I had a patient came into the pharmacy for his prescription the other day and our conversation drifted to the issue of weight gain. He mentioned to me how unfit he felt and how much weight he has gained and the amount of visceral fat he is carrying in his mid-section ever since the start of the COVID-19 lock-down. This is certainly a problem that I can relate to myself and I’m sure many of you feel the same way too.

With the gym being closed during the lock-down period and the temptation of opening the fridge and checking out the pantry every half an hour at an all-time high. No wonder we all can be a victim of the COVID-19 weight gain.

I have gained 7 kg since the lock-down and it doesn’t help when you have a newborn baby which takes up most of your gym time and sleep time. I can guarantee you that they are the perfect formula for shaping a “dad body” if you’re ever into that.

I can remember vividly 2 weeks into my paternity leave, one morning I woke up and looked into the mirror and saw how much tighter my pants were fitting. So I told my wife that I needed to start running if going to the gym was too much of a hassle. To my surprise, not only my waistline suffered, but my fitness level had dropped greatly where I was puffing and huffing for almost the entire run which was unusual for me.

This was the turning point – I looked myself in the rear-view mirror as I was driving home from my workout and I said; “You’re not following your own words”. The next day I started my process of regaining my health and wellness again. I had to do something about it before it was out of control. Although I know my body well and how fast I can regain my fitness and achieve my optimum weight, this time around I had to eat and train a little differently compared to the past. I knew that I would not have the luxury of training for 2 hours at the gym, so I decided to train a lot smarter with much greater intensity so that I could achieve the same results with the minimum time possible while still maintaining momentum.  I became a lot stricter with my food intake and cutting down my calories (but not to an extent where I could barely function during the day). I have made smarter decisions around the food that chose to I eat with a focus on maintaining a balanced diet and cutting out refined sugar and limiting myself to only consume carbohydrates only once every 4 days. I noticed results fairly quickly and have gone back to my pre-lockdown weight and fitness level in less than 4 weeks.

Many of you might ask me – what is the secret? Can you give me your meal and workout plan?

There is no secret! You just need to put in the hard work and be patient. However, there is one thing that I believe is crucial in separating the underachievers from the achievers is the idea of self-awareness. Putting in the hard work and being patient can get your engine going but ultimately what drives you over the finishing line is self-awareness.

I believe that self-awareness is grossly underestimated in our society. The focus is being placed on willpower when it comes to achieving fitness goals. Yes, you need willpower if you are going for the short game. However, looking after your health should always be viewed as a long game, and quite frankly will power has no place in it. If you constantly rely on willpower to help you achieve great health then sooner or later you will stumble upon times where your willpower cripples.  The only two things you’ll need to help you stay in the long game are self-awareness and consistency.

Self-awareness is not about knowing that you need to do something about your health but still end up doing nothing because you hate exercise or can’t give up your cream doughnut. Self-awareness is about finding the right approach that works for you so that you will be consistently working towards your goal – a lot easier than choosing an approach that you feel forced into and not comfortable with.  Being self-aware is also about knowing that you are only human and can make mistakes. It is totally fine to steer off track every now and then but knowing when and how to get back on it is the most important thing of all.

So how do you become more self-aware?

If you don’t have self-awareness, the only way to gain it is by getting someone you trust to give you the data points. One thing that I do well in helping my patients to become more aware of their strengths and shortcomings is making every patient of mine feel safe – a very important first step. The sad thing is that most people won’t tell you the truth. When you make people feel safe, they start telling you the truth. So, it is very crucial that if you are on the receiving end, you create a very safe environment for someone to tell you the truth. You need someone to be able to comfortably to tell you what you are good at and bad at without the feeling of being critical.

To be fair, a lot of people aren’t proud of their own qualities and quite frankly they don’t want to accept that they are bad at something either. That’s why I don’t think many people are honest with themselves. We are scared of knowing the truth and are consistently living under a lie. There are a lot of things I wish I was. But I just don’t lie to myself.  Look, I know my limits, I know what I’m terrible at and what my shortcomings are. However, I don’t dwell on them but instead, I use them as leverage for me to accentuate my strengths and be better. Self-awareness is about knowing what you are capable of and choosing which path you want to go through. It isn’t only about betting on your strengths, it’s accepting all your shortcomings. The day you start to accept your weaknesses and stop lying to yourself is the day you can fly free to achieve whatever goals you want to.

