The Key To Getting Good Quality Sleep

The Key To Getting Good Quality Sleep - I recently read a lot of articles about how certain things can disrupt my sleep quality. For example, there was this study that I read in UK’s The Daily Mail that suggests that two glasses of wine can reduce my sleep quality by 40%.

The study that you are talking about was carried out in Finland on over 4,000 men and women.

The study participants all wore heart rate monitors when they slept, and the quality of their sleep was recorded during the first three hours.

It was found that just two drinks in women and three in men reduced quality of sleep by as much as 39.2%.

The reason is hypothesised to be that alcohol causes people to spend more time in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep in which dreams occur, and less time in the deep, restful sleep without dreams.

Wait. What is good quality sleep in the first place?

These are the indicators of good quality sleep as released by the US National Sleep Foundation (NSF):

• More sleep time on the bed (at least 85% of the total time).

• Falling asleep in 30 minutes or less.

• Waking up no more than once per night.

• Being awake for 20 minutes or less after initially falling asleep.

Apparently, the NSF found that 27% of all people are taking longer than average (meaning 30 minutes) to fall asleep.

So, if you ever envied your husband for falling asleep immediately, and spent your time tossing and turning with thoughts about the family tumbling in your head, know that you are not alone.

Do sleep patterns vary as we age?

Definitely.

Let’s examine a newborn baby’s sleep patterns. A newborn is considered to be aged up to three months. A newborn baby should be spending 15 to 18 hours asleep.

Then you get to the infant stage (four to 11 months). He or she should fall asleep in less than 30 minutes when you put him or her into bed, and should spend 12 to 15 hours sleeping.

Then you get to the toddler stage (one to two years). The toddler should also fall asleep in less than 30 minutes after you put him in bed, whether or not you are telling a bedtime story. He should spend 12 hours sleeping. That’s why it’s important that you don’t make toddlers follow your sleep times.

When we get to preschool children (three to five years), they need 10 to 13 hours of sleep.

Children aged six to 13 years need nine to 11 hours, and teenagers need eight to 10 hours.

You can deviate from this by one or two hours less or more, but too much deviation is generally not recommended.

What about us adults?

Adults from age 18 to 65 need seven to nine hours a night.

If you are above age 65, you need seven to eight hours. So those myths about old people only needing to sleep five or six hours a night are not to be believed.

Why is having good sleep so important?

Sleep is a vital indicator of our overall health and wellbeing. Don’t forget that we spend one-third of our lives sleeping.

Unfortunately, our world today is so filled with electronic equipment, artificial light and so much entertainment at night that we don’t make sleep a priority anymore, or we think we can do with less.

Worse yet, during our sleep, we have the Internet on and our phones on, and we sometimes drink coffee in the evenings. All these interfere with our sleep patterns.

As an adult, you are recommended to get between seven and nine hours of sleep. The question is then seven or nine?

Only you can make that assessment. Do you feel happy, well-rested and productive on seven hours of sleep? Or do you need nine?

If you feel dopey and you’re nodding off during the afternoon on seven hours of sleep, then your body definitely needs more sleep.

How do I improve my sleep quality?

You have to make sleep a non-negotiable priority.

Yes, sometimes it is impossible when you have a baby or toddler to take care of, but those babies grow up and you can return to your normal patterns of sleep, especially when you insist that they sleep their required durations!

Do follow these cardinal sleep tips:

• Stick to a proper sleep schedule, even on weekends.

• Practise a relaxing bedtime ritual, such as reading or meditation.

• Do daily exercise, but not within three to four hours before bedtime.

• Make sure your bedroom has the right temperature. Some people advocate 18°C as the right temperature for your body to cool down.

• Turn off your phone and Internet. Keep your room dark.

• Don’t drink alcohol or coffee at night. Some people who have trouble sleeping don’t even drink alcohol or coffee at all.

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Losing Your Hearing Overnight Without Warning

Losing Your Hearing Overnight Without Warning - August 2, 2014, was just another ordinary day for J. Jay. She woke up with all her senses intact, but after breakfast, she felt a window slam shut in one ear.

She thought it was a case of a blocked ear, but it was soon replaced with annoying loud sounds of huge waves, aeroplane engines and murmurings.

When her hearing didn’t return after a few days, Jay went to the doctor, only to be told she had “beautiful ear drums”.

He did a hearing test, which revealed her left ear was 95% deaf.

“The doctor didn’t imply the condition was permanent and put me on steroids. I assumed it would get better, but after three weeks, my hearing didn’t come back.

