Author: Tony Zhang

This year’s Oscar was nothing but full of drama. Chris Rock, the comedian and host for the event, made jokes on Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness on stage, and was subsequently slapped by her husband Will Smith.  Ms. Smith has a condition called alopecia – hair loss in simple words. It can affect our scalp or the entire body and could be either temporary or permanent. A study estimated that around 73% of Asian population has reported alopecia episode at least once in their life.  Figure 1. Jada Pinkett Smith What are the symptoms?  Hair loss is usually most noticeable over…

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders of heart and blood vessels. They include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, congenital heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism etc. Overall, CVDs are the leading cause of death globally. In 2019, 18.6 million people died from CVDs, 58% of which occurred in Asia. Total CVD-caused deaths account for 35% of total deaths in Asia. This article will look at 5 Asian icons who died of cardiovascular diseases. 1. Mao Zedong (1893-1976) Figure 1. Mao Zedong Mao Zedong was the first President of the People’s Republic of China…

We are all familiar with the main symptoms of COVID: fever, cough, fatigue, loss of taste or smell, diarrhoea, generalised aches, and pains etc. In serious cases, patients also report shortness of breath, loss of speech or mobility and confusion. Minor symptoms are usually treated with over-the-counter medications such as paracetamol to relieve pain and fever. Other anti-viral medications like remdesivir, molnupiravir, sotrovimab, are also utilized in patients with severe symptoms or unvaccinated patients. In the hubbub of Western medication  for COVID, a traditional Chinese medication (TCM) called Lianhua Qingwen, has slowly caught the public’s attention, considering that it has…

On Monday March 28th, Singapore’s government published the White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development, which proposed that women aged 21 to 35 could soon be able to choose to freeze their eggs regardless of their marital status. Currently, only married couples with medical conditions are allowed to carry out this procedure. Many people are wondering, what exactly is egg freezing? What does it do and should I go through this procedure as well? This article will bring you through the following questions. What is egg freezing?  The egg is the female reproductive cell, also known as the ovum or oocyte.…

Globally, 64.2% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In Asia, more than 7.6 billion doses have been given so far, that’s 164 doses per hundred people. Many countries in Asia and across the world rolled out their third dose (or first booster) vaccination scheme from late 2021. So far, more than 70% of the population in Singapore, 63% of population in South Korea, 36% of population in China and 35% of population in Japan have had their third dose. However, as more news have emerged on a potential fourth dose of COVID…

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mental health condition characterised by extreme shifts in mood. Key symptoms include episodes of mania – extreme elevated mood, with episodes of depression – extreme low mood. In 2020, it has been estimated around 2.8% of world population has bipolar disorder, which equate to approximately 220 million people around the world living with this condition. Before we dive into the Asian context, let’s first have a look at what bipolar disorder is about.  Figure 1 Two extreme sides of bipolar disorder What are the symptoms? As mentioned, patients with bipolar disorder…

A stroke is a medical condition where the blood supply to parts of the brain is interrupted or reduced, resulting in a lack of oxygen supply to brain cells. It is a medical emergency that requires prompt treatment. The overall incidence of stroke in Asia varies between 116 to 483 per 100 000 people annually. Mortality rates and stroke burden range from a low of 43.3 per 100 000 person per year (burden 706.6/100 000 people) in Japan and Singapore, 47.9 per 100 000 person per year (burden 804.2/100 000 people) to the highest being in Indonesia 193.3 per 100 000 person per year (burden 3382.2/100 000 people)…

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that make people hard to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep again. It can make us hard to concentrate and think properly. People may feel irritable, sad in the day and experience mild to severe headaches. In the long term, insomnia can predispose to many health conditions including depression, anxiety, cardiac arrhythmia, heart failure, and asthma.  A 2017 study carried out in China indicated that around 15% of Chinese population experience insomnia. Meanwhile, multiple studies done in South Korea indicated the prevalence…

Stroke refers to a medical condition when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or reduced, resulting in a lack of oxygen supply to brain cells.  It is a medical emergency that requires prompt treatment. A delay of a few minutes, depending on the location and type of stroke, could be fatal. Early action can significantly reduce brain damage and other complications.  The overall incidence of stroke in Asia varies between 116 to 483/100 000 people per year. Mortality rate and stroke burden range from the lowest in Japan at 43.3 per 100,000 person-years and Singapore at…

The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of 12th March 2022, more than 456 million people have been infected with 6.1 million people died from COVID-19 worldwide. Over the past two years of the pandemic, more than a dozen different variants have been identified. Many are insignificant and have only spread locally. The major variants like the Delta and Omicron variant has caused significant disruptions to the global effort against COVID-19. Since February 2022, health officials in the United Kingdom officially began monitoring a hybrid strain of the Delta…