Dr Christine Cheng

Smoking alters the DNA in the sperm of male mice. The rate of sperm damage is higher with longer periods of smoking.

The damaged in genes are passed onto the offspring. Hence men that smoke can harm the health of their children.

Mothers that smoke have smaller foetuses.

Passive smoking also puts children at risk.

Guess the message is that if you really cared about your kids, even if you’re just thinking about having children, stop smoking.

Source: Reuters

With summer approaching, many people living in the Northern hemisphere have booked their holiday in the sun. Armed with their favourite sun block, they feel immune to the ravages of premature ageing and skin cancer.

Experts are finally warning about the folly about relying on sun blocks without looking beyond SPF factor. We recently discussed the fact that sun block may be inadequate protection against melanoma. Sun block mis-labelling is back in the limelight again.

Part of the reason why UV-A is so poorly protected against is because there is no universally agreed upon method of grading UV-A protection. If the sun block is highly effective against UV-B rays, 60% of UV-A rays can still penetrate the barrier and cause deadly melanoma.

We are only starting to see the effects of this mis-advertisement. The many people who slathered on their sun protection and baked all summer in the 1980s and 1990s are finally starting to develop skin cancer.

This has led to the lawsuit against 5 of the largest sun screen manufacturers, including Nutrogena and Hawaiian Tropic.

Work is progressing towards the development of good UV-A protection and grading system.

In the meantime, check your sun block label to check for broad coverage for both UV-A and UV-B. Both anchor sun protection products at Simply Aesthetic have UV-A and UV-B coverage. We highly recommend Skin Tech’s Melablock-HSP and Bellewave’s UV Smart for their excellent protection.

Source: Times Online

Rimonabant (trade name “Acomplia”) is a new slimming pill that suppresses the appetite is said to have metabolic effects over and above weight loss.

The manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis claims that the drug has beneficial effects on the blood glucose and cholesterol levels, thus can modify a patient’s risk of heart disease and diabetes! They claim that this is from the drug altering the metabolism of the fat cells.

There has been some dispute about this. Cynics wonder if the improved blood profile is from the lifestyle changes recommended by the manufacturer. There has also been no direct comparison with the other popular slimming tablets Reductil and Xenical.

Source: Guardian Unlimited

My friend’s son is a genius at multi-tasking. He can watch a video and play on his gameboy at that same time as entertaining his friends. He is a typical 10-year old who needs constant visual stimulation. Part of the new computer-crazy generation. Essentially a couch-potato kid.

A new British study has shown that such lifestyle habits, coupled with junk food and lack of exercise, has reached epidemic proportions in the UK. Over a quarter of the 3500 inner-city secondary children studied were overweight. Only half walked to school. Half of them spent 4 hours a day, or more, watching TV or playing computer games.

In the last decade, the number of obese children has doubled. Since obesity is linked with heart disease and diabetes, this equates to a huge number of children who will not live past the age of 50!

Good lifestyle habits start from childhood. These include eating good food and regular exercise.

Source: Daily Express

Experts have recently linked obesity with cancer, stating that up to a staggering 40% of cancers can be prevented by simple lifestyle changes!

With obesity affecting increasing numbers of the population worldwide, plus the general ageing of the developed world, the incidence of cancers caused by obesity is set to sky-rocket!

And we thought diabetes melliltus and heart disease being linked to obesity was bad enough.

Moral of the story: eat less, exercise more. Stay trim, stay fit.

Source: Daily Mail

Someone who appears to be thin may have a large amount of fat internally (TOFI). The fat infiltrates the liver, underused muscles and wraprs around organs like the pancreas.

TOFIs are at high risk of insulin resistance, to the same degree as someone who is obese. That puts such slim individuals of diseases associated with obesity such as diabetese melliluts and heart disease.  What a shocker!

So what causes TOFI?

Internal fat is measured by MRI scanning. The fat is seen as yellow in the image, which is of a 28-year old sedentary male who eats healthily.

TOFI is associated with lack of activity. Controlled food intake will results in low subcutaneous (skin) fat thickness. However, only exercise will eliminate internal fat.

