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THE STRAITS TIMES

DECEMBER 13 2012

HEALTH DIARY
TODAY, DEC 13 High Energy Eating: Talk & Food Demo:
Do you find that your energy level fluctuates throughout the day? A nutritionist shares tips on food which can help keep your energy level on an even keel. Womens Initiative For Ageing Successfully (Wings). Junction 8 Office Tower 06-05. 2pm. $17. To register, call 6250-1012. SATURDAY, DEC 15 TCM And Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease: Find out about diabetic cardiovascular disease and how traditional Chinese medicine and food therapy can prevent it. The forum will be conducted in English. Nanyang Technological University Chinese Medicine Clinic, School of Biological Sciences lobby. 2.30pm. Free. To register, call 6592-1732 or visit Ntutcm.com. What You Need To Know About Infertility: A public forum by experts from KK Womens and Childrens Hospital (KKH) on advances in infertility treatment. KKH Auditorium, Level 1, Womens Tower. 2pm. $8 (single) and $10 (per couple). For more details, call 6394-5038.
Have a health-related event?
E-mail sthealth@sph.com.sg. Send the information at least two weeks before the event and specify LISTINGS as the subject. We reserve the right to list events for publication at our discretion.

CONTEST
Fans of Mind Your Bodys Facebook page stand to win a prize if they contribute the best comment on a discussion topic of the week. They have to first like the ST Mind Your Body Facebook page to post comments on it. Selected comments will be published. In this issue, fans discuss their reasons for their choice of contact lenses and share their experience with these lenses (Convenience of contact lenses, page 9). Jansen Wong has bagged a $50 shopping voucher for the best post.
Facebook.com/STMindYourBody

Listen to the experts

It used to be that a patient would hardly see a pharmacist during his hospital stay. He might get to see a pharmacist only on the day he was being discharged from the hospital, when the pharmacist would come by to explain how he should take his medication at home. And when he returns to the hospital for a review, he would probably consult only doctors. But now, increasingly, pharmacists in public hospitals can be found running outpatient clinics, where they review patients medicine and teach them how to take it properly. After all, pharmacists are experts in the use of drugs. It makes sense for patients to be treated by specialists in a field, be it medication, nutrition, exercise, rehabilitation or a certain speciality of medical practice. Logically, being focused on one area and spending more time on it, rather than dividing ones attention between several areas should make a person better at that area. And practice makes perfect, as they say. For instance, studies have shown that patients who have cancer of the rectum, the lowest part of the gastrointestinal tract, fare better after procedures done by surgeons who specialise in operating on the colon and rectum, compared to those who go to surgeons who do such surgery less frequently. A study on almost 3,000 rectal cancer patients at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, the United States, found that patients who had been operated on by low-volume surgeons were more than twice as likely to die than those who had been operated on by high-volume surgeons. But an oft-cited fear is that specialists develop tunnel vision and lose sight of the big picture the patient is a person who should be treated holistically and not simply as a body part or a disease.

The winners of last weeks MYB/Zumba contest are: 1 Adeline Yeap Poh Suan, 2 Nawira Baig, 3 Kuet Ling Ling, 4 Amarjote Kaur Dang, 5 Tan Lee Buay, 6 Benna Chan

What cripples a cog could crash the wheel. For example, diabetes is a metabolic disorder, but it can also lead to blindness, limb amputation, kidney failure, heart disease and even death. The solution seems to be that specialists should all work together as a team to treat a patient. The challenge is making the process work well. LEE HUI CHIEH Editor huichieh@sph.com.sg

inside:
Choose the contact lenses which fit your lifestyle. Pg 6

Check out this guilt-free Christmas treat. Page 18

Hundred-andone-year-old Fauja Singh has been running marathons since 2000. Page 24

The Straits Times Health Editor Mathew Pereira Editor Lee Hui Chieh Deputy Editor Ng Wan Ching Copy Editor Sharon Loh Writers Joan Chew, Lea Wee Sub-editors Lee Yee Hwa, Mak Mun San, June Green, Julie Kee, James Jr Quek, Suzanne Sng, Tong Ming Chien, Jeffrey Ang, Claudette Peralta Contributors Dr Andrew Tan, Dr Harneet Ranu Eriksson, Dr Jennifer Kiing, Dr Stanley Liew, Sylvia Tan Photographers Chew Seng Kim, Jason Quah, Kevin Lim, Mark Cheong, Ng Sor Luan, Sam Chin Artists Adam Lee, Zulaiha Jumari Cover design Zulaiha Jumari Cover Photo Lim Yaohui

For editorial inquiries, please contact: Badariah Abd Ghaffar 6319-2199; bag@sph.com.sg Sales team Martin Boey 6319-1920, Tom Yuen 6319-1610, Jeanne Cheah 6319-1670, Janet Wee 6319-5732, William Tan 6319-1628, Augustine Chui 6319-2052, Lam Wy-Ning 6319-1616