Health & Living

With influenza cases seemingly on the rise in recent weeks, we look at how older people are particularly vulnerable to complications from the viral infection. This is of concern especially for those who have coexisting chronic diseases like diabetes. Dr Nordiana Nordin, Consultant Geriatrician from Hospital Sg Buloh, joins us to shed more light on how influenza and diabetes can turn nasty when the...

In 2017, Program ROSE was started as a pilot research programme to improve access to cervical cancer screening among Malaysian women. In conjunction with Cervical Cancer Awareness month, we speak to Prof Dr Woo Yin Ling, consultant gynaecological oncologist, who started Program ROSE, to find out how the program has developed since and its role in cervical cancer screening in Malaysia. See omnystud...

Not too long ago, the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease predicted that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) would be the third leading cause of death by 2020. Having reached this significant milestone, we speak to consultant respiratory physician Dr Ernest Poh about recent updates on the management of COPD and whether there is any progress in reversing the burden cause...

In the 3rd episode of Health: The Nuts & Bolts, the series that goes behind the scenes of our health system, we’re looking at our health workforce. Just about every management self-help book out there will exhort the importance of hiring the right employees in order to guarantee the success of an organisation. Private companies scramble to adopt best practices when it comes to staffing b...

Dr George Lee returns to discuss the latest medical news. Expect deep insights delivered with generous humour. Influenza is back in the news and on our chat groups. Going by anecdotes and forwarded messages on social media, we appear to be looking at an influenza outbreak. However, the Ministry of Health has said that the slight increase in influenza-like illness is still within normal parameters....

Dr George Lee returns to discuss the latest medical news. Expect deep insights delivered with generous humour. Influenza is back in the news and on our chat groups. Going by anecdotes and forwarded messages on social media, we appear to be looking at an influenza outbreak. However, the Ministry of Health has said that the slight increase in influenza-like illness is still within normal parameters....

What happens in the brain of someone who suffers from an extreme addiction? And how would withdrawal from the addictive substance affect the emotions of the individual? Dr Azlina Ahmad Annuar is back with her Brain Waves series, and joining her is Dr Jaya Kumar Murthy, neurophysiologist from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The year 2019 ended on a note of uncertainty for workers in the health sector, who had been told that the government was considering stopping the critical service incentive allowance to certain professions in the civil service. For the health sector, this will include medical officers, pharmacists, dentists and nurses who are joining the service from 1 January 2020. This news ended a year that had...

As we enter the new year and decade, we ask consultant orthopaedic surgeon Dr Rajesh Singh to walk us through some of the most significant advances and improvements in orthopaedic medicine over the past 10 years. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have several nerves in our face, which supply feeling and movement to the face. Imagine when something goes wrong with one of those nerves. One of the more serious conditions affecting the facial nerves is trigeminal neuralgia, which causes severe pain in the face. Dr Puneet Nandrajog, Consultant Neuro & Spine Surgeon from Manipal Hospitals Klang, explains more about this condition. See omn...

1st January marked the beginning of enforcement of the smoking ban in eateries, after an educational period of a year. We look back at how effective the smoking ban has been in changing smokers’ behaviour (or not), and where Malaysia stands when it comes to tobacco control in the region. We’ll be speaking to Dr Mary Assunta, Senior Policy Advisor with Southeast Asia Tobacco Control All...

We are back for our monthly open clinic segment, where we get our doctors to address your health concerns. On today’s show, Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz, Sport Medicine Physician, is here to answer your questions about exercise, fitness and sports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone talks about healthy ageing, but what does it mean? We look at healthy ageing from the perspective of cardiovascular health with Consultant Interventional Cardiologist Dato’ Dr Yap Yee Guan and Consultant Vascular Surgeon Dr Naresh Govindarajanthran, from Sunway Medical Centre, and dietitian L. Mageswary Lapchmanan, from the Ministry of Health. From the heart, we move to mental healt...

