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Sunlight, Vit D and Health.

 March 21, 2026   Selamat Hari Raya Adilfitri!  Eid Mubarak!   It's a long weekend, and a great celebration for Muslims. Sunshine and health and wellbeing are linked. I live in tropical beautiful Penang island, Pearl of the Orient!  Though there are lots of sunny days, I was having a sun avoiding behavior.   In 2016, when I was very puzzled by my faster than normal ageing rate of drop for my hip bone density. (an indication that my hip might be approaching osteoporosis early than I would like --which would mean risk of broken bone with trivial trauma/fall becoming higher, which mean I would need to adjust my lifestyle - exercise choice if I would like to prevent a hip fracture).       I decided not to assume that my Vit D level would be normal, and got myself tested. Lo and behold --, it was extremely low.  So, now, I do not try to walk very fast, when I am under the sun.  But due to my work hours and work nature...
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 March 13, 2026  Chronic kidney disease is as common as 1 in 10 persons worldwide.  And almost always silent in the early and even middle stages of the illness.  But, you can know it if you test.     And Early Detection and correct response make a whole world of difference. So, step 1, get a lab  test. Go to your family doctor.   Caring for your kidney can be a step toward caring for environment, too.  Excessive protein can be harmful to the body, and excessive demand of animal protein also drives up animal husbandry which stresses the environment, beside putting on stress to the kidneys of the consumers.  "Protein powders can be damaging when taken without professional medical guidance," said Dr Ravi Bansal, director of nephrology and kidney transplant medicine There are 5 stages of chronic kidney disease.  One only needs to have dialysis when he/she gets to stage 5. So, even if you are at stage 3, there are still many things ...
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 March 6, 2026   If you’re in need of some motivation to get out and be active, then sit down and read this impressive list of exercise benefits. Better still, stand up and read it. Exercise is a key contributor to people living longer, healthier , more vibrant lives .  LONGER LIFE It’s been over 30 years since researchers observed that physical activity extends life. One of the earliest studies found that champion male Finnish skiers lived, on average, over four years longer than average Finnish men.[2] More recently, an investigation of some of the longest-living people on earth— Okinawans and Seventh-day Adventists—showed that all of these groups engaged in plenty of physical activity as part of their daily living.[3,4] Researchers have examined many possible mechanisms by which exercise extends life. One study, using identical twins, probed the link between exercise and the length of telomeres. Telomeres are the protective ends of chromosomes that short...
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 February 27, 2026  The five most commonly reported cancers in Malaysia are breast cancer,  colorectal cancer,  lung cancer,  lymphoma, and  liver cancer.     Excerpts from news portal Codeblue :   In Malaysia, more than 290,000 cancer cases were recorded between 2017 and 2024, with cancer now ranking as the third leading cause of death in the country.   The five most commonly reported cancers in Malaysia are breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma, and liver cancer.   One World Health Organization (WHO) study revealed about 40 per cent of cancers can be prevented with modifiable risk factors like smoking, alcohol consumption, infections with Hepatitis B/C and HPV viruses and Helicobacter pylori bacteria. Therefore, screening for common cancers for early detection is also very important. To address the unique cancer risks within the Malaysian population, specific screening protocols are recommen...
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 February 20, 2026   There is a spike of newly detected Tuberculosis (TB) patients in Malaysia. Read the news here. TB is an infection spread by air, much like COVID. If you had had COVID, yes, it is possible you get TB.   PTB is the short form of Pulmonary TB, or TB of the lung.   Indeed, TB can infect many if not most parts of the body, ie Brain, Liver, Bone, Skin, Lymph Node, Intestine etc.  And the most common type of TB is PTB, because it spreads like Covid, through the air. Below is the prevalence of TB in Malaysia from Year 2000.   The graph is given in per 100, 000 population. It is obvious that over the past 20 years, it had doubled.              TB can be treated, and should be treated, and early. Otherwise, it can cause very bad damage, and even kill. Latent TB is a stage of TB, when, while the germ is inside the person, due to good immunity, the infection is well controlled.  The person wi...
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 February 13, 2026    VS    Chinese New Year is around the corner.   Why I write about Noro but I did not try to write about Nipah Virus.  Because, there are much higher chance for my readers to get "attack" by the former.  Nipah V is similar to SARS 1 Virus of 2003.  Nipah happened in Malaysia around 1998, around Bukit Pelanduk, Negeri Sembilan.  Though scary, the THREAT to us is mainly a psychological/mental one. Noro is a food poisoning virus.  And CNY is here, MAKAN is a big affair during festivals.  The THREAT here is as long as you eat some uncooked food, you can get it.  Higher chance to get it from uncooked seafood. An outbreak of food poisoning just happened (since mid January) in Hong Kong likely, initial incident traced to a 5 Stars Hotel. Up to yesterday about 70 affected.  So, it can happen anywhere.   Enjoy your Chinese New Year.   Stay away from Food Poisoning.
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  February 6, 2026   The C word is scary to most if not all.  A new friend, just passed away last evening, around 7 pm.  He was only 50 years old, from Colon Cancer. When it was detected in August 2024, it was already stage 4. Can cancer be cured?  (I mean to medical professional, the term should be Prolonged or persistent Remission) Yes. If you need some convincing evidence, please do join Relay For Life event.  There will be a large number of cancer survivors attending, in case you do not have any such "lucky" persons in your circle of life.  What factors contribute to "BEATING" the Big Scary C? Early detection and Appropriate medical treatment give you best chance/science. There are things we can't choose in life, ie who my parents are, which kindergarten/primary school I went to, and what illness I eventually I will die off, and how fast/slow I die. But, there are also life choices that will contribute to how much chance I can circumvent the Big S...
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