Nigerians Traveling to India for Medical treatment – Visa Requirements and Travel Tips to India

What makes the patients from Nigeria Travel to India for their surgery is the fact that India has one of the best qualified professionals in each and every field, and this fact has now been realized the world over. Regarding Medical Facilities India has the most competent doctors and world class Medical Facilities. With most competitive charges for treatment, India is a very lucrative destination for people wanting to undergo treatment of certain medical problems. India offers World Class Medical Facilities, comparable with any of the western countries. India has state of the art Hospitals and the best-qualified doctors. With the best infrastructure, the best possible Medical facilities, accompanied with the most competitive prices, you can get the treatment done in India at the lowest charges. 

Nigerian Citizens are very sensitive towards their health requirements. Since the medical infrastructure is not so highly developed in Nigeria, patients prefer to travel abroad for medical management. This has been the case in past also when only the rich and the affluent traveled to USA and Europe for healthcare. With India emerging as one of the Medical hubs of the world, just like patients from other countries, patients from Nigeria have also now started coming to India for all health and medical related issues.

General Visa Requirement for Nigerians

Please do not finalise your travel arrangements to India before ascertaining the visa requirements. All Nigerian nationals, including children, require a visa to enter India. All types of visa application forms can be obtained free of charge from the visa counter of the High Commission of India on any working day from 0900-1100 hrs.

• Return air ticket
• Yellow Fever Certificate
• Bank statement for last 3 months. The a/c statement should be certificate by the bank and must indicate the name of the officer, full address and telephone/fax numbers
• A separate letter giving full details of previous visits to India, including periods of stay
• Your CV/bio-data
• A separate letter which gives your present occupation and detailed purpose of your intended visit to India

In addition to everything in the General Visa Requirement for the Medical Visas, following documents are needed:

• Letter from the local hospital/doctor
• Complete copies of treatment record from the local hospital
• Letter from the Indian hospital which must also be mailed by the hospital authorities to High Commission at High Commission’s mail box
• Proof of relationship of accompanying the patient and a letter indicating relationship

Registration with the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO)/Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO)

Persons of Nigerian origin holding a Multiple Entry X-Visa, visiting India for Medical purpose or any other purpose, are required to register with the FRO/FRRO (Foreign Registration Office) within 14 days of first arrival only if they intend to stay continuously for more than 6 months. This registration is required during the first visit after the visa is issued. Subsequent travels using the same visa do not require registration. The person accompanying the patient will also be required to get himself or herself registered with the FRO/FRRO. It usually takes 2 – 3 days to confirm the registration. Following documents are required during your registration process;

• Your current Passport copy
• 4 Recent passport size photo of you 
•  Yellow fever card (important)

Contact Details of Indian Consulate-

• Indian Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria
  High Commission of India in Lagos, Nigeria     
  8-A, Walter Carrington Crescent
  P.M.B. 80128 Victoria Island
  City: Lagos
  Telephone: (234 1) 2627680, 2615078 & 2615905
  Fax: 2612660, 26136680
  
  Timings: Mon to Fri 8.30 AM to 5.00 PM
  Consular visitors' hours: Mon to Fri 9.00 AM to 11.00 AM
  Passports/ Visa collection hours: Mon to Fri 4.30 PM to 5.00 PM
  
  
•  Indian Consulate in Abuja, Nigeria
  High Commission of India in Abuja, Nigeria (Branch Office)    
  Plot No. 684 (A&B), Agdez Crescent
  Off Aminu Kano Crescent
  Wuse-II
  City: Abuja

Travel Tips

Her are some general guide and some important instructions for your safe and hassle-free journey to India for medical purpose. In your best interest, we would advise you to follow them sincerely.

BEFORE TRAVELLING FROM YOUR HOME COUNTRY

• Please make sure that you have all the contact information of the Concerned Person / Driver in India.
• Please start/stop taking the medication as has been advised to you by the doctor in India for your medical treatment.
• Please start the special diet if you have been advised for any kind of surgery at least 7 days before your planned arrival to India. 
• Please stop taking blood thinners (aspirin/warfarin) 7 days before the planned arrival to India.
• Please stop smoking 15 days prior to your planned arrival to India for the surgery.
• Please stop consumption of alcohol 7 days prior to your planned arrival to India for the surgery.

