Bidii Health Supplement - Issue 03 2022

issue: 03 2022

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: Jo Dash, Tracy Awere, Marlene Ellis, Kwame Asiedu and Lou Taylor

@UKBIDII

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Our Health The Journey Of Intermittent Fasting

midday, to 8pm eating window. Not to eat throughout the window but just a period where you can have a meal - followed by 16 hours of fasting, where you don’t have any calorific drink or food. You can have herbal tea or water, but nothing that is calorie based. Because when you don’t eat, and you fast, the body responds to it as stress. But not stress as you know it, but biological stress. So that means it forces the body to go into self-preservation mode and self-detoxification. So intermittent fasting is saying I have a designated time to feed myself, followed by a long period of abstinence of food, or any sugary food or calorific food.

That is what intermittent fasting is really about.

An interview with Jo Dash - Nutritional Consultant and author of ‘The Melanin Effect’ (jodashnutrition.com). Jo has extensive years of research experience in the science of melanin and food. Bidii explores, with Jo, the practice of intermittent fasting, including its effectiveness for helping people in a variety of ways.

Q: What is intermittent fasting?

Q: What are the health benefits people can achieve with intermittent fasting?

A: Intermittent fasting is a structured calorie restricted diet. It is about balancing a window of eating period, with hours of rest. So, for example, the 12 to 8 pm method would be the most popular one. So, you would have a 12pm,

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A: There are so many benefits. Too much to list.

But the key thing is to say it is holistic. When you do intermittent fasting, of course, weight

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loss is the number one thing. You will drop the weight because you have less insulin in the body. The second thing is you go through this thing called autophagy, which slows down the process of ageing. It revitalises the body by renewing cells and clearing debris in the cytoplasm of the cell, which is great because the accumulation of waste in the cell is what ages you. So autophagy allows cell repair and growth, and creates a more harmonious environment for the body.

care means.

So, intermittent fasting is a great way to provide structure too. That’s another massive benefit - it provides structure, so you are not impulsively eating all the time. And that’s why in the Black community we have distinguishable differences in our health. For example, prostate [cancer], 1 in 4 Black men is the statistic, I believe. When it comes to women, a lot of Black women have fibroids or are overweight. And the average weight of a Black woman is way more than the average weight in every other race. And all of that stuff is how we occupy our traumas with food. We are trauma eating for the most part. And that’s not just due to racial trauma, but upbringing.

Obviously, you increase human growth hormones, which is important for development and cognitive function. You create what they call Brain Derived Neural Factors, which is great because the Black community (especially people of Caribbean descent) have a high level of Dementia, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s Disease and this is due to melanin in the brain dying. So, intermittent fasting can help restructure the brain properly so less foggy memory, more cognitive function, and slows down the brain’s ageing order. It increases immune response, so it builds immunity very very well. If you fast for a longer period of time, you can create stem cells - which is very important because if you are producing stem cells for someone who has cancer, or something like that, [intermittent fasting] can be very powerful because stem cells can become anything.

They can really remove inflammation from the body.

Q: Is there a link between the rhythm of the body and digestion?

A: To a large degree yes. You have your circadian rhythm that is everybody’s rhythm, whether you are Black, White, Asian, whatever.

Everyone has a Circadian rhythm: it exists in nature, animals have it, plants have it. And that is your internal body clock that kind of monitors how the body shifts throughout the day.

The food you eat will influence how your body moves; food influences thought. So, the food you eat influences your thoughts, your mood, your behavioural patterns, your interactions with yourself, self-identity, all of those things food can have influence over.

Intermittent fasting has multiple benefits: improved learning and memory, improved muscle action and bone health. If your bones are clicking all the time, and your joints aren’t working properly, intermittent fasting can be a phenomenal thing for that, and that’s because the food we consume in the West is very poisonous. We are consuming poison on a daily basis and we are so addicted to the poison that we will defend it, rationalise it, crave it, and emotionally attach ourselves to it.

