A Mars a Day helps you Work, Rest and Play (other chocolates are available)

I’m on my way to Mars! I shall be there in July 2020. I have my Boarding Pass and I will be sitting in seat number 8006538. Well my name will be there along with millions of others too. You can join me by booking your ticket here. I thought this was a really fun way to gain interest into the latest space exploration challenge. The story also made me think of Mars bars. I know, but it’s the way my mind works sometimes.

These days I occasionally eat one. As a child I ate way too many of these bars and subsequently did irreparable damage to my teeth. Every Mars bar has 230 calories and 12g of fat. If you consider that the average person needs 2000 calories per day, the good news is that’s less than 9 Mars bars. If truth were told, the health promoter in me suggests you should probably stop at 7 bars. My favourite way of eating them is to put the bar into the fridge and slice it into tiny slivers so as to gain maximum pleasure from each delicious mouthful.

The Mars bar first made an appearance in 1932 and was the genius idea of one Mr Mars from the US (the name has nothing whatsoever to do with the planet). It was a very successful chocolate invention. Between 1959 and 2002 Mars used probably one of the most famous advertising lines in history – ‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play’. It was a great slogan, even if some of the advertisements were a bit disingenuous. For us vegetarians, there was a bit of a scare back in 2007 when Mars decided to change their recipe and to start using animal products in the manufacturing process. Rennet, a chemical enzyme, extracted from calves’ or young goats’ stomachs is used in many food manufacturing processes, and not just in cheese making. Thankfully, the decision was reversed in double quick time due to the public uproar and a vegetarian version of the rennet was once more used – and this was way before vegetarianism was as popular as it is today.

Over the years Mars bars have been my staple ‘take with me’ food when I was traveling to places where I suspected it might be difficult to get vegetarian food. Although I have always travelled light, I have always found room for half a dozen Mars bars. More than once they have proved to be a great alternative lunch. Back in August of 2015 I was privileged to visit Uganda with colleagues from Health Education England. We visited various parts of the country to see students from my School who were undertaking a clinical placement there as part of their nursing and midwifery training. As is sometimes the way, I didn’t need my Mars bars, although I did eat a large number of omelettes and chips over the 10 days. I mention Uganda here, not just because of the Mars bar connection but because of what I saw when visiting a number of hospitals and community based health services.

There was much poverty. There were shortages of everything. There was dirt and squalor everywhere. There was overcrowding and a lack of privacy. Yet there was resilience, and cheerfulness. There was often great improvisation and creativity. There was knowledge and skill, and there was a commitment to compassionate care. Our students had a fantastic time and benefitted greatly from their experience – but as they were only there for some 12 weeks, I wondered what it must be like to work in the health service there day after day with all the problems we saw. Everyone we met, appeared happy, smiled and certainly didn’t lack energy or enthusiasm. However, I wondered how many of the nurses and doctors were living with common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety because of their working environment.  

Stress, depression, and anxiety are universal mental health problems. They can be found anywhere in the world, and anyone can experience these problems at any time. It was hard to find out any reliable epidemiological data on the prevalence of mental health problems in Uganda, but some local studies undertaken in the last 10 years would suggest that there are high rates of common mental health problems in the many of the city and urban populations. When I visited, mental health services were rudimentary to say the least. I doubt that things have changed very much since then.  

Last week NHS Digital revealed that in England, staff working in the NHS took 17.7 million days of sick leave during the 12 months up to November 2018. Of these 4.2 million days were taken due to stress anxiety, depression or some other mental illness. This figure is more than the next 2 most common reasons combined – musculoskeletal conditions and the ubiquitous common cold. I’m not surprised by these figures. Whilst the NHS has nowhere near the kinds of problems facing those working in the Ugandan health system, for many NHS colleagues, life will feel very difficult. The current shortage of staff, the ever-increasing demands for health care and the resource constraints, can all contribute to individuals feeling stressed and or depressed.

   

Some of the problems facing the NHS are not easily solved in the short term. I believe in the longer term, many of these concerns can and will be addressed. In any event, we need to be mindful of those we work with and come into contact with. We should be on the look out for signs that they are struggling with demands they might be dealing with, even those that may not be apparent to us. Help is there, and even if we can’t provide that personally, we can do much to help others to find and obtain the support they need. Yesterday saw the last day of the #WeActiveChallenge2019. I was immensely pleased to see so many health care professionals rise to that challenge and take part. I hope many of these folk will keep up their new found healthier lifestyle. As Rethink, the mental health charity says, ‘it’s all about the small steps’.

As for me, I was really pleased with reaching my challenge targets – over 200 miles walked, over 1 stone lost in weight, and an almost alcohol-free month. I have a new spring in my step, and not only do I have my ticket to Mars, but I have my tickets for the Health and Care Innovation Expo next week - although I don’t think I will be taking any Mars bars with me.