Another point I notice with many people when they want to achieve great fitness and health is that there is always a romantic version of who they think they want to be or who they think they are versus who they are. Just that it looks cool to have six-pack abs (btw I don’t have one myself) doesn’t mean that’s what you need to have. Simply don’t let other people’s expectations be your gold standard. What works for me may not necessarily work for you. Being at peace with yourself and what you are capable of is such an important part of achieving anything in life not just great health.

So next time when you try to lose weight or achieve better health, try to get to know yourself first, be honest, and don’t lie to yourself. Every day you’re going to focus on playing the long game while everyone else is looking for the one miracle workout or diet plan that will change their outcome. They’ll continue to search, hoping, dreaming and playing the short game while you are putting in the work, executing and focusing on the long-term value knowing that you are on this journey for the long haul and are 100% in control of your life.

To your health goals,

The post The secret to good health appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

My relationship with chicken is a love and hate one. Physically it looks welcoming when cooked but looks can be deceiving because a dark secret could be laying deeper. It tastes amazing but yet it can be a ticking time bomb ready to ignite when not cooked properly.

Whenever I have to handle raw chicken, there is always a psychological battle going on within my mind on the best way to prepare such delicious but dangerous piece of delicacy. I have my own rules when it comes to handling raw chicken. For example, a few weekends ago when my friends were over for a barbie, a good friend of mine was chatting away while I was barbequing some satay chicken skewers. He noticed that I was using three tongs for cooking the satay chicken skewers. To his dismay, he asked me what all these tongs are for? I knew it was coming, so I proudly reply saying that one is for transferring the raw chicken skewers to the grill, the second one is for flipping the half-cooked chicken skewers and the last one is for transferring the cooked chicken to the serving plate. He was laughing so hard that caught everyone’s attention.

I know is a bit excessive, but is better be safe than sorry. Plus, at the end of the day, I don’t want to be known for poisoning everyone with my food.

My OCD about handling chicken developed several summers ago. I’ll never forget the time when I was cooking chicken over a barbeque and made the mistake of using the same tong for touching raw chicken and cooked ones. The outcome was predictable, and I gave myself food poisoning by spreading Salmonella from using the same tong.

Handling chicken the right way is probably the most important culinary skill that anyone who cooks should master. One common mistake I see many of my friends doing when I go over for dinner is that whenever they prepare chicken, they always give the raw chicken meat a rinse under the tap.

This is a common practice and always leaves me in horror. Logically, it makes sense because one would assume that the reason chicken is slimy because of all the bacteria present on the surface. And giving the chicken a good rinse will hopefully remove them. However, instead of getting rid of the bacteria, have you ever wondered what you could be spreading Salmonella across your home without noticing it?

Some of you might ask me- so why is washing chicken before cooking a bad thing?

Well, washing chicken before cooking is a waste of time, and at its worst, you are providing a pathway to spread Salmonella by holding your meat under your kitchen tap.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), When you wash your chicken, you’ll accidentally be spraying Salmonella all over the kitchen in the kitchen sink, on the countertops and possibly contaminating the neighbouring salad or food you’ve prepared earlier. Also, washing your chicken is a useless step that doesn’t kill or remove any bacteria living on your chicken.

The only way to truly kill the bacteria from chicken and preventing yourself from ingesting them is by cooking them in the hot oven, frying pan, or barbeque skillet. Why not just let the process of cooking do the dirty work for you and stop handling raw chicken the way you shouldn’t be.

Well, I believe the washing routine after handling raw chicken is much more important and should be taken more seriously. So, what should you be washing instead? It turns out that your “chicken hands” is the culprit for contaminating your kitchen. Think about this, how often do you make the mistake of touching and handling raw chicken, then reach out for the microfibre cloth, open the tap and start wiping down the chicken juice on the benchtop and then touching the chicken again? Yes, we all do that and that is the reason exposing you and your family to unnecessary risk of contracting salmonella. Always remember to wash your hands with soap and sanitiser before touching anything else besides the chicken you are handling.

Speaking of the yellow microfibre dishcloth, I’m sure many of you, including myself, have one lying around the sink in the kitchen and are always soaking wet. I’m not sure about you guys, but I have a habit of using the dishcloth to wipe down the countertops and cooking tops after doing the dishes.

The reason most people wipe down the surface is to ensure a clean and immaculate kitchen. However, just because you wipe down your surfaces doesn’t mean they are necessarily clean if you haven’t sterilised your dishcloth in the first place.

