Lack of sleep is a silent epidemic in the modern world. Most of us associate health problems with poor diet and lack of exercise, but we fail to acknowledge how sleep affects mental and physical health.

In the world, researchers have found that for most working adults, the 7-hour sleep is considered normal. While sleeping may be different for individuals, an average of 7 hours is still considered inadequate.

Below are some habits that contribute to difficulty sleeping.

Eating just before bedtime

This is a common scenario in a busy household. After doing extra hours at work, you come home late to have a late dinner. You don’t give your body enough time to start digesting before going to bed because you’re tired from work. If you want a late-night snack, try food which contain calcium which promote sleep such as milk and crackers.

Drinking coffee before bedtime

Do not drink coffee, tea or soda three hours before bedtime. There are also plenty of food that contain caffeine such as dark chocolate. You will be tossing and turning in bed until the caffeine wears off.

Drinking alcohol before bedtime

There is a belief that alcohol promotes good sleep because it makes you feel sleepy, but most people forget that falling asleep quickly does not equate to a restful sleep. Alcohol disturbs the body’s sleep cycle when it is metabolized.

Relying on your alarm clock to wake up

If you go to bed anxious whether you will wake up on time, you are just making it more difficult to sleep. Maybe you should get rid of the alarms completely and focus on going to bed early instead.

You don’t try to relax before sleeping

Tucking yourself in to bed and then closing your eyes will not guarantee you will sleep within minutes. In fact, you might feel even more anxious if you’re still awake with your eyes closed. Try to relax first to signal to your body that it’s time to go to bed. Turn down the lights, put away your phone, and keep away distractions. Reading on your phone, laptop or e-reader or reading a printed book under a lamp are bad ideas, too.

Your bedroom isn’t cool

Not only will lights and noise make for an unrestful sleep, but even warm temperatures. Your room should be cool and relaxing, not hot and humid.

Using your smartphone before going to sleep

Blue light can disturb your sleep pattern. The content you browse will also keep your mind alert and might not make you feel relaxed. No social media post if worth losing sleep over.

You don’t go to bed consistently

It is important to stick to your regular sleeping schedule no matter how busy you are. It might be strange to you, but our bodies cannot adjust quickly to cope with changing sleeping patterns. You will notice this when a person moves to a location with a different time zone.

Many distance running and marathon events are held in Singapore yearly. This is a sport that’s been constantly evolving throughout the years. Elite runners are getting faster and records are getting broken left and right. Even so, there are still many misconceptions about running itself, both from average, “non-running” people and other fitness circles. Here are some of those and why you shouldn’t believe them too easily.

Running is easy

Obviously, everyone knows how to run. But not everyone can run competitively. In this case, running competitively means knowing the bodily mechanisms and movements that help one run in the most effective way possible.

For instance, the strategies and training programs can be very different for a sprinter and a long-distance runner. But then again, they do share common knowledge about running itself. If you don’t know the proper running form for example, and you challenge a long-distance runner to a sprint, it’s still very possible for you to lose.

Too much running can decrease muscle mass

Though this is partially true, running doesn’t exactly eat away at your muscles. This misconception is fueled by the fact that just about all elite runners we see are skinny. But it’s exactly because they’re skinny that they become elite runners and not that they’re skinny because they run.

In reality, if you do strength training, you won’t reduce your muscle size even if running is your main form of exercise. Of course, if you start increasing your mileage and stop lifting weights, that’s when you’ll stop seeing muscle gains. You won’t get smaller but won’t get any bigger as well. 

A runner has to take in as much water as possible

When it came to hydration, the runners from before thought they shouldn’t let themselves get thirsty and filled up on as much water as possible. This is because thirst is a sign of dehydration and they thought that becoming dehydrated was their body’s way of telling them to slow down.

However, because they were runners, they could never slow down. Later on though, studies have found that too much water intake before a race could drop blood sodium levels. This can cause swelling and have many long-term repercussions on our health. So, it’s been recommended to drink water only when you get thirsty.

You don’t need to build strength, just endurance

Strength and power are very important aspects in a runner’s arsenal. To use the classic example, you can’t put a Lamborghini engine on a regular old compact car. The car itself won’t be able to take the power. You need to make your body stronger so that you can maximize your potential for endurance as well.

In addition, strength training will help you make your bones, joints, and muscles stronger. This means that when you do some kind of strength or mobility-focused exercise, you’re not only making yourself more explosive, you’re also becoming less vulnerable to injuries.

Although there is no for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it is possible for an infected person to live a normal life for many years with the right treatment. The goal of the treatment is to slow the progress of the virus and to avoid the complications that come with a weakened immune system. After all, HIV-infected person will not die from the virus itself but from other opportunistic illnesses that the body cannot fight off.