So, a lot of us are not understanding what self-

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When it comes to rhythm and the gut specifically, your gut is your second brain and it has a direct connection to the brain through the vagus nerve; that is how you influence your thoughts through your food. Serotonin is your mood hormone. 97% of serotonin is in the gut.

So if you put crap in the gut, you are going to feel like crap; that’s just how it is. So, when it comes to the rhythm and the gut, your body is always in need of homeostasis. That is the fundamental thing. It doesn’t care for alkaline,

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it cares for balance. So, when it comes to rhythm, if you know you have a harmonious rhythm, the simple question: Am I exercising enough? Am I sleeping well? Am I stress free?

Am I eating quality food? Am I drinking enough water? Because that is the harmonious activities you do.

really good, so if you want to exercise, exercise in the morning and drink lots of water.

Q: Does intermittent fasting have to be daily?

A: I do it daily. Intermittent Fasting can be done 5 days a week, 3 days a week, at the weekends. You can structure it into your life just to gain a bit of control, so you are not just always eating. People eat constantly. The average person eats every hour and a half. Something is in their mouth every hour and a half unless they are distracted by work, when they can’t physically do it. But if you leave them alone with no task, they will eat every hour and a half.

The body needs 3 to 4 hours space to digest food properly, so imagine how many calories are taken in.

People can be 12 to 8 pm and stay there, and it’s the easiest thing to start on. Obviously the longer you fast, the more benefits you get; that’s just how it goes. But 12 to 8 pm provides two basic fundamental things that I think are important: which is control, which is the first thing, and structure. So, if you are producing structure and control, you can monitor your weight more your whole physiology. The problem is we have no structure, and we have no control.

For the full interview, visit the link, here - https://bit.ly/3FMlObc

So, 12 to 8 pm is brilliant because let’s look at the body in terms of in the morning, your body wants to eliminate stuff. It’s been breaking down things all night and wants to get rid of stuff, and pump energy into your body. That is why cortisol levels are high in the morning.

Cortisol is the stress hormone. It pushes sugar in the blood, allowing you to have energy to get up in the morning. So exercise in the morning is

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Jo Dash (jodashnutrition.com) offers courses to explore the inner working of the biological dark matter known as melanin, and helping students begin to understand how food affects melanin on a biochemical level.

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Our Sisters Turning To Hypnobirthing

childbirth preparation course that not only educates mums-to-be about the biomechanics of birth and what will happen, but also teaches them how to mentally prepare for birth with a confident and positive mindset.

Sankofa Hypnobirthing founder Tracy Awere (sankofa-hypnobirthing.co.uk/ about-me) was empowered through her own pregnancy journey. Trained in hypnotherapy and hypnobirthing, Tracy started teaching both in 2014. She has since been providing her service to women and couples as they prepare for their birthing experience and beyond.

This mindset work is particularly important because, sadly, childbirth in the Western world is often portrayed as being scary and agonising.

When we frequently see or hear such stories of birthing women in distress and cursing out their partners during labour, this idea is drip-fed into our minds and affects both men and women. I mention men here because, as fathers, they will also have concerns for their child and for their partner who is having the baby.

Q: What is Hypnobirthing and what are the benefits?

When we have been exposed to those sorts of negative ideas about birth over the course of our lifetime, whether or not we are aware of

A: Hypnobirthing is a fully comprehensive

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it, our mind can take on the belief that birth is inherently dangerous, or excruciatingly painful, and because we’re told it’s meant to hurt, it’s far more likely to hurt!

Whilst I’m definitely not saying that childbirth is completely effortless, hypnobirthing teaches that it doesn’t have to be this harrowing, mentally scarring event that we may believe it to be.

In a hypnobirthing course, expectant couples are taught exactly what the mother’s body will be doing when she is in labour and what she can do to assist in this, so that her emotional state is aiding rather than hindering the natural processes of her labouring body.

hypnobirthing fit in with this narrative?

