Bidii Health Supplement - Issue 05 2023

BIDII is dedicated to educating the African Caribbean community on matters of health and well-being to stimulate our collective prosperity.

With great information available on food, health and beauty, Bidii aims to encourage a better and healthier lifestyle for both men and women.

This supplement on health is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a trusted health advisor for any questions you may have regarding any specific medical conditions.

Credits:

Editor: T. Prendergast

Publisher: Bidii Ltd

Layout & Graphic Design: D. Palmer

Contributors: Stephen Ssali

Pablo Menfesawe-Imani

Our Health Inflammation and its Impact

inflammation in the body. Eating 2-3 servings of pineapple a week, helps reduce inflammation all over the body.

Inflammation remains a prevalent condition in the community. Read the continued interview with Stephen Ssali speaking about inflammation and its impact on the body.

Q: What is the impact of inflammation on the body?

A: Inflammation impacts every area of the body creating symptoms of heat, swelling and pain.

The body requires nutrients known as anti-inflammatories to fight inflammation. Natural anti-inflammatory foods like pineapple play a vital role in reducing inflammation in the body. Pineapple has a powerful enzyme called bromelain that fights swelling and

Super foods like Alfalfa, also known as the father of all plants because it contains every known vitamin, is excellent for treating arthritis - another form of inflammation.

Inflammation impacts the joints and ligaments leading to joint pain and poor mobility. The symptoms of inflammation in the form of pain, swelling and heat, continue to impact and compromise our body’s efficiency and capacity. The conventional medicine usually offers pain relief management; however, it does not deal with the root cause of the pain.

Q: If somebody wanted to check the state of their inflammation how would they go about this?

A: Our bodies speak a very clear language of signs and symptoms, which come in the form of pain, discomfort, poor mobility, poor flexibility and swelling. Whenever we do a blood test, urine test, or MRI scan or CT scan, we are looking for body markers, blood markers, or urine markers to check how the body is functioning. The body produces certain chemicals that actually allow us to measure what is happening in the system at different levels. Inflammation can build up over months, sometimes years, before we realize the need to reduce the inflammation in the body. Sometimes people have chronic inflammation for nearly twenty years, literally causing continuous pain, stiffness and swelling in the body.

Your fingers may have deformities because of inflammation, causing the nodules of the fingers to start to expand which give us an external reflection of what is happening inside.

Inflammation can occur anywhere in the body. For example, if you look at inflammation in the joints, you’ll find that one of the things people experience, is swelling of the joints. They may also have swollen knees. Today knee replacements are being promoted as a way forward out of pain and suffering. Your body’s natural intelligence relies on availability of adaptogens and anti-oxidants to assist the body in adapting to inflammation. When people get knee replacements, they never actually get their full functionality and mobility back, creating limited functionality and movement.

Now when you are looking at inflammation, you are also looking at fatigue. If you have signs of deep tiredness, you wake up tired and go to sleep tired, this is a condition called chronic fatigue. This condition is linked to inflammation in the body. While you’re asleep at night, you may experience continuous excessive heat like a burning coal fire that never goes out. Usually, Inflammation is suppressed using steroids interfering with the

body’s natural process that would normally happen. We must also look at how degeneration and deficiencies can compromise our immune system, leading to inflammation. When the immune system is not working well, it will lead to the whole body being compromised, which will raise the level of inflammation in the body.

Inflammation in the body can be reduced and cleared using adaptogens. Adaptogens are plants and mushrooms that help your body respond to stress, anxiety, fatigue and overall well-being. They are a wide variety of adaptogenic foods, herbs for optimal well-being and body balance such as turmeric, moringa, maca, liquorice root, mushrooms, astragalus, nettle, ashwanganda and goji berry.

Panax Ginseng is a well-known adaptogen and is considered to be the most potent. It improves feelings of calmness and restores memory. Professor Charles Ssali has included a wide variety of adaptogens in the Mariandina food supplements, which assist the body in coping with inflammation. Mariandina food supplements support the body’s healing process by combating free radicals in the body using anti-oxidants and providing nutrients to heal a variety of inflammatory conditions in the body.

MARIANDINA

Mariandina food supplements were researched and developed by Professor Charles Ssali FRCS; founder of the Mariandina Research Foundation.

Mariandina nutritional food supplements work by boosting the body’s immune system and repairing body cells and tissues.

