Daily Heritage Newspaper - December 21. New Digital Newspaper

Inside DEC 20, 2018 .qxp_Layout 1 12/20/18 8:02 PM Page 6
Facts of good eating habits
• Balance your foods
To avoid getting too much of any
nutrient, try to eat foods from all food
groups in the healthy eating pyramid,
including low glycemic-load carbohydrates,
proteins, and healthy fats as
well as good sources of vitamins and
minerals.
• Eat plenty of fruits and
vegetables
These are all an excellent source of
fibre, healthy sugars, vitamins and
minerals. Fibre is useful in keeping
your cholesterol levels low and cleaning
out the intestinal tract. Vitamins
and minerals are required by the most
basic of metabolic processes in the
body.
• Avoid eating fast foods
They are loaded with salt, sugar
and bad fats that have no nutritional
value. While they may put an end to
your hunger, they are of no benefit to
your body.
• Choose low fat foods
The average diet contains more fat
than our body requires. Opting for low
fat options when available will help
balance the foods that are higher in
fats.
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
DAILY HERITAGE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2018
&Env.
Tramadol, codeine usage high
among youth in U/W — NCCE
THE UPPER West
Regional Director
of the National
Commission for
Civil Education
(NCCE), Ms Patience
Sally Kumah, has bemoaned
the high level of
indiscipline among the youth in
relation to the wrong usage of
drugs such as tramadol and
codeine.
She said the usage of these
drugs could be detrimental to the
health of users when they are
taken by way of self-medication.
The NCCE boss could not
provide figures to proof her case
but said last year, the Regional Directorate
of the Ghana Education
Service complained about the
abuse of tramadol and codeine
among pupils at both basic and
senior high school levels in the region.
Ms Kumah said many pupils
ignorantly believed that the two
drugs could enhance their learning
capabilities, but did not know
that the abuse of the drugs was
rather harmful to their health and
learning capabilities.
According to medical experts,
excessive intake of tramadol or
codeine could cause infertility, impotence,
sexual problems, and
shallow breathing and distort
menstrual cycles among others.
She raised this concern at the
2018 Regional Project Citizen
•Patience Sally Kumah, Upper West Director, NCCE
Showcase Competition at Saint
Francis Girls Senior High School
at Jirapa.
The European Union sponsored
the project, which gave the
youth insight into Public Accountability
with focus on anticorruption,
rule of law and
accountability.
The aim was to help contribute
to a reduction in corruption and
improve accountability and compliance
with the rule of law to
promote good governance in
Ghana.
Ms Kumah urged members of
the NCCE Project Citizen Showcase
Competitions as well as other
students to educate their social
groups and classmates on the
need to stay away from the abuse
of tramadol and all other drugs
that were dangerous to their
health.
A Deputy Director in charge
of Operations at the headquarters
of the NCCE, Mrs Gladys
Osman, said empowering the
youth in civic education was crucial
to Ghana’s democratic development.
She said fighting corruption
and uprooting same was a collective
responsibility, and that the
youth constituted an important
and influential group that could
make great strides when engaged
in the anti-corruption drive.
Mrs Osman urged members of
the Project to serve as anti-corruption
ambassadors wherever
they would find themselves, and
also endeavour to imbibe anti-corruption
values such as patriotism,
honesty and integrity in the people.
“The NCCE believes that the
youth can make a difference in
the fight against corruption as
they bring on-board new attitudes
to the achievement of a corruption-free
society by holding duty
bearers and public officers accountable,”
she noted.
The Project Citizen is an interdisciplinary
programme that applies
learning to real world issues
which identify strategic ways of
solving problems.
Six senior high schools, namely
Saint Francis Girls, St. Francis
Xavier Seminary, Lawra, Nandom,
Queen of Peace and Daffiama
Senior High schools, participated
in the competition.
St. Francis Xavier Seminary
won the competition.
Gently stroking babies 'provides pain relief' – Research
GENTLY STROKING a baby reduces
activity in their brain associated with
painful experiences, a study has found.
The study, by University of Oxford
and Liverpool John Moores University,
monitored the brain activity of 32 babies
while they had blood tests.
Half were stroked with a soft brush
beforehand and they showed 40% less
pain activity in their brain.
Author Rebeccah Slater said “touch
seems to have analgesic potential without
the risk of side-effects.”
The study found that the optimal
pain-reducing stroking speed was about
3cm (1in) per second.
"Parents intuitively stroke their babies
at this optimal velocity," said Prof
Slater.
"If we can better understand the
neurobiological underpinnings of techniques
like infant massage, we can improve
the advice we give to parents on
how to comfort their babies."
That speed of stroking activates a
class of sensory neurons in the skin
called C-tactile afferents, which have
been previously been shown to reduce
pain in adults.
But it had been unclear whether babies
had the same response or whether
it developed over time.
"There was evidence to suggest that
C-tactile afferents can be activated in
babies and that slow, gentle touch can
evoke changes in brain activity in infants,"
said Prof Slater.
Prof Slater said the study, published
in Current Biology, could explain anecdotal
evidence of the soothing power of
touch-based practices such as infant
massage and kangaroo care, where premature
babies are held against the skin
to encourage parent-infant bonding and
possibly reduce pain.
"Previous work has shown that
touch may increase parental bonding,
decrease stress for both the parents and
the baby, and reduce the length of hospital
stay," said Prof Slater.
The study authors now plan to repeat
their experiment in premature babies,
whose sensory pathways are still
developing.
Caroline Lee-Davey, chief executive
at the premature and sick baby charity
Bliss welcomed the research.
"We already know that positive
touch - such as skin-to-skin care -
makes a real difference directly to babies
in neonatal care and also helps parents
to bond with their baby.
"This new research suggests that
parental touch could also help to alleviate
pain in infants and Bliss is delighted
to be funding Oxford University to do
more research specifically on reducing
pain in premature babies through the
use of parental touch, from the new
year.
“Many people do not realise just
how many medical procedures a baby in
neonatal care goes through during their
hospital stay.
“Anything that can reduce a baby's
discomfort is a huge step forward in
this underfunded area of research.”