Vaccination; Guarding You and Your baby!

Senin, 19 September 2011

click here to check our blog!

Laugh it out... it's Just a joke! :)

Minggu, 11 September 2011

although health is a serious topic, sometimes we just need to laugh about it. Laughter is the best medicine indeed.

 LOL! :)

Blood For Life! Inspiring Story!

Sabtu, 10 September 2011

I watched this video and it touched my heart. from now on I hope I will be a blood donor for life! How about you?

source: http://youtu.be/XkUtEJtV46U

Exercise before breakfast? Sure you can do!

Many people say that it’s a bad idea to exercise before breakfast. However it’s the contrary, according to one study. Precisely, exercise before breakfast is one of the trick to lose your fat belly quickly.

Commonly, you feel sudden want to eat unhealthy foods when you are traveling, so the diet was not controlled. In such conditions, you don’t need to fear gaining weight if you can exercise before breakfast.

In a study published in The Journal of Physiology, training or exercise on an empty stomach can prevent weight gain.

If you decide to exercise before breakfast, do not forget to drink plenty and rest immediately if it starts to feel dizzy. Because, not everyone can do such heavy work after getting out of bed and without taking breakfast first. After exercise is completed, immediately eat or drink high protein snacks that contain natural sugars, such as protein shakes and milk chocolate.

And always remember, a good exercise is feasible to do anytime. Whenever you have time and in the mood, do some exercise. Choose the exercise that suits your fitness level so you can adjust. Thus, exercise strengthens the heart, and burn calories and fat.

If you decide to exercise before breakfast, it might be done on weekends, when your relative does not rush to prepare for daily routine activities. Then, the portion of practice also doesn’t need to be as much and as long. Just do it according to your ability.

Source: Health Kompas

Food Poisoning; Save Your Stomach! Save Your Day!

Jumat, 09 September 2011

Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) USA 1 gave us an intriguing fact, that one of  6 people became sick after eating contaminated foods. What surprise us is that most foods we eat aren’t as clean as before they were. Remember the E.Coli outbreak in Europe? In a continent that people can drink from tap water, the event occurred. Not many people realize food poisoning is a dangerous. First, our stomach would feel funny, and then comes the vomit. Sometimes a fever occurs, and most of the time if the food poisoning is not stopped within 48 hours, the patient became dehydrated.

The symptoms beside stomachache, vomit, fever, and dehydrated; sometimes stomach spasm and diarrhea is unpreventable. What do we have to do when those symptoms take place?

First of all (if its 48 hours before the event):

• Frequently drink small amount of water
• Avoid alcohol, coffee and sugary drink.
• You can drink ionized beverages such as Gatorade or Pocari sweat, and then add water on to it.
• After you can tolerate water; you can start eating carbohydrate such as rice, wheat bread, potatoes. Etc.
• Avoid spicy foods and fried meals

When to seek medical provider/care?

• The symptoms last 2 or more than 2 days.
• If you vomit severe enough so that you’re unable to drink.
• Fever above 38.3^o C, with abdominal pain as a coexisting symptom.
• Abdominal pain, cramp, or spasm persists 10-15 minutes

Source: emedicine, WHO

Keep Your Feet Healthy! :)

Kamis, 08 September 2011

I would like to share what I read today about foot health. Since human kind exist, mobility has been important in mankind’s life continuity. Almost all our daily activities require mobility such as; go to work, exercise, or even go to the laundry. Those activities of course can be done if our feet are healthy.


Diseases, disorders and disabilities of the foot or ankle affect the quality of life and mobility of millions of Americans. However, the general public and even many physicians are unaware of the important relationship between foot health and overall health and well-being. With this in mind, the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) would like to share a few tips to help keep feet healthy.
1. Don't ignore foot pain—it's not normal. If the pain persists, see a podiatric physician.

