World TB Day, 24 March 2018 – Diet Tips to Fight Tuberculosis
Each year, health professionals come together on 24th March to celebrate World Tuberculosis Day. The main motive of this activity is to raise public awareness of the health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB). On 24th March 1882, Dr. Robert Koch did announcement for detection of bacterium which causes Tb. This revolutionary discovery in medical field helped in diagnosing and curing this disease. TB continues to be one of the top life threatening diseases worldwide. According to WHO, 1.8 million TB deaths were recorded worldwide in 2016. World TB Day includes all health professionals to work towards to end TB.
Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This usually affects lungs but it can affect other parts of the body like kidney, spine etc. It is spread through air, when a person with TB coughs, sneezes, spits talks or laughs.
The most common symptoms can be:
- Cough that lasts for 3 weeks or longer
- Chest pain
- Coughing up the blood or sputum
Other symptoms may include:
- Fatigue or weakness
- Drastic weight loss
- Poor or reduced appetite
- Frequent fever spikes and chills
- Sweating at night
Who’s most at risk?
- Living in crowded areas
- Young or old population-immunity system of these group is not completely developed or it is deprived as compare to healthy adults
- Health conditions that may weaken the immunity system like HIV
- Taking medical treatments which may affect the immunity such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy etc
- Health professionals who comes in contact with TB patients
- Poor hygienic conditions
- Drug misuse or alcohol misuse
We can work together to prevent the spread of TB
-
- Vaccinations: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is the only available vaccine. It helps in decreasing the risk of getting infected by 20% in children.
- Awareness: making people aware about TB, its causes, symptoms and prevention is very important. This can create alertness regarding TB amongst people.
- Active TB patients can use N95 mask to prevent easy spreading of TB.
- Proper healthy diet can act as a major preventive tool. This helps in building immunity to fight against infections. We need to keep a balanced diet which includes high protein, low carbohydrates, moderate fats diet and foods rich in antioxidants like vitamin A, C, E etc
- ✔ Include high protein foods like eggs, chicken, fish and milk and milk products
- ✔ Include antioxidant boosters like fruits, berries, orange-yellow coloured vegetables etc
- ✔ Include plenty of green leafy vegetables
- ✔ Use hygienic methods to prepare foods
- ✔ Cut down on processed food, bakery items and ready to eat foods
- ✔ Avoid deep fried foods
- ✔ Limit excess sugar intake
- ✔ Include high protein foods like eggs, chicken, fish and milk and milk products
- ✔ Limit the use of refined foods like maida, bread
Few preventive measures can help us in reducing the risk of TB. So we can work together on this World TB day, to fight against life-threatening TB.
