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Thursday, May 18, 2006
Ng: Health blog
By Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop
We live in an information society. With 24-hour news on TV, texting, Internet and mobile phone within reach nearly every minute of the day, we are in danger of hitting information overload.
It is said that there is more information on the Sunday edition of the New York Times than anybody could access 200 years ago. It becomes a challenge to determine the accuracy of the information and which data will be used in decision-making.
Last week, when there was a blackout in Cebu because of a small earthquake in Leyte that tripped the power plants there, I immediately got to hear many different theories. One even went so far to suggest the earthquake caused over 5,000 deaths in Leyte.
In general, it is a formidable challenge. Ten years ago, you would go to the library to research, for instance, on gingko biloba.
You would get maybe 10 articles about it. Just now, I did a search on it in Google and it gave me five million links. The challenge is to sort out all the information and to know that not all is correct. The question then is, are you better off after reading 500 articles about a topic, despite that 100 of those stories may not be accurate?
Needless to say, we are full of misconceptions, let us say, about health matters. Is eating chocolate good or bad? (Chocolate is said to contain flavanoids that prevents vascular diseases that leads to heart attacks). Does drinking coffee really contribute to hypertension? Can one lose weight by avoiding rice or any carbohydrate? How effective are herbal supplements (like black cohosh, dong quai, garlic, ginger, gingko biloba, ephedra sinica, Ma huang garlic or St John’s wort) and are there really no side effects?
One of the better blog sites on health you may want to look into is written by local doctor, Dr. Gerry Tan (he’s my brother-in-law). He has a blog called, That Health Rules: Personal Views on Health, Because Health Should Not be Taken for Granted. The blog can be found on http://www.health-is-wealth.blogs.friendster.com/
I guess from the titles, you can easily glean what is the topic of the blog—it is that health is wealth and it is important for us to invest time and resources to be healthy.
He updates the site almost daily. I think the most valuable thing about the blog is that it is written by somebody with medical background and, therefore, we can trust the data and recommendations presented there.
I read some parts of it and it has cleared some of the cobwebs of misinformation that I used to harbor. Here are some facts from the blog:
1.) There is no conclusive evidence that artificial sweeteners can cause cancer.
2.) Eating low fat food is not synonymous to low calorie, and therefore, eating low fat food can still make you gain weight.
3.) There is no conclusive evidence that vitamin C can cure the common cold.
4.) Melatonin is a good supplement for inducing sleep but it is not regulated, and have not been studied extensively. Taking it for a short period or occasionally may be beneficial, but one should be careful of side effects when taking it on a long-term basis.
5.) If you have back aches, it might be due to vitamin D deficiency, which may hardly be cured by eating multiple vitamins.
One recommendation is to bask in the sun for a few minutes a day.
6.) Letting your kids watch too much TV may be harmful in more ways than one. There is conclusive evidence that kids who watch TV often tend to eat more of the calorie dense, low nutrient food that TV advertises and leads to obesity.
There are more great tips in the blog, so if you have time, drop by regularly.
The older you get, the more you realize that at the end of the day, the prime factor that contributes to happiness is really physical well-being.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 18, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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