Arctic health conference offers new directions for future research

Lena Maria Nilsson, a Saami nutritionist from northern Sweden, came with a round, brown stone to the circumpolar health conference in Oulu, Finland to highlight the connection between culture and health. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

In a presentation to the ICCH, Shirley Tagalk from the Arviat Wellness Centre and the Qaujigiartiiit Health Research centre explains how Arviat has tried to engage youth in health and help them become creative advocates for healthy living. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Inuit who want to become doctors face an uphill journey, says Dr. Madeleine Cole, a family physician at Iqaluit’s Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit, at the ICCH in Oulu. Doctors are supposed to advocate for their patients’ health — and she believes Inuit would be better advocates for their Inuit patients in Nunavut. They’d also provide a continuity of care and serve as role models in the community, she said in a June 10 presentation on “Indigenizing the Canadian Physician Workforce: A perspective from Nunavut.” (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Three young Saami girls perform for participants in the International Congress on Circumpolar Health in Oulu, Finland, which lies at the southern edge of the Saami territory in northern Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia. At the ICCH, indigenous health concerns were the subject of many research presentations. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

OULU, FINLAND — The circumpolar world is linked as much by its common health challenges as by its Arctic geography.

That’s what struck Nunavut Health Minister Paul Okalik as he prepared to head back from Finland to Canada June 12 at the end of the International Congress on Circumpolar Health.

“I learned that we’re not alone with our health problems,” said Okalik, who attended a variety of sessions on subjects like housing, food security and suicide during his week at the conference, which he called “important to attend.”

Many subjects discussed during the five-day-long gathering touched on health issues of interest to people in Nunavut and Nunavik, such as diabetes prevention in relation to Arctic berry consumption and marijuana use, contaminants and Arctic human health, potentially harmful genetic conditions and suicide.

Indigenous researchers were among those who presented at the conference, which included more than 200 participants — health experts, researchers and government officials like Okalik — from around the circumpolar world.

And they offered new ideas on ways to research and improve health throughout the polar regions.

Lena Maria Nilsson, a Saami nutritionist from northern Sweden, came with a round, brown stone to the conference in Oulu.

Why this stone? Because in the 1850s, a great-grandfather of hers threw a similar, but sacred, Saami stone into a nearby lake to show he was a good Christian.

“Since that day, our family has been afflicted with eye disease and visual impairment,” Nilsson said.

The genetic factor HLA-B27 offers enhanced immunity to some common viral diseases, but also predisposes about one in 100 carriers to colitis, arthritis or to the severe eye condition that affects Saami — as well as other indigenous peoples including about 37 per cent of Inuit.

“Without getting into details, HLA-B27 carriers are [also] more sensitive to low grade inflammation in the gastro-intestinal system — a common risk factor for most of our metabolic diseases,” she said.

Nilsson points to the transition away from traditional food and relaxing activities, as well as cultural stress as triggers in the development of health problems related to HLA-B27.

When her ancestor threw that stone into the lake, Saami culture was in the throes of a hard period of cultural assimilation, she said. The timing of his action was always linked in her family to increasing eye problems.

At the conference, Nilsson called for more research on these “auto-immune reactions to colonialism.”

“Many of the diseases which are health problems today have connections with lifestyle change and assimilation,” she said June 11 at the conference.

“This is not new knowledge — but hopefully this is a new way of reflecting upon a group of rheumatic diseases of relevance for the people of the circumpolar area — combining traditional knowledge with medical facts. ”

Other presenters from Nunavut and Nunavik in Oulu, included

• Minnie Grey from the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services on the Circumpolar Inuit Health Strategy 2010-2014;

• Sharon Edmunds-Potvin from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on health research in Nunavut;

• Ceporah Mearns from the Qaujigiartiiit Health Research Centre on Nunavut’s Makimautiksat youth camps;

• Dr. Madeline Cole from the Qikiqtani General Hospital on how to bring more indigenous peoples into the health profession; and,

• Shirley Tagalik from the Arviat Wellness Centre and the Qaujigiartiiit Health Research Centre on how to engage youth in health.

The next circumpolar health conference is scheduled for August 2018 in Copenhagen.