United States-based Ghanaian practising medical doctor, Dr Arthur Kobina Kennedy has urged the public to reach out, rekindle old relationships and be conscious about diets as we enter the New Year.
In a video message on Boxing Day, Dr Arthur Kennedy said there was an epidemic of loneliness these days in many areas and hence the need for people to reach out to others and rekindle old relationships.
“These days we have become more centred on ourselves and therefore more unhappy… there is too much of me versus we.
“So respectively, I urge you as part of your New Year resolutions to nurture your old relationships and to rekindle ones that have gone cold between you and your family members, like children, spouses, distant relatives and friends.”
“In Africa, we used to pride ourselves on the extended family system, these have virtues and we should not copy everything that the west does, extended family systems are good but we should not just reach out to family, we should reach out to friends, that old friend from your primary school, your secondary school, from the university, from your neighbourhood, that you have not reached out to for a long time, this coming year, please reach out to them.”
These days on the back of the pandemic, there has been a lot of loneliness, leading to depression and even suicides.
He urged the public to try and visit physicians in the new year to discuss general issues about health.
In addition to that, “please on your own let us try to cut down on the drinking of alcohol. Most of us drink too much.
“You must also watch drugs, illegal drugs, they are not good. In our context, we must also watch our diet, the size of the fufu, the banku, akple and the kenkey should be reduced and when they are reduced and replaced with vegetables and fruits and others, they are good for our health.
“In addition to that, particularly in the African context, we must watch how much we use herbs, particularly those we buy from outside, while some of them can heal, they have side effects that are sometimes dangerous.
“A lot of kidney problems and others relate from herbs with dosages we do not know.”
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