Whither our pursuit of happiness?

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Malaysia can do a lot better in the World Happiness ranking as the country is free from disasters, rich in resources, besides being blessed with a multi-racial, multi-religious society.

AMONG the earliest songs that I learned as a boy scout in school was this: “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”

It was indeed a happy song at an age when happiness was so much easier to define.

With age, comes the realisation that happiness is hard to find. It is such a subjective thing and seeking out its sources isn’t easy.

Perhaps the saying was created to make the poor feel good but for ages, philosophers, religious leaders and cultural icons have offered this answer: Money can’t buy happiness.

It may be so. The United Nations’ first ever World Happiness Report released last week attests that it is not just all about the cha-ching cha-ching and ba-bling ba-bling, as Jessie J puts it in her Price Tag.

It found that generally, richer countries tended to be happier but wealth was not the sole defining factor for happiness.

The 158-page report, commissioned for the UN Conference on Happiness, was based on responses from a worldwide survey from 2005 to the middle of 2011 to determine the happiness level of countries.

The rankings take into account several factors, including health, family, job security as well as political freedom and government corruption.

“Political freedom, strong social networks and an absence of corruption are more important than income in explaining well-being differences,” the report stated.

Disneyland may be touted as the “Happiest place in the world” but when it comes to countries, it’s Denmark.

The Danes are blissfully above Finland, Norway, Holland, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland in the rankings.

The United States is 11th while the Britain notched 18th – below the United Arab Emirates and just above Venezuela.

The common thread in the countries ranked at the top was good governance and confidence in public institutions.

The world’s poorest countries are at the bottom of the scale. Togo (home of rich EPL football star Emmanuel Adebayor) is the unhappiest place in the world, followed by Benin, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Comoros, Haiti, Tanzania, Congo (Brazzaville) and Georgia.

Malaysia is two-thirds above the rest. We are supposedly the world’s 51st happiest country, a spot over Thailand but way below Singapore’s position of 33rd.

For comparison, Indonesia was judged at 83rd, below Myanmar which ranked 74th.

The report states that a country’s GDP is crucial but it is not all that is important.

So what’s the big deal about the report? It is significant because of the increasing number of economists, political scientists and psychologists involved in exploring the measure of happiness.

Happiness, or rather “Happynomics”, has become the hottest topic in contemporary social science.

Politicians around the world have started to pay more attention and many countries, including Australia, China, France, Germany and Britain have included happiness and national well-being into policy formulation frameworks.

“Happynomics” is coming to the fore at a time when developed countries, including the US, are being seen as sliding socially, economically and geopolitically.

In the report’s introduction, economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s The Earth Institute, said the world had come to a stage where “the lifestyles of the rich imperil the survival of the poor”.

He said the US is a key example of this “age of stark contradictions”, describing it as a place where affluence has been accompanied by widening social and economic inequalities, high levels of uncertainties and anxieties, declining social trust and low levels of confidence in government.

He cited obesity, adult-onset diabetes, tobacco-related illnesses, eating disorders, addictions to shopping and TV, as examples of disorders of development.

We are still a long way from being a developed country but all of the above sound familiar, don’t they?

But as Asli Centre for Public Policy studies chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam has noted, it is a pity that we rank only number 51 out of 156 countries in the report.

Most Malaysians would agree with him that we can do a lot better as the country is free from natural disasters, rich in natural resources and land for habitation and cultivation, besides being blessed with a multi-racial, multi-religious society.

To go back to the happiest nation in the world, the 5.5 million Danes have one probable grumble: high taxes.

They pay probably the highest taxes in the world – between 50% and 70% of their incomes but they don’t complain because the government covers healthcare and education and spends more on children and the elderly than any other country.

The high taxes have another upshot. With a banker taking home as much money as an artist, people don’t choose careers based on income or status.

A garbage collector can live in a middle-class neighborhood and still hold his head high.

ALONG THE WATCHTOWER BY M.VEERA PANDIYAN – Associate Editor M. Veera Pandiyan likes this observation by humourist Spike Mulligan: Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.

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10 ways to greater happiness

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A MIX of the basic and eclectic is the way to go to make more of us content with our lives.

WHAT makes a person happy? As if that question is not complicated enough, there are attempts to measure the happiness of nations as a whole, basically through surveys of how happy the individuals are.

Such an undertaking is fraught with difficulty no doubt, and will have to be taken perhaps with more than just a pinch of salt, but the general results may still have some lessons to offer people, nations and governments.

In one such measure of happiness outlined in the recently released World Happiness Report of the United Nations, Malaysia ranked 51st among some 150-plus nations surveyed, a creditable performance with only Singapore at 33rd place beating it in the Asean region.

One outcome that the survey clearly showed was that there was a strong correlation between the stage of development and happiness as the people perceived it – there was a preponderance of developed countries in the top 50 list.

Scandinavian countries took the top three spots, with Denmark the happiest followed by Finland and Norway at second and third and Sweden at seventh place.

That sort of validates my own belief that Scandinavian countries are the most advanced in the world with a right balance between work and leisure and a healthy respect for individual freedom.

Mighty US, the world’s largest economy, languished at 11th place, just above Costa Rica at 12th whose position is a bit difficult to explain, as is Israel’s at 14, a country which has been in a constant state of war and siege for over 60 years.

The other countries in the top 10 were the Netherlands (4), Canada (5), Switzerland (6), New Zealand (8), Australia (9) and Ireland (10).

Despite some of the anomalies and outliers, it is still possible to make some generalisations about what will make people happier, with a little bit of help from Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs that he first espoused in 1943.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Resized, renamed, and cropped version of File:Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs.svg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maslow split up needs into five levels, starting with the lowest physiological level and going up to security, social, esteem and self-actualisation needs in that order. Each has to be satisfied before the others have a chance of being achieved.

At the physiological level, we are talking about survival – food, water, shelter, sleep, and some even include basic needs such as sex.