A: I would say it definitely can help in educating parents-to-be about their choices and treatment, which can potentially affect the birth outcome for mother and child. If a couple is expecting their first baby, it could be that they don’t yet know what they don’t know when it comes to navigating maternity care with their health care providers.

Sometimes the things that are suggested to women are done so, because they are in the hospital’s guidelines or protocols. Guidelines and protocols are not law, and they are also not individualised. One of the things we need to bear in mind is that women should receive individualised care in their pregnancies. This means care that is specific to their needs and their pregnancy, their body, their baby. Off the back of the 5-times-more statistic, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (commonly known as NICE, but was recently trending as #notsoNICE) came up with an initiative recommending that Black and ethnic minority women should be induced at 39 weeks of pregnancy, if their baby has not been born by then. Again this is a recommendation, it is not law. There will never be a law that says any pregnant woman has to do a specific thing against her will. A mentally healthy woman who can make decisions for herself, doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to. But when you have all of this going around the news and social media, saying Black women should be induced at 39 weeks, it can be worrying and confusing.

When she’s in a more calm and relaxed state, her body produces the right hormones so it can more easily do what it’s naturally made to do.

So, the benefits definitely include a calmer birth experience for the mother and, therefore, the baby too.

It’s totally normal for a woman to find herself feeling anxious, or out of control, at some point during labour. But with hypnobirthing, she has tools and techniques to help calm herself down. If she has a partner who has also attended the course with her, s/he too will have learnt the techniques so s/he can give guidance and be of practical support, rather than just being a helpless bystander.

Hypnobirthing also gives couples the confidence and ability to manage any unexpected turns that may arise along the way, because as much as we talk about birth preferences and birth planning, things don’t always go according to plan. But if a birth is veering off the course the mother would have liked, again she has tools that help her to navigate that and to understand what questions she can ask, or her birth partner can ask on her behalf, so she remains involved in the decision making.

NICE themselves acknowledge that induction of labour has a large impact on the health of women and their babies and so needs to be clearly clinically justified. So then we have to ask if a woman and her baby are both healthy and she is happy to remain pregnant, where is the clinical justification? In hypnobirthing, couples learn how to ask questions to decide what is right for them. For example, a woman can say “I understand I fall into the category

Q: Statistics show that Black women are 5 times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than White women. How does

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that NICE has identified as being more at risk; however, you have told me that I am healthy, my baby is healthy and everything is fine.

Therefore, I decline this induction but would actually like to be monitored instead. Then, if you think you see something emerging that suggests that I or my baby might be at risk, then, we can talk about it.” So I think it’s just having the knowledge that you can ask for further information to decide if that is correct for you, speaking of the suggestion of being induced.

Q: What are the benefits of hypnobirthing for the child after birth?

A: The very fact that a hypnobirthing mother has a regular relaxation practice that she has set aside for herself has benefits for the baby after they’re born. Her practice could consist of various things such as a light touch massage from her partner, going over visualisations and positive birth affirmations, doing her relaxing breathing and then listening to a script as she goes to sleep. Through this, she is priming her body with oxytocin which is the hormone of labour and also of love, relaxation, rest and digest, which is extremely positive as far as emotions go. So the fact that the mother has frequently had that feeling in her body throughout the pregnancy, that shapes the baby’s constitution as well.

Studies have shown that when mothers are in high-stress states throughout pregnancy, this goes on to affect their babies in infancy and throughout life actually. Without meaning to oversimplify it, whether someone is easily stressed or takes things in their stride, this trait can be determined in the womb by how much stress hormone was flooding the baby’s system versus how much calm hormone, depending on what the mother was exposed to in pregnancy.

So a calmer, happier pregnancy can result in a calmer and happier person in the long run.

Q: Can the principles of hypnobirthing be found in our African heritage/practices?

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A: I purposely named my business Sankofa Hypnobirthing with Sankofa being from the Akan people of Ghana, which is where my family is from. Translated, it means “go back and get it” and the essential philosophy of this phrase is that we must reach back to reclaim lost wisdom in order to move forward with hope.

