Dr. Richard Saint Cyr
A Good Night’s Rest
I see a lot of adults and teens in the clinic who are chronically tired and have trouble both falling asleep and staying asleep. There are many reasons for sleep problems. Here are some common causes:
Stress and overwork. Many people lead stressful lives and cannot turn off their brain when they try to sleep. It is crucial to stop daytime-related activities at least two hours before bedtime, simply to allow your brain and body to relax.
Too much non-sleep activity in bed. It’s important not to spend hours in bed doing activities such as watching TV or playing computer games – which sets a bad pattern. It’s healthier to read, watch TV and use the computer in other rooms.
Winter Blues, Be Gone
December’s long nights and holidays are here, which may mean stress and depression for many. And some may have worsening symptoms, which is called seasonal affective disorder or SAD. This depression occurs only during the winter months, when the low amounts of sunlight affect circadian rhythms and lead to depression, which can often be severe. If you’re worried that it’s serious clinical depression, discuss it with your doctor.
Home Treatments
Not everyone who feels down needs to be given prescription medicine. Exercise is a great aid to lift many people out of their winter blues, and it also helps to manage stress. It usually takes at least three weeks of moderate exercising and at least three hours total each week before your brain’s chemistry starts to improve.
Eating Safely
Apart from air pollution, the hottest topic on my blog is always food safety in China. Newspapers cover the topic daily with the latest scandal, or a repeat of old scandals, and it’s a legitimate question to wonder what is safe to eat. As a doctor and a five-year veteran expat in Beijing, I’d like to share my tips.
Dairy Products: The most disgusting food safety scandal, by far, involved the contaminated infant formula in 2008 that killed six children and sickened 300,000 others, most with kidney disease. Unfortunately, since then, melamine has been discovered in a few dairy products, and thus all of China remains justifiably wary of the entire dairy industry.
Childhood Obesity
It’s no secret that children all over the world are putting on too much weight. In the US, an astonishing one out of three children are overweight or obese. Even in China, obesity rates for children are rising. Being overweight as a child can lead to many diseases as an adult, including heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, and cancer. Also, overweight kids have lower self-esteem and higher risks for depression. So what can we do to stop this epidemic?
Necessary Protection
Parents in Beijing have many health questions, but one of the hottest topics is vaccinations. There are quite a few internationally standard vaccines, but there are also some Beijing-specific vaccines.
For routine vaccines, which start during childhood, most countries cover the same basics. If you are unsure if your vaccines are up-to-date, check your home country’s vaccination schedule. A typical problem with adults is that they may not know about adult boosters or new recommendations. For example, most need a tetanus booster every ten years. Also, many countries, including the US, are recommending a pertussis booster for adults. Fortunately, there’s Tdap, an easy combination booster for adults that combines tetanus and pertussis into one quick jab. Another common issue involves people who began their Hepatitis B vaccine series but never finished the three-shot series. It’s very important that people are fully vaccinated for this, as chronic HBV infections are a serious public health issue in China. Also, for all my patients, I recommend a vaccine against Hepatitis A. A combination HBV-HAV vaccine is most convenient.
Travel Bugs
Many of us are planning summer vacations. I often hear stories from patients who had their vacations ruined from diarrhea or other illnesses, which is why it's important for globe trotters to pack a first-aid kit. Every kit should have the basics, most of which are over the counter (OTC), although a couple are prescription-only. Here are my choices:
Diarrhea medicines
The number one cause of a ruined vacation is being stuck on a toilet for days with diarrhea. My favorite OTC medicine for this is loperamide (immodium), which is generally effective after age 2 to slow down watery, non-bloody diarrhea. It doesn't cure the infection but it does cut down the frequency of bathroom visits, which can be a godsend if you are on a long plane or bus ride. Other OTC medicines that can help you recover more quickly include the charcoal powder Smecta as well as probiotic pills like Medilac. Both are available for infants and toddlers.
On-Call Online Family Health Websites You Can Trust: Does Your Favorite Website Pass Screening By its Medical Peers?
There are literally thousands of websites offering medical advice, but a huge proportion of them simply don't provide evidence-based recommendations. To help you find credible information online, here are my favorite health advice websites.
My number-one favorite parent-friendly website is www.familydoctor.org, run by my medical board, the American Academy of Family Physicians. This user-friendly website has hundreds of tips and downloadable PDF files. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a new website (www.healthychildren.org) focusing mostly on wellness and prevention at different ages. The Pediatric Academy's main website (www.aap.org) also has a big list of "Health Topics" which provide authoritative answers on many basic questions.
The Most Important Meal
Did you know that the US Center for Disease Control predicts that one-third of all Americans will have diabetes by the year 2050? This scary statistic is not just an American phenomenon; China already has more diabetics than any other country. The main culprit is always obesity and an unhealthy diet - lifestyle patterns that are set as children, and which are very difficult to change later on.
The Cold: Hard Facts
Most likely you and your family have already been through a couple rounds of the common colds and flu. There are a lot of home remedies and folklore about preventing the common cold, but let's review the best, evidence-based preventive tips.
Have you tried gargling daily with salt water? In a 2005 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, people who gargled up to three times a day had a 40 percent decrease in respiratory illness and symptoms during the winter. Gargling is also a simple way to help improve sore throat pain and swelling, and loosens up mucus.
The Doc Is In: Beat the winter blues
One major problem with Beijing's winters is the dry air, which will dry out everyone's skin and throats. Many of us get dry throats which causes frequent coughing, and sometimes your skin can be so dry that it becomes very itchy and almost painful. To combat this annual problem, I strongly recommend indoor humidifiers to keep humidity levels to a pleasant 40-60 percent. China's electronics stores carry many brands, but I prefer the Yadu brand, which has a good reputation with their large, two-tank model for around RMB 900. Another tip is to apply a good moisturizer just after you shower. You can find many moisturizers at Watsons, including my favorite brand, Neutrogena. More severe cases can use thicker emollients such as Vaseline.
If you are often outside, it helps to use a face warmer, called a kouzhao (口罩). It's worn like a mask and comes in many patterns. It nicely warms up the air you breathe in and also helps slightly with air pollution.