Mariandina food supplements are made from whole plant based natural nutrients. Mariandina mops up impurities produced in the body, called free radicals, which promote

cell damage. Mariandina works by providing the cells with vitamins and minerals required for optimum cellular function. The signatures of inflammation are pain, swelling and heat, which impact our systems causing inflammation in the body to become acute and chronic. This is why a lot of the conventional medicine on the market is about pain relief. Mariandina provides a wide variety of adaptogens and anti-oxidants to assist the body in combating inflammation.

Mariandina natural nutritional food supplement works to boost the body’s immune system and repairs body cells and tissues. It also optimises the body’s response in terms of immunity.

Using ingredients made from whole plant based natural nutrients, Mariandina mops up impurities produced in the body, called free radicals, which promote cell damage. Mariandina works by providing the cells with vitamins and minerals required for cells to function properly.

MARIANDINA A is an advanced natural composition consisting of 28 natural vitamins, minerals and rare elements such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, iodine, zinc, iron, selenium, quercetin and copper, plus much more that boosts the

immune system, repairs body cells and tissues, provides stress relief and energises the body.

MARIANDINA B is an advanced natural composition consisting of 23 natural herbs and vitamins such as Siberian ginseng, alfalfa, goldenseal, Vitamin E, beta carotene, bee pollen, liquorice, hawthorn, yellow dock, echinacea , ginkgo biloba, co-enzyme Q-10, and guarana that optimise blood circulation in the brain, sexual organs and heart. Mariandina B also improves circulation, hormone imbalance and boosts energy production.

MARIANDINA J is a unique natural composition of 29 powerful herbs such as calendula, echinacea, astragalus, St. John’s wort, thyme, camomile, lecithin, spirulina, dandelion, codonopsis, berberis, garlic, milk thistle and calamus root, plus much more that detoxifies, reduces inflammation and cleanses the whole body.

MARIANDINA SYRUP is a natural herbal syrup made of an enriched blend of vitamins, minerals and herbal extracts such as Vitamin C, birch leaf, ginkgo biloba, vitamin B12, potassium, zinc, iodine and sarsaparilla, plus much more designed to optimise well-being for children’s developing immune systems and to prevent childhood disease.

Website: www.mariandina.com

Our Sisters B-Uzuri

Our health is the foundation to all aspects of our lives. To nurture our well-being is fundamental for us on both an individual and collective level.

Self-care is a proactive, unconditional way to improve your current state and to harness unlimited beauty from within.

Bidii.co.uk is dedicated to increasing the awareness of Black health for the community. In 2022, Bidii launched the fitness and well-being platform B-Uzuri.

The platform consists of an app and website designed to help women with a variety of needs, B-Uzuri supports those who wish to focus on training, or wish to begin a journey of healthier eating, and, also, those with a hectic lifestyle seeking a way to incorporate positive changes that will improve overall

well-being.

Our goal is to make a platform that benefits your lifestyle. In addition to helping women understand their bodies, B-Uzuri also encourages women to look at fitness as a gift to themselves.

B-Uzuri aims to help Black women who want to:

• Focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle

• Start and/or improve their fitness journey at a safe pace

• Explore how to have a varied, dynamic and nutritious plant-based diet from an Afro Caribbean influence

• Seek encouragement through positive affirmations and meditations

Why exercise?

Some women seek out a fitness journey to focus on weight loss; however, the benefits of exercise can be much more than this.

A western lifestyle is often full of stresses, processed foods and minimal activity.

B-Uzuri focuses on the following areas to help bring you back in balance:

• Exercise can help with health conditions.

• Exercise can help with weight maintenance.

• Exercise can be used to improve your cardiovascular system and overall physical health.

• Exercise can produce mood boosting hormones for a better sense of well-being.

• Exercise boosts overall strength and energy levels in the body.

• Exercise can promote better sleep.

As well as exercise, the platform offers excellent meditation and affirmation videos aimed at helping women in a variety of ways, from focusing on the present to managing stressful situations.

Check out the B-Uzuri website here: b-uzuri.co.uk

Download the Android app on Google Play: bit.ly/b-uzuri

“Happiness requires something to do, something to love and something to hope for.”

Afrikan Yoga Our Brothers

Pablo Menfesawe-Imani, yoga teacher and founder of the Afrikan Yoga Foundation speaks to Bidii about yogic practise, it’s importance and how men can benefit.

Afrikan Yoga

Q: Why is yoga/stretching important?

A: Yoga and stretching are actually natural components and tools used in order to awaken oneself and get the body prepared for the day. This is the importance of yoga.

