Every Hour 6 Malaysians Suffer from Stroke

Six people suffer from strokes every hour in Malaysia, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said.

He said it was surprising that about 52,000 Malaysians suffered strokes in a year when it is the most preventable of all life-threatening health problems.

“In 2005, 17,909 stroke victims were admitted into government hospitals alone throughout the country. Of these, 3,245 of them were fatal. By 2020, this figure is expected to exceed 25,000 every year.

“Many of the risk factors for stroke can be controlled if people change their lifestyle and also exercise regu-

larly,” he said after launching a book entitled Understanding Stroke by the National Stroke Association of Malaysia (Nasam).

Dr Chua said the main reason for the increasing number of stroke cases was that many Malaysians leading an unhealthy lifestyle, including being obese, smoking and failure to control hypertension, high cholesterol level and diabetes.

“Hypertension, which is a major risk factor for stroke, is scarily becoming prevalent among Malaysians.

“According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey in 1986, hypertension was prevalent among 14.4% of adult Malaysians aged 30 years and above. “In 1996, the figure had jumped to 29.9%, which is equivalent to a 100% increase,” he said.

Dr Chua said one of the ministry’s strategies for health-related diseases such as stroke was to organise health-promotion activities.

“Some RM37mil has been allocated to the newly set-up Health Promotion Board to provide funding to health-related NGOs and professional health associations to act as catalysts to promote the culture of healthy living among Malaysians.

“I believe strongly that we should focus more on the prevention than the treatment of diseases.” he said.

Dr Chua commended Nasam for the publication of Understanding Stroke and educating the public on how to reduce the risks of stroke.

The book will be distributed widely to educate the public on stroke prevention and what to do in the event of a stroke.

Nasam chairman Janet Yeo said most of the time people thought they would not suffer a stroke.

“And, when it does happen, it is too late to regret not having done the right things to avoid it,” she said.

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Girl's 5 weeks of Hiccups Finally End

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - She sipped pickle juice, held her breath, breathed into a bag, even went to a neurologist, but for more than five weeks nothing would stop a 15-year-old girl's rapid hiccups — until they finally just stopped on their own.

After trying countless remedies and attracting national media attention, Jennifer Mee said her hiccups suddenly stopped around 5 p.m. Wednesday. No one is certain why.

"Right now, my nose is burning and my throat hurts," she told the St. Petersburg Times, but she said she felt a lot better than she has in weeks.

Jennifer had started hiccuping Jan. 23 close to 50 times a minute and said it only stopped when she was sleeping.

She saw an infectious disease specialist, a neurologist, a chiropractor, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist. She tried a patented device that is designed to stop hiccups, plus all the old remedies. Her mother called the media two weeks ago to try to find more help for her daughter, who ended up on NBC's "Today" show.

According to the National Institutes of Health, hiccups can be triggered by anything from spicy foods to stress, and they can start for no reason at all. They're caused by involuntary contractions of the diaphragm, which causes the vocal cords to close briefly, making that distinctive sound.

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No need to Diet and Exercise to Lose Weight

NEW YORK - A new study debunks the widely held belief that diet plus exercise is the most effective way to lose weight. Researchers report that dieting alone is just as effective as dieting plus exercise.

"For weight loss to occur, an individual needs to maintain a difference between the number of calories they consume everyday and the number of calories they burn through metabolism and physical activity," Dr. Leanne Redman of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, explains in a press release.

"What we found was that it did not matter whether a reduction in calories was achieved through diet or burned everyday through exercise."

Thirty-five overweight but otherwise healthy adults -- 16 men and 19 women -- completed the 6-month study. Twelve were assigned to a diet-only group; they reduced their calorie intake by 25 percent. Twelve were assigned to diet plus exercise; they reduced their calorie intake by 12.5 percent and increased their exercise by 12.5 percent. The remaining 11 subjects made no significant diet or exercise changes.

Redman and colleagues found that the diet-only group and the diet plus exercise group lost roughly the same amount of weight, albeit by different means. They lost about 10 percent of their body weight, 24 percent of their fat mass and 27 percent of their abdominal "visceral" fat -- the deep internal fat linked to heart disease risk.

Therefore, if the goal is purely shedding pounds, diet or exercise will work, according to this study. However, as the researchers point out, regular exercise can improve aerobic fitness and lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

The study also found that exercise did little to tone specific areas of the body. Fat was reduced consistently across the whole body and not more in any one trouble spot.

"Our study then would indicate that weight loss cannot override the way in which any individual stores fat. Perhaps an apple will always be an apple, and a pear, a pear," Redman concludes.

This suggests that people are "genetically programmed for fat storage in a particular pattern and that this programming cannot be easily overcome by weight loss," the authors note in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

:: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2007.

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Mother of Seven fight against Hobbit Obesity

KUALA LUMPUR: Mazliwati Md Shah needs to lose weight in order to breathe and improve her health. For that, she has to endure hours of excruciating pain.

