IN today’s health-oriented world, the four major players – diet, exercise, smoking and alcohol abuse – are in the spotlight. Diet weighs heavily on this equation and has also been…

One of the most popular and very useful medications today worldwide is Metformin (Glucophage). This drug, whose molecular formula, C4H11N5, was first synthesized in 1929 and clinically introduced in the…

A DIET high in processed meat (sausages, luncheon meats, etc.) may increase the risk of carnivores developing pancreatic cancer by almost 70 percent, reported a recent major study that was…

What causes palpitation? Palpitation (pounding heart beat, harder and faster than normal) could be due to extrinsic causes like ingestion of a stimulant (coffee, tea, cola drinks, chocolates, some medications,…

What is cervical cancer?  Cervical cancer is malignant tumor of the cervix (mouth of the womb). It is the second most cancer in women and the third most common gynecologic…

Coconut water (buko juice) is a popular drink in Asia and South America. The top ten countries on the list of world-leading coconut producers according to volume are: Indonesia, Philippines,…

Providing a smoking area within the same building with one ventilation system is like designating a urinating area in a swimming pool HealthJustice Philippines, a vigilant think tank and advocacy…

 Depression is a most significant risk factor in suicide. In today’s busy, impatient, materialistic, and fast-paced society, people are subjected to various stressors in life everyday. Encumbered by their personal…

What is CPAP? CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, the best treatment, the accepted evidence-based standard of care, for persons with confirmed Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). What is OSA?…

IT is quite alarming that 45 to 50 percent of men and women in the United States have an HPV—genital Human Papillomavirus (HPV)—infection. This information was recently reported by the…

THE silent killer of the 1970s, high blood pressure, is now replaced by metabolic syndrome, a cluster of three or more risk factors like abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high…

An important study conducted at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia showed that people who sleep less tend to weigh heavier than those who sleep more. The clinical…

ABOUT 25 percent of physicians practicing in the United States graduated from foreign medical schools who had their internship/medical/surgical residency training in the U.S. More than 22,000 of them are…

Earlier this March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that “nine deaths and hundreds of cases of a rare cancer have been linked with breast implants.” The malignancy…

I wrote an article back in 1998 about Viagra, a headliner around the world then when it was first introduced that year. Two decades next year, Viagra and its competitors,…

YOU and I are social animals. Our two-legged and four-legged friends are also “social” creatures. They are usually in pairs or in herds. Like us, humans, these animals apparently also…

WHILE colon cancer rates have been going down among the elderly (55 and older) since the 1980s, they are increasing among those in their 20s and 30s. This was the…

WHAT is OPCAB? OPCAB stands for off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, which is the most popular minimally invasive heart bypass operation today, one that is done on a beating heart….

THE body is a wonderful natural chemical factory. Whatever we eat, drink or apply to our body is absorbed and automatically transformed into energy (fuel) or to various hormones and…

The clamor for a healthier lifestyle has transformed society into more conscious, more intelligent, and more discriminating consumers of food and food ingredients. Truth in food labeling is a law…

Countless lives around the world have been saved by CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation). Accounts by locals on this remote Alubihod beach resort in Guimaras Island (across Iloilo), where we were as…

The US-FDA has issued warning on the use of tanning beds at home and at tanning salons: tanning increases the risk for melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, up to 59…

ALMOST every home has Vaseline jelly or some other items with petroleum in it, like lip stick, lip moisturizer, other cosmetics, paint, shoe/leather polish, nylons, ink, roof shingles, etc. One…

Alarming news,  warning to all “PUBLIC health officials from Nevada are reporting on a case of a woman who died in Reno in September from an incurable infection. Testing showed…

WHAT is a stomach ulcer? A stomach ulcer, also known as a gastric ulcer or peptic ulcer, as the second part of the name suggests, is a “wound, an open…

The holidays may be behind us but their physical effects, among others, will linger for a while. Medically speaking, it is actually a time for “damage control” for those of…

MEN’S sweat is good for women Don’t laugh. This is true. Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania found that men’s perspiration has beneficial effects on women’s mood, reduces stress and…

I CAN never quell a stir of fascination, dread and longing, when the house lights dim and the curtain parts in every Filipino American Symphony Orchestra (FASO’s) gentle riot. It…

IN this day and age of health consciousness and the appreciation of the value and role of weight on longevity, interest in weight control and dieting is greater than ever,…

What is anorexia nervosa? This is a “psychological” disorder where the person has a disturbed sense of body image. He/she has a morbid fear of obesity, refuse to maintain a…