Security needs move a step up to include steady employment, insurance, and neighbourhood safety while social needs cover belonging, love and affection.

Esteem refers to things that relate to self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition and achievements, while self-actualisation refers to the accomplishment of personal goals and fulfilling individual potential.

Based on these, here are 10 things which Malaysia could be doing to make us all happier, a mix of the basic and eclectic.

1. Provide adequate food and water. Large sections of the public go without access to tap water and good food.

In some areas, we may need to redress this by supplying adequate nutrition in some schools. But let this not again become yet another scandal-plagued operation with poor food being supplied at exorbitant prices through a lousy contract (see 6 later).

2. Give shelter. Any good government must ensure the provision of decent housing at reasonable and affordable prices to its people or risk incurring their wrath.

3. Move towards higher income. To ensure basics are met and that people can buy food and shelter, you need higher income through higher productivity, and eschew cheap labour policies. Minimum wages are a step in the right direction and this should be followed by curtailment of the use of cheap imported labour.

4. Improve healthcare. Sure, private healthcare has increased by leaps and bounds but how much has public healthcare improved? There is a need to ensure that everyone continues to have access to good healthcare either for free or at affordable prices.

5. Put in a social safety net. This covers a minimum wage and healthcare but must also include adequate welfare benefits for those who really need them. One simple way is to progressively increase the retirement age to 65, or simply do away with it as in some countries so that everyone’s productive life will be extended.

6. Cut corruption. The curse that afflicts the Third World is corruption where the elite siphons away billions in funds in all currencies, comes up with unnecessary projects awarded to cronies and in the process stops the overall development of the country.

None of the happiest 10 countries have a corruption problem – in fact, they tend to be among the least corrupt.

7. Better education. The right education provides the means to improve productivity, enables people to become employed, produces thinking human beings, increases self-esteem, and enables individuals to realise their personal goals.

8. Freedom of expression, action (when it harms no one else), media, assembly and criticism.

Freedom is an essential component of happiness. How can you be happy if you are oppressed and live in constant fear that you may be harassed because your beliefs are different if still peaceful?

9. Respect for individual rights and self-determination. This is closely related to the previous point but goes a bit further than that. It means putting the individual above the state. The state exists for the individual, not the other way around.

To contradict Kennedy by paraphrasing him, “ask what the country can do for you” to hold the government accountable.

Let me put it this way – the country exists so that individuals benefit, the country is made up of individuals, the country does not live but the individuals in it do, individuals make the country. I hope that’s clear enough.

10. Put it all together. We should always have the big picture in mind when we do things. Economic growth by itself is of no consequence but for the benefit it brings to individuals in terms of better living standards.

It’s good to choose those activities which bring the greatest income with the least amount of damage to the individual and his environment.

After all, isn’t the purpose of life to live? And would we not be happier if we lived well?

> Independent consultant and writer P. Gunasegaram rates himself at seven on a scale of 10 in terms of happiness, and he is quite happy being there.

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Super malaria strain on the rise!

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The danger of drug resistance is coming uncomfortably close to home, as scientists report the rapid spread of a super malaria strain resistant to the best drugs, and warn of the need to contain this resistance.

JUST a fortnight after the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief warned about the possible end of modern medicine because of the resistance of disease-causing micro-organisms to drugs, there was alarming news last week of the rapid spread of a strain of malaria in Asia that is resistant to the most effective drugs.

A new study found resistance growing in a malaria strain in the Thai-Myanmar border. It had earlier been found in western Cambodia.

The study’s authors warn that the deadly form of malaria could spread through Myanmar to other countries unless swift action is taken.

Malaria is caused by parasites carried by mosquitoes, and killed 655,000 people worldwide in 2010.

Alarming: Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, a vector for the malaria parasite, hanging on a net in a research facility in Nairobi, Kenya. According to media reports recently, evidence has emerged that resistant strains of malaria have been found on the border between Myanmar and Thailand. — EPA

It had earlier been treated with quinine, then chloroquine.

When malaria developed resistance to chloroquine it was no longer effective and the new effective drug ingredient was artemisinin (derived from the sweet wormwood shrub), which is now mainly used in combination with other ingredients.

Resistance to artemisinin-based drugs is now causing alarm bells to ring, because there are no other effective drugs, and no new anti-malaria drug is expected to be in the market in the next several years.

Malaria that is resistant to artemisinin was first found in 2006 in Cambodia. In western Cambodia, 42% of malaria cases were found to be resistant in 2007-2010. That’s a shockingly high percentage, and if this kind of prevalent resistance spreads to other regions, there will be a malaria emergency.

A team of British and Thai scientists studied 3,202 patients along Thailand’s north-western border with Myanmar from 2001 and 2010 and measured the time it took them to clear malaria infections from their blood after treatment.

An article in The Lancet reported that the number of slow-clearing infections rose from 0.6% of cases treated in 2001 to 20% in 2010, indicating a rapid rise in drug resistance.

In that period, the average time taken to reduce the number of parasites in the blood by half rose from 2.6 hours to 3.7 hours. The proportion of slow-clearing infections rose from six to 200 out of every 1,000 cases, indicating resistance has reached 20% of cases.

According to a report by Sky News, lead researcher Prof Francois Nosten, director of the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit in Thailand, warned of a “race against time” to halt the resistance trend.

“If the situation continues to deteriorate then it could mean that the newest drugs that we have to treat malaria now which are the derivatives of artemisinin, will be progressively ineffective.”

Nosten said the consequences, as seen in the past, would be an increasing number of cases of malaria and more deaths.

He said the reason why the malaria strain has evolved resistance to the new treatments is probably because they have been used a lot over the last 20 years, as they were the only effective treatments.

“We can still treat the patient with these drugs and they get better and they get cured, it just takes longer for them to clear the disease,” he said.