ON DEPARTING FROM THE HOSPITAL

• Please inform the Executives of your Medical Consultancy firm by phone at least 24 hours before your departure so that your driver can be sent on time. 
• If you are going to a Hotel/Trip-please inform about the same to Consultant so that a follow up can be kept on you during your post operative recovery
• Please keep the following phone numbers handy- Executive of your Consultancy firm and Your Attendant /Surgeon at the Hospital.
• Make sure that you have all your medical papers and discharge card of your surgery/treatment.

 

WHILE TOURING INDIA

• Please consume only bottled water. 
• Please do not talk and accept food from Strangers.
• Please only eat in good hotels and eat only properly cooked/boiled food. 
• Please limit the consumption of milk based products.
• Keep your passports close to you. 
• Do not give money to beggars.
• It is not a good idea to travel with too much cash. Travellers' cheques are best. 
• If travelling in the monsoon, carry a raincoat and umbrella.
• Label your entire luggage and even try to carry an extra set of labels with you.
• Make sure that you stay in clean and hygienic hotels.
• Make sure that your hotel room has mosquito repellant machine or cream.

HAVE A SAFE AND A HAPPY JOURNEY TO INDIA

Nigerian citizens flock to India for Cost effective Weight loss surgery

Medical tourism India has now become hugely popular for its Weight loss surgery all over the world. Forerunners Healthcare has been helping more and more men and women throughout Nigeria and other countries like U.K. and U.S.A to lose weight through Weight loss surgery in India. Carrying that extra pound can increase the risk of health problems including diabetes; heart disease; stroke; steoarthritis; high blood pressure; gallstones; infertility and depression. Weight loss surgery in India offers safe and effective means of helping you reach and maintain your target weight and allow you to enjoy a better quality of life by following a structured and supervised programme.

Losing weight is an individual challenge, different for every person and considering an operation is a big decision. Since no two bodies are alike, no two people receive the same treatment. Indian surgeons who undertake Weight loss surgery are aware that it is important to select patients who are most likely to benefit from it. They ensure that the patients only undergo the surgery if it is right for them by only selecting patients who fall under the following:

•  For gastric bypass surgery the patient must have a BMI of over 35. 
•  For lap band surgery, the BMI must be over 30.
• All patients must be aged 18 or over.
• Other methods of losing weight have been tried without success.
• There is no specific metabolic or psychological reason behind the patient's obesity
• The patient has sufficient knowledge and understanding of the Weight loss surgery and what changes it will produce.
• The patient is motivated to have the surgery and make the necessary post-operative lifestyle changes.

Types of Weight loss operation

Expert Indian bariatric surgeons offer a range of Weight Loss surgery procedures including gastric banding (gastric band), also known as lap banding, gastric bypass and gastic balloon insertion etc. They also offer sleeve gastrectomy and duodenal switch operations.

• Gastric Band:- A band fitted around the top of the stomach which severely restricts the amount of food you can eat.
• Gastric Bypass:- A line of staples separates the top part of the stomach to create a pouch which means food bypasses most of the stomach and small intestine.

• Stomach Stapling (Vertical banded gastroplasty):- An obsolete weight loss operation replaced by the gastric band.
•  Sleeve Gastrectomy:- An operation for weight loss which reduces the size of the stomach.
• Bilopancreatic Diversion:- This operation removes most of the stomach and attaches a small pouch left to the final part of the small intestine.
• Duodenal Switch:- A similar operation to the bilopancreatic diversion, this operation involves removing part of the stomach.
• Intragastric Balloon :- A deflated silicone balloon is placed into the stomach and filled with liquid to create a feeling of fullness.
• Implantable Gastric Stimulator :- This operation involves implanting electrodes into the stomach which stimulates the stomach to send messages to the brain to induce feelings of fullness.

Benefits

The most obvious benefit of this surgery is losing weight: it does depend on the type of procedure but generally, you could be looking at up to 80% of loosing your weight. This varies from one person to another but is an average figure. Weight loss means reduced body fat levels which equates to a slimmer, more natural looking you Apart from weight loss, another benefit for the surgery is a reduced risk of developing an obesity-related disease such as Type II diabetes. These conditions or ‘co-morbidities’ are extremely serious and very often are not reversible. Another factor linked to this is that these co-morbidities are life-threatening. In some cases you could be looking at losing seven years off your life. By undergoing the surgery you will reduce any long term health risks and ensure that you have a normal life expectancy.

