Healthy Lifestyle Checked at UP Meet
Healthy children, healthy adults, and healthy ageing.
These summed up the thrust of the 11th grand scientific symposium of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine (UPCM) that focused on Lifestyle Check: Preventing Diseases, Promoting Wellness.
From womb to old age, the lineup of lectures had these stages of life covered. Pediatrics professor Carmencita Padilla reported on how the newborn screening program was getting along in the country. She pointed out how valuable the screening program had been since it was introduced in 1996 in determining the incidence of five metabolic diseases and spotting infants with these diseases before it becomes too late to save them.
As of December last year, the incidences are as follows: congenital hypothyroidism (1:3,338), congenital adrenal hyperplasia (1:5,906), galactosemia (1:102, 373), hyperphenylalaninemia (1:76,780), and G6PD deficiency (1:59).
However saved these children may have been from becoming mentally handicapped, will they remain safe growing up in a highly polluted and poisoned world?
Toxicologist Irma Makalinao revealed that in the last 50 years, 75,000 chemicals have been introduced into the environment. What this may be doing to the health of our children may be terrible and lasting, as children are more exposed and biologically more vulnerable to toxins from the environment.
A correlation could be surmised. Makalinao reported that asthma rates have tripled in the 1980s and childhood cancer rates have increased by 10 percent in the last 20 years.
The UPCM symposium aimed for a holistic approach to health and wellness. The program balanced between highly scientific topics to interaction-intensive talks.
The session by Dr. Monalisa Lim-Dungca on today's more popular exercise programs represented the other balancing end.
She presented the principles behind tai chi, yoga, and taebo and proposed to have patients incorporate these principles in their goal of coping with illness and getting well.
Then, perhaps contrary to an old adage, physical appearance is as much important to health and wellness as what dwells beneath it.
"How you look can make a difference in the way you feel inside about yourself, on your performance, and in your people relations," said Ms. Cora Doloroso, an authority in personality improvement. And definitely, a medical professional's image can make a big difference in how his or her practice will progress, she said.
Her talk was on power dressing, which requires only a certain common sense-and not big bucks-to achieve.
Prevention is again and rightly stressed in Dr. Rafael Consunji's talk on injuries, which cause 10 percent of mortality and 15 percent of disability worldwide. Yet, he deplored: "There is a culture of inevitability that surrounds injuries."
It keeps injury prevention in the background. Preventive measures should be prioritized, Consunji insisted, as he gave examples that are simple to apply in one's daily life.
A lifestyle check in ageing people rounded up the lectures. Studies show that stroke and dementia affect quality of life badly. Drs. Artemio Roxas and Shirley Albanzo-Aluquin explained how these can be managed. M. Ciriacruz
Singapore Confab on Brain Ageing Research
The latest developments in Alzheimer's research, including brain- imaging techniques to pinpoint abnormalities in brains and diagnostic tests using blood and urine, will be among the topics at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Antiageing Medicine to be held June 24 to 27 in Singapore.
The new technologies have raised hopes for early and more accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, which affects millions of people worldwide. In Asia alone, it is estimated that about 650,000 Thais, one million Japanese, 329,000 Koreans, and 3,200 Singaporeans suffer from Alzheimer's disease. In China, it is estimated that five million people over the age of 60 suffer from senile dementia.
In recent years, high blood cholesterol has emerged as a risk factor in the deve-lopment of Alzheimer's disease. Several studies have linked statin use to the decreased risk of developing Alzheimer's symptoms. This finding is significant as it suggests that prevention is possible and lowering blood cholesterol levels may help to delay or prevent the disease onset. Research is being carried out at the National University of Singapore (NUS) to further understand the mechanism of this link.
Research has also found out that activities that stimulate and engage the brain, such as reading, playing chess, and answering crossword puzzles, can significantly reduce the risk of developing symptoms of dementia.
Medical experts from Europe, the United States, and Asia will present the latest research in ageing and age-related diseases in the conference which has Cancer, Brain Ageing, Hormones, and Diet as theme. Discussions will focus on key developments in brain ageing and nuerodegenerative disorders, cancer, oxidative stress and antioxidants, hormonal replacement therapies, obesity, and weight-loss programs.
The conference is supported by the Economic Development Board of Singapore; Agency for Science, Technology, and Research; Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau; and the American Academy of Antiageing Medicine.
Participants may register online at
www.antiageing2004.com.
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