Q: Is hypnobirthing suited to all women?

A: I would say everybody should look into it. I understand that obviously everybody’s resources are different. Not everybody can necessarily afford to do a class with a teacher. But the great news is that there are plenty of courses offering far more accessibly priced classes. I personally offer concessionary rates for any woman who needs it. There are also some courses that offer pre-recorded online classes at a lower cost and there are also many free resources on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. I also suggest speaking to two or three different hypnobirthing teachers before you decide who to go with, so you can get a sense of who they are, what they are like and if you think they are a good fit for you. It’s very rare for me to teach a woman or a couple who I have not spoken to first.

I feel that the idea of Sankofa can be perfectly applied to the way we birth today. In many ways, modern society has forgotten that giving birth is a natural process that, under normal circumstances, should progress smoothly and efficiently without excessive discomfort or stress on the mother or child.

As a result of this forgetting, trust in the instinctive, biological process of birth has been lost. Through hypnobirthing, mothers grow in confidence and feel empowered, knowing that they have everything they need for a calm, confident and positive birth, no matter how their babies are born.

Read the full interview on the Bidii site, here - https://bit.ly/3HquXGS Sankofa Hypnobirthing offers one-to-one online courses covering a comprehensive syllabus.

There is so much value in bringing back this wisdom and reminding ourselves of the knowledge that our ancestors had and maybe some of our living elders have. But just because of the way we have been conditioned we don’t necessarily know it, or we have forgotten it, or we don’t trust it, and that trust needs to be restored.

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For more information, visit the site, here sankofa-hypnobirthing.co.uk/the-course

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The Support Needed For Black Women With Breast Cancer

day and age, was to go to Google to find out something. I realised as soon as you are diagnosed, you are on this conveyor belt.

You think “hang on a minute. I don’t know!”

I thought I knew something, but when you are personally impacted, the first thing I wanted to do was speak to my own people. It was extremely important I speak to other Black women about what they did. What happened to them in these circumstances? What am I supposed to ask?

Bidii interviews Marlene Ellis, of Black Breast Cancer (BBC) - Blackbreastcancer.com who has been fuelled by her own experience of breast cancer to create a much-needed resource to support Black women (and men) around the world!

I’ve lived in Brixton twenty odd years, I know lots of Black women, and yet I only knew one person that I could go and speak to. And it shocked me. I could not see anything on Google. I did not have anybody in my immediate life.

It’s not like I was living in the Outer Hebrides. I was living in Brixton, but I didn’t know where to turn to. So that was the motivation. The website represents what I wanted to see when I was diagnosed.

Q: What made you create the Black Breast Cancer (BBC) site?

A: The website Blackbreastcancer.com is what I wanted, when I was first diagnosed. You don’t really have to think about it, until you are suddenly diagnosed with it and join a club you didn’t want to belong to. The first thing, in this

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Q: As a breast cancer survivor, what has that taught you?

I had been told if I didn’t take the treatment (I resisted for about a month), I would die between 6 to 18 months. I did not know if that was true or not. I love alternative treatments and I am a vegan myself, before I was diagnosed, and basically, I was looking to be reassured. I was looking for trust, and I’ll be honest with you, it was about being a Black woman. It was about all the stories I had read from family and friends. The relationship between Black and White people and Black patients. And was I safe? It was a big thing, and I think it is a huge thing for many of us.

A: You know, I am trying not to call myself a survivor. I can’t think of an alternative. I don’t like it because it suggests you’ve got to have the right frame of mind. But what of those of us that didn’t survive and passed away? We lost them, but they were no less courageous, and somehow it’s like there is something else. But I can’t think of the alternative… yet.

When I was diagnosed there was this little voice that said “but you didn’t do this, you didn’t do this and now your life is finished and you said you were going to do this!” And I got in that second the things I had been putting off in my life, that I thought I would always have time for. I knew that if I was going to survive, I would never waste time again. I will do exactly what I want to do. I will stop procrastinating and trying to get all my ducks in a row before going from A-Z. I am only getting up to do what I want to do, and my life is so much more fulfilled because my mindset changed. That was the biggest thing I got out of it. My mindset changed!