“We have now seen the emergence of a malaria strain resistant to our best drugs, and these resistant parasites are not confined to western Cambodia. This is very worrying indeed and suggests that we are in a race against time to control malaria in these regions before drug resistance worsens and develops and spreads further. The effect of that happening could be devastating.

“Malaria already kills hundreds of thousands of people a year – if our drugs become ineffective, this figure will rise dramatically.”

Another researcher, Prof Nicholas White at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine in Mahidol Univerity in Bangkok, urged that support be given to Myanmar to fight the spread of drug-resistant malaria there.

Support is also needed to contain the resistance in this region, otherwise it is going to spread to India and Africa, said White.

The spread of resistant malaria is but one more example of a critical situation, one in which WHO director-general Margaret Chan warned of an emerging era of the end of modern medicine.

There should be a worldwide campaign to identify the sources of this problem and to contain drug resistance, including through the proper prescription and use of drugs.

By MARTIN KHOR GLOBAL TRENDS

Health is wealth! See you at the Star Health Fair

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Health screenings reveal many have chronic diseases

KUALA LUMPUR: A quarter of those who went for health screening last year were found to have a chronic condition they were not previously aware of.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said 25% of 317,766 people who went for a health screening in government clinics and hospitals found out they had conditions such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

“It is an alarming figure,” he said after launching the Star Health Fair at the MidValley Exhibition Centre here yesterday.

However, he said most of those who discovered they were suffering from such diseases were over 30 years old.

Liow said it would be difficult to provide free health screening to all Malaysians.

“It would be costly to screen everyone,” he said, adding that the ministry, however, is implementing a pilot project to enable village heads to give basic health screening.

“We’re trying to train them to do simple tasks like taking blood pressure and the Body Mass Index (BMI),” he said, adding that the project is being carried out in two areas for now.

Liow also commended The Star for organising a fair specially dedicated to health.

What’s hot?: Visitors checking out the booths at the health fair at the MidValley Exhibition Centre.

“It is my sincere hope that The Star Health Fair will not only be the first of many such fairs, but will also achieve success, perhaps even surpassing the Star Education Fair!” he said.

Star Publications (M) Bhd group managing director and chief executive officer Ho Kay Tat said in his speech that The Star Health Fair complements what the newspaper offers in print.

“As The People’s Paper, The Star believes in serving the community and what better way than to help them lead healthy, active and productive lives,” he said.

In Penang, The Star also held a two-day health fair at the Straits Quay ending today.

By REGINA LEE
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

Penang Fair Packed with healthy fun

The Star Health Fair kicks off at Straits Quay in Penang with something for everyone.

FROM yoga to Wing Chun and salsa to gymnastics, The Star Health Fair 2012 in Penang has something in store for everyone.

Starting today at one of Penang’s newest hotspots, Straits Quay, the two-day event is jam-packed with exciting events running from 7.30am to 10pm on both days.

Line dancing will kick off the fair’s schedule today on the scenic pro-menade facing the Straits Quay marina from 7.30am to 9am.

This will be followed by a mass aerobics session at Quay North at 8am. During this one-hour session, participants will get the chance to shake it loose using a variety of different styles and moves.

Kickboxing, Latin dancing, bhangra, senam silat, zumba, dang-dut, Thai dancing and Bollywood dancing are just some of the diffe-rent styles that will be incorporated into the lively session.

Events will then move into the Straits Court located just inside the mall’s entrance.

After a fitness demo, martial arts will take centre stage from 9.30am till noon.

Expect action-packed moves as self-defence exponents go all out to show their Silambam, Ip Man Wing Chun, Kendo, Jodo, Shao Lin, Jiu-Jitsu and Silat Cekak skills.

There will also be free health checks from 10am to 6pm at the Straits Court while free health talks will be conducted at the 1st floor lobby from 11am to 5pm.

Among topics that will be discussed are stress management, how to prevent and survive heart attacks, understanding cancer, and autism.

There will also be a talk on yoga while a mass family yoga session by yoga master Yogacharya Prof Prabhuji will be held at the main lobby from 5pm to 6pm.

Free refreshments will be offered throughout the fair, including Milo drinks and Fitnesse breakfast cereals from Nestle Products Sdn Bhd, drinking water from Keluarga Utama Sdn Bhd and F&N Seasons drinks from F&N Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd.

These companies will have booths at the venue. Other participating companies such as Takasima and Tesco, hospitals and pharmacies will also have booths at the fair. The public can sign up as Tesco Clubcard members at the Tesco booth.

As the sun sets on Straits Quay today, it will be time to slip on those dancing shoes.

All visitors are invited to cha cha, samba, waltz and tango into the evening with the first of two dance performance sessions from 6pm at the main lobby.

The dancing will then move to the floating stage near the marina for the day’s finale with belly dancing, Bollywood dancing, Zumba and Pop Jazz.

Put on your walking shoes for the second day of the fair tomorrow as there will be a 3km Fun Family Walk. Participants will enjoy a brisk tour of Seri Tanjung Pinang that will kick off at 7.30am.

The walk is open to those aged 13 and above. Those interested to participate are requested to come early to book places as the event is limited to 500 walkers.

Those who complete the walk in an hour will be eligible for an attractive lucky draw where Sony tablet computers, global positioning system (GPS) devices, Takasima exercise equipment and Tesco vouchers will be among prizes up for grabs.

The lucky draw is also open to those who participate in The Star Health Fair 2012’s other mass activities such as the mass aerobics sessions and family yoga sessions.

Aside from a fitness demo and martial arts demo, Day Two of the fair also holds a Kids’ Segment at the main lobby.

During the one-hour session that starts at 5pm, Master Q and Friends will make an appearance followed by modern aerobics and gymnastic dancing, modern dancing and Latin for kids.

There will also be free medical checks on the second day from 10am to 6pm at the Straits Court and free health talks at the first floor lobby from 10.30am to 5pm.

