Special Issue Article Open Access

Balance diet and handicaps: case of amputated at the CNRPH Yaounde

Abstract

 Unhealthy eating is one of the main risk factors for chronic diseases, the harms of unhealthy eating on the body are known to all, but what happens in our brain? It releases dopamine which is a chemical that gives us pleasure. When the reward system is activated, it creates new dopamine receptors and you need to eat more and more fatty, sweet foods to reach the same level of pleasure again. Thus, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, overweight, obesity, diabetes, cancer is high. According to WHO estimates the number of adults with diabetes worldwide almost quadrupled between 1980 and 2014, from 108 million to 422 million. These worrying figures lead us to consider the consequences of unhealthy eating on the emergence of disability; particularly in diabetic amputees. As part of our cardiovascular disease prevention activities in clinical psychology at the CNRPH, we have during interviews with amputees found that several of them suffer from a form of diabetes, indeed, it emerges from these interviews that amputees have not adopted good food hygiene before and during the development of their diabetes. In their speeches, they had to eat foods that were too high in fat, too high in sugar and salt. We wondered how to prevent diabetes and all the other scourges linked to junk food in the Cameroonian population? To answer this question, we suggested a psychoeducation activity at the CNRPH in three departments (reception, physiotherapy and occupational therapy), where for three consecutive years, we have been interviewing sick people and their carers on the consequences of bad nutrition. We also took five amputee patients in EMDR psychotherapy who were experiencing trauma linked to a strong feeling of guilt following the diagnosis of diabetes and amputation.

Reine Flore BOUYAP
Ph.D.  student at  University  of  Yaounde I (UYI) Cameroon

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