In this second part of our interview with the Chief Executive Officer, Estadam Herbal Care, Dr. David Igonoh, he spoke extensively about the need for government to support herbal practitioners in Nigeria.
He also explained how his herbs help in preventing illnesses like cancers, malaria and many others. In this last part of the encounter with our Health Editor, HASSAN ZAGGI, Dr. Igonoh explained why herbal product are not cheap.
How are you relating with regulatory bodies like NAFDAC and NIPRD who have the mandate to ensure all medicines are safe and efficacious.
We have a good working relationship with all the regulatory bodies. You can see, we have NAFDAC approval on the safety of our products. Some of the approvals were given to us March this year. They certify that the herbs we have are toxic-free and gave us the go ahead.
We were first certified by the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) that are herbs are efficacious before we went to NAFDAC to certify that our medicines are safe.
NIPRD first screened our products before sending their recommendations to NAFDAC who also gave us their approval.
In your many years of practice of alternative medicine, what are the major ailments you found to be rampant among Nigerians.
From what we have seen, Diabetes and high Blood Pressure (BP) are rampant in the country. May be this is as a result of what we eat. Most people no more go for natural foods but more of artificial foods and that is causing a lot of harm.
Secondly, cancer is also catching fire. Both young and old are coming down with all forms of cancers. I have seen cases where children of 2 years are having cancer. This is causing a lot of concern even among us who are into alternative medicine. The government need to do something about.
We have commenced research on the cancer issue so that we can provide solution to it. Presently, if it is at the early stage, the herbs we have can easily halt the spread and prevent it. But when it is allowed to get to the advance stage, we are still researching on the herbs that can take care of it at that level.
Sickle cell
We also have herbs that can manage sickle cell anemia. Our herbs can manage it by reducing the crisis to near-zero. Our herbs can go to the borne marrow and strengthen the red blood cells, thereby giving room for more oxygen to circulate because the cells are lacking oxygen that is why they are always having crisis.
Our herbs have the ability to produce more blood cells and also help them not to have shortage of blood.
We have immune boaster herbs that can help them to have less infection like malaria or any opportunistic infection.
We are working hard to having permanent cure for the sickle cell. Our hope is high because those we have treated are giving us testimonies that gladden our hearts.
Our products are carefully prepared with less or no side-effects. There is no issue of purging when one takes our herbs.
Dosage
Our herbal products have dosage. NAFDAC trained us on how to quantify the dose. Our herbal products are all packaged and sealed with the necessary dosage.
We have seen incidences where people treat malaria almost every month, do you have solution to this?
We have treatment for malaria. When treating malaria, we boost the immune system so that there will be no reoccurance of the malaria. Once your immune system is strong, the malaria parasite will not have the strength pull one down.
Inside the preparation, we have a lot of alkaloids which are the chemistry aspect where the quinine comes from and other herbs that will help the system fight against any infection. We have malaria tea that will resolve the recurrent malaria challenge.
Most people with Genotype AA are always prompt to malaria.
How can you assess the efforts of the government in improving the health of Nigerians
Well, for me, the government should focus more on the health sector because it is a true saying that ‘health is wealth.’ If one is not healthy, one cannot go for any activity that will improve his well-being. So, if the government can seriously focus on improving the health sector, it will translate at improving the economy.
Are you enjoying government support in any form?
The government is not supporting us in anyway. We are just left alone.
If the government can develop interest in what we do and take it up from there for the benefit of all Nigerians, that will be fine.
Cost of your products?
Our herbal products are not too cheap because of the processes we go through to develop them. The raw materials which are the herbs are not easy to come by. This is because some of the herbs we use are not grown here, so we have to order for them from very far, in some instances Sambisa Forest and other typical forest in different parts of the country, before we get out formula. The insecurity in the country has also worsen the situation as getting to go to the bush and get herbs for us is extremely difficult.
We pay huge amount to get people to take the risk to go to the forests despite the insecurity to get the herbs for us. That affect the cost of production of the herbs. But if we can get support from the government and get our raw materials in large quantity, the cost of production will also drop which will also bring down the cost of the product.
The crisis and insecurity in the country has also compounded our challenge. For example, there are some herbs that we normally get easily and cheaper from the Sambisa forest before the insecurity there, but since the insecurity started, no one can have access to the herbs there. We have to find alternative which are not much.
The government should consider having dedicated farms for herbs in different parts of the country so that we have easy access to these plants in large quantity.
If the government can look into the herbal sector and develop it, the country can generate billions of naira from it.
Prostate cancer
We have a research that we have done on prostate. The rate at which people are coming down with prostate cancer has escalated in recent times.
Prostate cancer can be tackled at its early state, but we have herbs that prevent one from contracting the disease.
From age 40 upward, every man need to take care of his prostate. There are so many herbs that one can use to clean up the prostate. The prostate is a gland that produce a fluid near the simen/sperm that is the fluid where the cells are in.
At age 40 and above, one must make sure that he clears any infection, for example, toilet infection is totally eradicated from the system so that there will be no blockage. If this is not properly cleared, it will lead to a lot of crises and if this starts, the man will find it difficult to urinate well.
One will urinate with a lot of pain or with some blood.
What we give here is a tea for prostate cancer prevention. What the tea does is that it fights every opportunistic infection that finds its way to the prostate or to the male organ to clean them up so that the bacteria will not lead to any blockage of the prostate channel. Infection that is not properly treated can also cause prostate enlargement.
My advice to men at 40, feel free to go and check your PSA from time to time. This will give room to catch any disease that is coming up early which is easy to treat.
The herbs we prepare here can handle any kind of infection that man can have. The herps can quickly arrest the infection. This will prevent cancer.
Our herbs are basically for prevention. One will take it for 30 days. It is advisable to one keeps taking it after every 3 months.
For those who want to contact us, we can be reached through 08037717530.