When you stretch, it opens up your sinuses and improves your general mobility.

If you want to use your muscles throughout your entire life, then, you need to exercise them. If you don’t use your muscles, they go into atrophy. They actually start to wither. So, if you

don’t use the muscles over and over again, they start to forget how to work. So, the muscles have memory, and you have to constantly remind your body about movement, and they will continue to operate in that mode.

Q: Why do you think men shy away from the art of yoga?

A: Men in the West generally think that yoga is for women and girls. They think it’s a little challenging and start with the idea that they are not flexible and won’t try to be flexible. Not wanting to work on themselves to get flexible. They think they already need to be bendy, or in a position to naturally stretch out. It’s like the dirty person saying they are not going to take a bath because they are too dirty. We all know how that turns out. They just get dirtier and dirtier. So just start with a few stretches.

Men communicate differently and tend not to be as open as the masses of women that attend yoga classes.

I know there are some out there that pump iron, do calisthenics or martial arts. So, I can understand they are going towards something more dynamic; however, there are various yoga practises that are dynamic and, for instance, Afrikan yoga is really dynamic and men can really develop themselves through that practise. Men do shy away, but I think they will come through. Slowly but surely, men are coming through because they recognise that they have to bring balance.

Q: Does stretching need to be practised daily to be effective?

A: Yes. Of course, stretching needs to be done daily. It depends on what you want out of a stretch. But yes, to increase one’s flexibility is to do it daily. You can develop your flexibility in a shorter space of time if you do it daily.

Q: Why did you start a mission to promote men practicing yoga?

A: I’m a man, I need yoga. I would say that point blank. I see how important yoga practise is. And I think men also need it. Men come to me all the time with issues, ailments, personal and physical stresses. Problems with the back, hips and whatever it might be.

I always recommend a stretch. In general, everybody needs to get into yoga practise. So why am I campaigning? Well, I think that men need to engage with themselves more. There’s a lot of issues that men are having. For instance, a lot of men over 40 are attempting suicide. A lot of men have domestic problems and go through domestic abuse. A lot of men particularly from the African Caribbean community are experiencing prostate cancer.

So there’s ways that they can combat all of these issues and problems by engaging healthy living and a healthy lifestyle. Yoga is a tool for that and is a key component. If I can get some men and engage with them to do a few movements and stretches in yoga, open that door or assist them, or show them the door to developing themselves, bettering themselves, healing themselves; then, that’s my job done and I’m happy to do that. So that’s why I want to get men involved in yogic practise.

Q: What are the health benefits of practicing Afrikan yoga?

A: Well first of all, beside you getting that euphoric feeling, which is really great to have because when you have a euphoric feeling, you

feel young and energetic. You’re magnetised to begin to attract positivity to yourself, when you feel that. But that is like also one of the great things or by-product of practise.

Another by-product is how your internal organs begin to operate and get into balance.

So, practicing Afrikan yoga is fantastic. When dealing with yoga, we are not just talking about stretching. We’re talking about how to eat, your meditation, mindfulness, awareness of yourself. Getting into that awareness of yourself by taking time in the day just to focus on yourself. Sit, breathe, meditate, even if it’s 5, 10 minutes of time. Just to do that, just to be able to do one thing, centre yourself, balance yourself, so you can get up and go again. Being able to have

those still moments is part of yogic practise.

Many people, especially men that workout, know you need adequate nutrition for the body to work. You know that you need the adequate amounts of protein and carbohydrates. The right fruits and the right vegetables.

The right amounts of food, in order to feed your body so your body can work at an ultimate level. So that you can do whatever it is that you need to do, the reps and movements. You’re feeding your body through good nutrition.

You’re also cleansing your body. You detox your body, and also you build your body through nutrition. That’s something that you know we can look at to better ourselves. And when you eat right, you feel better, the organs work better. So that’s another aspect of yogic practise.

Watch the full interview on YouTube: bit.ly/3YrwK7c

Follow Pablo on Instagram: @pabloimani

The Our Health supplement is published twice per year and was created to provide great information in the areas of nutrition, exercise and our holistic wellbeing.

The supplement promotes the valuable businesses, services and work of experts from our community.

Become a contributor or advertise your health and wellbeing services in future editions. Email info@bidii.co.uk

Read previous editions online, via bidii.co.uk/our-hs/

Issue: 1 - 2021

Issue: 2 - 2021

Issue: 3 - 2022

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Issue: 4 - 2022