Among the highlights of these sessions is a blood donation drive by Gleneagles Medical Centre and talks on qigong, traditional Indian health remedies, kidney transplants, knee arthritis, menopause and prostate cancer.

There will be dance performances from 6pm, first at the main lobby until 7pm followed by the floating stage from 7pm to 8pm. The dances include the genres of rumba, paso doble and jive.

The Star Health Fair 2012 is orga-nised by The Star and endorsed by the Penang Municipal Council.

Takasima and Tesco are the fair’s main sponsors, Straits Quay the official venue host, while Pantai Hospital Penang and Gleneagles Medical Centre, Penang, are the event partners.

Admission to the fair is free.

RM1.7b spent on generic drugs last year

The Sundaily April 7, 2012 Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had his blood pressure checked by Columbia Asia nurse Muzarith Sofia after officiating the Health Fair, April 7, 2012. BERNAMApix

KUALA LUMPUR (April 7, 2012): Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said a total of RM1.7 billion was spent by the government last year in purchasing generic drugs, mostly to cater for the increasing number of non-communicable diseases (NCD) patients nationwide.

He said the government expected the expenditure would increase every year.

“Why the sudden increase… because of NCDs, because of high cholesterol, hypertension and so on. Patients have to take Levithol and all kinds of medicine. Everyday you have to take the medicine and it is very costly,” he told reporters after launching The Star’s Health Fair 2012 here today.

Liow explained that most of the generic drugs were supplied by local manufacturers but some were imported.

“It’s more cheaper (to use generic drugs), in fact this is the trend in the world now, most hospitals in the world are using generic drugs…efficiency of the drugs is the same and we can help more people. In Malaysia, in terms of percentage of generic drugs used, it is about 50%, “he said.

Thus in efforts to reduced the number of NCD patients Liow said the government was planning to organise 80 health carnivals at the community level nationwide by the end of this year to create awareness among the people to go for regular health screening every year.

He also recommended that Malaysians over the age of 30 instead of 40 undergo regular screening for NCD risk factors every year, due to many cases of NCD being detected in the early stages.

“This is important because NCDs do not kill you quickly. It is a silent group of diseases, slowly killing you with heart disease, kidney disease and much more,” he said, adding that one in seven Malaysians were diagnosed with diabetes.

Other than that, Liow said the government was also making efforts to train community and Neighbourhood Watch leaders to represent the ministry in conducting health screening at grassroots level.

He said a pilot programme on this had been conducted in Pahang and that it proven to be effective. — Bernama

Good dose of healthy fun

Stories by WINNIE YEOH, HAFIZ MARZUKI, CAVINA LIM, JEREMY TAN, KIATISAK CHUA and ROYCE TAN Photos by GOH GAIK LEE, GARY CHEN, LIM BENG TATT and CHAN BOON KAI, The Star April 9, 2012

THOUSANDS of people spent their weekend in a healthy manner by making a beeline to Straits Quay in Tanjung Tokong, Penang, which was the venue for the inaugural The Star Health Fair 2012.

Activities started from as early as 7.30am and lasted till 10pm on both days.

Many took part in mass line dance and mass aerobics sessions.

There were also martial arts demonstrations such as lion dance, silambam, Ip Man Wing Chun, Japanese Kendo and Jodo, Shao Lin traditional martial art, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, silat cekak, kickboxing and praying mantis boxing.

Visitor Sharon Lim, 27, who was among those who witnessed the martial arts demonstrations, said she missed out the happenings on the first day.

“A friend from outstation visited me on Saturday. However, I made it a point to come today as I am a red belt holder in Taekwondo,” she said yesterday.

Family outing: Participants enjoying a leisurely walk during The Star Health Fair at Straits Quay.

Earlier, some 500 people turned up for the Fun Family Walk. They took a 3km walk around the Seri Tanjung Pinang.

Another 200 people also joined in the mass aerobics session at the North Quay.

There was also a blood donation drive to replenish the blood bank of Gleneagles Medical Centre.

Visitors also attended health talks on subjects such as ‘Stress Management’, ‘Understanding Cancer’, ‘Does My Child Have Autism’, ‘Menopause’, ‘Prostate Cancer’, and ‘Health Remedies Following Ancient Science and Vasthu Sastra (Indian Geomancy)’.

The kid’s segment where cartoon characters Master Q & Friends came to greet children was also a big crowd-puller.

Parents were as excited as their children to meet the characters and many opted for family photo shoots.

Crowd-puller: Ervin and Eelynn Kok keeping the audience mesmerised with their slick samba moves at Straits Quay’s main lobby.

Ballroom dancers took centre stage with several couples showing off silky moves in samba, cha cha, rumba, jive, waltz, tango and paso doble.

It was followed by sensual belly dance, Bollywood dance, pop jazz and also the exciting zumba party.

Infectious mood: The crowd joining in the Zumba dance party in the open air at Straits Quay.

On Saturday, more than 200 people turned up in the Straits Quay promenade to take part in the mass line dance.

Shirley Ong, 71, said line dancing had been her hobby for the past 12 years.

“It keeps my mind alert and it is also a good form of exercise. I also get the opportunity to mix with more young people,” she said.

An instructor Lily Tan, 47, said she picked up the dance 10 years ago as it was simple and suitable for people from all walks of life.

She added that she had incorporated other dance moves into line dancing.

“I visit other dance groups to exchange ideas. I also like to add in some ballroom dancing style,” the grandmother-of-two said.

Healthy beverages were provided to visitors by F&N Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd and Keluarga Utama Sdn Bhd.

The fair was organised by The Star and endorsed by the Penang Municipal Council with Straits Quay as the official venue host.

Relaxing moment: Visitors trying out Takasima’s range of massage chairs on display.

Takasima and Tesco were the main sponsors while Pantai Hospital Penang and Gleneagles Medical Centre, Penang, were the event partners.

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Fountain of youth – excercise!