I chose the chemical route blind, because I felt I did not have enough time. I felt that I was diagnosed and I had to make a decision and act. And what I already knew about Western medicine was that when it’s a crisis Western medicine can kick in. But it is the lifestyle and the mindset we have to change, long term, to avoid reaching that crisis. I know it is sort of an odd answer, but the issue I was looking for was to be reassured, to find trust. And what would I base that on? In the end, I just walked in blind, not confident either way.

Q: As a Black woman with breast cancer, what information did you find difficult to access?

Q: Why is it important to understand how breast cancer affects the Black community?

A: Not to undermine the importance of other cancers, especially prostate cancer, which is just as serious for men! But in terms of women, this is largely the most important type of cancer since it’s killing us the most - Black women.

And that’s people of African heritage, whether you are British born; you’re in Europe; African in America; the Caribbean; or from indigenous populations on the African continent. But here is the thing - this is a global pattern that has Black women dying 40 per cent more than White women, for the same breast cancer diagnosis. Now that is whether we are in the UK, with a public health system, or the US, with a private health system. So there must be other factors going on.

A: It was trust. I was born in this country and grew up appreciating the NHS, the idea and principle of the NHS being better than a private system. But then, as a Black woman when I was diagnosed, you think of the trust between Black and White but never had my levels of suspicion become so high as they did when I was diagnosed.

I thought, “do I even trust you to deal with me with this serious disease.” I was so concerned about the trust issue, and I did not know I had so much distrust. I was looking to feel better at subjecting myself to this chemical process and looking for the alternatives.

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‘If you educate a

man, you educate one person.

If you educate a woman, you educate a whole family.’

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I learnt that when I was diagnosed, my oncologist told me that in South London there was a percentage, 40 per cent, of us dying faster, just in South London. I was shocked when she told me that. She said it’s because we hesitate to get help. So, in a sense, it was our fault and I thought we must spread the word more. I am a researcher anyway and I am a doctor in education, a race-cultural theorist. So, I looked at the pattern nationally and then globally and saw that this is a pattern across the globe for us as an African people. This is really serious, if it is 40 per cent. I kept thinking what was going to happen to the next generation, if it’s 40 per cent now?

We get involved in the pink ribbon charity and collecting sponsors and collecting money to give to the pink ribbon (the main global charity for breast cancer), but nothing is happening for us. There doesn’t seem to be a budget that’s dealing specifically around us. That shocked me too. It was really shocking.

So, I genuinely believe we need to take control of this ourselves; it’s not to say turn your back on medicine. But we need to talk to each other, really get to grips and learn how we are reacting to these cancers. I think we are too attached to shame and keeping things private.

The burden of racism is hard enough, so we are not sharing. And we do need to share, because as long as we keep things quiet, we’ll bury our heads a little bit, then the next person will delay and so on. We build confidence between us if we talk together. For example, the first generation of our people would go to a doctor with so much respect for the medical profession. So, when they’d say “it’s nothing, go away” we’d practically say “sorry for wasting your time” and go away. We need to reverse that and say, “hang on a minute!”

It’s a matter of fact that we don’t get referred to breast screenings and other tests as fast as White women. It’s a fact that there is a belief

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that we can sustain more pain than White women, and this is grounded in research. We need to talk to each other and build up each other’s confidence. And that is the reason I made the website. There’s lots of people giving testimony, Black men and women, because we need to have a much stronger conversation with ourselves to avoid disempowering ourselves when we get cancers. Let’s really talk to each other and say “what do we do about this?

What’s our part in this?”

Q: What are your aims for the site?

A: There are lots of things on the site!

I hope you find them really useful. But I really would like to invite anybody who has had breast cancer, women and especially men!

I am trying to push it out that men also get breast cancer, with a 76 per cent higher mortality rate than White men for the same diagnosis. Think of doing your own videos of your story. Send it in, so I can add it to the body of knowledge and sharing on the website.

