THE '22 TIMES

There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds. - Laurell K. Hamilton, Mistral's Kiss That is all I want in life: for this pain to seem purposeful. - Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation Are you happy? You wake up, survive the morning traffic, begrudgingly get to work, achieve things at work, gain more responsibility but are you any happier? You get yelled at by your boss, struggle to meet deadlines, you work harder, gain even more responsibility, get paid even more all while counting down the seconds till the clock strikes 5, dreading the struggle of the impending traffic on the commute home, you are annoyed, you want to vent out your frustrations but the local culture reveres the emotionless and stoic man, so you put up a brave front, unbeknownst to anyone that it is just a façade, a feeble attempt at masking the massive emotional bleed within you. Are you happy? Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common...

The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines grieving as the feeling or expression of great sadness, especially when someone dies. It is an emotional response as a result of bereavement. Kessler, D. (n.d.). refers to the American-Swiss psychiatrist, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, and her book “On Grief and Grieving”, when divid ing grieving into five stages. These stages are as follows: Stage 1: Denial This is where the person is in shock and disbelief, and wonders whether he/she can go on with life. The grieving person may show little emotion, and blatantly denies the occurrence of death. Denial is a natural adaptation strategy to help the individual cope with his/her loss. Stage 2: Anger At this stage, the grieving person becomes angry and blames others. Doctors and other health professionals as well as other family members may be blamed for the loss. Some people may even blame the deceased, and sometimes God. Anger also helps the individual to heal from the hurt of...

Diabetes Mellitus or Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism leading to an increase in blood glucose levels.  This increased sugar levels can eventually lead to many complications such as Diabetic Neuropathy, Retinopathy and Nephropathy which affects the nerves, eyes and kidneys respectively. Diabetes may also precipitate many other diseases and co-morbidities including thyroid disease and some forms of cancer (Diabetes, UK, 2019). Diabetes can affect people of all ages and different races. Diabetes can be classified into primary diabetes, gestational diabetes and secondary diabetes. Primary diabetes includes the well-known Type I and Type II diabetes as well as Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood (LADA) and Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY). Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy and secondary causes of diabetes include pancreatic insufficiency (Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus, 2004). Type I diabetes, MODY and LADA are genetically inhe...

Human behaviour, much of which is influenced by social, cultural, economic, and political factors, is clearly related to health, including the risk for infectious diseases like malaria. There are many reasons why particular behaviours exist and they often are tied to considerable benefits in areas quite distinct from health. The principal reason for which people do not accept new kinds of health behaviour is that the behaviour being advocated is inconvenient, produces unwanted side-effects, or does not give visible results (MacCormack, 1984). Thus, it is not always the case that “these people do not know any better," but rather that their native logic and rationality make sense within the realities and limitations of their local circumstances. Poverty creates preconditions to malaria, in that the means to acquire protection such as treated bed nets, repellants and insecticides from mosquitoes are hindered. It is well established in the world that morbidity and mortality ...

Human beings are a uniquely varied specie. No two persons are remotely the same — not even homozygote twins. Genetic makeup and the environment in which each man finds himself, predominantly goes a long way to shape one’s physique, personality, and interactions with other and the environment. Thus it comes as no surprise that we all respond to stressful life events in varied ways. Cohen et al. (1995) define stress as a process in which environmental demands strain an organism’s adaptive capacity resulting in both psychological demands as well as biological changes that could place it at risk for illness. Being not a respecter of persons, stress affects all people — man or woman, young or old, rich or poor. Stress is an ever-present fact of life that we must all deal with. Life in and of itself is full of stress. It comes in all shapes, sizes and conundrums; to the extent that even o ne’s own thoughts can cause predominant discomfort and strain, making the body more susceptib...