Ramadan And Your Health

[anotheoldgit]

I picked up a leaflet in my local ASDA Pharmacy the other day.

This leaflet was headed 'Ramadan and your Health'.

It then went on to explain that there are approximately 2.8 million Muslims in the UK, and each period of fasting lasts from dawn to dusk and varies in length depending on the season and the follower's location in the UK a fast can last between 10 and 19 hours.

Sawm means "abstention from" this means that an individual must refrain from eating,drinking,smoking,sexual activity,consuming oral medicines and using intravenous fluids.

The leaflet further goes on to give advise on staying healthy during Ramadan.

How is it that Asda's Pharmacy does not issue such informative literature for Christians during their events such as Christmas and Easter, you know the kind of thing no drinking, cigars and sex at the office party and no gouging on chocolate eggs at Easter, do we not matter?

[Eve]

Muslims I know have been able to have special dispensation when fasting for medical conditions (like diabetes) and if medication is needed.

[New Judge]

The trouble is, sqad, those Muslims resident in the UK do not all sit indoors in the shade. Some of them are, for example, driving London buses. A driver heading round Hyde Park Corner at 9pm today had been without fluid for seventeen hours on one of the hottest days of the year. No special dispensation for him or her.

[anotheoldgit]

Canary42

/// Since you're not a muslim AOG, why would you want a leaflet 'Ramadan and your Health'? ///

/// To Troll, yet again. ///

/// Yawn. ///

Why do you always find it necessary to be rude and confrontation towards me especially, have I not the same right to post on particular issues, without snide remarks from you?

[Sqad]

NJ

\\\\The trouble is, sqad, those Muslims resident in the UK do not all sit indoors in the shade\\\

That is quite true and might cause some concern, IF they were truly fasting.

A very relevant point that you make, particularly with all the Muslim doctors and surgeons working in the NHS. Clearly this hasn't been highlighted, so one assumes that it has not been a problem.

[Nibble]

I've done quite a lot of work on cultural and religious issues and patients in the NHS, and I can assure you that there are exemptions for people who need to take regular medicine in order to stay well - the intention of Ramadan is not to make people ill, it's to instil self-discipline. Many may choose not to take the exemption, though, and still choose to fast. Those who are ill are not obliged to fast, groups like menstruating women can defer their fast until a later date... etc.

The period of time this year is a lot longer than 12 hours - the chaplain at the Games in Edinburgh this morning said that the fast starts in Scotland now at 03.15am and lasts till 10.30pm

NJ mentioned the bus driver - my late BIL used to work in Bangladesh and saw men working on building sites in the summer Ramadans, who were crazed with lack of water during long hot days.

If I had to fast, I could manage the food, but not the water....

Going back to the OP - AOG, Health Promotion units across the country issue shedloads of cautionary leaflets for the general population about food, alcohol, sunburn, drinking over Christmas - etc - you must have missed them....

[boxtops]

Sorry folks - that ^^ was from me, not nibs.

[Sqad]

boxy...LOl...How can one post on another ABers' avatar?

[jomifl]

I cannot understand why a pharmacy concerns itself with religious practices other than to sell antibiotics and pain killers to rectify the various kinds of mutilation carried out in the name of religion.

[jno]

A driver heading round Hyde Park Corner at 9pm today had been without fluid for seventeen hours on one of the hottest days of the year. No special dispensation for him or her

Now how on earth do you know that, NJ?

Muslims may take fluids if they feel unwell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28252730

[jomifl]

You wouldn't want to be a muslim at the North or South pole during the summer. This custom originated when the sun was the only clock and a day lasted no more than 15 hours in the muslim world.

[boxtops]

sqad - we share the same PC, if one doesn't log off before the other posts, it's easily done.

[Sqad]

Thanks boxy....so Nibble is your OH?.......or somebody that lives in the same household?

[sandyRoe]

Apart from the question of getting enough fluids, does Ramadan have effects, good or bad, on the health of the people who observe it? If they ate light meals it might give their bodies a chance to detoxify.

[Sqad]

sandy.....if you mean physical benefits, then i think that the answer is no,there are no benefits from the fasting of Ramadan, but if you mean emotional/mental then i do not know.......particularly as i am an Atheist.

[mikey4444]

Daft question aog !

[EcclesCake]

To answer Sandy, many of my Muslim friends use Ramadan in much the same way my Christian friends use lent. A half hearted observance to give them a kick up the backside to cut back on what they eat and lose some weight.

[THECORBYLOON]

SQAD, the Minister was not right about the times. In Edinburgh to-day, Sunrise :4:56 AM
Sunset :9:42 PM.

[New Judge]

"Now how on earth do you know that, NJ?"

Because, if the bus driver is srtictly observing Ramadan (and those are the people I am talking about. Those that are not are of no concern) he will have had no fluid since 4am (sunrise in London was 4:03am). It's no use waiting for the driver to fell unwell before he takes fluid. He should not deliberately undertake practices which may lead to him being unwell whilst driving a bus. And I maintain that deliberately taking no fluid for prolonged periods whilst doing hazardous work in high temperatures is a possible route to illness and is grossly irresponsible.

[boxtops]

Corbyloon - the times of the fast are

half an hour before sunrise
half an hour after sunset

So the times I put on (nibble's) thread are approximate, but still much longer than 12 hours.

[meglet]

I spent Ramandan last year in Saudi Arabia and can tell you that 95% of Saudis deal with Ramadan in the unrelenting heat of the summer by simply sleeping all day and then waking for the feast (Iftar) at sundown. They go completely nocturnal for the month. It's the Muslims in non-Muslim countries that have it hard.