Monitoring blood pressure is a basic routine for body check up. It has to be monitored regularly especially for high risk people such as elderly, obese adult and people who has unhealthy diet. Blood pressure can be measured manually by using stethoscope and manometer, or whole thing we called it as sphygmomonometer. This usually has to be performed by professional physicians since it requires certain technique to get accurate measurements.

Now, there is an alternative measuring apparatus available in the market which are electronic devices. These are easier to use and patients can monitor their blood pressure themselves at home. Home blood pressure measurements are useful for patients to control their condition and improve the complication. Furthermore, white coat hypertension, a condition in which patient has higher blood pressure when measured in clinical setting such as hospital, is commonly seen nowadays. Therefore, measuring blood pressure at home can prevent this problem.

Here, there are some precautions in measuring blood pressure

1. Apply cuff snugly over upper arm 1 inch aboive antecubital space ( depression in front of elbow) with centre of cuff over brachial artery

2. Patient’s arm should be supported on a surface about the level of heart

3. Have patient rest at least 5 minutes before taking blood pressure

Do not measure pressure :

1. after exercise

2. injured or painful extremely

3. After food

While taking blood pressure:

1. Do not talk

2. Do not laugh

3. Sit down comfortly and relax

Normal BP value at rest: 110-140 / 70-90

If blood pressure readings remain high for several days, patient should seek for doctor advice for accurate diagnosis.

~Jin~

The “silent disease”————-> Osteoporosis. What is osteoporosis? According to Ellie Whitney and Sharon Rady Rolfes, the writers of “Understanding Nutrition”, osteoporosis is a disease in which the bones become porous and fragile due to the loss of minerals. Then, why is it called as a “silent” disease? You may heard people say, “Her grandma fell and broke her hip, and ended up lying on the bed.” This is when you know that one has developed osteoporosis. The sign will show up first without any symptom.

What are the important things to know or reduce the risk of osteoporosis?

1. Calcium

2. Vitamin D

3. Physical Activity- Weightbearing exercise

Firstly, Calcium. When you think of calcium, you will think of milk. Why milk? It’s because calcium is found most abundantly in milk. Some people may prefer cheese or yogurt. For vegetarians, those who have lactose intolerance or those who are allergic to milk protein, they do not drink milk.So, what other foods contain calcium? These people can opt for tofu, some nuts (almonds), sesame seeds, breads (only about 5-10% of calcium found in milk), mustard, bok choy, parsley, seaweed, spinach (a little), broccoli, oyster and etc. One can take calcium supplement too if he or she do not drink milk. The most popular ones will be calcium carbonate and calcium citrate. Calcium carbonate needs stomach acid to dissolve and absorb. Calcium citrate does not need it but it costs more. Our body can handle about 500 mg of calcium at one time from food and/or supplements. Thus, it is better for us to consume it throughout day instead of all at one time.

Some soymilk and low fat milk are fortified with calcium too. Before we drink it, we must shake well the container so that calciums that settle at the bottom can be drunk. 

Calcium alone is not enough. We must have adequate amount of vitamin D too. Vitamin D helps us to absorb calcium. Without vitamin D, calcium itself will not be absorbed into our body. So, where can we obtain vitamin D? The answer is——Sun. We tend to avoid sun as much as possible. But we forgot that sun is essential to us. Being under the sun for about 5 to 10 mins is good for calcium absorption.

What I would like to emphasize is the sunblock or sunscreen. People loves to see the product that have SPF effect. In fact, we tend to think that the higher the SPF value, the better it will be. Do you know that having this SPF effect is enough to block the absorption of vitamin D into our body? Our skin contains the vitamin D precursor molecule. Under the exposure of UV rays, the precursor is converted into cholecalciferol and then active vitamin D will be formed after 2 steps of transformation. If we apply too much of sunscreen every day, vitamin D will not be absorbed.

Thirdly, weightbearing evercise is equally important too. Weightbearing here describes any activity you do on your feet that works your muscles and bones against gravity. It is essential for building and maintaining healthy bones.

These are some of the weightbearing exercises recommended to build strong bones:

- stair climbing, hiking, karate, tai chi, bowling, soccer, dancing, step aerobics, skating.