How many of you are guilty of using the same dishcloth for months without proper sterilisation? I’m guilty of it. Let me put it this way, most dishcloth in the average kitchen is probably soaking wet and full of food particles. These two factors already creating a cosy home for bacteria to thrive and that explains why dishcloth contains so much bacteria that you are inoculating every surface if you are using it to wipe down.

What’s bizarrely disturbing is that we somehow expect such germ-filled rag will somehow improve the hygienic profile of our kitchen. One trick I always use to eliminate bacteria that lurk inside a sponge or dishcloth is to damp it with water and pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes. This can help minimise the growth of those nasty germs. I also recommend replacing them with a new one at least once every 3 to 4 weeks. One way to make those yellow microfibre dishcloths last longer is to wash them in the washing machine and then dried on high heat or hang them under the sun.

Besides sterilising your dishcloth, thorough cleaning of the cutting board is also something being overlooked by many. The problem with the cutting boards is that they may have scars all over it from months of vicious chopping and slicing. Those scares and cracks provide a fantastic space for bacteria to grow. I remember reading somewhere that the average cutting board has about 200% more faecal bacteria than the average toilet seat. My suggestions are never to cut up chicken and then salad on the same board without disinfecting it. The better way is to use separate boards for raw meat and vegetables or fruits.

Last, but not least is that no amount of cleaning and disinfecting can stop you from getting sick if you don’t cook your chicken properly. Almost 100% of food poisoning occurs from either ingesting contaminated food or food not cooked properly. So next time when you start munching on the chicken you’ve cooked, make sure cut into your meat before taking a bite. Re-cook the meat when it appears clear, pink or slimy to make sure it’s cooked all the way through.

If you have any questions about sterilisation and food preparation hygiene, please don’t hesitate to ask me. I’m always here to help.

To you and your family’s health,

Chris
Pharmacist

The post Should you wash your raw chicken?? appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

I believe many of you who follow my weekly blog is aware that I’ve started my weight loss journey almost four months ago. During those four months, I have made tremendous progress and have achieved a staggering weight loss by the end of it. Changing my diet and a strategic workout plan has served me well in achieving my goals. However, many of you don’t realise is that during the first two months, I was suffering from episodes of bad breath. I’m usually very conscious about how my breath smells because I’m in a profession where talking and engaging with my patients are my daily routine and having a fresh breath will make my verbal recommendations more welcoming. The bad breath I was experiencing was nothing like a normal bad breath caused by dry mouth or food residues in mouth. I noticed that brushing my teeth or having mints only give it a quick and temporary fix, and hours later I’m back to square one.

The more I researched, I quickly concluded that I might be suffering from bad breath caused by the low-carbohydrate diet (aka the keto breath). Low-carb diets may be good for my waistline, but it certainly did the opposite for my breath. I’m sure most of you have heard of the ketogenic diet (or the keto diet). But for those who haven’t, it is a high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carb diet designed to help you achieve the state of ketosis. Now, some of you might ask me what ketosis is? Well, when you consume carbs on a daily basis, your body normally gets energy from burning carbs, fat and protein. Your body typically breakdown carbs or glucose first before torching that fat you’ve got around your waist. However, when you are on a low/no-carb diet, your body doesn’t have enough carbs available to use as fuel and hence begins to torch your fat for energy.

Technically, the diet I went on was not a keto diet because I consumed a large amount of protein. However, the limited amount of carbs that I was consuming was enough for my body to start burning my body fat for fuel instead, which is what I wanted to achieve. We need to understand that burning fat occasionally for fuel does not lead to ketosis and bad breath. However, if your body constantly relying on fat for fuel instead of carbs, ketosis will occur and leading to the production of a by-product called ketones. When ketones starting to accumulate in your bloodstream, you’ll slowly notice your breath becoming to smell rotten sweet resembling the smell of nail polish remover. That is very true because our body will convert some of the ketones produced into acetone.

On the bright side, if your breath stinks, you’re probably doing a fantastic job of sticking to that low-carb diet, and you are on the track of losing that stubborn love handles. I’m getting a little side-tracked here, but one thing I always warn people is not to overdo the keto diet because when your body stay in a ketosis state long enough, your body will start to burn muscle instead of fat which is opposite to what we sat out to do in the first place.

Some of you might ask me – “So how long does keto breath usually last for?

That is a great question – it depends. Some people will only have it for days while others might have it for weeks or even months. But rest assured that it is only a temporary experience because our body is smart enough to adjust to low carb intake even though keto breath is a temporary thing, most people will continue to have bad breath because of their protein-rich diet. This is because ammonia is produced when protein is broken down. When ammonia in your bloodstream reaches your lungs, it will be exhaled and creating a strong breath.

