Hospital Pharmacists Enlighten Mushin Residents on Healthy Lifestyle

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Members of the Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria (AHAPN) Lagos State Branch have advised residents of Odi-Olowo in Mushin Local Government to embrace healthy lifestyle, as it helps prevent sudden death, frequent illnesses and premature ageing.

The pharmacists who converged at the Kajola Primary Healthcare Centre to mark the AHAPN Day for the 2017 Lagos Pharmacy Week, also conducted free medical screenings on hepatitis, blood glucose, and hypertension for the participants.

Educating the audience on the type of food to eat, Pharm. (Mrs) Margaret Obono, director of pharmaceutical services, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Lagos, emphasised the need to always have a balanced diet, with a quarter of the meal being carbohydrate, another quarter being protein, and the remaining portion being fruits and vegetables.

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She further explained the importance of water to the human body, describing it as the lubricant that keeps the system running. She encouraged the audience to take up to eight glasses of water per day, to prevent constipation and other conditions.

Obono also stressed the need to steer clear of alcohol, cigarette and drug abuse, as well as maintaining a very high standard of hygiene, through regular washing of hands with soap and water. She added that it is important to always ask the nearest pharmacist necessary questions about medicines.

The keynote speaker, Pharm. Joy I. Nwankwo, deputy director, Narcotics and Control Substances, NAFDAC, sensitised the audience on the roles of hospital and administrative pharmacists in the wellbeing of the nation, noting that a healthy nation is a wealthy one.

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In her words: “Contributions of hospital and administrative pharmacists lie essentially in their impact on health and wellbeing, as well as the many factors that make good health possible. Health is wealth, thus to contribute to better health is to contribute to a better nation”.

While speaking on the paradigm shift in the practice of pharmacy, from drug-centred to patient-centred, she described pharmaceutical care as a patient-centred, outcome-oriented pharmacy practice that requires the pharmacists to work in concert with the patient and the patient’s other healthcare providers to promote health, prevent disease, and to assess, monitor, initiate and modify medication use to ensure that drug therapy regimes are safe and effective.

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The State Chairman, AHAPN, Mrs Folashade Kotun, expressed her heartfelt gratitude to all that made the campaign a success, stating that the association almost cancelled the event, due to the sudden death of one of the members from Ekiti State who breathed his last in Lagos on the same day of the event.

After observing a minute silence for the deceased, she urged all present to always pay attention to their body symptoms, noting that the human system will normally give warning signs before total shutdown.

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