The jovial 31-year-old mother of seven suffers from abdominal cellulitis and Hobbit Obesity, or habitual weight gain, and weighs in at more than 200kg.

She finds it difficult to breathe and move, making her unable to work.

Mazliwati, however, refuses to let her illness get the better of her and is now seeking help from a homeopathy clinic to improve her blood circulation and control her diet.

Part of the treatment requires her to undergo foot reflexology and as her doctor began the treatment, Mazliwati screamed in pain.

But, this was only the beginning.

Mazliwati, a widow, began her treatment at the Al Jawad Homeopathy and Complementary Medicine Clinic in Cheras yesterday.

The clinic’s Dr Ibrahim Burhanuddin said the treatment designed for Mazliwati was to remove toxins from her liver and kidneys.

He said reflexology was the first step in the treatment, followed by performing bekam, a traditional method of removing toxins from the body, on Mazliwati’s abdomen.

"Bekam is a preferable method to treat the liver and kidneys."

He said after five or six hours of reflexology, Mazliwati would discharge "dirty" coloured and foul-smelling urine as the body gets rid of the toxins which have built up in the system.

"She will also need to watch her diet by lowering the intake of fatty foods and fruits such as ciku, grapes and sugar-cane, which contain a high glucose level."

Accompanied by her mother Norchik Talib, 56, and her sister-in-law Rozima Mohd Hod, 28, Mazliwati was also given a homeopathic medication to lower her blood sugar level.

But the former cook will not be able to continue her treatment if she does not receive financial aid soon.

"I’m incapable of working and the travelling cost for my treatment is unbearable," said Mazliwati.

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Spicy Foods Can Kill Cancers

Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells.

They found capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeno peppers, triggers cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria - the cells' energy-generating boiler rooms.

The research raises the possibility that other cancer drugs could be developed to target mitochondria.

The Nottingham University study features in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.

The study showed that the family of molecules to which capsaicin belongs, the vanilloids, bind to proteins in the cancer cell mitochondria to trigger apoptosis, or cell death, without harming surrounding healthy cells.


Capsaicin was tested on cultures of human lung cancer cells and on pancreatic cancers.
Lead researcher Dr Timothy Bates said: "As these compounds attack the very heart of the tumour cells, we believe that we have in effect discovered a fundamental 'Achilles heel' for all cancers.

"The biochemistry of the mitochondria in cancer cells is very different from that in normal cells.
"This is an innate selective vulnerability of cancer cells."

He said a dose of capsaicin that could cause a cancer cell to enter apoptosis, would not have the same effect on a normal cell.



The fact that capsaicin and other vanilloids are already commonly found in the diet proves they are safe to eat.

This could make development of a drug containing them a much quicker and cheaper process.

Dr Bates said: "Capsaicin, for example, is already found in treatments for muscle strain and psoriasis - which raises the question of whether an adapted topical treatment could be used to treat certain types of skin cancer.

"It's also possible that cancer patients or those at risk of developing cancer could be advised to eat a diet which is richer in spicy foods to help treat or prevent the disease."

However, Josephine Querido, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This research does not suggest that eating vast quantities of chilli pepper will help prevent or treat cancer.

"The experiments showed that pepper extracts killed cancer cells grown in the laboratory, but these have not yet been tested to see if they are safe and effective in humans."

Cancer Research UK recommends reducing the risk of cancer by eating a healthy, balanced diet, with plenty of vegetables and fruit.

Dr Bates added that the mitochondria in cancer cells could also be targeted by other compounds.
He said the investigation and development of anti-mitochondrial drugs for cancer chemotherapy was likely to be "extremely significant" in the fight against cancer.



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Housework Cuts Breast Cancer Risk

Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests.

The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport.

Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job.

The women in the Cancer Research UK-funded study spent an average of 16 to 17 hours a week cooking, cleaning and doing the washing.

Experts have long known that physical exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer, probably through hormonal and metabolic changes.

But it has been less clear how much and what types of exercise are necessary for this risk reduction.

And much of past work has examined the link between exercise and breast cancer in post-menopausal women only.

The latest study looked at both pre- and post-menopausal women and a range of activities, including work, leisure and housework.

All forms of physical activity combined reduced the breast cancer risk in post-menopausal women, but had no obvious effect in pre-menopausal women.

Chores protected
Out of all of the activities, only housework significantly reduced the risk of both pre- and post-menopausal women getting the disease.

Housework cut breast cancer risk by 30% among the pre-menopausal women and 20% among the post-menopausal women.

The women were studied over an average of 6.4 years, during which time there were 3,423 cases of breast cancer.

The international authors said their results suggested that moderate forms of physical activity, such as housework, may be more important than less frequent but more intense recreational physical activity in reducing breast cancer risk.

Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK said: "We already know that women who keep a healthy weight are less likely to develop breast cancer.

"This study suggests that being physically active may also help reduce the risk and that something as simple and cheap as doing the housework can help."

He recommend that men and women take regular exercise and maintain a healthy body weight to help prevent cancer.

The research is published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.

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