2. Inspect your feet regularly. Pay attention to changes in color and temperature of your feet. Look for thick or discolored nails (a sign of developing fungus), and check for cracks or cuts in the skin. Peeling or scaling on the soles of feet could indicate athlete's foot. Any growth on the foot is not considered normal.

3. Wash your feet regularly, especially between the toes, and be sure to dry them completely.

4. Trim toenails straight across, but not too short. Be careful not to cut nails in corners or on the sides; it can lead to ingrown toenails. Persons with diabetes, poor circulation, or heart problems should not treat their own feet because they are more prone to infection.

5. Make sure that your shoes fit properly. Purchase new shoes later in the day when feet tend to be at their largest and replace worn out shoes as soon as possible.

6. Select and wear the right shoe for the activity that you are engaged in (i.e., running shoes for running).

7. Alternate shoes—don't wear the same pair of shoes every day.

8. Avoid walking barefooted—your feet will be more prone to injury and infection. At the beach or when wearing sandals, always use sunblock on your feet just as on the rest of your body.

9. Be cautious when using home remedies for foot ailments; self-treatment can often turn a minor problem into a major one.

10. If you are a person with diabetes, it is vital that you see a podiatric physician at least once a year for a check-up.


Your podiatric physician/surgeon has been trained specifically and extensively in the diagnosis and treatment of all manner of foot conditions. This training encompasses all of the intricately related systems and structures of the foot and lower leg including neurological, circulatory, skin, and the musculoskeletal system, which includes bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves.


Source: American Podiatric Medical Association

HEART ATTACK! How did it happen?

Rabu, 07 September 2011

I’ll post a great video to educate readers what happened in our heart when a heart attack occurs. We know that heart diseases particularly coronary artery disease is the number 1 cause of death in United States. The number of mortality increases as sedentary lifestyle becomes a model of many people’s way of living in this planet; such as consuming high cholesterol foods, lacking of exercise, excessive smoking, and other factors that influence plaque build-up.

A heart is the center of blood flow in our body. Not different than any muscle in the body, it needs oxygen also. The difference is that the heart muscle beats without a command from our brain command. Imagine it beats more than 100.000 times a day. By the time our age reaches 25, the atherosclerotic plaque begins to build-up.

The video explains how the atherosclerotic plaque is formed in the easiest way to understand.

Before the heart attack happens, please do remember that it’s preventable. Change your way of living. Start doing exercise 15-30 minutes a day, eat healthy foods, and stay away from drugs and alcohol. Love your life, love your heart! J   

Source of video: http://video.about.com/heartdisease/Heart-Attack.htm

Twisted Ankle; What should I do?

Senin, 05 September 2011

What’s the scariest thing that an athlete can get? Without a doubt any international soccer player, a world renowned tennis player, or a basketball superstar would be very devastated if their career has to end or at least stopped for a while because of an injury. One of many injuries that most likely occur on a field is ankle sprain. 

Imagine a basketball player such as Kobe Bryant trembling and shaking after shooting a basketball, of course it’ll be a big loss not only to Kobe himself but also NBA. There are 2 types of ankle sprain, inversion or eversion. Inversion will stretch out and injure the lateral ligament. On the other hand, eversion will injure medial ligament.

It’s not really hard to identify an ankle sprain. There are 3 grades of ankle sprain¹.

1. Grade 1: A slight stretch of the ligament with microscopic tearing but not macroscopic tearing. Usually, a present of little swelling with little or no functional loss and no joint instability. The patient will able to fully or partially bear weight.
2. Grade 2: Injuries stretch the ligament with partial tearing, moderate-to-severe swellin, ecchymosis, moderate functional loss, and mild-to moderate joint instability. Patients usually have difficulty bearing weight.
3. Grade 3: Injuries involve complete rupture of the ligament, with immediate and severe swelling, ecchymosis, an inability to bear weight, and moderate-to-severe instability of the joint. Typically, patients cannot bear weight without experiencing severe pain.

photos: (www.theinjury.blogspot.com)

The first aid to an ankle sprain is PRICE protocol (Protection, Rest, Ice, Compression and elevation)1

P – Protect

Stop doing your exercise whatsoever. Don’t look at Kobe (remember how he still plays after an injured occurred?), he is a professional athlete watched by professional sports medicine specialist

R – Rest

Allow your injury to heal. If it’s a grade 1, you have to take a rest for 1 week. If its grade 2, 2-3 weeks is tolerable. But if its grade 3, you gotta rest 1-3 months depends on the severity.

