Health Essentials
Your Chair Could ‘Kill’ You! Really?
IF you truly love yourself, you had better read this piece while standing!
The other “inactivity” that rivals sitting for long periods when it comes to poor health and untimely death is LONLINESS! Sitting and Loneliness are the new Smoking.
It is often common to hear a parent tell a child, “Sit quietly and watch television and I will make a quick dash to town.” Well, this harmless and well-meaning statement is now being vilified. That parent could have said “smoke a few sticks of cigarettes while I dash off to town.” Yes “sitting is the “new” smoking.”
Scientists: they keep coming up with many weird findings and unfortunately, we realise after much ado that they may be right. People with sitting jobs have twice the rate of cardiovascular (heart & blood vessel) diseases as those with standing jobs – the bankers are cringing in their seats I bet.
It appears that compared to sitting,
• Sitting continuously brings similar challenges that smoking poses a gossip team. After an hour of sitting, if you walk for a minute or two.
Standing is hard work. Imagine that you need to engage many muscles to stand upright, and this burns energy. Sitting on the other hand is extremely relaxing.
When we sit, the “physiology of inactivity” kicks in and when we think we are relaxing in a chair made from heaven, our body instead rewards us with many bad things; enzymes that break down fat may drop by about 90 per cent calorie burning drops to frightening low levels and soon good cholesterol that protects us also drops. If you sit long enough even your insulin effectiveness drops and you will be courting diabetes in the long run.
I sincerely believe in getting a workout during the day, but you should not think that it gives you a license to sit at your desk for hours on end. We should ensure that we get up from our desk to walk briefly or even stretch. I am not giving you an excuse for loitering around your office or forming ings. When you have a meeting with a handful of people you could lace your boots and start walking while you talk. Who knows being out of a box (office etc) could help you think “out of the box” or even think like “there is no box”. The best aspect of such a meeting is people are more attentive since they are unable to fidget with their smart phones and other gadgets.
All lectures and classes (children are really suffering in school these days) should have a “Heart Preserving” five-minute break after every hour. Spend that time walking and stretching.
All long movies should have commercial breaks that should be used to at least stand
Whenever in doubt, at least stand for a while.
Well some people are trying innovative ways of even having small treadmills at their desk that keeps them moving, others are adopting a new chair design that essentially makes you stand at your desk, a few others sit on exercise balls that forces them to adjust their positions all the time but for the rest of us simply taking breaks and using every opportunity to move is just what the doctor prescribed.
AS ALWAYS LAUGH OFTEN, ENSURE HYGIENE, WALK AND PRAY EVERY DAY AND REMEMBER IT’S A PRICELESS GIFT TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS (blood sugar, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, BMI)
Dr. Kojo Cobba Essel
Health Essentials/Medics Clinic
(www.healthessentialsgh.com)
Dr. Essel is a medical doctor with a keen interest in Lifestyle Medicine, He holds an MBA and is ISSA certified in exercise therapy, fitness nutrition and corrective exercise. He is the author of the award-winning book, ‘Unravelling The Essentials of Health & Wealth.’
Thought for the week – For good heart health; exercise often, eat healthy, do not smoke, minimise alcohol and sit less
By Dr. Kojo Cobba Essel
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Health Essentials
Children Believe, Norsaac present medicines, medical equipment to three Health Directorates
THE Northern, Upper East and Savannah Regional Health Directorates have taken delivery of various medicines and medical equipment to improve care for pregnant/lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children under five years.
The medicines and medical equipment, worth GH¢1.6 million, were procured with funding support from the Canadian Government through Global Affairs Canada.
They included Combined Iron (III) Hydroxide Polymaltose and Folic Acid – 5,500 Boxes, Mebendazole (Wormalex 400mg) – 10,000 Packs, Albendazole (400mg) – 20,000 Packs, Combine Ferrous Sulphate and Folic Acid (Folidyn Tab mp) – 2880 cartons, Tarring Weighing Scale- 18 pieces, Digital Thermometer – 108 pieces, and Height Rod in CMS/Feet HOM Stadiometer – 27 pieces.
The rest were Blood Pressure Monitor Digital, Andon- 27 pieces, Ultrasonic Pocket Doppler, 1.5v Sonotrax Basic – 9 pieces, Glucose meters – 54 pieces, Glucose meter stripes (50’s)- 500 pieces, Delivery set (used for facility-based delivery) – 27 pieces, Hb Testing System/URIT -12 – 36 pieces, Hb Test Stripes (50’s) – 800 pieces, Weighing Scale, Hanging (Salter) HOM- 27 pieces.
Some 96,374 individuals comprising pregnant/lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children under five years in nine districts in the three regions are expected to benefit from the medicines and the medical equipment.