“I saw different specialists and it finally hit me that I was deaf in one ear. The doctor said he would only be able to tell what was wrong if he cuts open my ears, but I’d have to be dead first!

“I was clueless how I was going to live. I lost focus, sounds were jumbled up and I didn’t know where they were coming from.

“Since my ears are my tools of communication, I sank into depression. I was deaf, but I felt blind,” shares the 38-year-old magazine editor, who was living abroad then.

Jay was diagnosed as having sudden sensorineural hearing loss, commonly known as sudden deafness or sudden hearing loss (SHL).

“We’re not talking about being born deaf or losing hearing as a result of ageing. With SHL, you’re fine today and when you get up in the morning, you cannot hear.

“Anyone can get it. There is no predisposing factor to say that you belong to a group that would get SHL. It affects only a small percentage of the population, so we have no figures anywhere in the world.

“This happens normally in one ear – rare that it happens in both ears. SHL doesn’t recognise age or gender – you can be young, old or middle aged.

“Sometimes, a patient doesn’t realise he has SHL unless he picks up the telephone. Because it only affects one ear, he may think the phone is dead,” says consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh.

Experts estimate that SHL strikes one person per 5,000 every year, typically adults in their 40s and 50s.

The actual number of new cases every year could be much higher because the condition often goes undiagnosed. Many people recover quickly and never seek medical help.

According to the US-based National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, only 10% to 15% of the people diagnosed with SHL have an identifiable cause.

The most common causes are infectious diseases, trauma such as a head injury, autoimmune diseases such as Cogan’s syndrome, ototoxic drugs (drugs that harm the sensory cells in the inner ear), blood circulation problems, a tumour on the nerve that connects the ear to the brain, neurologic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and disorders of the inner ear.

Dr Kuljit explains: “Actually some patients have no symptoms at all. Some have told us they had a very bad flu a few weeks prior; a few patients will say they feel dizzy and hear buzzing sounds in the ear, but most of them say, they get up and pop!, the hearing goes to zero.

“Scientists tell us one probable cause is upper respiratory viral infection, which settles on the nerves that connects the inner ear to the brain. The virus attacks the nerves.

“The nerves from our inner ear to the brain runs in a tight bony canal, and the canal gets filled up with fluid and is inflamed because of the virus.”

If there is minimal hearing loss, then there is a chance it may come back after a couple of weeks, but if the hearing loss is bad, the prognosis will not improve.

Patients are usually subject to a series of hearing tests over a six-month period, after which it is unlikely that things will get better.

The results are charted on a graph to monitor if the hearing is getting better from week to week.

SHL is diagnosed if the test shows a loss of at least 30 decibels (a measure of sound) in three connected frequencies. A loss of 30 decibels would make conversational speech sound like a whisper.

“If the patient is stone deaf, then the chances of the hearing coming back to normal is not so good.

“When patients present to us, we do the test and treat them with medications, which are not 100% guaranteed.

“But first, we rule out tumours or mild stroke, though these patients would have other signs.

“The types of medicines vary from a short dosage of oral steroids to vitamins that are geared towards ear recovery,” he says.

Patients are also checked for allergies, sinus infection, earwax plugging the ear canal, or other common conditions.

“Patients complain of feeling unbalanced and uncomfortable initially but they get used to it.”

For Jay, because she had been an active person, her body remembered how to balance by default.

“But I still struggle to listen, and at the end of the day, I’m chronically fatigued,” she says.

She cannot have group conversations because her good ear can only pick up one voice. Her memory is also affected.

She says, “People think I’m ‘off’ as I might stare at someone who’s finished talking because my mind is still trying to process things.

“I’m no longer the life of parties and I tend to avoid social situations. Going out alone scares me. Only my good friends know of my condition.”

SHL cannot be prevented or predicted. “Some people say it happens if you hear too much loud music or go to rock concerts, but that’s not true,” says Dr Kuljit.

Most patients can cope quite well if it is only one ear, but if they have the misfortune of getting SHL in the other ear at some point, it’s sheer bad luck. They would then be classified as OKU (Orang Kurang Upaya, or Persons With Disabilities).

Patients can try hearing aids but if they’re stone deaf, these won’t work as the ear needs some cells to receive sound signals.

There are also internally-implanted hearing aids, but they are expensive.

Unfortunately, Malaysia has no support group and people are very shy to talk about SHL. They don’t want to share anything and label themselves as a “goner”.