Cost effectiveness

 

Making the decision to undergo this surgery is not an easy one, With Forerunners Healthcare you can be assured that your surgery will be carried out in one of the best private hospitals in India where you will experience the highest levels of patient care. The main reason that attracts more tourists to have their Weight loss in India is the vast difference in cost of treatment.  The treatment is upto 30 percent cheaper than the US or other European countries like the UK, France, Brazil or Germany. Citizens from countries such as Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan can also benefit from this surgery due to availability of such cost effective and much affordable treatment.

The truth about coffee and tea: Which is really better for your health?

It’s an age-old question: What’s better for you, coffee or tea? Even back in the 18th century, inquiring minds wanted to know. King Gustav III of Sweden, being of the belief that coffee was poisonous, devised an interesting experiment to answer the question definitively. He found two identical twins in prison, both sentenced to death for crimes they had committed. Gustav III commuted their sentences to mere life imprisonment (which was no picnic either, given prison conditions back then).

In return for his kingly generosity, the twins had to agree to participate in an experiment: One twin had to drink three pots of coffee a day. The other had to drink three pots of tea a day. Two court physicians were procured to oversee the experiment. Sadly, the physicians died before the experiment was over, as did the king, who was assassinated in 1792. Had he lived, he would have seen the tea-drinking twin live until the age of 83. The coffee drinker? He lived even longer, although we don’t know exactly how much longer. Score one for coffee, if you believe in the efficacy of 18th-century science.

In terms of which is more popular, if you look at numbers alone, tea wins, hands down. While 1.6 billion cups a day of coffee are consumed on planet Earth, twice as many cups of tea are consumed. In the U.S., however, coffee reigns supreme, with Americans consuming $10 billion worth of coffee, against about $2 billion worth of tea. Tea consumption is rising fast in the States, however. Sales of tea have risen for more than 20 years running. The Tea Association of the USA reports that on any given day, 160 million Americans drink tea, hot or iced.

A lot of people believe they should cut down on their caffeine intake. The common belief is that caffeinated beverages in general will dehydrate you. It’s not true. As far back as 1928, tests were conducted to ascertain the truth of caffeine’s effects on hydration. In that early test, three men (admittedly a small sample) were required to drink four cups of coffee a day. They also drank tea, water and caffeine-infused water. Measuring their volume of urine, there was no ultimate difference in liquid elimination from the body.

In more modern-day studies, such as one done by Lawrence Armstrong at the University of Connecticut, where 10 different studies were compared, it was found that caffeine was at most a mild diuretic, and in most cases, the volume of urine excreted was the same, regardless of whether caffeine was consumed or not. Similarly, the National Institutes of Health found in a controlled experiment that drinking black tea or drinking water was essentially the same, as far as keeping your body hydrated. Another study by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (an industry study group) reported in a peer-reviewed journal that drinking four cups of coffee a day hydrated the body no differently than an equal amount of water.

Black, green, white and oolong teas are made from camellia sinensis tea leaves (as opposed to herbal tea, which is not technically tea, and is generally not caffeinated), and contain substances known as flavonoids, which many studies have linked to healthful benefits. Chinese emperor Shennong wrote about the benefits of tea as far back as 2737 BCE. A United Kingdom nutritional study linked tea consumption to lesser instances of heart disease and some cancers.

Another study on both tea and coffee published in a medical journal came to similar results regarding heart disease. Other ingredients in tea, known as catechins, were linked in an Australian study to stronger bones and lower incidents of osteoporosis. These same catechins are linked to better muscle endurance. A 2004 study in Taiwan, which appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that those who drank four to 20 ounces of tea for at least a year had a 46% lower chance of developing high blood pressure. An NIH study linked tea drinking with a lower incidence of Parkinson’s disease. The NIH also has indicated that tea may be helpful in preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

“Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water,” says Carrie Ruxton, a public health nutritionist at Kings College in London. “Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it’s got two things going for it…even if you had a really, really strong cup of tea or coffee, which is quite hard to make, you would still have a net gain of fluid [i.e. your body retains more than it excretes]. Also, a cup of tea contains fluoride, which is good for the teeth.”

The International Food Information Council Foundation reports that, “For the healthy adult population, moderate caffeine consumption of 300 mg per day is safe and can even have beneficial health implications as a part of a healthful diet and physically active lifestyle.”

In fact, caffeine may be so good for you that it cancels out the harmful effects of bad habits. Asians smoke more than anyone else on the planet, and yet the incidence of cancer and heart disease is lower than in most countries. This has been referred to as the “Asian Paradox.” Bauer Sumpio, chief of vascular surgery in the Department of Surgery at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, produced a report in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons suggesting that the high consumption of green tea in Asia (as much as 1.2 liters a day) may be responsible for the Asian Paradox. The presence of high levels of polyphenols in the green tea (and other teas) seems to be the agent protecting the tea-drinking smoker. Polyphenols are effective antioxidants that destroy free radicals in the body (which can otherwise damage DNA).

