When I wrote my previous article “How to Conquer Heart, Kidney and Pressure Problems without Medicines”, I thought I was going to get a lot of negative criticism from around the World. I was happy when, instead, I received approvals from renowned doctors. One person wrote, after reading the article “Your article has been greatly appreciated by many doctors”.
Dr Peter Lwabi, the one God used 10 years ago to completely conquer my wayward pressure without medicines and who liberated me from the expensive visits to the Uganda Heart Institute, had this to say:
“…..I have seen the article doing rounds on social media. You are indeed a true advocate and convert and nothing gives me greater happiness than to see my patients heal. Thank you too for appreciating my advice. Be blessed and may you live a long and healthy life”.
A few days later, Dr Peter Lwabi wrote to me on my WhatsApp account thus: “A lot of people have sent me your article; some groups want me to give them some health talks”.
Many ordinary people have also sent me messages of appreciation. Here is an assortment of some of the messages:
“By sharing your experience, you have by extension helped some of us who are afflicted and struggling with exactly the same condition, always in and out of hospital with ever rising hospital bills. That’s why I follow you…..Oweyegha Afunaduula. God bless you abundantly”.
“Thank you for sharing this. I am in my early 40s 5ft, 8″ tall and I can just testify whatever you are alluding to is just correct and genuine”.
“Thanks for sharing, it will save some lives. I’m a victim too here, I moved to all the hospitals around Uganda. Uganda Heart Institute has become another home for me. I spend heavily on every visit there, but I tried scaling down on what I eat and the result is amazing”.
“Dietary restriction is key in control of high blood pressure. Obesity shouldn’t be a fashion for a healthy lifestyle! Proportional ratio of weight to height is critical in addressing persistent HBP and diabetes mellitus! I’ve been in worse HBP situations until I reviewed my diet , shed off the tummy and scaled down on my weight”.
“.. . ..True, this is a common problem among all of us. All of us have forgotten the basic P.3 knowledge; the balanced diet. What is very common is that one picks from at the buffet; some posho, matooke, Sweet potato, Irish potatoes, macaroni, yams and chapatti, the list goes on. One feels that s/he has “balanced” the diet but all this is entirely carbohydrates. Interestingly even scientists can’t recall that. This is how we live. I agree with you and appreciate you for educating us from experience”.
“Associating with learned people is a good thing even if someone is not a medical doctor, he can treat you. This is a 200 million treatment audience on a Face book page”.
There is no doubt that there is a deep sea of ignorance, across all social strata, regarding food and health, especially the impact of fats and oils on our health. Ignorance is extremely dangerous when it is concentrated among policy-makers, doctors, teachers, lecturers and professors, who constitute the cream of our society and have the power to influence the rest of us in the way they want. In the affluent countries – the developed countries – the high rates of death due to Kidney, Heart and blood pressure problems is explained by a combination of the overuse of fats and oils as well as societal pressures.
Although I was a teacher of Biology and Zoology for decades, and did teach the value of a balanced diet, there was a huge gap between theory and practice. My food ignorance was the reason I was glaring death in the face before Dr. Peter Lwabi intervened to conquer my high blood pressure and restore my health to full vitality.
In this article I have attached many different types of fats and oils, which are used for cooking in various parts of the world. I want to concentrate on one, which has become very commonly used in Uganda; Palm oil.
Government of Uganda, on the advice of IFAD and World Bank, decided to cut down natural forests from a 10,000 hectare stretch of land in Bugala Island of Kalangala District, and replace them with a false tree, Oil Palm, which is really a grass, to produce palm oil: The palm oil project in Kalangala. There are also plans, drawn with participation of IFAD and World Bank, to establish Oil Palm on the whole of Northern Uganda land, three-quarters of Eastern Uganda and half of Buganda. All this happened at the beginning of the New Millennium when the World was waking up to the health dangers of fats and oils.
Says Dr. Peter Lwabi, “Palm oil though a vegetable oil, is very high in saturated fat, which is one of the leading causes of heart disease.”
BIDCO, the firm Government of Uganda gave the monopoly to own oil Palm plantations also produces virtually all the oil we use in Uganda. Most Ugandans are using the oil it produces.
There has been a corresponding increase in the cases of Heart, Kidney and Pressure problems in Uganda among the young and old.
Ignorance of the health hazards of palm oil has driven all of us into the fangs of death in all age structures of our population because of the proliferating Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD).
When I asked Dr. Peter Lwabi to define IHD for me, he said, “IHD or Ischemic Heart Disease is when the blood vessels supplying your heart get clogged up with fat, leading to heart attack”. I now know this was the reason I was a regular patient at the Uganda Heart Institute at Mulago, why I got many strokes and why my blood pressure rose up to 227/117 in 2012 and almost claimed my life before Dr. Peter Lwabi intervened. These days even children are succumbing to IHD in Uganda, thanks to the proliferating and widespread use of BIDCO’s palm oil for cooking. It is hidden genocide.
A study by Chen, et.al. (2011) titled “Multi-country Analysis of Palm oil consumption and cardiovascular disease mortality for countries at different levels of economic development,:1980-1997” found that in developing countries, for every additional kilogram of palm oil consumption per capita annually IHD mortality rates increased by 68 deaths per 100,000, whereas in similar settings, stroke mortality rates increased by 19 deaths per 100,000,but we’re not significant. In the high-income countries, IHD and stroke mortality rates from Palm oil were much smaller: IHD 17 deaths per 100,000 and Strokes 5.1% per 100,000. Sources including beef, pork, chicken, coconut oil, milk cheese and butter did not substantially change the differentially higher relationship between palm oil and IHD mortality in developing countries. Chen, et. al. (2011) concluded that palm oil consumption is related to higher IHD mortality rates in developing countries, adding that Palm oil consumption represents a saturated fat source that decision makers should develop relevant policies aimed at reducing cardiovascular disease burden.
I have written this article to highlight the fact that equipping the Uganda Heart Institute with modern equipment and all manner and type of medicine, or even building new heart institutes, should not be the way forward to conquer cardiovascular disease. The way forward should be to tackle the most deadly source of these diseases – palm oil. This calls for a policy rethinking of agribusiness based largely on Oil Palm growing. Our IHD and stroke cases were considerably lower in Uganda before BIDCO started the business of producing palm oil in the country. The business started when we were largely ignorant of the very serious negative health impacts of palm oil compare to other sources of fats and oils.
If Uganda and its people are sick, palm oil presents the greatest explanation of the rising cases of IHD and strokes cases. As I have stated above it is silent genocide. But it goes without saying that the decision of President Tibuhaburwa Museveni to cut down natural forests for oil palm, sugarcane and foreign tree species of Eucalyptus and Cypress is largely responsible for our worsening Climate Change situation and the change in seasons for the worse.
For God and My Country
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