To maintain good hearing, Dr Kuljit advises people not to hear loud sounds for long periods of time as the ears have a certain threshold for sound.

He says, “Explosive sounds can damage the ears almost immediately; a sudden burst of 100 to 120 decibels can burst the eardrum.

“But that is not the main thing – the shock that goes into the inner ear can fracture the hair cells and this cannot be regenerated.

“I also don’t recommend using earphones for hours at high volume. If you’re working in a loud area, the employer must give mufflers or ear protection aids. Also, while in the shooting range, don’t take things lightly and say it’s only once in a while. The bottom line is that prolonged high decibels will destroy your hearing.”

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WHO Launches ‘Operation Eliminate Trans Fats’

WHO Launches ‘Operation Eliminate Trans Fats’ - In an effort to save half a million lives each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 14, 2018, urged developing nations to follow the lead of affluent countries and eliminate man-made trans fatty acids from their food supplies.

By taking six specific steps, officials from the United Nations’ health agency said countries could reduce a tidal wave of heart disease and strokes that results in more than 500,000 deaths annually.

“Trans fat is an unnecessary toxic chemical that kills, and there’s no reason people around the world should continue to be exposed to it,” said Dr Tom Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who now leads an initiative called “Resolve to Save Lives”.

For the WHO to throw its weight behind a worldwide trans fat ban “is very helpful”, and countries that follow its advice will see a substantial payoff in improved public health, said Dr Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard University.

“The cost of transitioning to healthier fats is very small and the cost of treating cardiovascular disease is very high,” said Dr Willett, who was among the first researchers to call out trans fats’ dangers and led the effort to ban them.

Some trans fats occur naturally in dairy foods and meat from ruminant animals. These do not raise major health concerns.

Industrially-produced trans fats, on the other hand, have helped fuel an epidemic of cardiovascular disease since they were broadly introduced to the food supply in the 1950s.

These fats are made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil, converting liquid fats to a solid at room temperature.

These “partially hydrogenated” oils made processed foods cheaper to produce while extending their shelf life, and they quickly became an ingredient in bakery and snack foods devoured across the world.

By the mid-1990s, scientists began to turn up evidence that consuming trans fatty acids throws blood cholesterol out of whack, raising levels of LDL (the bad kind) and reducing levels of HDL (the good kind).

Once public health researchers linked the growing use of industrial trans fats to rising US rates of heart disease, they spearheaded an effort to expunge the fats from the American diet.

By next month, food manufacturers supplying US consumers are expected to have reformulated their products to drive down trans fats to negligible levels.

That process has taken five years, and has met with only muted resistance from large food manufacturers.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has estimated that reducing trans fat in the US diet could prevent as many as 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year.

That’s in line with studies that measured the impact of trans fat limits in Denmark and the US.

A 2016 study of New York City’s ban found that restricting the industrially-produced fats drove down cardiovascular deaths by 4.5% and produced annual savings of US$3.9mil (RM15.42mil) per 100,000 people.

But as wealthy countries have acted to expunge trans fats from their citizens’ diets, the ill effects have shifted to countries that rely heavily on trans fats to deliver inexpensive processed foods to their growing middle classes.

The WHO initiative launched on May 14, 2018, dubbed REPLACE, outlines a sequence of actions that countries should take to reduce trans fatty acids in their food supplies.

It calls on governments to work with legislatures, non-governmental organisations, oil and food manufacturers, and their citizens to enact measures that mandate the replacement of industrially-produced trans fats with healthier fats and oils.

New York University food scientist Marion Nestle praised the initiative as one that will help consumers make healthier decisions without taxing their willpower.

“It’s a change in the food environment that’s likely to have a significant impact on public health and does not require significant behaviour change,” she said.

“That’s what you want, because behaviour change is difficult.”

The fact that developed countries have been able to reduce trans fat shows that it is technically and politically possible, added William J. McCarthy, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Fielding School of Public Health.

“The problem in poorer countries is that there isn’t as much surveillance and government oversight of the food supply, and in their absence, you find the small-time vendors much prefer the use of these particular hydrogenated fats,” he said.

The profit motive is going to favour their use until there’s enough political will to intervene.

“Just as with control of tobacco products, it takes money, resources and political will to enforce regulations that a lot of food vendors would prefer not to have.”

The WHO has held up two countries – Iran and South Africa – as models for other low- and middle-income nations to follow.

In 2008, South Africa became the first developing country to enact legislation against trans fatty acids, setting a limit on the trans fat content of oils and fats for human consumption of 2 grams per 100 grams.