If you are suffering from keto breath, oral hygiene such as brushing and flossing will only give you are a temporary fix. The bottom line is that you need to fix the root cause of the problem – your diet. I’m not saying you must stop your keto diet which is giving you great results. But you must modify it to fix bad breath. If you want to maintain a state of ketosis, I would then advise you to increase your carb intake by a fraction. For example, if your daily carb intake was 40 grams. Then I would suggest giving 50 grams a go to see if it does improve your bad breath. To ensure that you are still in ketosis, you could use a ketone breath analyser to monitor your level after increasing your carbs intake.

If maintained in a ketosis state not necessary, then I would suggest you to consider trying a diet that’s well balanced but moderately low in calories. Try cutting your calorie consumption by 300 each day and consume a variety of fruits and vegetables that contains un-refined carbs. This method should help you burn fat without giving you bad breath which typically associated with the ketosis state.

As always, if you have any questions related to your health, please don’t hesitate to flick me an email or pop in for a quick chat. I trust that you all know where to find me.

To your health,

Chris
Pharmacist

The post Am I suffering from Keto bad breath? appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

In reality, I think you must tell,…we all should tell simply because the majority of people have bad breath and don’t know it! As unconventional as it may sound, you could be doing them a favour if you are direct with them. Ask yourself a question, wouldn’t you want to know that you had stinky breath? I would for sure! Because the last thing I want to do is run around talking to patients thinking I have the breath of roses where in fact it’s a breath from landfills! Also, the earlier you find out, the faster you can figure out the root cause of it and can deal with it quickly. Because quite frankly, a mint or two may not always be the panacea we thought of it to be.

When we think about bad breath, we always relate it to a rotten tooth or bad food choices like eating loads of garlic or onions. Believe me or not, there are, in fact, more causes of bad breath than the common two.

One of the things that I would always suggest people focus on first is to practice good dental hygiene. Look, I’m no dentist, but the repetitive take-home message each time I receive from my dentist is to brush, brush, brush and floss, floss, floss. The reason brushing is not enough because the pulled pork burger that you had for lunch is most likely stuck between the tiny gaps between your teeth without you realising it. The shredded pork between your teeth will then undergo a breakdown process initiated by the bacteria that are already present in your mouth. As the food breakdowns, more bacteria will be replicated and cause a foul smell (or odour). These bacteria will produce a sticky film called plaque on your teeth, and if not brushed away, those irritating plaque can eventually form plaque-filled pockets between your teeth and gums causing inflammation.

Brushing your tongue is a manoeuvre; many don’t see a point doing but contributes a great deal to the cause of bad breath because the tiny “hairs” on your tongue, besides giving you a sense of taste, they are also particularly good at trapping bacteria and hence producing bad smell. So next time when you are doing your morning routine in the bathroom, make flossing a part of it. Make your kids do it too and help them start a habit that they will thank you for later on in life. I know that the “floss dance” your kid learned from their school mates was traumatising to watch, but maybe that is the only way to get your kid to floss their teeth. Who knows, they may spread the word at school and you could be doing the world a great favour.

I remember once a patient of mine asked me how to get rid of bad breath for good. The first question I ask her was, do you get dry mouth? Many people don’t realise that dry mouth is a major contributing factor to bad breath. Why is that? Well, your saliva is your body’s natural defence against bacteria because it has an antiseptic property. Also, the role of saliva is to moisten the mouth, neutralize acids produced by plaque, and wash away dead cells that accumulate on the tongue, gums and cheeks. If not removed, these dead cells decompose and can cause bad breath. Now, this leads to the next question – why do we get dry mouth? Dry mouth can be a medical condition but many people get dry mouth from the medication they are taking. Medication that causes dry mouth such as antihistamines, antidepressants are some of the few medications that can indirectly be producing bad breath through drying your mouth.

Dry mouth also naturally occurs during sleep. This is because when you are sleeping, the production of saliva usually reduces, and the bacteria in your mouth can take advantage of this and can cause morning breath. This is particularly worsened when you are a mouth breather. When you breathe through your mouth, the saliva will evaporate and can dry out your mouth and compromising your mouth’s ability to rinse away food particles or dead cells.

