Bush Medicine getting a Desk in Bahamas Ministry of Health

By Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

#TheBahamas, April 13, 2023 – Dr. Micheal Darville, Minister of Health and Wellness announced at the House of Assembly on March 22, 2023, that his ministry will establish a Bush Medicines desk under the new Wellness Unit which was launched on Thursday March 23, 2023. This announcement follows the reveal of results from the 2019 STEPS Survey of nearly 2,500 people, ages 18-69.

The survey says more that 10 percent of people with hypertension, diabetes, or both, at a point following their diagnosis, looked for advice from traditional healers with as much as 20 percent ingesting herbal or alternative treatment.

Due to this, Darville’s Ministry, aims to “revisit plans to establish an indigenous medicines desk to ensure that the use of bush medicines and other treatments are regulated and introduced in a safe and proven manner.”

The survey was executed between January and April of 2019 and comprised of three steps.

Step one collected demographic and behavioral information, step two: physical measurements like blood pressure readings, weight, height, and waist and hip circumference and step three captured biochemical measurements such as fasting blood glucose, total blood cholesterol reading, urinary sodium and creatine levels.

Before recognizing the percentage of people who include bush medicine as part of their good health routine, the survey results were announced by the Minister.  The results, though dating back to 2019, were hair-raising.

“The findings were startling and highlighted individual risk, major gaps in our public healthcare system which has failed to adequately address health inequities,” said Darville in his presentation.

This comment set up the need for the Health and Wellness Unit and the need to embrace native customs like bush medicines, which many Bahamians prefer to over the country or prescribed medications.

The survey revealed that 23.3 percent of respondents have hypertension, 60 percent of which were taking medications as professionally prescribed and seven percent who never had their blood pressure measured. Also, about 40 percent of the participants who were “non-compliant” with medication had elevated high blood pressure readings at the time of the survey and nearly 9 percent of persons with elevated blood pressure readings expressed that they didn’t having a diagnosis of hypertension.

For Diabetes, 12.8 percent of the respondents reported diabetic and about 22.7 percent of respondents said they had never had their blood sugar levels measured.

The percentage of diagnosed respondents taking their medication was less than 45 percent.  Additionally, the survey highlighted that nearly 12 percent diabetic participants with diabetes had elevated fasting blood sugar readings at the time of the survey; and almost six percent with high blood sugar readings “denied having a diagnosis of diabetes.”

Regarding weight, 23.8 percent had normal weight according to the body-mass Index.  The percentage classified as overweight was 25.4, and 43.4 as obese with a body-mass-index of 40 or more. This indicated that 70 percent of participants were either overweight or obese. Three in ten people failed to meet the global recommendations for sufficient movement generally.

Approximately half of the participants consumed a minimum of three to seven alcoholic drinks weekly, 30 days to the survey. However, 30 percent were reported as ‘lifetime abstainers,’ which is relatively good news.

Of the respondents, 17.6 percent consumed six or more drinks and in once instance the 30 days to the survey.

“However, Madam Speaker, All is not lost. The Ministry of Health & Wellness will lead a comprehensive, evidence-based, varied, and multi-pronged response to the findings of this survey, as we work with communities across the country, at correcting these serious health challenges facing the nation brought on by diseases directly linked to lifestyles.

My Ministry will implement many modern treatment and management guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease starting at the primary healthcare setting. We will continue to strengthen health system infrastructure across the country with specific focus on the implementation of new digital platforms and monitoring Apps aimed at meeting the healthcare needs of our patients wherever they are,” conveyed the Minister one day before he helped to open the new Health & Wellness Unit.