Experts said it worked because it did not target big food companies, but the manufacturers of industrial fats, a consolidated industry with few players.

Another success story is Iran, a country with the highest recorded intake of trans fats in the world.

Starting in 2005, Iran’s government collaborated with oil manufacturers, oil importers and non-governmental organisations to reduce trans fats.

The government first mandated that the cap on trans fats in corn oil, palm oil, frying oil and mixed liquid oils be cut in half, from 20% to 10%.

In 2011, the government continued reducing allowable trans fat content, and has now met its 2018 goal of no more than 1% trans fat content in those oils.

Reducing trans fat in bakery products, still allowed at 5%, remains a challenge for the country to tackle. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service

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Mattress That Offers Comfort And Good Support

Mattress That Offers Comfort And Good Support - The next time you lie in bed fidgeting with your mobile device, think of this – the mattress you’re sleeping on could be an antenna absorbing electromagnetic field energy that is harmful to your health.

The first step in avoiding this threat to our wellness is by ensuring the mattress we sleep on does not have a metal-based composition such as spring, but rather, a natural material like latex.

Electromagnetic Field or EMF is not just limited to the radiation produced by WiFi and Bluetooth, the invisible threat is also emitted by a wide range of electronic devices in harmful frequencies.

Within a household, the EMF exposure comes from basic features such as power sockets to more sophisticated gadgets like mobile phones, tablets, laptops, televisions and microwaves.

Now, how is EMF linked to your mattress? The bedroom is not exempted from the menacing presence of high-frequency EMF. Naturally, when we are awake, the body possesses an autoimmune system against such radiations.

However, while sleeping, the body becomes vulnerable to it instead, which enable the harmful frequencies to disrupt the essential regenerative process that we go through during bedtime. Such continuous interruption affects the quality of our sleep as well as our DNA regeneration capacity.

Although EMF is around us, the radiations are actively attracted to metal, making furniture made of metal a bad idea in the home. Mattresses with metal components such as spring mattresses for instance, attracts dangerous electro-magnetic radiations.

To better understand the severity of using a spring mattress, imagine sleeping on a radioactive platform, which disrupts your body’s regeneration process for a third of your lifetime. An alternative to a spring-based mattress is a mattress made of latex, which is not only natural, but also metal-free.

Getha, a high-quality fully natural latex mattress manufacturer, includes its specially devised Biocare Technology in its innovative Compass line to protect one from EMF.

Moreover, latex mattresses also offer many benefits as they replicate one’s sleeping environment as closely as possible to nature. After all, a good night’s sleep should be as natural as possible.

Specialising in 100% natural latex since 1969, Getha has an extensive line-up of metal-free mattresses and bedding products suitable for all ages from infants to the elderly. A homegrown Malaysian brand, Getha is also internationally acclaimed. The company takes pride in producing top-notch products to promote quality sleep.

Committed to offering the best to its customers, Getha constantly works towards improving one’s lifestyle through its luxurious bedding products. It has received accreditations from ECO Umweltinstitute, Germany; Oeko Tex, Switzerland; and the Malaysian Rubber Board.

Apart from satisfying its customers’ needs, Getha believes in tending to the needs of nature, too. To ensure the ecosystem is properly maintained, Getha complies with all regulations set forth by the authorities and also strives to promote a greener lifestyle among its consumers.

For details on Getha and the harmful effects of EMF, visit www.getha.com.my or drop by one of Getha’s 16 Sleep Therapy Centre nationwide for a consultation customised to your needs.

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Childhood Exposure To Animals Buffers A Body’s Response To Stress

Childhood Exposure To Animals Buffers A Body’s Response To Stress - New research offers evidence for a claim made regularly by American country music singers: Growing up with a little dirt under his nails may make a country boy a little shy. But compared to a born-and-bred city slicker, that country boy will grow up to be a stronger, healthier and more laid-back man.

In ways large and small, farm kids and city kids grow up worlds apart from each other.

A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the possible consequences of that divergence for the health of modern men.

German researchers recruited men under 40 whose childhoods fit one of two starkly different patterns.

Either they had spent the years before they turned 15 in a city of more than 100,000 people and had never had a pet in their childhood home. Or they spent those years on a farm that raised livestock.

The researchers laid before these healthy young men the kind of wide-ranging social challenge sure to induce a potent case of sweaty palms: giving a job talk on short notice, answering to a jury of white-coated judges, and performing a mind-bending arithmetic feat under time pressure.

