Health reportage traditionally entails exceptional understanding of issues and trends in the world of medicine and science as well as sensitivity to the impact of health policies.

Because the subject matter has direct implications for wellbeing, life and death, health reporting ought to be approached with a higher sense of responsibility and the health writer needs to be well informed and diligent enough to sift the grains of information through a very fine sieve.

With the advent of citizen journalism and the plethora of unregulated online sites, however, the rules of balance, social responsibility and reliance on expert opinions have become even more important to ensure dissemination of information that is not only accurate, but also relevant.

This message was enunciated at a learning forum held in Lagos recently to promote dialogue and knowledge sharing between experts from different health related fields and members of the Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN) drawn from the print, broadcast and online media.  

The forum featured a keynote presentation by a former lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Consultant Nutritionist and Dietician, Dr. Chika Ndiokwelu.

Speaking on the topic Adequate Nutrition and Lifestyle: Essential for Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs),  Ndiokwelu, who is also the Country Representative of the International Confederation of Dietetic Associations, remarked that unhealthy eating habits, increasingly sedentary lifestyles and other risky behaviours such as tobacco and alcohol abuse have contributed to a frightening rise in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases across the globe.
 
“Cardiovascular and Chronic Respiratory Diseases, Cancer, Diabetes and other NCDs are responsible for 60 per cent of deaths globally with 80 per cent of these occurring in developing countries. It is estimated that by the year 2030, 80 per cent of deaths globally will be caused by NCDs,” she said
 
While the situation is compounded for some individuals by predisposing genetic and environmental factors, Dr. Ndiokwelu assured that most NCDs and their symptoms can be prevent or reversed by appropriate modifications to dietary and lifestyle habits.

She said the frightening statistics around NCDs makes it imperative for journalists to rise to the challenge of educating their readers on the causes, prevention and management of the various diseases.

Ndiokwelu cautioned, however, that peddling myths and half-truths about these diseases puts the reading public at greater risk. She cited the widespread traditional belief among Nigerians that hemorrhoids, which is popularly known as “pile,” is caused by sugar whereas, in reality, “pile” is caused by chronic constipation or diarrhea.

She said this falsehood has been peddled through many generations such that even educated Nigerians now erroneously believe that pile is caused by sugar.

A similar situation, she said, is emerging about diabetes which is now generally blamed on sugar consumption as a direct cause whereas, in reality, sugar does not feature in the World Health Organisation’s list of risk factors for diabetes. She noted that, unfortunately as a result of this wrong notion, in many of the Nigerian languages, Diabetes loosely translates as the “sugar disease”. 

She said sugar or sugar-sweetened foods or beverages, if consumed excessively, can exacerbate a diabetic situation. Paradoxically, however, sugar can also become essential in professionally managing a diabetic situation.

The speaker stirred the hornet when she debunked another widely held belief by her assertion that the hydration and nutritional needs of a baby in the first six months can be adequately and exclusively met with breast milk, such that a baby does not even need water, if effectively breast fed within the period. This triggered an animated debate among the participants with some of the health writers admitting that they had not been confronted with the scientific evidence on this issue before now.

Ndiokwelu cited other instances where myths and ill-informed presumptions have assumed a form of medical truths in Nigeria. She said everyone should be alarmed about these falsehoods which abound in every medical situation including fertility and maternal and child health and are responsible for many preventable and avoidable deaths on a daily basis.

Other speakers at the forum which was sponsored by Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited included Dr. Bartholomew Brai, a Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research and Dr. Kemi Odukoya, Senior Lecturer at the department of Community Health, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, who moderated a Q&A session that also featured two Coca-Cola officials – Mr. Clem Ugorji, Public Affairs & Communications Director and Mr. Fred Chiazor, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager for Coca-Cola Central, East and West Africa.