Below is an overview of the treatments for HIV you might be able to get if you tested positive for the virus.

What are the types of drugs for treating HIV?

Currently there are five classes of medication to treat HIV. The method is collectively called antiretroviral therapy which indicate the main purpose of the drugs. Since HIV is a retrovirus, it means that the RNA of the HIV inserts it DNA copy into the host cell to replicate. ART will then block the virus from doing this to slow down its progress.

Which medication should you take?

Most doctors will recommend that a person who has tested positive for HIV should start taking medication immediately regardless of the CD4 T cell count. A combination of three medications from two classes is the standard in most hospitals in order to prevent the virus from creating a drug-resistant strain.

What are the classes of ART?

NNRTI or non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors prevents copying by turning off a protein; PI or protease inhibitors will inactivate the protease so the virus can’t make copies; NRTI or nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors have incorrect copies of the HIV; integrase inhibitors disable integrase, the protein that is inserted into the CD4 T cells; and entry/fusion inhibitors blocks the entry of the virus into the CD4 T cells.

Do you need to take medications for HIV?

Antiviral medication must be offered regardless of the CD4 T cell count, especially if it is under 350. If you also have complications or other conditions that might be aggravated by a weak immune system, you must get treated right away. Without the medication, you are vulnerable to opportunistic infections.

Are there any side effects?

Because the medication is a lifetime commitment, you have to expect that there will be side effects. Majority of the people getting the treatment suffer only from mild side effects, so correct combinations must be determined.

Regular checkups with the doctor should be observed to monitor the progress of the virus and treat other side effects such as high blood sugar levels, high cholesterol levels, weakened bones, and possible heart diseases. You CD4 T cell count and viral load must also be checked every six months.

Can a pregnant woman get treatment?

To prevent transmission of the virus from mother to child, the mother must be treated as early as possible. The baby will also receive treatment for up to six weeks after birth. Most medication for HIV are safe for pregnant women and studies show that there are no risks for birth defects.

A headache can be a symptom of an illness or it could be an effect of medication and injury, that is why not all headaches will go away just by taking an over-the-counter pain reliever. Being able to recognize the differences in headaches mean that you either get a proper medication and rest or survive through a pain-filled unproductive day at work.

These are the types of headaches you need to remember.

Tension Headache

This is often triggered by stress regardless of age of current health condition. While the pain usually goes away after a while, it isn’t a crippling, throbbing pain that will get in the way of work. There might be some sensitivity in some areas of the body such as the shoulders, neck, forehead, and scalp. If, however, you experience this regularly, you need to schedule an appointment with your doctor in Singapore.

Migraine

Migraineurs have different symptoms but they commonly experience intense pain that pulses or throbs inside the head. During an attack, they can be sensitive to light and sound or they could also experience symptoms before an attack happens. Most of the time over-the-counter medication does not help with the pain, that is why migraineurs are advised to seek help from a doctor to identify triggers and reduce attacks.

Hypnic Headache

This is the type of headache that usually happens while the person is asleep. It can also be mistaken for a migraine or cluster headache but the throbbing pain on both sides of the head is a lot milder.

Cluster Headache

This is the worst type of headache you can get because the pain feels like it’s burning or piercing especially on one side of the face or behind one or both eyes. It might be mistaken for a migraine, but it also includes swelling or redness on the areas that are affected, as well as nasal congestion.

Caffeine Headache

This is becoming more common nowadays because of coffee addiction and may be a sign of one of the following: withdrawal, overdose, over-consumption, allergy, and sensitivity to caffeine.

Sinus/Allergy Headache

The headache is the result of the pressure in the sinus area, especially if it is congested. It can also be a symptom of an infection resulting from the congestion. Most people who experience this have sinusitis or seasonal allergies, that is why the goal of the treatment is to reduce the mucus buildup, avoid allergens, and to treat infections with antibiotics.

Hypertension Headache

This should be considered an emergency especially if you have been diagnosed with a heart disease. Symptoms may seem harmless, but an elevated blood pressure should not be ignored. Symptoms include chest pain, difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeat, vision problems, and confusion or fatigue.

Rebound Headache

This is a side effect of the overuse of medications and is usually the result of relying too much on painkillers for headaches. For people who need medication for migraines, they are advised to avoid codeine, to use preventive medications, and to take painkillers not more than twice a week.

Chemotherapy is one of the methods for treatment of cancer, often recommended alongside other treatments such as radiation therapy and surgery. If you have a loved one recommended to undergo chemotherapy, you need to know why it is done, what is it for, and what are its possible effects.

