Results tagged “health” from VANTAN.ORG

We ate well in Shanghai, but I haven’t gained weight since my return. In fact, I lost another 300 grams and have more or less reached my target weight, which I set for myself many years ago. My BMI is now a healthy 20.9, which is mid-range between ‘underweight’ and ‘overweight’ according to our Asian BMI calculator.

It was only in the past year, with the stress of doing an accelerated MBA, finding a meaningful career, plus the scare of having high cholesterol (which runs in the family), when I started to exercise regularly and control my diet. So my weight started going down. It also helped a lot that my family decided to lose weight together, so our dinners were more healthy and portion sizes were controlled. And we kept each other in check.

Beyond BMI, I am also looking at my overall body fat composition and muscle toning. My new weighing scale tells me my current weight, fat and water composition, and also lists my previous readings so I can see the trend.

You see, the story isn’t just about losing weight. I don’t mind gaining a bit of weight if it’s due to muscles toning up at the gym. I do a bit of weight training sometimes, after work. I am also going to make a conscious effort to drink more water, so any weight loss is not due to dehydration. While I’ve cut down on portion sizes, I don’t skip meals and starve myself. So any weight loss of mine is relatively gradual but sustainable.

Lately I haven’t had time to go to the gym, but I usually take the stairs at work if we only need to climb 1 or 2 floors. And instead of calling up colleagues, I walk briskly to their cubicles and have a face-to-face conversation, which is usually more effective as well. (It helps that I’m a borderline, people-loving ENFJ)

Parallel thoughts: Weight loss results are comparable to balance sheets results. Short term gains like crash diets are like cost-cutting measures that may reap small rewards initially. But if the fundamentals are not sound and sustainable, the tendency is to revert to previous practices or in fact overcompensate for it. Similarly, if poor personal habits / organizational culture are firmly engrained, it will take a long time to improve.

So I hope any ‘shareholders’ in my personal stock can be assured that, while I may not give the largest, most immediate dividends, rewards will continue to be generated, regardless of the prevailing market environment ;-)

Yesterday afternoon, I was doing my work, staring hard at the figures on a spreadsheet, when I noticed little specks of light in my vision. At first they were negligible, but then there were more specks.

Soon, I could barely read the text on my screen because the specks of light blocked me from focusing on the centre of my vision.

Even more bizarrely, these specks of light were clustered into a zig-zag pattern. From the right side of my right eye, this pattern shifted until it seemed to be balanced between my right and left eyes. This is an illustration of what I saw:

I thought I had a detached retina! With what little vision I had left, I Googled for ‘detached retina’ and learnt that I could very well be suffering from the first warning signs. If I did not seek treatment soon, I might go blind!!!!

But it could also be a false alarm. Maybe if I rested my eyes, the dazzling zig zag would go away. So I used eye drops to soothe my eyes, and leaned my head back, believing that (from my layman point of view) it might slow down the tearing of the retina. For a while, it didn’t seem to improve much.

So I sat there for a while, bracing myself in case I did lose my vision. Thoughts that came to mind as I sat there, with eyes closed:

1. How am I going to play the piano now? Would I have to be like Stevie Wonder? I pictured myself feeling for the right keys and turning to music to lift me out of my misery from being blind.
2. If I did go blind, I’d ironically be worse off than those who were born blind, or became blind early in their life, because their other senses were more heightened. Also, I’d have to live with the pangs of having been able to see in the past - knowing I’ve missed out on a good thing.
3. “God, is this happening to me for a purpose?”
4. How many people would still be my friends if I went blind? (I believe that being cast into a difficult situation is one way to find out who your true friends are)
5. How can I communicate with the rest of the world if I can’t see what’s on the Internet? Can I adapt to screen readers and dictate my blog posts? Plus, I’d probably have to give up my iPhone, because there are no keys to feel.
6. What kind of work could I do, if I was blind? Could I continue doing my current job?

I thought the retinal detachment was occuring in my right eye, since there appeared to be more specks of light on the right side. However, when I closed my right eye, I still saw specks of light through my left eye. So was there something wrong with my brain’s receptor instead? That didn’t sound good either.

The dazzling lights eventually faded, but I was persuaded to see a doctor anyway, to be safe. All this while, with whatever vision I had left, I texted my family, boyfriend and updated my Facebook profile so that at least, if I did go blind, all my friends would know what was happening.

I made it to hospital and had my blood pressure taken as well as various eye tests (verdict: my blood pressure is normal and eyesight is fine). Lastly I had my pupils dilated and a snapshot of each eye’s retina was taken. The good news is my retinas are normal. However, I most likely had a case of ocular migraine. The doctor asked if I have been working very hard lately, and I said yes. I also have not been getting much sleep and spend most of my time looking at a screen. Also, I didn’t have a headache, which I thought was usually associated with migraine.

