Women advised against excessive alcohol, drug intake

Dr Bettina Ama Buohene Andah, a medical doctor has counseled women to desist from excessive alcohol and addictive drugs intake due to the potential dangers they posed to their general health and well-being.
She said the growing trend of young and adult women, taking to binge alcohol and drug use, including bleaching creams, either for the ecstasy of it or to stimulate the appetite for comfort eating, to beat off stress, was alarming and needed to stop if women desired to live long.
Dr. Andah, also the first ever female personal physician of the ex- president Agyekum Kuffour during his political administration, gave the advice during this year’s Woman to Woman (W2W) ‘Abrabopa’ regional forum, held at the Grace Baptist Church, Amakom in Kumasi, at the Week-end.
The programme, an offshoot of the popular TV3 talk show, hosted by Akosua Ago Aboagye, working with the Peace FM, is held once annually in four regions of the country.
It brings on a common platform the country’s women of substance with diverse backgrounds, to enable them share their experiences in all spheres of life, all to aid women empowerment.
Dr Adah, who was speaking on this year’s theme “Women wellness and overcoming stress as a woman”, expressed disquiet that the habit, which used to be common only in men, was now gaining roots in their female counterparts and should not be encouraged in the least bit.
The habit, she said, while making young ladies fall easy prey to unsafe, unplanned, predatory sex and accompanying fatal diseases, also exposed adult women to diseases like cancers, heart problems, diabetes, alcohol induced hepatitis and liver inflammation.
Other risks are; Cirrhosis of the liver, induced brain damage and in case of pregnant women, foetal alcohol syndrome.
She advised women to seek help from God and professional advice from medical officers when they fell either sick or were stressed out, rather than resorting to hard drugs, which does not actually offer any permanent solutions to the problem on hand.
Madam Elizabeth Agyemang, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister called on women to work hard, be determined and above all, trust God for every impossibility.