Everyone talks about healthy ageing, but what does it mean? We look at managing healthy joints among older people with Consultant Arthroplasty Orthopaedic & Trauma Specialist Dr Suhail Suresh, Consultant Rehabilitation Medicine Specialist Dr Foong Chee Choong, and Consultant Spine Surgeon Dr Lau Choon Ping, from Sunway Medical Centre. In the second part of this show, we discuss cancer care and...

Raising a child in today’s environment is a challenging journey, and parents of children with special needs have more obstacles to navigate. Four parents share their experiences of raising children with unique health challenges: Nori Abdullah, parent of a child with autism; Choo Li-Hsian, parent of a child with Down Syndrome; Adli Yahya, parent of a child with autism; and Edmund Lim, parent...

Children and parents are struggling to cope with all the conflicting demands of modern life. Are today's children adequately prepared to face adulthood? Or are we raising a generation of pampered under-achievers? This is an edited recording of the panel discussion that was held at the BFM Health & Living Jr 2019 by AIA Vitality. Members of the panel are: Dr Cindy Chan, Consultant Developmental...

The biggest ongoing battle in medicine today is over the issue of vaccination. What is fuelling parents’ anxieties about vaccination, and is the medical community able to counter the anti-vaccination movement with scientific arguments alone? This is an edited recording of the panel discussion that was held at the BFM Health & Living Jr 2019 by AIA Vitality. Members of the panel are: Dato...

Allergies among children are on the rise, including skin, respiratory and food allergies. Is the allergy epidemic due to an imbalance in our gut microbiome, or are our environments too sanitised? Consultant Paediatric ENT Dr Priatharisiny Velayutham, Consultant Paediatric Respiratory Physician Dr Norzila Mohamed Zainudin, and Consultant Paediatric Dermatologist Dr Heah Sheau Szu, from Sunway Medic...

Kids today are exposed to rapid technological changes, intense societal pressure, and complex family issues. How do we prepare kids for a future that will place huge demands on them? We caught up with YB Hannah Yeoh, Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Dr Faridah Abu Bakar, Director of the Family Health Development Division, Ministry of Health, and Dato’ Dr Narimah Awi...

Dr George Lee returns to discuss the latest medical news. Expect deep insights delivered with generous humour. For our last show of the year, we look beyond some of the latest headlines involving men’s health. The first focus is on a man born without testicles who underwent a transplant to receive one from his identical twin brother, making it only the third known transplant of this type. We...

Our interaction with our community and environment plays a vital role in our health over the long term. Four individuals from various backgrounds share how their health decisions have shaped their lives: Ranjit Kaur, breast cancer survivor; Andrew Tan, vice president, KLASS; Muha Aziz, arts enthusiast living with a rare disease; and Poh Kim Pheng from the Malaysian Mental Health Association. This...

Our interaction with our community and environment plays a vital role in our health over the long term. Four individuals from various backgrounds share how their health decisions have shaped their lives: Ranjit Kaur, breast cancer survivor; Andrew Tan, vice president, KLASS; Muha Aziz, arts enthusiast living with a rare disease; and Poh Kim Pheng from the Malaysian Mental Health Association. This...

How does the world around us – our environment, our culture and our relationships – interact with our health? While we have become more affluent over the last 62 years, many Malaysians appear to have moved away from our traditional dietary habits. Now, with obesity and diabetes on the rise, we seem desperate to experiment with fad diets, forgetting that each of us has a unique microbio...

How does the world around us – our environment, our culture and our relationships – interact with our health? The Deputy Minister of Health discusses how we can create a culture of health, and look at the environmental, economic and social forces that affect our health system. This is an edited recording of the townhall session that was held at the BFM Health & Living Live 2019 by...

How does the world around us – our environment, our culture and our relationships – interact with our health? We look at traditional medicine and its place in the Malaysian healthcare system today, and ask whether evidence-based medicine is the only way forward. This is an edited recording of the debate session that was held at the BFM Health & Living Live 2019 by AIA Vitality. Deb...