Our fountain of youth

By Dr NOR ASHIKIN MOKHTAR

A healthy ageing system encompasses the entire body system so that a person can age well from the inside out.

THERE has been some talk about Malaysia’s ageing population recently, with the 1st World Congress on Healthy Ageing hosted by our country last week.

We are entering an unprecedented era worldwide, where many countries, including Malaysia, have increasing numbers of their population reaching old age and fewer babies being born.

We are all going to live longer, there is no doubt about it.

But wouldn’t you like to reach old age without actually looking or feeling your age? Wouldn’t it be great if you could still perform at your peak, be in good shape and enjoy great health?

If the body and mind do not have the opportunity to rest and restore itself, cells will be more vulnerable to damage, and this will eventually lead to a breakdown. – Reuters

The ageing process affects your entire body, from every cell within to your outward appearance. However, the ageing process can be slowed down or tempered so that we can still enjoy our later years.

It is not just about fighting wrinkles and grey hair, but also about maintaining our organ functions, staying mentally active and physically strong.

The right way to address ageing is not with piecemeal methods – an injection here, a supplement there – but to approach the entire body system, so that you can age well from the inside out.

Starting with nutrition

Nutrition is really the key to longevity – we know that populations have been able to live longer because we have access to better food today than we used to.

But good nutrition also helps us to live well – food does not only provide calories for energy, but also a variety of micronutrients, macronutrients and healthful components that work in unique ways to keep our cells, tissues, nerves, muscles and organs healthy.

The reason people age drastically, fall prey to long-term diseases, get brittle bones and become weak is because nutrition has failed them – or rather, they have failed themselves by eating an unhealthy and inappropriate diet.

A balanced diet, with the right proportion of nutrients from a variety of foods, is only the first step. Be sure you do not overeat foods that are high in fat and sugar. The bulk of your carbohydrates should come from whole-grain sources, not simple, processed carbohydrates.

Eat plenty of foods that are rich in fibre, namely fruits, vegetables and the whole-grain foods that I mentioned earlier. Very few people actually eat enough fruits and vegetables every day, so you will be amazed at the difference it will make in your life.

Cut out foods containing pesticides, antibiotics and hormones from your diet. Eat more fresh and natural foods, rather than processed or instant food that comes in a package!

If you are not getting sufficient vitamins and minerals from your diet, you may need nutrient supplements to fill in the gaps.

Finally, drink enough water every day so that your body can flush out toxins from the system and your cells can stay healthy and nourished.

Restful qualities of sleep

I cannot over-emphasise the importance of sleep in helping you to stay well into your older years. If the body and mind do not have the opportunity to rest and restore itself, your cells will be more vulnerable to damage, and this will eventually lead to a breakdown in the system.

Get at least seven hours of sleep each night. Make sure that you sleep in a comfortable environment to get a restful night’s sleep, not one that is disturbed by light and noise.

Exercise to stay young

Some people may be more enthusiastic about exercise if they believe that it can help them to stay young. While exercise may not have unlocked the secret to immortality, it certainly plays a big role in delaying the effects of ageing.

A regular exercise regime – and being physically active in other ways – from a younger age will help your body to build up reserves so that you do not succumb easily to old age problems like falls and frailty.

Make sure you incorporate three different types of exercise into your “anti-ageing” exercise regime. The first is to stretch all the big and small muscle groups in your body, so that they remain flexible and help carry your body well. When our muscles are tight, they easily become injured when we lift heavy objects or make a certain movement.

Strength-training exercises, which include lunges, squats, partial sit-ups, push-ups and training with weights, are also very important. These exercises help you to maintain lean muscle and bone density, not only avoiding the saggy bits that women are so afraid of, but also ensuring better balance.

Finally, you also need cardiovascular exercise to keep your lungs and heart healthy. Every day, accumulate at least 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activities that get your heart pumping and your body sweating. You can take a brisk walk around the neighbourhood, go cycling, swimming or dancing, or play a sport like badminton, tennis or football.

Hormone balance

Your hormones are another crucial piece of the ageing-well puzzle. Hormonal imbalance is the underlying cause of many diseases and ageing problems, although it is not well recognised.

Many factors in our lives – including the food we eat, the stress we go through and the environment around us – cause our hormones to become imbalanced.

There is better recognition now of the role that hormones play in our overall health. If you are suffering from problems caused by a disruption in your hormonal milieu, you may want to consider working with an anti-ageing doctor or a compounding pharmacist to optimise your hormonal profile so that you can have better immune health to prevent disease and infections.

Looking at your hormone profile involves minimising the impact of hormones such as cortisol, insulin, and environmental oestrogens, which are the main culprits that cause you to lose muscle, gain fat, and become depressed as age increases.

Then, you can also have bioidentical hormone therapy prescribed to adjust and restore your hormonal balance such as DHEA, cortisol, oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid, melatonin, pregnenolone or growth hormone.

Health screening

The final approach in the healthy ageing system is regular health screening. These are simple tests that you should do (following a schedule) to keep tabs on various aspects of your health.

Many of these tests should already be part of your regular screening programme, such as blood chemistry, blood glucose, cancer markers, inflammatory markers (eg homocysteine) and hormone levels. You can do these tests when you go for your annual medical check-ups (which should be part of your personal healthcare routine).

Some simple screening tests can be done at home so that you can quickly identify if something needs attention immediately. Tests for blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol can be done with home test kits.

If you have hypertension, diabetes or heart disease, you must measure these levels at home according to your doctor’s advice. This allows you to immediately recognise a problem if your levels suddenly increase or decrease.

You should also weigh yourself at least once a week, otherwise you might find your weight insidiously increasing and putting you at risk of many diseases that are common in older age, such as diabetes and heart disease.

With more advanced research being carried out, there may be even more accurate and personalised health tests available to us in the future. Genomic and DNA testing, metabolic-typing and blood-typing may provide valuable insights into a person’s unique biochemistry and DNA genetics, allowing a holistic health and diet programme to be customised.