It is not important to just look thin. Regular exercise is essential for optimal health.

Source: Associated Content

Daily high dose Aspirin of 300mg can dramatically reduce the risk of developing bowel cancer.

Bowel cancer is a big cause of morbidity in Singapore. The ability to reduce the risk of developing this disease with a simple Aspirin tablet could dramatically change a Nation’s health.

Daily treatment is needed for at least 5 years before the benefits are seen. The patients were treated in the 70s and 80s and followed up for the last 20 years. The treatment group saw a reduction in deaths from bowel cancer by 74%!

The risk reduction did not depend on age, sex, race or country of origin.

We recently saw that high doses of Aspirin can increase the risk of haemorrhagic stroke in the elderly. Aspirin can also increase the risk of gastro-intestinal bleeding.

We also know that low-dose Aspirin is cardio-protective. Further studies need to be done to see if Aspirin 75mg per day can protect against bowel cancer too.

In the meantime, daily Aspirin at 300mg should be considered for individuals at high risk of bowel cancer.

The Daily Mail reports that Superfoods which are increasingly popular recently may not have benefits fitting their price tags.

Berries

Claim: Packed with nutrients, berries are needed for brain development and boosting of  IQ, energy and immunity.

Truth: No evidence to back theory. Berries are rich in folate which boots brain power, but this is found in many food types.

Pomegranate Juice

Claim: Full of anti-oxidants to ward off cancer, heart disease and arthritis

Truth: Blood anti-oxidant levels are raised for only an hour after consumption of pomegranate juice

Wheatgrass

Claim: Contains chlorophyll which purifies the blood and detoxifies the body

Truth: Chlorophyll levels are no higher than other green vegetables. Plus chlorophyll is not absorbed into the body.

Seaweed

Claim: Enhances immunity, boosts brain power, prevents obesity, depression and anaemia

Truth: Seaweed contains the same nutrients as all other vegetables.

Ultimately, eating a varied wholesome diet with minimal processing and a large number of colours (and I don’t mean ketchup!) will provide the widest nutrient balance for optimal health.

Obesity is a huge problem for doctors, not just in terms of the health implications. Diagnosis is also more difficult. Physical examination is hampered by the think layer of fatty tissue. Now even radiological diagnosis is said to be less accurate.

I had a few “memorable” encounters with morbidly obese patients when I was an Anaesthetic Senior House Officer in Wales.

 The first was a lady who suffered from severe depression and ate herself to the point where she could not get out of bed. She ended up breaking her leg (can’t remember how) and needed surgical fixation.

She was too large to fit onto the standard operating table. Fortunately the obstetric delivery bed was able to take her weight. She was admitted to the intensive care unit after the operation so as to ensure she didn’t stop breathing when she was asleep.

The other lady needed an epidural for labour. When I saw how huge she was, I freaked and ran for a consultant’s help. I was in Swansea’s Singleton Hospital then, and I had only just started doing labour epidurals.

My consultant struggled to get an epidural in, and eventually succeeded. The midwives spent ages after that trying to find the foetal heart again. They eventually got worried and decided to call the obstetricians in to do a caesarean section.

The baby was stillborn.

No one knew when the baby had died. Monitoring was just so difficult because of her weight.

Morbid obesity is just such a disaster. Find the help. Lose the weight. Regain health. Your life depends on it.

Aspirin is back in the news again. Researchers have finally revealed that very low doses of Aspirin are enough for cardio-protection, without putting the patients at risk of strokes.

This is good news, as recent reports suggested that prophylactic Aspirin intake in asymptomatic elderly can increase their risk of haemorrhagic strokes. This means that taking low doses of Aspirin can protect us from heart attacks without increasing our risk from strokes caused by bleeding in the brain.

High doses of Aspirin can also cause bleeding in the gastro-intestinal tract.

The latest evidence shows that a daily dose of aspirin of 75 to 81mg is the best for the long-term prevention of heart disease and strokes, without causing any serious side effects.

There is no evidence that taking higher doses has any increased benefits.

Source: Forbes