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Top 10 Hair Myths

Myth 1 – My hair does not grow

For all people of different racial make-up hair grows 1.5 inches per month. African hair is the curliest hair and as such is prone to breakage; this is due to the curl itself causing the protein bonds to waken. Imagine a slinky (helical spring); if you apply enough pressure to the bends it breaks as this is its weakest part, this same principle applies to curly hair. The curls along the hair shaft are where our hair prone to breaking. By limiting the amount of times we interfere with our hair i.e. combing and pulling it will reduce amount of breakage we experience. By looking at African men with long hair or people with locks whose hair is in a natural state, their hair has grown no faster. However, it is tampered with far less.

Chemicals In Our Products

What’s In YOUR Moisturiser?

If you do not suffer from flaky skin, eczema or unexplained rashes the chances are that you know someone who does. Have you ever wondered why?

There are several causes of these conditions which range from stress and anxiety, hereditary factor, climate changes, hard water, synthetic or wool fibres etc. One other factor which is often overlooked are the cosmetics that we use on a daily basis i.e. soaps, creams, oils, lotions, deodorants etc. Through extensive research, I discovered to my horror that many of the ingredients found in high street cosmetics contain a cocktail of toxic chemicals that should be avoided at all costs.

Having Healthy Hair

The health of hair is a very important factor for its growth and maintenance. It is important to remember natural is always best; and many times what is good for us is found in our fruits and vegetables instead of in a bottle full of more chemicals.

Vitamins are essential for the whole body including the health of our hair and do the following:

Vitamin A – Produces healthy sebum in the scalp
Vitamin B5 – Prevents graying and hair loss
Vitamin B6 – Produces keratin (the strong protein found in hair and skin) and prevents hair loss
Vitamin C – Important for growth and maintaining healthy hair
Vitamin E – Enhances scalp circulation
Iron – Helps reduces hair loss

Black Women and Fibroids

Eymbi speaks on Black Women and Fibroids

Routinely women are going to their GP or clinics and having screenings/smear test every few years to check for abnormalities in the cells.
We as Black women are more subjected to fibroids due to our environment and foods which we have to cope with, as western society (Europeans) DNA is different to ours. We really can’t handle junk food as our body is not naturally designed to be loaded with junk. After all you are what you Eat, Think and Feel

The womb is a sacred area of the body and has its natural function. When checked by the GP if fibroids are detected more often than not a hysterectomy is suggested as a solution to take it all out. This causes a huge hormone imbalance. Many times you find people as early 20’s are having their womb/uterus removed.

After this the body can’t cope as our DNA is not the same coming from the original source.

What Can We Do To Defeat Breast Cancer?

Early Detection

One of the keys to successfully defeating breast cancer is catching it early. It has been estimated that finding breast cancer early can mean a survival rate of 97%. One part of catching breast cancer early in black women is to develop a breast cancer screening programme for black women that start earlier. Currently breast cancer screening in the UK starts at 50 years old and as we now know that a significant number of black women develop breast cancer on average in their mid forties it would thus be more effective to begin screening black women at an earlier age. The second part of catching breast cancer early is to create a greater awareness amongst black women about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Armed with this information black women must endeavour to carry out a regular breast self examinations looking out for changes in their breasts that are not associated with menstruation. The signs and symptoms to look our for include:

Changes in the size and shape of breasts
Changes in the skin texture – puckering, dimpling
An inverted/retracted nipple
A bloodstained discharge from one or both nipples
A lump in the breast or armpit
Pain in the breast that doesn’t go away with your period

Breast Cancer

What is Cancer?

To understand cancer we have to have some appreciation of human biology. Our body is made up of minuscule entities called cells; these are the basic unit of life. Similar types of cells come together to form our tissues (e.g: muscle tissue, brain tissue etc), groups of tissues form our organs and then organs come together to form systems (e.g: cardio- vascular system, nervous system). Cancer is a disease of the smallest unit of our body – the cell. It develops when cells within our body obtain a series of defects that result in their uncontrollable growth. These cells are thus able to grow and divide into multiple defective cells that form a mass called a tumour.

Black Women and Breast Cancer

For black women the news is good and bad. Good because black women are significantly less likely (one-third less likely) to develop breast cancer than white women. The bad news is that a higher percentage of black women die from breast cancer than white women. Studies in the US have shown that black women are 30% more likely to die from breast cancer and in the UK it has been shown that black women are two times more likely to die from breast cancer. In addition to this, numerous studies have shown that when black women do get cancer they tend to get it at a much younger age than white women with a recent study in the UK showing that black women are diagnosed with breast cancer 20 years younger than white women, (an average of 46 years old compared to an average of 67 years old for white women).

Lactose Intolerance

Lactose malabsorption (LM): lactose deficiency, lactose intolerance, milk intolerance.

The consumption of animal milk has been sold as a natural and healthy way to take calcium into the body. However, in the case of the African community this could not be any more further from the truth.

Milk is one of the essential building blocks for all infant mammals who nurse from the mother’s milk rich in lactose. Lactose is a milk sugar, a disaccharide and principle carbohydrate source in milk of land animals.

To ingest milk the lactose is hydrolyzed (processed) in the small intestines, for this to happen the small intestines secretes the enzyme called lactase which splits the lactose molecule in two producing sugar glucose and galactose; this is then absorbed into the bloodstream. If the lactose remains unhydrolyzed i.e not processed it can lead to intestinal symptoms including stomach gas, distension, flatulence, diarrhea, phlegm and vomiting. Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest and absorb lactose which is a condition that occurs naturally in the majority of adults globally especially those who are highly melenated.

Lactose absorbers are those who can hydrolyze (process) lactose to produce glucose which is absorbed into the blood. Lactose malabsorbers are those people who cannot process lactose and so glucose is not absorbed. Many people who are lactose malabsorbers are able to consume milk daily with no signs of distress.

As children humans have a high intestinal lactase activity so the in take of milk is much easier. After weaning off the mother’s milk the lactase activity declines to great lows for the remainder of the person’s life. This happens with no experience of intestinal illnesses; the process of decline in lactase activity and the beginning of lactose malabsorption (the inability to digest milk) is normal in nearly all land mammals. There have been some cases however where the process of lactose malbsorption (LM) is delayed until a person’s teens or adulthood.

Why Afrikans Should Avoid Sugar

Why Afrikans Should Avoid Sugar by Kwame Osei

Over the years Afrikans have taken sugar (especially white) as part of their diet

Sugar is one of the most dangerous foods there is because it is the one food that can cause a whole array of disease such as kidney failure, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

The importance of Herbs

The importance of Herbs – an interview with Patricia Ferguson

What do you think about our community’s understanding of herbs?

The NHS was created in 1945. At the same time the manufacturing of chemical drugs began. Before then people relied on medicinal herbs. The prescription drugs we take now such as Aspirin are manufactured from an isolated chemical, salicin, extracted from the bark of the Willow plant. Isolated chemicals become more powerful, but often have accompanying side effects, without the balancing effects of the whole plant.
Our parents and generations before them used herbs, but somehow there is an impression that today’s trained herbalists are doing something new. In Jamaica where my parents are from, there is no NHS and medicines and treatment is expensive. Many people continue to use herbal remedies to self- medicate with great success, but we seem to have lost that connection due to our dependence on prescription drugs.

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