I – Ice

Apply ice pack, wrapped with a bandage, for 15-20 minutes, 3 to 4 times a day for 3 days. It will reduce pain and inflammation. But after the third day, applying the ice would not help you that much.

C – Compression

Compression of the swollen area will help reduce the swelling. Cohesive, tear tape, crepe or any stretchy bandage will suffice

E – Elevation

Elevate the injured foot above your heart. This will help prevent the blood flow to the injured foot and it’ll reduce the swelling.

I hope it will help the readers to alert them self about this injury. Because it’s not only a sport injury, it also occurs a lot in women wearing high heels! Hehe

My message is to prevent is better than to cure! Wear protective gear and warm up before exercise 

Source:

ankle sprain update American Family Physician Site

Chocolate consumption is good for heart and brain!

Sabtu, 03 September 2011

I recently read a very good article and meta-analysis that maybe a great news for all of you chocolate lovers. A presentation of a new study that was held in France, Paris, recorded that chocolate consumption may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease up to 37% and 29% lower risk of stroke compare to individuals that ate least amount of chocolate.

In this European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2011, it was presented that the investigators of this systematic review and meta-analysis study didn't differentiate between the consumption of white or dark chocolate, or a snack bar, or even biscuits and chocolate drinks.

As we all know that over consumption of chocolate may be harmful to our health but the right amount of chocolate generally gives a beneficial effect to our cardio-metabolic system. 

The researchers which include Buitrago-Lopez and colleagues conclude "These favorable effects seem mainly mediated by the high content of polyphenols present in cocoa products and are probably accrued through the increasing bioavailability of nitric oxide, which subsequently might lead to improvements in endothelial function, reductions in platelet function, and additional beneficial effects on blood pressure, insulin resistance, and blood lipids"

Let's eat Chocolate with small amount but frequent portion!  

Source: bmj article

12 Steps to prepare a bottled milk for your baby

It's kinda funny to share this article. but just for your information, a lot of mothers tend to forget this steps or maybe even underestimate them. Actually, preparing milk is very essential because babies are very prone to diseases. Imagine your baby being ill because you did not clean the lid of the bottle. Their immune system aren't as strong as adults, they don't understand which one is clean and which is not, plus they tend to take everything as long it's for their stomach (when hungry of course).

So, because of so many reasons, I'll share you about how to prepare milk step by step:

1. Clean and disinfect a surface on which to prepare the feed
2. Wash your hands with soap and water, and dry with a clean or disposable cloth
3. Boil some safe  water. If using an automatic kettle, wait until the kettle switches off. If using a pan to boil water, make sure the water comes to a rolling boil
4. Read the instruction on the formula packaging to find out how much water and how much powder you need. adding more or less formula than instructed could make infants ill
5. Taking care to avoid scalds, pour the correct amount of boiled water into a cleaned and sterilized feeding bottle. Remember the water should not be cooler than 70 oC, so do not leave it for more than 30 minutes after boiling
6. add the exact formula to the water in the bottle
7. Mix thoroughly by gently shaking or swirling the bottle
8. Immediately cool to feeding temperature by holding the bottle under cold running tap water, or by placing in a container of cold or iced water. So that you don't contaminate the feed, make sure that the level of the cooling water is below the lid of the bottle
9. Dry the outside of the bottle with a clean or disposable cloth
10. Check the temperature of the feed by dripping a little onto the inside of your wrist. It should feel lukewarm, not hot. If it still feels hot, cool some more before feeding
11. Feed infant
12. Throw away any feed that has not been consumed within two hours

Share this to other mothers that care about hygiene and their babies health!