So tea is good for you, apparently. How about coffee? Turns out that coffee offers much the same healthful benefits as tea. Various studies indicate that coffee offers a level of protection from some cancers (including breast cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer and skin cancer). Earlier studies had once indicated coffee actually caused cancer, but Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic explains, “Earlier studies didn’t always take into account that known high-risk behaviors, such as smoking and physical inactivity, tended to be more common among heavy coffee drinkers at that time.”

It has been shown subsequently that up to six cups a day of coffee have no link to death from heart disease or cancer. A Harvard School of Public Health study found a link between coffee drinking and up to 35% lower incidence of Type 2 diabetes. A Portuguese study found coffee lowered the risk of Parkinson’s disease. A Finnish/Swedish study found coffee drinkers had lower risks for dementia and Alzheimer’s. A Duke University School of Medicine study found caffeinated beverages like coffee and tea may help protect your liver from disease. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that drinking up to 12 ounces of coffee a day had no effect on a pregnancy, as far as miscarriages or premature births are concerned. “Given the evidence, we should reassure our pregnant patients and let them know that it’s OK to have a cup of coffee,” said William H. Barth, Jr. of the ACOG.

So no bad news at all about tea and coffee? Nothing alarming, but there are certainly things to watch out for:

• The Mayo Clinic warns that while up to 400 mg a day (four cups) for men, 300 mg for women, is safe for healthy adults, adolescents should be limited to 100 mg (one cup).
• More than five cups a day of caffeinated beverages may cause insomnia, headache, nervousness, stomach upset, faster heartbeat, and muscle tremors in some people. Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others, and even one cup may cause these effects, with women more susceptible than men.
• Heavy caffeine consumption has been linked, over time, with lowering bone density, which could lead to osteoporosis. Over - caffeinating can also cause breast lumps (fibrocystic disease). Cutting back on caffeine will usually cause the lumps to disappear.
• Unfiltered coffee (espresso, cappuccino, French press coffee) can lead to higher levels of LDL, the “bad” cholesterol.  Filtered coffee does not seem to have this effect.
• Coffee delivers a bigger burst of energy than tea, but it is shorter-lived and the crash is much faster than from tea.
• While both tea and coffee contain antioxidants, there are more in tea.

Other interesting facts about coffee and tea:

• Coffee contains 80-185 mg of caffeine. Tea only 15-70 mg.
• The average coffee drinker drinks 70 gallons a year of coffee. The average tea drinker only 10 gallons.
• Rat studies show insulin activity increases by a factor of 15 from tea consumption.
• Black, green, white, and oolong teas are all made from the same leaf. The length of leaf fermentation makes the difference in color, taste and active ingredients.

So what is the answer, coffee or tea? While remembering that the health links between the two beverages are not definitively causal (i.e. there is no clinical proof that drinking tea or coffee directly causes the healthful effect), if you are looking for the most healthful benefit possible, tea is probably the winner. But coffee is no slouch either. And there is the somewhat unquantifiable factor that these beverages make people happy, which is also good for your health. As with all things health, moderation is key, but go ahead and have that soothing, and surprisingly healthy cup of tea or java, guilt-free.

Nine simple tips and tricks to help one adopt healthy lifestyle in Nigeria.

Premium Times published a piece, in which the journalist gathered 9 tips and tricks to help you adopt healthy lifestyle in Nigeria.


The list reads as follows:

1. Take the stairs. Exercising develops muscles and trains heart.
   
   
2. Say no to sodas and yes to smoothies. No benefit in consuming that much sugar.
   
   
3. Eat your veggies. Adding up salads to your ration does a lot of good to the blood system.
   
   
4. Exercise. A bit more than just stairs: a full-scale training in the gym. If you cannot afford the gym, you can work individually.
   
   
5. No late dinners or snacking. It causes stomach pouches, which might be unattractive.
   
   
6. Avoid fast foods. Evidently. Just no!
   
   
7. Drink a lot of water. To wash toxins out of one’s body and to improve complexion, among others.
   
   
8. Get good sleep. Both the mind and the soul will be grateful!
   
   
9. Routine medical check-ups. Do it every once in a while, like twice or thrice a year, to see the condition of your body.