You don’t have to wait until you hit old age to start practising a healthy ageing lifestyle. If you want to stay youthful, you have to start taking care of your health when you are young!

Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar is a consultant obstetrician & gynaecologist (FRCOG, UK). For further information, visit www.primanora.com. The information provided is for educational and communication purposes only and it should not be construed as personal medical advice. Information published in this article is not intended to replace, supplant or augment a consultation with a health professional regarding the reader’s own medical care. The Star does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to the content appearing in this column. The Star disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.

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Now, buggy for Hospital, how about Golf ?

 Buggy boost for hospital

PATIENTS and visitors to the Penang Hospital no longer have to walk far to the hospital’s multi-storey car park with the introduction of a buggy service.

The hospital’s Board of Visitors chairman Lim Thoon Deong said the hospital was the first government hospital in the northern region to use golf buggies for the service.

He said the buggy service would operate within the hospital compound.

Lim said that the buggy, which cost RM42,000, was sponsored by a company which supported MCA.

“The service aims to save patients and visitors time walking some 100 to 200 metres from the car park to the hospital lobby and vice-versa,” he said.

Number one: Project coordinator Datuk Lim Gim Soon (right), Thoon Deong (seated), Dr Yasmin and Komtar Barisan Nasional coordinator Loh Chye Teik (second left) posing for a photo with the buggy at Penang Hospital

Lim, who is also Penang MCA Public Complaints Bureau deputy chief, said the service would begin today.

He said the service was also aimed at making it convenient for handicapped visitors and patients.

Lim said the buggy would be able to transport six people including its driver each time at five-minute intervals between the two stops.

“We will consider seeking sponsors for more buggies if there is an overwhelming response to the service,” he told a press conference after going for a ride on the buggy at the hospital yesterday.

Hospital director Dr Yasmin Sulaiman said the service would help solve parking problems in the hospital compound.

“It will prevent visitors from parking randomly in the compound and encourage them to park at the multi-storey car park because they can now use the buggy service to get to the lobby,” she added.

By HAN KAR KAY hankk@thestar.com.my  Photo by ZHAFARAN NASIB

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Golf, a good walking game!

Healthy Ageing

Keep busy, sweat it out, and embrace the years. These are some simple tips on healthy ageing.

THE golden rules of healthy ageing are very simple: eat right, exercise, be your age and do not smoke. Most of all, focus on being happy and don’t forget your life goals.

To embrace the years with positivity, says Professor Makoto Suzuki, 87, one should look at them as chouju, meaning “celebrating long life” in Japanese. “The onus is on us to focus on quality, and work on having many momentous occasions.”

Suzuki, chief director of the Okinawa Research Center for Longevity Science, was speaking to a captive audience at the 1st World Congress of Healthy Aging, in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday. The title of his talk was, Secrets Of The Okinawan Centenarians’ Longevity.

This specialist in cardiology and gerontology had moved to Okinawa from Tokyo to accept a tenure with the University of Ryukyus 35 years ago. He also had a role model in his own mother, who passed away last year, at the age of 100 years and 10 months.

Forget the wrinkles: Keep active, eat moderately and embrace the years, says Professor Makoto Suzuki, happily posing for a photo with his wife, Yoko.

From the lessons gathered from a community that boasts the highest and healthiest longevity rates in the world, Suzuki says a diet laden with vegetables, but less meat, plays a big part in healthy ageing. The goal is to maintain the same body weight one had at the age of 30.

Statistics from 2006 show that women in Okinawa have an average life expectancy of 87 years, about 10 years higher than that of the men. (In Malaysia, life expectancy averages 73.17 years.)

“The Okinawans have a custom of saying ‘harahachibu’ before each meal. This is a reminder not to overeat. Preferably, one should stop when the stomach is about 70% full,” Suzuki says, when met after his talk at the KL Convention Centre.

He also points out that the Okinawan diet is rich in anti-ageing ingredients such as polyphenol, phytoestrogen, isoflavones and good amyloids. These are commonly found in bitter gourd, soybean products like tofu (Okinawa is especially famous for its silky beancurd), brown rice, cereals and fatty fish.

Okinawans also favour the use of mugwort (artemisiabulgaris), touted for its medicinal qualities. Its leaves are dried, ground and used to flavour grilled meats and vegetable stir frys.

Exercise also comes into the equation and Suzuki advises the young to start as early as possible as the effective benefits of that lessens after the age of 40.

The dapper Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Mustaffa Babjee feels it’s important to follow the ways of nature.

As an archer and mountain climber himself, he emphasises that the elderly must find a way to sweat it out. Since his move to the flat plains of Okinawa, he has exchanged his climbing gear for a hoe because his wife, Yoko, has a farm where they spend most of their weekends.

For them, as with the majority of Okinawans, it is simply a matter of maintaining ikigai, the Japanese equivalent of raison d’être.

“Don’t worry about the wrinkles or being slow. Just be busy,” says Suzuki, who still lectures and conducts research at Ryukyus.

Inevitably, talk of active, healthy living leads to the question of bedroom frolics – which turns the hearty professor a shade of pink. Although he is not telling, from his exchanges with Yoko, 80, a homoepath, one gathers they are “quite active”.

“Funnily, I asked an Okinawan centenarian the same question but he refused to answer me. However, his wife said it is because of her that he is still healthy,” Suzuki says, laughing.

Death is also inevitable, but for the elderly in that island, what’s far more important than the end of one’s days is the role of the community in ensuring that they have a place in society.

“Elderly people need to have a sense of belonging, to know their role in a family is still valued. One of the reasons why the centenarians of Okinawa are able to lead a happy life is because they are revered by the younger people,” he says.

Suzuki elaborates on a daily ritual called ugan, during which the Okinawans pay respect to their ancestors at the family altar, and air their grievances to the dead. This has a therapeutic effect for the living, as it helps to alleviate stress.

