Health Blogs - Health Insight

FASTING

March 22, 2024

Ancient man’s lifestyle of walking long distances daily in search of food and shelter, typified by opportunistic eating and either fasting or feasting, also meant that they had to go for long periods of time without food when none was readily available. It makes you wonder if the human body was originally designed to have three square meals a day, with snacking on demand. The bodies of our ancestors must have been able to function without food for irregular and extended periods of time. The body fortunately still has biological survival mechanisms that gets activated when deprived of food for extended periods. Modern man practices fasting for health reasons or for cultural or religious beliefs, such as the Ramadan fast

CHOLESTEROL INSIGHTS

March 5, 2024

Cholesterol is a fatty substance that occurs naturally in the body. It is essential for the creation of every cell in the body, as cholesterol is an essential component of cell membranes, where it provides fluidity to allow transporters, such as those for glucose and hormones, to transverse cell membranes. Cholesterol is a precursor for the making of the most important steroid hormones in the body, such as cortisol, oestrogen, testosterone, and many others. Cholesterol is also essential for making bile acids, which help with the digestion of food. Where does cholesterol come from? The cholesterol in our bodies comes from two different sources, it is either made “afresh” in the cells, a process referred to in biological terms as

THE HUMAN VIROME

February 12, 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the devastating effect a virus can have on the world’s population. Other familiar viruses that affect people are the influenza virus, the Ebola virus, and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The human body is no stranger to viruses and there is indeed a viper’s nest of viruses in and on the body! Not only viruses, but there are also other microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and archaea (primitive single-celled organisms) present and in such large numbers that they are viewed as one of the organs of the body. The bacteria and these other microbes make up what is known as the microbiome, which means “small living community”. The viruses in the human body are collectively

ALCOHOL INTAKE AND THE RISK FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

February 12, 2024

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading global cause of death. Controversy has surrounded the role that the consumption of alcohol plays in the risk for cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have indicated that excess alcohol consumption increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, but low alcohol intake is regarded as beneficial to cardiovascular health. What is not clear from these studies is whether these health benefits are due to the low intake of alcohol, or whether these apparent benefits are due to other (healthy) lifestyle factors usually associated with people who drink very little alcohol. An in-depth UK study, published in the journal JAMA Cardiology in 2022, shed new light on the risk of different levels of habitual alcohol intake on cardiovascular disease.

METABOLIC HEALTH

February 7, 2024

When we eat, food gets broken down (digested) in the gut. Digested food is absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, supplying energy and nutrients to the body. The body is made from organs and trillions of tiny, microscopic cells, which work together to keep us alive. Our health relies on this community of organs and cells working together and looking after each other. As nutrients in the bloodstream reach the cells, chemical reactions take place and molecules are built up, broken down, and used for energy. Chemical reactions happen continuously inside cells, which converts the nutrient from the food we eat into molecules that are useful for the cells. Life needs energy and chemical reactions in the cells extract

RUNNING OUT OF TIME

February 5, 2024

Hearing that your illness cannot be cured is a devastating experience. Rather than using the dreaded words “terminally ill”, the Koreans describe it in a more compassionate way, namely as “running out of time”. As a matter of fact, all of us are all running out of time, and we don’t know when our last day will be. The dreaded diagnosis: When an illness such as cancer does not respond to treatment anymore and the patient’s condition continues to deteriorate, doctors refer to terminal or end-stage cancer. For doctors it is difficult to make a time-limiting diagnosis and even more difficult to inform the patient that he or she is likely to run out of time much sooner than

ARE NIGHTSHADE VEGETABLES BAD FOR YOU?

January 30, 2024

Flavor of the month diets seems to come and go, with social media trending specific foods to eat, or avoid altogether. Lately claims have been doing the rounds that vegetables in the nightshade family, such as tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and potatoes, are bad for you and should be avoided. From gluten free, to diary free, to all-meat, to no meat, it is not easy to decide which foods to put on your personal watch list. Should nightshades be added to your watch list? What are nightshades? Both edible and non-edible nightshade plants are part of the Solanaceae botanical family with more than 2 000 different species. The main edible members of the nightshade family are: Tomatoes. Potatoes (but not sweet

THE CARNIVORE DIET

January 24, 2024

Trending diets seem to come and go, with the latest fad diet becoming flavour of the month. One of these trending diets is the carnivore diet, also known as the all-meat diet. True to its name, the carnivore diet implies that you only eat meat and other animal products for every meal. For those who love to eat meat, the carnivore diet seems to be just the ticket, as you only eat meat, fish, eggs, and some other animal products. Aiming for zero carbs per day, even fruit and vegetables are excluded. The carnivore diet originated from the controversial belief that our ancestors ate mostly meat and fish, and that the modern high-carb diets result in today’s high rates of

VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY

January 12, 2024

Vitamins play a crucial role in the human body’s metabolism and these exotic molecules are essential for the proper functioning of cells in the body. Vitamins are organic chemicals that must be obtained from dietary sources, as the body does not make vitamins. Theory has it that somewhere along the process of evolution, our bodies have lost the ability to make vitamins, so instead we need to obtain them from our diet. Of course there would be one exception to prove the rule, and in the case of vitamins, it is Vitamin D, which our cells in the skin can make if there is enough sunlight. No wonder it is referred to as the “sunshine vitamin”. The epidermal layer of

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