How does chemotherapy work?

The goal of chemotherapy is to disrupt the division and formation of cancer cells, but because healthy cells can be affected, it must be able to minimize the damage through chemotherapy protocols. These protocols are tailored depending on the type of cancer, a method which has been improved throughout the years.

For this to work, there is a medication or a combination of medication that treats cancer. The medication attacks the growing cancer cells which are about to split into two new cells. Other medications also damage only part of the cell that controls it division while other disrupt the chemical processes for cell division.

What is it recommended for?

Chemotherapy may be needed to shrink the tumor before radiation therapy or surgery, after surgery or radiation therapy to kill remaining cancer cells, or if the cancer comes back. The combination of the drugs, the doses, and how long the treatment is will be decided by the doctors by considering the type of cancer, how fat the cancer has spread, tumor size, tumor location, your age, other existing conditions, and how it might affect other functions.

How are doses determined?

The medication given are usually stronger than other medication, but if not given enough or given too much the effect might not be positive. To avoid side effects, doctors compute the dose based on the body weight of the patient or on the body surface area.

Children and the elderly will have different doses than the adults, but sensitivity to certain medications are also considered. The dose may also differ if the person is taking other medications, is overweight, is malnourished, is undergoing another cancer treatment, and has low blood cell count.

What is chemotherapy cycle?

The treatment is given at regular intervals. This is called the therapy cycle which mean that several doses may be given for a few days and then no medication for days or weeks so that the body has enough time to recover from the damage or side effects.

What are the methods of chemotherapy?

In chemotherapy, certain medications are given to target specific cell cycle phases. Alkalyting agents are non-specific but are active during the resting phase; plant alkaloids attack during the division of the cells; antitumor antibiotics attack during multiple phases; antimetabolites incorporate into the cell to stop division; topoisomerase inhibitors stop the topoisomerase enzymes; and antineoplastic which can be retinoids, antimicrotubule, etc.

What are the risks or side effects?

Common side effects of chemotherapy include fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, stomach pain, nerve damage, mouth or throat sores, diarrhea or constipation, loss of appetite, hair loss, vomiting and nausea, blood disorders, difficulty concentrating, and fertility issues.

Breastfeeding has a lot of benefits for both the mother and the infant, because breast milk is healthy for the well-being of the body and the mind. It’s also a great method for mothers to maintain a healthy weight and even for preventing another pregnancy.

If this is your first experience with breastfeeding, however, you meet a lot of challenges such as keeping a healthy diet to produce enough milk for the baby. Here is an overview of the diet that a lactating mom should follow.

No Need for Special Diet

Some women wonder if they need to go on a special diet when breastfeeding, but the answer is that there is no need to follow any diet fad to produce better milk. You can still continue to enjoy the same food you enjoyed before you got pregnant, but there are some food you need to stay away from if they cause allergies or an upset stomach.

You will know if the baby is allergic or intolerant to the food you eat if he/she exhibits the following: diarrhea, vomiting, rashes, hives, dry skin, eczema, wheezing, coughing, and production of green-colored stools with blood or mucus.

Stay Hydrated Always

Although the amount of water you take in will not affect your breast milk production, getting dehydrated will be bad for you. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty before replenishing your fluids. You should also limit your intake of alcoholic drinks, artificially-sweetened beverages with added sugars, and caffeinated drinks such as tea and coffee.

Alcohol and caffeine when taken in moderation will not be bad for your baby, so limit your coffee or tea to two cups a day and your alcohol to one glass or less.

You Might Need Supplements

If you stick to a vegan diet, your baby might not get enough vitamin B12, which can lead to a lot of developmental problems. While vitamin B12 supplements might be an option, you might want to switch to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet for the duration of your breastfeeding experience, because you will be feeding not just yourself but your baby as well.

Medications, Alcohol, and Smoking

If you are taking medications or will be required to take medications, don’t forget to inform your doctor in Singapore if you are breastfeeding. Some medications are safe for the baby, but others can have nasty side-effects.

Mothers are also advised to stay away from alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, tobacco, and dangerous drugs when having a baby. If you have problems with any of these, ask for advise from your doctor on how to minimize or to quit your addiction.

Watch Your Diet and Calorie Intake

Ideally, a breastfeeding mom should have a recommended daily intake of 1,800 to 2,400 calories. It’s also okay to eat once every four hours to keep a normal blood sugar level, consuming one or two of the following food groups: vegetables: four to seven servings daily; fruits: three to five servings daily; dairy: two to three servings daily; whole grains: four to seven servings daily; and lean protein: two to three servings daily.

Don’t deprive yourself of your favorite treats, however, as long as you eat in moderation.