PROLOGUE :“My People Perish For Lack Of Knowledge” My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6

As already mentioned, the goal of this book is to educate—to provide the reader with a broad knowledge about the causes and treatment of some of the common diseases that affl ict Humanity. I want to stress what I just said—the aim of the book is to educate. It is by no means therefore meant to incite fear or apprehension in the reader. I appeal to you, dear reader, not to be anxious if you think you may be displaying symptoms of a particular disease touched on in the book. Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 Whatever situations that may face us as Christians—diseases, emotional trauma, poverty, job loss—we are to bring them before the Throne of Grace and rest assured the Good Lord will help us sort them out. Indeed, there is the need for us to educate ourselves concerning several aspects of our life, in particular in regard to matters relating to our health. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6 Based on the experience I have gained as a family doctor, I have come to realise that many, including Christians, lack a background knowledge of some of the most common diseases that affl ict us. As Christians we know we are on our way to the Promised Land.

We have not got there yet; indeed, we still fi nd ourselves in an imperfect world. We need as a result to inform ourselves, if even on a general basis, about how Almighty God built our body, how it functions, how to prevent and also cure some of the common diseases that can affl ict us on account of living in a fallen world. ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge.’ Lack of knowledge, indeed, can lead us into trouble in several aspects of life, including the area of our health. An example from my own life will serve to illustrate this. Shortly after becoming a Christian, I received a vision from the Lord that saw me walking on the streets of a strange settlement that turned out to be Europe. Believing this to be the plan of the Lord for my life, I left my native Ghana to work in Nigeria to earn my plane ticket for Europe.1 Initially the going was very tough for me in Nigeria; I had to do odd jobs on construction sites to survive. Eventually, I came to live with a group of young men from Amantia, my mother’s hometown, in a makeshift accommodation in Shagamu, a town about 50 kilometres to the north of Lagos. Just as in my case, they had all recently arrived in Nigeria in search of work. Money was a very scarce commodity in the “colony”. Soon word went round the settlement to the effect that one could purchase, directly from the butchers, chunks of fat from the cattle slaughtered on a daily basis for almost free. We got excited about the offer. Almost every day a few of us went on an errand to the butchers to purchase considerable amounts of the 1 An account of how the Lord led me from my native Ghana into medical school in Europe may be read in my book THE CALL THAT CHANGED MY LIFE, published by Thank You Jesus Books. cheap animal fat. With it we prepared soup as part of our main evening meal. I really did enjoy the several chunks of fat apportioned me.

Now, looking back, I realise how foolish I was to consume those pieces of pure animal fat! If I had at that time been informed about the health risks of consuming considerable amounts of fat within a short period of time, I would surely have avoided it. There is a saying that ignorance is a disease. Not only is it a disease, but our ignorance of the causes and symptoms of diseases can lead us to fear, anxiety, sleepless nights and even false accusations and suspicions. Well, readers who have grown up in developed countries in Western Europe and the US may not really appreciate how ignorance about the causes and symptoms of diseases can indeed lead to false accusations and suspicions. Well, I grew up in a society in which there is a general tendency to attribute to witchcraft, wizards, evil spirits and what have you blame for all the woes, including diseases, especially those that appear mysterious, that might affl ict residents there. I am not in any way implying that I do not believe in the existence of such evil spirits. In as much as I believe, as a Christian, in the existence of Almighty God, do I also believe in the reality of Satan and the hordes of demonic hosts that serve under the great Deceiver.

There are certain instances, however, when a lack of knowledge of diseases might lead some to arrive at wrong conclusions as to why they have become victims of those diseases. I have in mind the case a pastor friend of mine, a case I was told of the other day. It involved a member of his congregation, a woman in her late forties. She came to his counselling and prayer session and complained about the recent onset of the symptoms which appeared very mysterious to her: the sudden onset of hot fl ushes which could all of sudden turn into a cold feeling, a feeling as if she was walking in the middle of the arctic winter! Her symptoms, following closely on the heels of her discovery that her husband had been cheating on her with a comparatively younger woman, led her to conclude (not even suspect) that her rival had visited a ‘jujuman’ to cast a spell on her. Much as I do not condone the selfish and despicable act of the younger lady trying, as it were, to snatch her husband from her, she would perhaps not have come to that conclusion if she had been informed about menopause and the possible symptoms associated with it! Indeed, if she had not been ignorant about menopause and the possible symptoms that can accompany it, she would have prayed to the Lord to help ease her symptoms instead of becoming alarmed and apportioning others the blame for her malaise. So, dear Christian friends, we have to educate ourselves. Being a Christian does not mean we have to be ignorant about things that affect our lives. As Tony Blair, a former Prime Minister of the UK once emphasised, “Education, Education, Education!” Yes education matters, especially in matters affecting our health.