So I’m monitoring the situation. If the problem recurs, I’ll see a neurologist. Maybe I need to take a nature walk or something, instead of looking at my screen all the time.

If you had to give up a sense, which would you pick? And if you had to give all of them up one by one, how would you prioritise them? I thought I could give up my sense of smell first. Then taste.

I may be hard pressed to give up touch, because it is dangerous not to know how things feel, especially if you’ve hurt yourself but can’t feel the pain. But it would probably be next. I would then have to give up either eyesight or hearing.

Went for my last checkup and fortunately didn’t need to have another scope. The internal bleeding has subsided though there is still a pocket of blood that hasn’t yet dissipated. I’ve completed my 2nd round of anti-inflammation medication and am raring for a spot of exercise. By next week I expect everything to go back to normal.

This weekend I will be revising for my Prices & Markets (microeconomics) makeup exam on Monday. Because of my health checkup and my forthcoming exam, I decided not to go for Podcamp #2 this morning, as much as I’d have loved to. Hopefully this period things will get a little easier for me and I will be able to regain a bit more of my social life.

Kate Bauer cites examples of how a guy hooked up his car alarm to his mobile phone so he’d know when it went off. A UK pub had problems with graffitti in their washrooms, so they required patrons to send a text message to open the cubicle doors. This way they’d keep track of who used it.

Nike Plus was described as another good example. I use Nike Plus myself. May I say that any system that gets a geek like me to exercise, is effective! :)

There’s GlucoWatch (R) which monitors the body, and the Smart Bra which detects temperature changes. (Hmm, how warm would you like your milk?) Seriously speaking, it allows the user to go about her normal life while it keeps track of temperatures for her.

Another example is Ovu, a wearable fertility tracker which Bauer designed.

Tip: Do not reinvent something - fix what’s broken! For instance, the original system of measuring fertility/temperatur was complicated. She shows us a complex-looking graph. Ovu’s solution is to take the different components and connect them via Bluetooth, syncing the information using a database.

The data is still editable, in the event that the user has a fever and her temperature would spike up. Bauer’s purpose is to give users more control over their data to help them understand their health better.

Question: 10 years from now, what technology will people doing? Right now, wearable technology is available so there’s lots of potential for the future. There may be more developments where users have more access to their personal data. Having alerts, e.g. for diabetes blood sugar levels, could empower them to do more with this knowledge.

Some people may even use devices for purposes other than what they were designed for. Bauer asks how many of us use our cellphones as flashlights, and a number of us raise our hands.

Bauer says simply searching online can point us to more information on wearable technology.

I like this panel! Definitely one of the better ones for me. It is similar to Adam Greenfield’s Ubiquitous Computing / Everyware conversation which I attended at SXSW 2006 (which IMHO is still the best panel ever to me). The examples in this current panel were a bit limited in number, but she went in depth.

Grace Lanni, Dr Gregg Lucksinger, __ Grohol, Michael Kennedy

I walk in just as the panelists are introducing themselves.

Kennedy’s from Microsoft, so naturally what he talks about is what Microsoft is doing for Healthcare, such as handling online medical records. The Microsoft system is called HealthVault.

Dr Lucksinger demonstrates how he uses Microsoft technology, writing on tablets that can actually read doctors’ handwriting. Doctors can look up medical conditions on their devices. What is interesting is that when certain symptoms are recorded for one patient, the system can alert doctors of a rare condition which they may not have spotted themselves. The system also sends reminders to doctors.

From what I’ve heard so far, the panel has been OK but appears to be Microsoft-oriented. I would have liked to hear what Google is doing for health, but obviously we wouldn’t expect rivals to discuss each other.

Grohol: Other ways are online assessments, e.g. asking 5 questions to indicate if you may have depression. More complex systems use logic and decision trees to help the clinician provide possible diagnoses, treatment goals and follow-up. The doctor sees all this but the patient doesn’t. The system helps the doctor save time.

The first questioner notes that Microsoft is not famous for its security. And the systems it builds are more for corporations. Kennedy responds that Microsoft has improved dramatically in security and privacy. (That makes me raise my eyebrows, seeing how my Dell got hacked so easily a few days ago.) He asks the questioner to “challenge your beliefs” and “read up” because Microsoft has changed significantly and we should base our opinions on the “latest information”. I do not find that answer satisfactory.

Another good question raises again the point that only large companies like Microsoft have the capabilities of developing such advanced systems, thus there is a monopoly. Kennedy replies that there is a third-party developer kit which can be downloaded from the website. That sounds more reasonable.

It’s noted that America doesn’t get much value considering how much it spends on healthcare - it’s ranked among Third World countries. Nobody in the room seems to dispute that.

The mid-sized room is only about half full. It’s quite a specialised topic.