Then, the researchers compared the two groups’ reactions using a battery of physiological and psychological tests.

In their responses to questionnaires as well as in measures of acute physical stress, the study’s 20 country boys clearly felt the heat of the social challenge more strongly.

Their levels of cortisol – a “fight or flight” hormone – spiked higher, and they reported higher levels of anxiety.

But the young men who had grown up petless in big cities showed a more sustained immune response to the social challenge.

The immune systems of both groups rushed to release chemicals consistent with a strong defense against a perceived enemy.

But while this response in the country boys waned after five minutes, the city boys’ immune systems stayed on high alert for at least two hours. And the urbanites were less able to tamp down their stress-related inflammatory response with the release of anti-inflammatory chemicals.

The finding strengthens the suspicion that growing up in sanitised urban environments is making many of us more fragile when it comes to warding off certain diseases.

Called the “hygiene theory”, the idea is that early exposure to dirt, and to animals who maintain their link to the earth’s microbial fecundity, trains our developing immune systems to handle stressors large and small, and tamps down the immune system’s occasional penchant for overreaction.

The hygiene theory is often held up as an explanation for the dramatic uptick in the incidence of childhood auto-immune diseases such as asthma, allergies, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

And it’s often cited as a contributor in diseases that involve unchecked inflammation, including cardiovascular disease, some cancers and such common mental health disorders as depression.

For those raised in areas offering what the authors called “a narrow range of microbial exposures”, the new study points to “possible biological mechanisms underlying increased risk for inflammatory diseases, as well as increased vulnerability to mental health disorders where inappropriate inflammation is thought to be a risk factor”, they wrote.

The authors noted recent Danish research suggesting that rates of autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were higher among urbanites, and other research suggesting that depression, anxiety and mood disorders were more common among city dwellers.

The study was very small, with only 20 young men in each group. But the researchers found the two groups well matched on a wide range of socioeconomic background factors and childhood stressors, as well as in their past and present states of mental and physical health.

There was this difference, however: compared to urban participants, significantly more of the subjects who had grown up in rural areas had regular contact with pets and/or farm animals during adulthood.

You might conclude that urban parents who want to give their kids the laid-back country attitude and robust immune system that comes with growing up on a farm should be sure to provide their children a pet.

This study doesn’t really shed light on that surmise. But here’s an intriguing tidbit from a 2001 study carried out at the University of Zagreb, Croatia: Young adults who had a pet as a child were more empathetic, more prone to choosing helping professions, and “more oriented toward social values” than were young adults who’d grown up without pets.

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Shower Your Parents With Love

Shower Your Parents With Love - One of the largest bedding manufacturers in Malaysia, Goodnite Sdn Bhd, is celebrating Parents Day by allowing you to share your love with those who raised you. The promotion is valid only on June 1, while stocks last.

Goodnite Mattress helps Malaysians get a good night’s sleep with its comfortable beds and quality bedding material, which contain the proprietary anti-static StatFree layer that neutralises static electricity.

StatFree makes it possible for the user to be free from static, sleeping problems, headaches, fatigue and sickness. The Love Series Parents Day promotion offers mattresses starting at RM1,999 onwards for a queen size 5ft (1.5m).

Goodnite’s Love Series consists of three ranges with different designs: Forever Love, True Love and Eternal Love.

Forever Love

This mattress has StatFree anti-static fabric, G-latex premium natural latex, five zone pocket spring system to help decreasing motion disturbance and organic foam made with palm oil. The high-quality natural latex mattress has anti-dust and anti-mite features, inhibiting the growth of bacteria and parasites.

There are five zone pocket spring systems that allow each spring to react individually to your pressure and weight, and provide optimal support for every part of your body. Luxury and comfort has been redefined with this mattress and it is equipped with the best materials and advanced features, making sleeping on this mattress a revolutionary experience.

The mattress has a firmness level that is called Luxury Firm, with the queen size measuring 5ft (1.5m) priced at RM4,399, while the king, at 6ft (1.8m) is priced at RM5,199. Gifts for this purchase include a StatFree topper, two StatFree soft latex pillows, and two StatFree car seats worth up to RM2,522.

Eternal Love

Complete with StatFree anti-static fabric, the Eternal Love mattress is made with G-memory premium memory foam, five-zone pocket spring system and organic foam made with palm oil. It is equipped with the best quality memory foam that will contour your body for pressure-relieving comfort.

Users can enjoy the precision and control that flexes to their unique shape, which helps provide personalised back support, generous freedom of movement and accurate pressure point relief.