That’s what I would like to say - really contribute and make it engaging!

Q: What other advice do you have for women?

A: I would say treat your diagnosis as a reset button on your life! It clears the way, and you start again. Grieve for the old you and celebrate the new you, and really honour who you are. This is your time to regain something of you. When you are diagnosed, you face death no matter what stage and type of your breast cancer diagnosis. You face your own sense of mortality, but if you have the privilege to carry on living, do it differently.

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Make it organic, so we are really giving and exchanging right across the globe. This is not just a UK thing but for anyone across the world!

For the full interview check out the Bidii site https://bit.ly/31gCx7x Visit the extensive research and resources available on the BBC site - https://blackbreastcancer.com. Taking you through the entire journey from breast screening to hormonal therapy and everything in between.

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Our Brothers The Evolution Of Nu-Masco

and grandfather, learning how to cultivate better mental health, discovering solace in the Arts, and sharing healing spaces with Black men. The stories we see outside of ourselves, within art, media and entertainment, inform the stories we tell ourselves. As Black British men, these narratives can often be steeped in racism, dehumanisation and discrimination.

Nu-masco is a platform to heal from the stories of injustice, by providing consultancy with media organisations that tell stories with Black men in them. Black men must be included in stories from a lens of awareness, authenticity and emotional complexity.

Kwame Asiedu talks to Bidii on his much needed offering, Nu-Masco (nu-masco.co.uk), created to address the needs and intricate portrayal of Black men in media and much more!

Q: What made you create Nu-masco?

A: “Why do I struggle to express my fullest self?” is the question that sparked Nu-masco.

Nu-masco is the product of a personal journey of self-discovery towards greater self-awareness, emotional availability and the reconstruction of ideas of Black masculinity through self-inquiry. On this journey, poignant turning points were conversations with my father

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Q: You speak of men struggling to express their fullest selves. What does this mean?

A: During my twenties at moments of high emotional intensity, I would write. I wrote my inner thoughts, unexpressed feelings and

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intimate monologues in a series of diaries.

Writing and intense physical activity became my stress release, themes of my thoughts centring on my personal relationships and my inability to navigate my emotional landscape and find the words to express myself. I realised I was trying to understand myself, ideas of masculinity and Blackness, in a world where I felt misunderstood. I have found this journey to be a common experience within Black men of all ages, and stress releases varying from the positive to the negative and a difficulty to maintain positive mental health often being a by-product.

A: Our clients include theatre producers like Sonia Friedman Productions and we have supported their diversity and inclusion efforts by contributing to increased audience engagement of Black men in their West End production J’Ouvert (2021).

From 2022, we will shift focus onto film and media industries where we will work with organisations that are conscious about positively furthering the visual narrative of Black men on screen. This may support their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts on anti-racism, greater and meaningful representation within their workforce.

Q: Does the portrayal of Black men in the media impede real men, and how they express themselves?

Q: What Black men do you see benefiting from Nu-masco and how?

A: Nu-masco supports all self-inquiring Black British men. Self-inquiring defines as someone who may have been to counselling, journals their thoughts and feelings, and self reflects on how they relate to themselves and others as part of work they want to do for their personal inner growth. We have plans to support this group of men with a Nu-masco coaching programme that will support in the interrogation of ideas about Black masculinity and support by providing a toolkit for a new understanding, to reduce the impacts of stress, anxiety and identity related mental health challenges.

A: What is a “real man” is a question I’ve often asked myself. Where does the idea come from?

Which culture? Which moment of time in history? Do “real men” express themselves? What kind of expressions are these? As a theatre director, I collaborate with artists that have the intention of using story to empower disempowered groups and engage audiences through challenging ideas on power, race and identity.

With a growing spotlight on diversity and the inclusion of other narratives, the portrayal of Black men in the media and associated stories in the arts is certainly shifting to include a more human, empathetic and authentic expression.

