Thumbay Hospital – Ajman celebrated ‘Vitamin D Day’ with programs involving crèche children, on Tuesday, 21st March 2017. Aimed to raise awareness on the importance of Vitamin D, the event held in the hospital premises was organized by the Clinical Nutrition Department. More than 75 children of the hospital crèche participated.
Deficiency of Vitamin D is known to adversely affect the autoimmune processes and cause several types of cancer, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders and pregnancy-related complications. The awareness program at Thumbay Hospital reminded the attendees about the importance of Vitamin D, also known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’, due to the human body’s ability to manufacture the vitamin using energy in the sunlight. The children’s programs at Thumbay Hospital emphasized the human body’s need for adequate sunlight.
The Clinical Nutrition Department at Thumbay Hospital, Ajman provides comprehensive nutrition services for inpatients and outpatients of all ages, such as nutrition services for diabetes patients (children and adults), as well as gestational diabetes, kidney, cardiac patients and the other diseases. The department also provides educational lectures for the public, to promote nutritional awareness and to eradicate common lifestyle diseases like obesity, anemia, diabetes and cardiovascular problems. The department offers comprehensive nutritional assessment, intervention and education to patients and families of patients admitted to the hospital. Dietitians in the Clinical Nutrition department work to design meal plans that improve or maintain the health of patients whose diets require close monitoring.
For patients found to be at nutrition risk, the hospital’s dietitians use innovative assessment and evaluation techniques to customize the nutrition care process for each individual. These interventions include: nutrition education, nutrition counseling, and coordination of care and provision of specific nutrition recommendations regarding food and/or nutrients. The department of clinical nutrition aims to promote individualized medical nutrition therapy in a multidisciplinary approach to provide excellent nutrition care to the patients.