A presentation about Natural Healing Abuse of Vitamins & Mineral Supplements Healthcare System in Vietnam

1. Health and Medicines
Kiều Triệu Trân- Đinh Diễm Trang

2. Outline:
• Warm-up
• Natural Healing
• Abuse of Vitamins & Mineral
Supplements
• Healthcare System in Vietnam

3. Warm-up activity
• Look at these pictures and guess what kind of
disease are they?
Heart AttacK

4. Stomatchache

5. besit
O y

6. hickenpo
C x

7. unny nos
R e / sniffle

8. Programme for Natural Healing of
Andrew Weil
People can optimise the functioning
of the body’s natural healing system.

9. Specific guidance is provided for:
• Men and women
• Pregnant women
• People under 20, over 50 and over 70
• Cancer patients
• …

10. “Health is not static: it is normal to lose it
periodically in order to come back to it in a
better way.” – Andrew Weil

11. In Programme for Natural Healing, we make
simple changes to the lifestyle in 2 months:
• Diet
• Exercise
• Supplements
• Mental and spiritual development

12. Do Don’t
Increase the consumption of whole
grains
Eat unhealthy food
Increase Vitamin C intake Drink chlorinated water
Eat more broccoli
Start your breath observation
Do exercises
Benefits:
Protect people from premature disability and death
Enable people to prepare body, mind and spirit for eventual
health crisis

13. Abuse of Vitamins &
Mineral Supplements

14. •~40% of US population takes
supplements regularly
•~$4 Billion/year are spent on these
supplements

15. Why do people self-prescribe?
•  Dietary “insurance” - just in case they’re not
getting adequate amounts
•  To “protect” against diseases

16. Why self dosing is a BAD idea:
1. Toxicity: many supplements are toxic at high levels
• Often goes unrecognized
• Toxic overdoses in children are fairly common
E.g: Poison Control Center gets >30,000 calls/yr on
children <6 years old swallowing large doses of
supplements.

17. Why self dosing is a BAD idea:
2. Self medicating may give a false sense of security
• May lull people into eating irresponsibly
• May tempt user to produce self diagnosis when
symptoms of a disease come on

18. How to Properly Take Vitamins
Step 1:
• Take only the recommended dose of vitamin for your age and situation.
Step 2:
• Stagger your vitamins throughout the day instead of taking them all at
once, unless you are taking a multivitamin.
Step 3:
• Take your vitamins with food, if possible.
Step 4:
• Plan your meals and snacks according to the levels of vitamins in your
supplements.

19. Medical system in
Vietnam

20. Medical problems before 1990
• Medical system has downgraded
• Material has reduced
• Health expenditure was limited
• Few number of medical station in rural area, absence medical station
in some commune.
• Health worker distribute unequal
e.g. Central highland region: 2.7 Health worker/ commune
Red river delta region: 5 Health worker/ commune
• Knowledge of health worker in rural area was low.
• Policy in favor for health worker was unconsidered.
• Ratio of bed in use: 30 – 40%

21. Consequences
• Diseases (malaria cause 300 person died in 1991-1992)
• Patient seem to belittle medical system in local and
concentrate in cities
• Health worker only interested in working in provinces and
cities
• The quality of primary care was restricted

22. Government policy to improve
rural medical system
• Hospital fees (1989)
• Medical insurance policy (1992)
• Ordinance to practice private medicine and pharmacy
(1993)
• Decision to improve medicine in rural area (1994)
• Use State budget to support health worker in rural area
• Improvement medical infrastructure and medical
equipment, especially in rural area
• Increase budget for health

23. Infrastructure in a medical station

25. Health achievement
• Medical system in rural area are improve both quantity
and quality
– The whole country has: 10748 commune health center
– All commune has health center
• Health worker is increasing in number and quality
• Medical equipment is innovative
• Primary care is improving

26. 5,9
9,6
12,7
13,4
16,5
21,1
43,9
0
10
20
30
40
50
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004
Percentage of health insurance participation
of population are increasing. (%)
Source: Health statistics yearbook 2006 – Ministry of Health

27. Thank you for your attention!

28. Questions
1. Do you worry about your health? What special
precautions do you take against falling ill?
2. Is it better to get vitamins from foods or
supplements, and are natural vitamins better than
synthetic vitamins?
3. What will you do if you have a chance to improve our
healthcare system?