On that loaded issue, fellow speaker Professor Suresh Rattan says mild stress is necessary for healthy living because it helps one stay alert and active. Exercise is one example of beneficial stress, as are brain teasers and games (like Sudoku), all of which help to keep the body flexible and the mind nimble.

Suresh, 57, a biogerontologist at the University of Aarhus’ Department of Molecular Biology in Denmark, spoke about Healthy Ageing – From Molecules To Hormesis.

On the home front, a specialist in healthy ageing at Pantai Medical Centre, KL, says often, senior citizens are not encouraged to keep pushing themselves, both physically and mentally.

“The Malaysian mindset is that old people should not exert themselves. As a result, their physical and mental faculties are left to decline,” says Dr Rajbans Singh, 52.

To have wellness and health in old age, it is crucial for an individual to take a proactive stand, like taking up tai chi, for example.

It may also be necessary to abstain from fast food and fizzy drinks, Dr Rajbans adds, because the high fat, sugar and sodium contents of these foods can lead to or aggravate conditions like hypertension and diabetes.

For Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Mustaffa Babjee, a fellow of Academy of Science Malaysia, acceptance of one’s age is crucial so that growing old can be seen as a positive, natural process. Do not, for example, tell others that you are 47 when you are in fact 74! Instead, learn to enjoy being your age.

“It is important to be what you are and follow the ways of nature,” says Dr Ahmad, 75, who still cuts a dashing figure with his long snowy locks and thick moustache.

As for death itself, he reckons that it will be similar to being under anaesthesia, hence there is no need to fear.

“I am more afraid of being lonely,” adds Dr Ahmad, who continues to drive his 4WD into the jungle for a spot of bird watching, wildlife photography and white water rafting.

Dr Tan Maw Pin, associate professor of geriatric medicine from Universiti Malaya, says the Malaysian government can do more for the elderly in terms providing much-needed facilities.

“One mistake the planners made was to omit the elderly from the nation’s development plan, believing that as ours is a caring nation, they will automatically be taken care of. This is very well for those who are wealthy and can afford to pay for elderly care. What about those who cannot?” Dr Tan asks.

Datuk Seri Dr T. Devaraj, chairman of Malaysian Hospice Council, notes that the family safety net that once existed has been weakened by urbanisation.

Today, it is not uncommon for young people to leave their parents behind as they migrate to bigger cities to seek employment, says Dr Devaraj, 87. Also, the elderly cannot assume that they can spend their twilight years in their children’s homes.

But leaving everything entirely to welfare is not the answer either, he adds.

Since the early days of Hospice, he had insisted that volunteers make home visits and not have the patients placed in a facility. This is so that their families, too, can play their part in the care-giving process.

“The idea is to have a sharing of responsibilities. If the state completely takes over, then family support will decrease,” adds Dr Devaraj. That, in turn, will make the elderly feel even more alienated.

The World Congress on Healthy Ageing was organised by the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society.

By GRACE CHEN

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Are antibiotics an end to modern medicine?

A warning by the head of WHO that antibiotic resistance is so serious that it may lead to an end to modern medicine should alert health authorities to contain this most serious health crisis.

A schematic representation of how antibiotic resistance is enhanced by natural selection (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LAST week, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) sounded a large alarm bell on how antibiotics may in future not work anymore, due to resistance of bacteria to the medicines.

Antibiotic resistance has been a growing problem for some time now. From time to time, there will be news reports of the outbreak of diseases, old and new, that cannot be treated because the bacteria have grown more powerful than the antibiotics used against them.

And experts have been warning about how the wrong use of antibiotics has given the bacteria the opportunity to develop resistance, enabling them to become immune to the medicines.

What is needed, of course, is a multi-prong strategy to prevent the abuse and wrongful use of antibiotics. Drug companies should not over-market their products. Doctors should not over-prescribe. And antibiotics should not be used on animals that are not sick but to fatten them and thus enable higher profits.

Now, the Director-General of the WHO has given a big warning that the growing threat of resistance may mean an end to modern medicine, and the entry of the post-antibiotic era.

Speaking at a meeting of infectious disease experts in Copenhagen last week, Dr Margaret Chan said there was a global crisis in antibiotics caused by rapidly evolving resistance among microbes responsible for common infections that threaten to turn them into untreatable diseases.

Every antibiotic ever developed was at risk of becoming useless.

“A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill. For patients infected with some drug resistant pathogens, mortality has increased by around 50%,” she said.

“Some sophisticated interventions, like hip replacement, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy and care of pre-term infants, would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake.”

Dr Chan called for action to restrict the use of antibiotics in food production. “Worldwide, the fact that greater quantities of antibiotics are used in healthy animals than in unhealthy humans, is a cause for great concern,” she said.

She called for measures — doctors prescribing antibiotics appropriately, patients following their treatments — and restrictions on the use of antibiotics in animals.

These actions have, in fact, been suggested for many years, including by the health group REACT, based in Sweden, by health networks such as Health Action International, and locally, by the Consumers’ Association of Penang.

The WHO itself has the scope to do much more in alerting health authorities and in building the capacity, especially of developing countries, to act.

There are forms of TB that have become untreatable because of multi-drug resistance. The TB pathogen has become immune to many antibiotics. This has resulted in a resurgence of the deadly disease. The story is the same for many other pathogens causing other diseases.

As Global Trends reported in June 2011, a worrying development is the discovery of a gene, known as NDM-1, that has the ability to alter bacteria and make them highly resistant to all known drugs, including the most potent antibiotics.

In 2010, there were reports of many such cases in India and Pakistan and in European countries. At the time, only two types of bacteria were found to be hosting the NDM-1 gene – E coli and Klebsiella pneumonia.

But it was then feared that the gene would transfer to other bacteria as well, since it was found to easily jump from one type of bacteria to another. If this happened, antibiotic resistance would spread rapidly, making it difficult to treat many diseases.