A total of 54 health facilities in the nine districts, namely Bole, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, East Gonja, Tolon, Kumbungu, Nanumba South, Builsa South, Kassena-Nankana West and Kassena-Nankana North, are to benefit from the supplies.
They were donated by Children Believe, an international NGO, under the Championing Nutrition and Gender Equality (CHANGE) project, which is funded by Global Affairs Canada.
The CHANGE project is being implemented in partnership with Norsaac; the national implementing partner, amongst other governmental agencies.
The overall objective of the project is to improve nutrition for the poorest and most marginalised, especially women and adolescent girls.
Madam Esenam Kavi De Souza, the Country Director, Children Believe, speaking to hand over the medicines and the medical equipment to the authorities of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) at the Regional Medical Stores in Tamale, said it was geared towards achieving the project’s commitment to improve women’s leadership and control resources for community and individual gender equitable nutrition practices.
The authorities of the GHS in the Upper East and Savannah Regions also received their share of the donated items in their respective regions.
Madam De Souza said the gesture followed assessments conducted with the GHS to identify the most critical healthcare needs in the targeted communities. She said the intervention was designed to ensure that the support would make a meaningful difference in healthcare delivery for the poorest and most marginalised populations in the targeted districts.
Dr Chrysantus Kubio, the Northern Regional Director, GHS, who received the items, said they would significantly improve health service delivery in the beneficiary districts in the region.
He said as part of the project, motorbikes and laptops were also supplied to the districts to facilitate the work of health personnel and improve data analysis for health services.
He lauded the project saying such partnerships were crucial in supporting vulnerable populations, who faced financial barriers to healthcare and expressed appreciation to Global Affairs Canada and the implementing partners for their support. —GNA
ZERO Maternal Mortality was recorded at Awutu District Health Service in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Dr Felix Gerald Kwaning Darbbey, the District Health Service Director, disclosed this in a presentation at the 2025 Annual Performance Hearing summit at Awutu Bereku.
The Health Directorate has 30 Community Health Planning and Services compounds, Two Health Centers, Two Polyclinics, five Maternity Homes and three Private Clinics working under it. He said the theme for the meeting: ‘Reboot, Re-Center, Drive Universal Health Coverage,’ encouraged them to think about their journey together, reassess their priorities and confidently work towards their goal for everyone in the district, support the Service and the mission of the World Health Organisation to ensure that people accessed healthcare efficiently without hindrances.
According to Dr Darbbey, 3,258 deliveries was recorded in 2023 against 2,932 in 2024 but increased to 3,280 in 2025. Anemia in pregnant women at 36 weeks reduced from 3,029 in 2023 to 2,815 in 2024 and increased to 2,973 in 2025, skilled deliveries reduced from 3,258 in 2023 to 2,923 in 2024 and increased to 3,280 in 2025, while Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) deliveries dived from 211 in 2023 to 74 in 2024 and further up to 61 in 2025.
According to him, Out-Patient Department (OPD) attendants decreased from 163 in 2023 to 75 in 2024 and increased to 193 in 2025, with clients insured cards increasing to 71,721 in 2023 as against 81,111 in 2024 and to 90,363 in 2025. Hypertension cases went up to 684 in 2024 from 595 in 2023 and rose to 765 in 2025. The Directorate recorded 392 accidents in 2023 against 373 in 2024 and 353 in 2025 at the OPD. 279 tested positive in 2023, 63 in 2024 and 39 in 2025.
Darbbey mentioned some of their major challenges to include deplorable nature of roads which hampered monitoring and supervision, inadequate office at the district level, yet still low reporting rate by private facilities, low skilled deliveries in most facilities, low recording of epidemic and other prone diseases.
“The results came about due to integrating some funded activities with other activities, improved behavioural change communication, mostly on skin diseases and advent of wellness clinics, quarterly TB case searches and mop-up exercises and contract tracing conducted as well as intensified monitoring and supervision at the sub-districts facilities.”
He said Antenatal Clinic attendance reduced from 6,094 to 5,600 in 2024 and increased slightly to 5,829 in 2025, teenage pregnancies reduced from 681 in 2023 to 563 in 2024 and increased to 603 in 2025, pregnant women who tested for HIV increased.
“To sustain our achievement we must have the courage to face issues, we must be honest, welcome new ideas, find new smarter ways, focus on what really matters at providing services, especially on mothers who need care, vulnerable children, teenagers and adolescents who need help in navigating the health issues that they encounter.”
He said to move forward they need to focus on strengthening primary healthcare services which is the solid base of primary healthcare delivery, encourage community involvement at ensuring that persons who had not yet enrolled on NHIS had access to free service delivery when they were sick. —GNA
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