Health

Haitian Health Tips: Did you know that eating Sweet Potatoes (Patat in Haiti) can help lower your blood pressure?

And you thought live in the country side of Haiti was bad! These people eat lots of fruits and vegetables including patat bouyi (boiled sweet potato).

Sweet potatoes is a super-food that can help reduce blood pressure. Sweet potato is rich in Potassium and magnesium, two nutrients that helps your body maintain a stable blood pressure and kidney function.

Some experts suggest eating the sweet potato with the peel (kek ekspè sijere w manje patat la ak tout po). it adds more fiber to the meal.

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I have a very bad habit and I hope for the sake of your health you do not have the same. I prioritize everything else over a simple 30 minute walk every morning and I intend to change that.

I have to tell you how guilty I feel when my doctor tells me: "you have to get out every day and walk for at least 30 minutes," something I know that I have to do and something that I hardly ever do because everything else seems more important than getting off my butt to go for a 30 minute walk. you keep putting it off until one day, the bell rings and it's that or a life of illness and discomfort.

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I have to apologize to you for not reporting the news the past couple of weeks. It is because I've been sick. I hope to recover soon to continue to serve you better.

It all started when my one-year-old daughter accidentally kicked me in the eyes while playing on the bed. She hit me so hard that I felt pain in both of my eyes; both hurt for more than a few days.

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Did you know? Pumpkin seeds are packed full of valuable nutrients, even for your prostate and bladder, but they are the first things Haitian throw away when cleaning a pumpkin for cooking.

Every Haitian woman who knows how to cook, if you give her a piece of pumpkin(joumou) to cook, the very first thing she will do is scrape the hell out of the joumou and throw away everything inside including the nutritious pumpkin seeds (grenn joumou) as though everything inside of the pumpkin is trash (fatra).

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This will surprise most Haitians because I just found out myself: Eating avocado, zaboka in Creole, can help you sleep better at night. Your Haitian mother probably told you "li two ta pou w manje zaboka" LOL...

Turns out Avocados are high in B vitamins, a vitamin that helps regulate your sleep.

According to the Alaska Sleep Clinic there are four main vitamins and minerals that can be found in food that aid in promoting sleep: tryptophan, magnesium, calcium, and B6. Three of these four vitamins are found in avocados.

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Did you know? A survey conducted by St-Luc Hospital and the Maryland Medical Center revealed that only 5 hospitals in the entire country are able to provide appropriate medical coverage 24 hours a day.

Haiti Medical Crisis: Only 15 Hospitals nationwide have an Intensive Care Unit

There are only 30 beds in ICU (intensive care unit) available with 24-hour coverage in the entire Haiti.

Wow... 30 intensive care beds are available at 5 hospitals across the entire republic of Haiti. 3 of these hospitals are located in Port-au-Prince, Dr. Marc Edson Augustin, medical director of the Foundation St-Luc told Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste in an interview.

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A national survey of 39 Haitian hospitals with more than 6 beds conducted by St-Luc Hospital and the Maryland Medical Center revealed that only 15 of these hospitals have an intensive care unit (ICU Level 1) for a total of 90 beds with the possibility of 45 intubated patients.

Of these 15 hospitals with an intensive care unit, 9 are private and 6 are public hospitals.

Why would a patient need to be intubated?

Intubation, in case you're wondering, is the process of inserting a tube, called an endotracheal tube (ET), through the mouth of a patient and then into the airway so that the patient can be placed on a ventilator to assist him/her with breathing during anesthesia, sedation, or severe illness.

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Did you know? Out of 570 communal sections in Haiti, 122 of them lack Health infrastructure. Tthat means no hospitals, no health clinics, no medical equipment, no Ambulance, not even a "bourèt" or a "bourik" to take someone to a hospital nearby if there is a medical emergency.

This is according to a report by the Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP).

What about the other Section Communales who do have some kind of medical infrastructure?

Read this...

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Most Haitians get rid of trash by burning it but... Did you know? There are some very serious health effects from burning trash, yet Haitians do it everyday not even thinking about the consequences. Read this...

Being exposed constantly to the smoke from a pile of burning trash will eventually kill you.

Even if you do not suffer immediate effects from trash burning, the damage to your health can be more serious the longer you are exposed to the smoke. The effects can include damage to your lungs, nervous system, kidneys and liver.

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Soon after hearing the news of a 22-year-old Haitian woman giving birth to 4 babies (quadruplets) in a Fonrds-Parisien hospital, former Haitian first lady Sophia Martelly decided to visit the newborns and their mother Camicile Doresca.

Sophia Martelly posts on her Fondation Rose et Blanc instagram page:

"Solidarite se sa nou bezwen an Ayiti. Mwen te kontan rankontre Camicile Doresca, yon jèn fanm 22 lane ki fenk akouche 4 timoun. Mwen te pataje kèk konsey ak li e mwen swete l' anpil kouraj. #Solidarité #FREBHaiti"

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