These concerns have been proven to be justified. In May 2011, the Times of India published an article based on interviews with British scientists from Cardiff University who had first reported on NDM-1’s existence.

The scientists found that the NDM-1 gene has been jumping among various species of bacteria at “superfast speed” and that it “has a special quality to jump between species without much of a problem”.

While the gene was found only in E coli when it was initially detected in 2006, now the scientists have found NDM-1 in more than 20 different species of bacteria. NDM-1 can move at an unprecedented speed, making more and more species of bacteria drug-resistant.

Since there are very few new antibiotics in the pipeline, when the resistance grows among the whole range of bacteria to the existing drugs, human beings will be more and more at the mercy of the increasingly deadly bacteria.

In May 2011, there was an outbreak of a deadly disease caused by a new strain of the E coli bacteria that killed more than 20 people and affected another 2,000 in Germany.

They were affected by a new strain of the already rare 0104 type of E coli. There are other common types of E coli which normally cause only a mild ailment. The WHO said the variant had “never been seen in an outbreak situation before”.

Although the “normal” E coli usually produces mild sickness in the stomach, the new strain of E coli 0104 causes bloody diarrhoea and severe stomach cramps, while in some of the more serious cases so far, it also causes haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), which damages blood cells and the kidneys.

A major problem is that the bacterium is resistant to antibiotics. Eradication of these kinds of bacteria is impractical partly because they are able to evolve so rapidly, according to medical experts.

Now that the WHO chief has sounded the alarm bell, health authorities should redouble their efforts to contain the crisis. An “end to modern medicine” and a “post-antibiotic era” are predictions too horrible to imagine.

 

By  GLOBAL TRENDS By MARTIN KHOR

 

 

Related articles

 

• Antibiotic resistance is a fight we will never win (bio230fall2010.wordpress.com)
• New Delhi NDM-1 superbug: Indian scientists nail British hoax (quicktake.wordpress.com)
• Compound May Help In Fight Against Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Team discovers how bacteria resist a ‘Trojan horse’ antibiotic (eurekalert.org)
• Antibiotic Resistance (and other falling skies) Part One (huntgathermedicine.com)

De-stressing with Jojo Struys

By REVATHI MURUGAPPAN revathi@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: If you’re having sleepless nights of tossing and turning in bed, then head to the inaugural Star Health Fair 2012 next month to pick up de-stressing tips and techniques from TV host cum producer JoJo Struys.

She will be conducting two workshops daily, which are especially beneficial for insomniacs and highly-strung individuals.

“All of us have some type of stress, whether it’s related to family, work or deadlines. I’ll walk you through some exercises to squeeze the stress out of your body. They are simple and you can do it at any point of the day. You just need to find a quiet spot,” said Struys, 36, who is also an accredited Reiki master.

  Mind power: Struys will walk participants through some of the de-stressing exercises at the fair.>>

Struys, who studied units of psychology in varsity, has always been fascinated with wellness and the power of the mind.

“It’s not always that you are what you eat but what is eating you is equally important.”

At the fair, Struys will also launch her inaugural guided relaxation CD entitled “Letting Go”, which contains her voice with soothing background music. If you sleep off while listening to the CD, then you are totally relaxed, which is a good sign.

“Come dressed in comfortable clothing because we’ll be doing some basic stretching exercises. I’m hoping that you’ll walk out of the workshop a much calmer and more positive person,” Struys said.

The fair, organised by The Star, will be held at the MidValley Exhibition Centre from April 6 to 8 from 10am to 7pm. Admission is free.

Selenium Supplements

Most in US Don’t Need Selenium Supplements, Study Says

MyHealthNewsDaily Staff

CREDIT: Selenium photovia Shutterstock

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Selenium supplements may be harmful for people who already get enough of the mineral in their diets — which is most people in the U.S. — and could increase the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to a new review.

Use of selenium supplements has become widespread over the past 10 years, largely due to the belief that selenium can reduce the risk of cancer and other diseases. But “excessive zeal for increasing selenium intake has at times had adverse consequences,” study author Margaret Rayman, a professor of nutritional medicine at the University of Surrey in England, wrote in her findings.

Those who get enough selenium in their diets should not take selenium supplements, Rayman concluded. People already get that mineral from grains, seafood and other common elements of the American diet.

The review will be published online Wednesday (Feb. 29) in the Lancet.

“Excessive zeal”

Though selenium supplements have been marketed for a multitude of conditions, this largely has been based on the results of observational studies, according to the paper. However, findings from clinical trials looking to confirm the supplements’ effectiveness have been mixed.

Rayman reviewed selenium studies conducted since 1990. She said the mixed findings probably stem from the fact that supplements offer benefits only when the amount of selenium in a person’s diet is inadequate.

Research has linked low selenium intake or levels in the blood with an increased risk of dying over a given period, poor immune function and cognitive decline. And higher selenium intake or blood levels have been linked to enhanced male fertility, antiviral effects, and protection against some cancers.

But the new review shows that levels that are too high can bring harmful effects.

Specifically, Rayman found people with high levels had an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The link might be explained by the fact that selenium is incorporated into a protein, called GpX1, that affects the way insulin works in cells, she wrote.

Selenium in the diet

Selenium is a naturally occurring trace mineral found in soil and water and taken up by plants. The foods with the highest concentrations of selenium are organ meats and seafood, but the mineral is also found in cereals and grains, muscle meats and, to a lesser extent, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, according to the paper.

Recommendations for selenium intake average 60 micrograms per day for men, and 53 micrograms per day for women, according to the paper.

“The implications are clear: People whose serum or plasma selenium concentration is already 122 µg/L or higher — a large proportion of the U.S. population — should not supplement with selenium,” Rayman wrote, pointing to data from blood samples taken as part of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a large, ongoing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pass it on: Most Americans already get enough selenium from their diet, and supplements could raise their risk of diabetes.

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