~Mein~

Have you ever heard of people around you kept on saying that he or she is fat? Have you ever told other people that you are fat? So now, I just want to ask you a very simple question? How FAT do you think is fat? If you think that you are not as thin as those models is considered as FAT, then you are wrong! 

The majority of people selected “to be healthy” as the reason for their body shape concerns. Normally, females will tend to select slim singers, actresses and models as their role models. It’s sad to say that some of these “role models” are underweight.

Let’s take your calculator and calculate how fat are you!

Body Mass Index is commonly used as standard to calculate weight.

BMI=  Weight (kg)/Height²(m²)

Let’s see the classification

Underweight - <18.5

Normal Range - 18.5-22.9

Pre-obese - 23.0-27.4

Obese I - 27.5-34.9

Obese II - 35.0-39.9

Obese III - >=40.0

After seeing this, do you think you are fat?

For those whose weight is not within the normal range, please plan a healthy diet. If you want to lose weight, it is better to aim for a slow and steady weight loss by decreasing kcalorie intake while maintaining an adequate nutrient intake and increasing physical activity. Some people use the wrong method to lose weight. My sibling is one of them. This is not a good choice as it may cause adverse health effects. 

Some people skip their breakfast and do not consume food even though he or she is hungry. Bear in mind that if food energy is restricted too severely, dieters may not receive sufficient nutrients and may lose lean tissue. This may lead to some other nutrient deficiency diseases. Then, what can those dieters do? 

These are some of strategies to manage our weight:

- increase your physical activity enough to spend more energy than you consume from foods.

- eat small portions.

-eat slowly.

-make legumes, whole grains, vegetables and fruits central to your diet plan. Limit high-fat foods but not to avoid them.

-limit concentrated sweets and alcoholic beverages.

-drink a glass of water before you eat. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. (8 glasses or more per day)

Let’s Follow a Healthy Diet Today! Focus on healthy eating, not on weight losses or weight gain!

~Mein~

When taking capsule, some people like to take off the capsule shell and consume only the powder inside. My mum is one of them. Capsule shell is soft and smooth so that it can be easily swallowed. So, she believes that the capsule shell is made from plastic.

Actually, main ingredient of capsule shell is gelatin and it is safe to be consumed. Drugs are often designed in capsule form because the unpleasant taste of drugs can be masked. Capsule shell also protects drug from light to prevent oxidation.

Also, the most important is, function of capsule not only protecting drugs but also protecting our stomach. Some drugs especially painkiller, may irritate our stomach and cause gastric and gastric ulcer. Capsule controls the release of drugs and prevent this problem. It also prolongs the release of drugs and therefore the drugs can be taken less frequent.

There are many types of dosage form of drugs and each of them is important to ensure the drugs work safety and efficacy.

~Jin~

Often, patients came into pharmacy, holding doctor’s prescription, wanted to buy the drugs listed in the prescription. Occasionally, pharmacy did not have the exactly the same brand of drug and pharmacist might offer the generic version of the drugs. Some patients may buy it while some may refuse to buy it and insist to search for the exactly-the-same-drug from other pharmacy.In fact, most people are confusing with the original brand and generic brand.

According to WHO, generic drug can be defined as pharmaceutical product, usually intended to be interchangeable with an innovator product, that is manufactured without licence from the innovator company and marketed after the expiry date of the patent or other exclusive rights. In other words, generic drugs are drugs which have same active ingredients with the original brands but from different company. For example, the most common drug, Panadol, is the original brand while Pamol, is the generic version for Panadol. Although they named different, both of them containing 500mg of paracetamol.

Expenses from inventing a new drug to launching the drug to the market are huge. Therefore, no doubts, the original one is always more expensive than the generic one. Original drugs have 20 years patent protection, which means that, the generic version can only be marketed after the patent period of the drug. So, cheaper version is available after 20 years launching of the original drug.

Patients need not worry to take the generic version of the drug if the original one is not available or not affordable unless the excipients of the generic drug are different and patient allergy to it. Patient can even request to buy the generic drugs if cant afford the original drugs.

So, dun worry, generic drugs are not the pirate drugs or even the ‘fake’ drugs.

~Jin~