These types of stories can touch parts of our inner world that allows us to begin our own self inquiry, and reveal the realness of our manhood, giving us more scope to include more empathy, truth and love, and to affirm our own lives.

Q: We hear of our older generations being strong, and the new generation not able to cope with modern stresses. How true do you find this, and is there a generational issue at hand for Black male masculinity?

A: The older generation faced trials and tribulations and an environment that tailored for the attributes and resulting psychological responses they developed; i.e., hard, strong, enduring. The new generation are in a different environment altogether that requires a different response, a response which the older genera-

Q: Nu-masco works with organisations in art, media & entertainment organisations, to build an engaged Black male audience. How does that happen?

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tion may not be equipped to teach. Nevertheless, and importantly, the lessons from the past must inform the future and so it is truly the collaboration and cross-generational teachings that will move both groups forward.

Q: Is the issue that Black men are failing in society? Or is it that society is failing Black men?

A: I think the issues are more complex than who is failing who. Historically, British society has never been a safe, equal and life-affirming place for Black British men; hence, the way in which the older generation are. Society can play a greater role in acknowledging our reality and understand that due to institutional racism, stereotypes and fears, and socio-economic disparity, good mental health can often be a luxury; however, the agency and responsibility is on Black British men to be responsible for themselves. There is a lot of knowledge on health, wellness, mental health, managing emotions, self-care and self-development.

Ignorance is no longer bliss.

Q: Support is so important for anything to develop. For Nu-masco what does that look like?

A: If Nu-masco’s mission is something that you believe in and support, please tell us. There are lots of roadblocks in creating anything, financial, lack of knowledge, lack of ability and lack of will. Nu-masco are working to overcome them and have learnt to ask for support when needed, and we will. So for the team here at Nu-masco, messages of appreciation and encouragement and also requests to converse about Nu-masco, will go a long way.

To find out more about Nu-Masco visit www.nu-masco.co.uk or you can email hello@nu-masco.co.uk

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Message For Prostate Cancer Awareness

is a private thing. Almost because of where the prostate is situated, so it becomes very private and not often discussed. Yet we are always happy to discuss breast cancer and things for women. But this also is very serious.

At least in the UK, it is part of a comedic trope.

That thing of getting up in the middle of the night and going to the toilet 3, 4 times or more when you get older. It has become part of comedy and so it is something very easy to ignore. Because the symptoms are you have no pain, the only sign is that you need the toilet more often. So, it is easy to put to one side. Also, most men don’t want to go to the doctors for the digital exam. You can have a prostate-specific antigen test (PSA) and most people don’t know about the PSA, which is a simple blood test. If your PSA is high, it may be an indication you may have an issue. The one thing that I experienced with my doctor, when I first went and requested the PSA, he gave me

With stark statistics of Prostate Cancer affecting 1 in 4 Black men, Lou Taylor from Black History Month South is urging Black men over 40yrs old to utilise PSA blood screening tests. With early detection and treatment vastly increasing the chances of survival Lou Taylor is working to spread the word far and wide!

Q: Why do you think prostate cancer is not at the forefront of our community?

A: First of all, there are a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, a lot of Black men feel this

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all the reasons why it was not very accurate and why I probably did not need it. He was a White doctor and I told him the incidence of prostate cancer in Black men is 1 in 4, and he was shocked to hear that. I did not get my test, but I got a letter apologising and asking me to come straight back. I went back, he gave me a test and it was high. I then went for various other investigations. I had an MRI scan, a biopsy and another biopsy under general anaesthetic and it came out negative.

A: The authorities in Hampshire have been really good. We managed to get Meridian TV who jumped on it in a second interview (https://bit.ly/32KYFHr). We’ve had really good backing from the local council and The University Hospital and Action Hampshire have been instrumental. The minute I mentioned it to them, they managed to help with funding from Communities Against Cancer and the Wessex Cancer Alliance. All these organisations wanted to get the message out and they see it in their numbers.

All those tests. My feeling was if this has happened to me and I know I am quite proactive, how many other men out there are presenting late?