The mattress firmness is plush soft, with the queen priced at RM3,399, while the king is RM3,999. Gifts that come with purchase of this range is worth up to RM1,735 and includes a StatFree topper, and two StatFree memo foam pillows.

True Love

This is a StatFree anti-static fabric, a six-turn DPC system, high density bio-foam mattress. It is an investment in well-being and comes with Goodnite’s signature spring system, which provides uncompromising sleep.

True Love mattresses provide greater durability than the traditional spring system while delivering back support for undisturbed sleep. You will wake up feeling refreshed with this firm mattress. The queen size mattress is priced at RM1,999 while the king size mattress is going for RM2,399.

The Love Series product designs are elegant and practical, while StatFree helps you to sleep deeper and wake up fresher. This advanced sleep system allows you to recover from fatigue faster so that you can live life to the fullest.

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Scientists Discover 30 New Genes Linked To Depression

Scientists Discover 30 New Genes Linked To Depression - A study of nearly half-a-million people has uncovered 30 new genes linked to depression, tripling the number known to play a role in the debilitating disease. The same enlarged basket of depression genes also underpins other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

“This is a game changer,” said Patrick Sullivan, director of the Center for Psychiatric Genomics at the University of North Carolina and co-leader of the research. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, provide targets for new drugs and other forms of treatment.

“We all carry genetic variants for depression, but those with a higher burden (of genes) are more susceptible,” said co-author Naomi Wray, a researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia. “Many life experiences can contribute to the risk of depression, but identifying the genetic factors opens new doors for research into the biological drivers.”

Being overweight or obese was also shown to be a risk factor for depression, the data showed. The relative importance of genetic or environmental factors underlying depression varies from individual to individual, but is almost always a combination of the two.

“Figuring out the genetic basis of major depression has been really hard,” said Sullivan. “We now have a deeper look than ever before into the basis of this awful and impairing human malady.”

The consortium of nearly 250 scientists combed through half-a-dozen data sets covering more than 135,000 people clinically diagnosed with depression, and compared their genetic profiles to those of 344,000 people with no signs of the disease. Variations on 44 genes – 30 of them identified for the first time – showed an unambiguous correlation.

Worldwide, some 14% of adults are subject to bouts of deep depression, which is also a top contributor to long-term disability, according to the World Health Organisation. Only about half of patients diagnosed respond well to existing medications and treatments.

“This study has shed a bright light on the genetic basis of depression, but this is only the first step,” said co-author Cathryn Lewis of King’s College London. “We need further research to uncover more of the genetic underpinnings, and to understand how genetics and environmental stressors work together to increase the risk of depression.”

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Sunny Side Up: Suppressing Our Emotions Denies Us Positive Feelings

Sunny Side Up: Suppressing Our Emotions Denies Us Positive Feelings -  When I was growing up, there was a popular expression among adults: children should be seen and not heard. This particularly applied to showing emotion, more so if you were a boy.

As a result, many young people I grew up with found it difficult to properly express themselves, which often lead to aggressive and violent behaviour as boys in their teens struggled to understand and regulate their thoughts and feelings.

For those less inclined to lash out, bouts of anxiety and depression would be common. Emotion has been a part of our human makeup far longer than language – to expect people to continually suppress their mental states is bound to cause problems.

I remember a conversation with a friend who had a tendency towards aggression. He was a talented footballer and had trials with a few professional clubs. After signing to one, however, it didn’t take long for him to be struck off the youth programme because of his volatile nature.

It was sad to see – he really could have been something special. One evening, we were both with some friends at a park and I asked him, “You’ve got an amazing chance to make something of your life. What’s going on?”

He replied, “I’ve got too much going on in my head, and I don’t know how to be any different. No one will help. They see me as a bad person, so I just accept it.”

Having grown up under hard circumstances, this was a rare instance of vulnerability shown by my friend. His expressions were usually limited to indifference and aggression. If he was sad, he’d drink to forget the cause of his sadness.

I felt so sorry for him, as his life could’ve been so much better if only he was able to open up to people who could provide support and guidance.

In this part of the world, there’s a similar view towards showing emotion, although there seems to be a different motivation, namely that emotions are seen to dilute our rational thinking, reasoning and mental performance.

In a conversation with Dr Eugene Tee, an emotions researcher, he suggested that it’s important for Malaysians to realise the value of expressing themselves.

