. Lymphocytes are another type of white blood cell, which is used to remember the bacteria (pathogen) and how to destroy it.

There are two kinds of lymphocytes – B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes.  Lymphocytes originate in the bone marrow.  The B lymphocytes stay in the marrow and mature into B cells.  The T lymphocytes move to the thymus gland from the marrow and mature into T cells. B lymphocytes are used to identify destructive organisms which the T cells will then be used to kill destroy.

B lymphocytes are triggered to make antibodies which latch onto specific bacteria. The antibodies stay in a person’s body and remain there so if the same infection were to reoccur the antibodies would be able to recognise it and act accordingly.

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When All Nations opened Dec 2017 in Hackney were people surprised to see a rich Caribbean menu which is vegan?

Yes.  Sometimes people come in and are surprised in the variety of vegan dishes.  People think they  have less choice in vegan food.  I want to show them we have a lot of choice and you can also have the healthy options that are substantial.   A lot of vegan foods now are processed, so I wanted to stick to the natural ingredients.  I use most of the ingredients I grew up on and keep it simple.  People  taste the difference between processed and natural ingredients but people are surprised to see you can keep a dish simple but still have a lot of flavours with the right herbs.

As a partner and mother of 7 children how did you manage to satisfy your family on vegan food.

Six of my boys were born into a vegan diet, and they do not crave anything else.  The eldest son was different.  He knows the taste of meat and I tried to turn this taste into something that compliment the dishes that I do.  Many times it is just seasoning the food right that makes it work. Sometimes people think they like the taste of the meat but really they just like how the meat I seasoned.  So if you season the vegan food well that works too.

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Interview with Tola Okogwu

For many women product ingredients are not a huge concern when looking for products. Why should this change?

I think we take for granted that the products we use regularly on our hair are safe but there are so many studies out there that suggest otherwise. When you want to lose weight, you know to check the ingredient on your food for anything unhealthy and we need to be more like that with our personal care products. 

In April 2018 I appeared in a BBC interview about a new study that showed that Black women are exposed to dozens of potentially hazardous chemicals through the hair products they use. Chemicals linked to hormone disruption, fibroids, asthma, infertility and even cancer.  There are a few studies, which have looked at the relationship between hair products and several health issues. This includes a study published in 2017 by researchers at Rutgers University, which found a link between breast cancer and the use of hair dyes and hair relaxers in Black women. Also a 2012 a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology that found that the use of relaxers in Black women is associated with fibroids.

Black women are over exposed yet inadequately protected when it comes to hair care products. Over use of braids, weaves and extensions, coupled with bad hair care practices have led to an over-reliance on products. Add in the cultural, historical and societal pressures Black women face when it comes to their hair and the problem is further exacerbated.  In addition, the way Black women use products is unique. Products are used frequently, generously and can be left on for weeks or even months, with continuous reapplication in between. However, there is very little research being done into the cumulative effects and potential risks associated with this method of product use.

The most recent study, conducted in April 2018 by the Silent Spring Institute, showed that 80% of Black hair products tested contain endocrine disrupting and asthma causing chemicals. Read More