Source: WHO

Accidents is around us; open your eyes!

Jumat, 02 September 2011

In my country (or in any country that has muslim citizens) there’s this big holiday celebration called Idul Fitri. It’s a celebration after a month of holy Ramadhan fasting. A Phenomena that always happen every year, called ‘mudik’. It’s a journey by a person or a family to go back to their home land to see their beloved relatives or family. The Idul fitri celebration itself is a wonderful thing, but a big mystery always struck the police force. The number of road traffic accidents caused by ‘mudik’, is getting bigger and bigger each year. 

Why is that? Is there a solution?   

Every day nearly 3,000 events and more than 1.2 million people recorded, died in 2002 due to traffic accidents, while the victims who suffered injuries as a result was recorded 10 times greater than the number of deaths. Financial loss due to accidents were not little, it was estimated more than 65 million U.S. dollars. In fact, under reported is a big issue, because until now the data collection of traffic accidents in developing countries has not been that great. Percentage of accidents that occur in the population with a range of age 15-44 years was 48 to 78%.

If judging in terms of gender, men constitute the majority of deaths in accidents. A problem occurs when a family lose its leading man, later it can lead to an increase in the number of orphans and widows. In the end, an increasing number of poverty.More than 85% of trauma and death due to accidents occurred in developing countries, e.g. Indonesia. It is very alarming, low attention from governments and society towards traffic safety is a threat to its country. A prediction in 2020, lost of DALY(disability-adjusted life years) for traffic accidents become the 3rd highest, and deaths from traffic accidents increased to 80%.In a concept of disease spread, it will always be three factors that influence a disease, ie, the host, agent, and environment. It is the same with traffic accidents; humans as host, the vehicle as the agent, and the road itself as environment. In a study, it says that 90% of accident is caused by man himself, where discipline is a major factor. From the data mentioned that the growth of two-wheeler users is more than the addition of its produced driver's license number (driver's license). In addition, two-wheeler drivers, who aren’t using helmets, are more prone to head injuries than drivers who use helmets. A study by Conrad et al, mentioned that non helmet users nearly 4 times are more susceptible than those using helmets. In fact, wearing helmets reduce the mortality by 39%. Deaths from traffic accidents in developing country, let say Indonesia (since I’m from there), 61% comes from the drivers of two-wheeled, 15% pedestrians 13% of bicycle rider, the rest are four-wheel driver and the passenger. Major contributor to the traffic accidents in Indonesia are the motorcycle riders who often are not careful and often misuse their motorcycle, such as passengers traveling between the regions with more than 2 passengers.

So what’s the solution? Do we have to forbid people go to their ‘mudik’ journey by motorcycle? Of course that is not necessary.

Many things can be done by the government and society. First, isolate road users with vehicle drivers, which means adding and optimizing bridge crossing and sidewalks for pedestrians and bicycle riders. In developing countries, many incidents of traffic accidents is due to the merging of the motor driver, cars, trucks and buses with pedestrians and bicycles. By minimizing the contact, it is expected to decrease traffic accidents. And then, there is government and community commitment to the law. Traffic regulations are available, only implementations that need to be improved. Third, education at all levels. From kids to adults, poor to rich, less education to the educated ones.

It takes an interdisciplinary activity involving governments, health care, schools, and communities, to the incidence, mortality and disability caused by traffic accidents can be arrested. Since I’m a doctor I’ll talk about how can a doctor be involved in this solution (hehe).

I’m going to give an example. A project carried out in Vietnam, the SAVE project. It is a project that aims to improve trauma care and reduce traffic accidents. SAVE is the result of joint European and Asian Countries. This project lasted two years and has a range of activities; TEM (trauma and emergency course), SEP (School-based educational programs) and PAC (Public awareness campaign).