Interestingly enough, from the Black community, I have not had a lot of feedback as yet. But it is early days, as we only launched last week.

I have had feedback from women interestingly, but I have not heard from men and that speaks volumes to me. I have had a few women email and text to say it is great what I am doing but I have not heard from the men.

I had a conversation with Gale Byrne, the Director of Nursing at University Hospital Southampton just last week and I brought this up with her. She said what they see is Black men coming in presenting with secondary cancers.

Those secondary cancers are what they are dealing with. But actually, if they had come in sooner, the primary one was the prostate. Now some forms of prostate cancer are incredibly aggressive. Most men will develop it at some point in their later life, but it is so slow progressing that you will die of something else before it gets anywhere. With the aggressive type, however, it is so aggressive, it can enter your bone marrow, your brain, or your lungs. It’s so quick, and you’re here today and 6 months later, your gone. It can be that fast.

But I get it, there is a masculinity attached to it.

We would like lots of older men to get a PSA test, but ideally if this message gets heard by those who are now in their 30’s and 40’s, then, it’s in their head. That’s really what it is about!

So, in time hopefully, it will be natural for them to talk about it, no different to breast cancer.

When breast cancer first came about, I’m sure it was something that was not easily spoken about. Now, it doesn’t carry any stigma...Men talk about it, women talk about it. It’s in the public domain; and I think celebrities have got hold of it too. We need some male celebrities, black celebrities. I know a few have, but not loud enough. It needs someone like Morgan Freeman, or Samuel Jackson, would be ideal - even though they are American. We need someone that carries weight.

So in answer to your question, Why do I think prostate cancer is not at the forefront of our community? It is very easy to ignore. And with most Black men, you don’t pay much attention.

And I don’t think that this is unique to Black men; it is men in general, actually.

Q: What was your journey with prostate health?

Q: How have you found the experience of pushing your message to the community and local authorities?

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A: Diet, nutrition and mainly exercise. I am not great because I like my chocolate and coffee.

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I did a lot of intermittent fasting for quite some time. I lost quite a bit of weight. I exercised; I didn’t just exercise without thought. I had an enlarged prostate, and I knew a lot of the core exercises that you do, put pressure on the pelvic area. So, I exercised in and around that area, but did not put the same pressure on. I did exercises that don’t necessarily target my core so hard. So I eased off of that and focused on the legs and upper body. I do it purely just to stay healthy.

A: I would like it to be as common as going to the gym. Going for a PSA test for men over the age of 45 should be standard. It should be pushed by the NHS to men in general. But if you fall into that demographic, you should be going for your PSA test once every 2 years.

I have one every quarter. I look after myself physically and I noticed it has tailed down.

Even my doctor said “Wow, this is incredible!”

It’s almost back to normal. Before, my PSA was so high that they thought I would need proper treatment. They offered me various drugs to ease the symptoms I had, but I was sure if I worked at it, I could bring it down. And here we are, almost back to normal.

I then noticed over time my symptoms lessened, which is the first thing I noticed. I could go to the toilet and it was not an issue. I’m not waking up in the middle of the night 3, 4, 5 times running to the toilet and, then, not being able to go. That was the biggest issue. You have this intense urge and then, you can’t go!

That is a sure indication that there is something wrong with the prostate gland, because it is blocking the bladder. Over a year and half, it has taken awhile, but my last PSA is now pretty much normal. It’s 3.2 ng/mL and before it was 19. For me, this has been down to diet and targeted exercise.

How I would like it [prostate cancer] perceived?

Something that is insidious but can be solved very quickly, if you pay attention and visit your doctor. And it does not always mean the digital exam, but can be, because with the PSA test - one can lead to the other. If your PSA is high, then, go and get further checks. It’s no big deal and it could save your life!

Check out the full interview with Lou Taylor on the Bidii site, here - https://bit.ly/3Hr9oWB

Q: How do you want your work to change how men perceive prostate cancer?

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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/

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