In his book, Of Bromances And Biting Cute Babies (co-authored with Dr Tsee Leng Choy), it’s suggested that when people suppress their emotions, they tend to feel fewer positive feelings and experience more unpleasant emotions. Over time, they can feel less supported by friends and family, become depressed, and have a bleak outlook of their future.

This ties in with the warning offered by sociologist Brene Brown, who advises that it’s not possible to be selective in the feelings we suppress. When we force our negative emotions to the back of our mind, we also suppress positive feelings.

When we consider that emotions are a big part of what makes us human, it’s little wonder that, when we don’t engage with them properly, it can cause all sorts of issues. For as long as we feel unable to process our emotions in a healthy way, both individuals and society are bound to pay a heavy price.

Perhaps one of the reasons why depression and anxiety are so prevalent among young people today is because there is no accepted outlet for the genuine expression of feelings such as sadness, fear, anger and inadequacy.

Malaysians need to develop greater compassion towards themselves and to know it’s OK to not be OK, and that many of those we walk past in the streets and shopping malls are burdened with similar struggles when it comes to processing their emotions.

Life is often uneasy and relatively unfair for all of us. Everyone has their traumas and tragedies. But one of the best things about our common humanity is that we can each relate to the challenges of another, and be able to lend a helping hand or listening ear when needed.

Of course, culture plays a significant role in how we engage with feelings. But when we strip away the layers of nationality, custom and tradition, we are ultimately beings who feel and so continually pushing away our emotions can present powerful consequences regardless of who or where we are.

And for those who say that they get on with life just fine without feeling the need to express their emotions, it’s great to have such mentally strong people who remind us of the enduring human spirit.

On the other hand, many of us who do struggle from time to time remind us of the vulnerable side of humanity, which allows for those much-needed qualities of community, compassion, love and understanding to flourish.

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Does Wearing A face Mask Really Protect Against Air Pollution

Does Wearing A face Mask Really Protect Against Air Pollution - Despite being a common sight in polluted cities, particularly those in Asia, new research suggests that face masks designed to filter out pollution particles may not be as effective as they claim to be.

Carried out by an international team of researchers from Heriot-Watt and the Institute of Occupational Medicine in the UK, the study assessed the effectiveness of a selection of masks in Beijing.

With estimates suggesting that air pollution causes 1.6 million premature deaths in China each year, the researchers also looked at the levels of air pollution in the capital and the potential effects on health.

The team purchased nine masks to test. All nine claimed that they would protect wearers from inhaling fine particle pollution, which primarily comes from vehicle exhausts as well as fuel combustion and power plants.

Also known as PM2.5, fine particulate matter are tiny particles suspended in the air measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller, which, when inhaled, are deposited in the lungs. By comparison, a human hair is between 50 and 70 micrometers thick.

The team first tested how effective each mask was at filtering pollution particles by drawing airborne diesel exhaust through a section of the mask’s material for 30 minutes and measuring the levels of particulate matter and black carbon on both sides.

The masks were then tested on 10 volunteers who were exposed to diesel exhaust in a lab while performing everyday tasks such as talking, sitting, bending over and walking.

The results showed that the masks varied significantly in their effectiveness, with the team finding that depending on the material used for the mask, the average particle and carbon penetration ranged from 0.26% to 29%.

The tests on the volunteers revealed even greater difference, with the team finding that the average leakage from the masks ranged from as low as three percent to as much as 68% while the participants performed sedentary tasks such as sitting.

While performing active tasks the average leakage ranged from seven percent to 66%. “Only one mask had an average leakage below 10% on both active and sedentary tests,” added lead researcher John Professor Cherrie.

Although retail masks must be certified to local or international standards, the results suggest that the face masks currently found on the market may not provide adequate protection.

Although little information is available on which product will offer the best protection, Professor Cherrie offers some advice.

“If it’s important for you to protect yourself or your family with masks, choose the best one you can and look for one marketed to workplaces. Don’t opt for the cheapest option, choose the one that’s most likely to do the best job.”

The results can be found published online in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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Seeing ‘Worms’ Everywhere? It’s OK. It’s All Just In Your Eye

Seeing ‘Worms’ Everywhere? It’s OK. It’s All Just In Your Eye - It’s a description I’ve heard many times in my practice – worms, spiders, flies – and they usually indicate the same problem: floaters.

Floaters typically appear when tiny pieces of the eye’s gel-like vitreous break loose within the inner back portion of the eye. When we’re born and through our youth, the vitreous has a gel-like consistency. As we age, the vitreous begins to dissolve and liquefy to create a watery centre.