In TEM, some hospital staffs were recruited and trained in trauma and emergency management. Emphasized in a course which emphasize on how to manage an acute traumatic events; such as using emergency ultrasound, application of splints, how to put a cervical collar neck, trauma release helmet on, etc. In SEP, the program involved students and teachers from 12 schools. Pupils who would later play a role in society as adults, implanted knowledge of the "road safety", teachers are also trained that way. PAC is a movement to promote the issue; the press conference on traffic accidents, sharing clothes, hats and books about "road safety, until the ad superhero wearing a helmet.

I say we cannot blame anyone on the rising of number accidents, because it’s already in a system. We gotta be a part of the solution not the problem. Right?

Source: kompas.com , bmj, jakartaglobe(photos)

Overview of ACL Tear

Rabu, 31 Agustus 2011

In many sports injury cases, torn ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) is one of the highest injury incidences. ACL tear changed the life of many athletes, not in a good way of course. In 2000, an agile Brazilian football player Ronaldo Luiz Nazario da Lima a.k.a Ronaldo, caught the injury while playing against other team. Since the occurrence of his fatal injury, his skills aren’t as good as it was. Although he did undergo surgeries and rehabilitations many times, the tear won’t recover. In early 2011, because the injury worsens, he decided to retire. Let’s find out the mechanism of this injury and why it’s a nightmare for many world athletes?

It's better to prevent than to cure... Warm up! 

Aerobic exercise vs Weightlifting; which one's better?

I have a friend who always asks, “Which is better; aerobic exercise, resistance (weight lifting) training, or doing both?”

It depends on what you want to achieve, losing weight or just want to tone up your body so that it appears better? Both of them aren’t negative answers at all. By losing weight and increasing your lean body mass, it is more likely for you live longer and stay healthy.

I read an article on foxnews that says it is better doing an aerobic exercise than resistance training. The article reported about a study conducted by researcher Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist at Duke University, He said that it is better, because aerobic exercise burn more calories thus reduce the fat deposit thus reduce the risk of having heart diseases, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

Aerobic exercise is doing a workout in long duration with low intensity. Usually aerobic exercise took at least 15 to 30 minutes; a person can choose whether to walk, jog, swim or cycle. There are so many advantages doing aerobic exercise, such as

1. To improve cardio-pulmo-vascular function which is marked by a low pulse rate at rest (you can test you friend that regularly exercise, I bet the pulse rate is lower than 70-80 J ); greater stroke volume, efficient oxygen uptake, and reduce the lactic acid in our body.

2. Prevent obesity by improving our body metabolism and maintain ideal body weight 

3. Reduce the risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and infection by improving the immune function  

4. Endorphin release into the brain (a hormone that improves your mood)

While doing resistance training is great to improve general strength and increase you lean body mass. By doing resistance training not only you’ll look good but you’ll feel good as well. Improved general strength will make your daily activity more productive, where as increasing your lean body mass also makes you more confident.

Okay, back to the article. The researcher said "Our study sought to identify the most effective form of exercise to get rid of that unhealthy fat." The study included 196 overweight, sedentary adults, ages 18 to 70, who were randomized to one of three exercise groups for eight months: aerobic training, resistance training or a combination of the two

The aerobic group performed exercises equivalent to jogging 12 miles per week at 80 percent maximum heart rate. The resistance-training group performed eight weight-lifting exercises, doing three sets of eight to 12 repetitions of each lift, three times a week. The combination group did both of these regimens in full. The researchers closely supervised and monitored the participants to ensure maximum effort in participation.

They found that aerobic exercise was also best for reducing liver fat, too much of which can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a leading cause of cirrhosis. The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism.

From my opinion, it is better to do one of them than doing nothing right? So what are you waiting for..??

Cut the chat and reduce the fat!