Some undissolved gel particles will occasionally float around in the more liquid centre of the vitreous. These particles can take on many shapes and sizes to become floaters. This can sometimes be disturbing as the floaters shift as we move our eyes and head.

One or more floaters may appear as lines or cobwebs. But if the numbers increase from a few to many, or if you see flashes of light or “falling stars”, or worse a “black curtain”, you should seek an ophthalmologist’s opinion as such signs may indicate a tear in the retina – the layer of nerves that send visual impulses to your brain telling you what you see.

Most of the time, these floaters do not cause problems except to fill our time trying to chase away these disturbing images. I’ve seen my grandmother try to swat a fly that she says is always flying around her.

Needless to say that can prove unsettling, but there is hope because floaters slowly fade, and you rarely see them unless you’re looking at bright light or a clear blue sky.

Risk of getting floaters

Floaters are age-related, so it may be seen quite commonly in individuals over the age of 50. But individuals who are near-sighted may notice it earlier in life.

It’s also common for people who’ve experienced trauma or injury to the eye, and even for patients who’ve undergone cataract surgery.

All this goes to show that floaters are quite common.

An October 2015 study published in the journal Ophthalmology revealed that, among people who experienced the sudden symptom of eye floaters and/or flashes of light, 39.7% had a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) and 8.9% had a torn retina.

Other research has shown that up to 50% of people with a retinal tear will subsequently develop a detachment of the retina, which could lead to significant vision loss.

In cases of retinal tear or detachment, treatment must take place as soon as possible so that an eye surgeon can reattach the retina and restore function before vision is lost permanently.

PVDs are far more common than retinal detachments and are often not emergencies, even when floaters appear suddenly.

Some vitreous detachments can also damage the retina by tugging on it, leading to a tear or detachment.

Light flashes, known as photopsia, can occur when your retina receives non-visual (mechanical) stimulation, which can happen when it is being tugged, torn or detached. These light flashes may appear as lightning bolts, flickering lights or random sparks.

Causes of floaters

As mentioned above, PVDs are common causes of floaters. Far less commonly, these symptoms can be associated with retinal tears or detachments that may be linked to PVDs.

But what leads to vitreous detachments in the first place?

As the eye develops, the vitreous gel fills the inside of the back of the eye, pressing against the retina and attaching to its surface.

Over time, the vitreous becomes more liquefied in the centre. This sometimes means that the central, more watery vitreous cannot support the weight of the heavier, more peripheral vitreous gel.

The peripheral vitreous gel then collapses into the central, liquefied vitreous, detaching from the retina (like jelly that’s not properly formed separating from the inside of a mould or bowl, leaving tiny chunks behind).

Eye floaters resulting from a PVD are then concentrated in the more liquid vitreous found in the interior centre of the eye.

It’s estimated that more than half of all people will experience a PVD by age 80. Thankfully, most of these PVDs do not lead to a torn or detached retina.

Light flashes during this process mean that traction is being applied to your retina while the PVD takes place.

Once the vitreous finally detaches and pressure on the retina is eased, the light flashes should gradually subside.

image: http://www1.star2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/sfit_fiteye0605_py_3-300x300.jpg

Floaters, eye problems, vitrectomy, laser vitreolysis, Star2.com

A patient with floaters being treated by an ophthalmologist using the laser vitreolysis technique.

Treatment for floaters

In most cases, treatment is not necessary as these floaters will fade over time.

In the past, the only treatment for eye floaters was an invasive surgical procedure called a vitrectomy.

In this procedure, some or all of the vitreous is removed from the eye (along with the eye floaters within it) and is replaced with a sterile clear fluid.

But the risks of a vitrectomy usually outweigh the benefits for eye floater treatment.

These risks include surgically-induced retinal detachment and serious eye infections. On rare occasions, vitrectomy surgery can cause new or more floaters.

For these reasons, most eye surgeons do not recommend vitrectomy anymore to treat eye floaters and spots.

Recently, a laser procedure called laser vitreolysis has been introduced that is a much safer alternative to vitrectomy for eye floater treatment.

In this in-office procedure, a laser beam is projected into the eye through the pupil and is focused on large floaters, which breaks them apart and/or frequently vapourises them so they disappear or become much less bothersome.

However, it is always best to first and foremost get an opinion from your ophthalmologist, who will do a routine eye examination to rule out any problems like holes and tears in your retina.

If there are none, there’s simply no need for any treatment at all.

So, once you know the floaters will cause no problems, you can eventually learn to ignore them, and trust me when I say you will see them less often.

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