One piece of advice for all of you to prevent your mouth from drying is to drink lots of water. Drinking coffee, fizzy drinks or alcohol can result in a drier mouth. So, water is a must, and you should drink plenty of it to cleanse and keep your mouth moist. You could also try chewing gum or sucking on hard candy to stimulates the production of saliva.

Another major cause of dry mouth that I come across frequently is skipping meals. Skipping meals is not only the worst way to try to lose weight, but it can also cause an unpleasant smell in your mouth. This is because when you don’t eat, your body will slow down the production of saliva. As we all know from earlier that saliva helps cleanse our mouth by washing down and food particles and stop our mouth from smelling foul. When you produce less saliva, your mouth becomes dry and creating the perfect conditions for bacteria to flourish, and sequentially leading to bad breath. If you have to skip a meal (which I don’t usually recommend), make sure you still keep your water intake up because this will help stimulate your salivary glands to produce sufficient amount of saliva to help keep your mouth moist and eliminate any bacteria that can generate bad breath.

Have you ever noticed someone you know who smokes usually have bad breath? This is because cigarette smoking causes bad breath in 2 ways. Firstly, when you have a puff of a cigarette, the chemical compounds increases the amount of bad smell producing compounds in a person’s mouth and lungs. Secondly, cigarette smoking can dry out your mouth, leading to lower saliva production. So if you know of a friend or family member who smokes, now is the time to break them the bad news that you always wanted to break. Maybe telling them if they have bad breath may be enough to motivate them to quit. (If any of you who want to quit smoking but don’t know how –talk to me as I have spent many years helping many patients quitting the habit for good.)

Anyways, everyone at some stage of their life will experience episodes of bad breath. However, it is one of the embarrassing health issues that is not widely talked about. There is light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to managing it. Hence there is no need to brush it under that mat. Finding the root cause of it is crucial but acknowledging the problem takes courage. Whether is bad breath of a bothering health issue, make this year the year you finally do something about it.

To you and your family’s health

Chris

Pharmacist

The post Bad breath or bad choices? appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

Trust me. I’m no Grinch. I celebrate and love Christmas. I remember when I was a kid, mum always cook up a big Christmas dinner which involves a leg of ham, a big turkey and plates of side dishes, salads and whatnot. This tradition is still going strong in my household but now, since I’m married, I’m doing this twice because I now also spend another fantastic day of eating (more or less similar yummy food) with my in-laws. Yes, it was tough. Yes, it was hard to resist the urge to have seconds. It was extremely hard to not have an extra spoonful of that delicious trifle. However, life is all about the choices we make. We have more control over our lives than most of us think. In fact, I couldn’t think of anything in life that’s out of our control besides a natural disaster or anything which involves the input from others. The problem is not about lacking in choices; in fact, we are surrounded by an abundance of them. But what I see is that most people are afraid to make them instead.

A great tip I challenge all of you to do in 2020 is trying to find a healthy alternative. Yes, swap out that fatty piece of pork with some lean chicken breast meat. Yes, you don’t have to stay completely away from that mash potatoes, just have less of it. There are no obligations to have seconds, maybe save room for a little bit of that fat-free ice cream or a couple of pieces of the dark chocolate that you enjoy instead.

My friend, make 2020 be the year about making good choices for your health. Always remember, you are in control of that bowl of chips, not the other way around!

Anyway, to continue on the note of eating, a patient of mine asked me last week whether it is okay to have cheat days during their diet? I have to perfectly honest; every time I hear about cheat days from patients, it gives me goosebumps because I know from experience that it is a mindset that could set people on their weight loss journey to failure.

For those of you who don’t know what a cheat day is. It is pretty much a day where you could eat whatever you desire; otherwise, you couldn’t on days where you are on your diet. Now cheat day is like walking on thin ice. Unless you have fantastic balancing skills, most people are bound to fall through the thin ice and plunge into the cold ocean.

An honest answer to his question is yes; you can have cheat days. But I think a more important question to ask is: will cheat days sabotage my effort to remain faithful to my diet?

If you are starting on your diet, I would strongly recommend not to go into cheat days until you’ve paid off most of your debt. I always use the credit card analogy to describe people’s weight loss journeys. The reason your health deteriorates and your weight goes up are because you have overused your “body credit card.” Every time you eat unhealthily, you’ve swiped your “body credit card.” You are in a weight loss journey is because you have reached your “body credit card” limits and need to start paying off some of your debts.

Unless you’ve achieved your weight loss goal and have entered the maintenance phase, I think having a “cheat meal” rather than “cheat day” would be a much better option for most people. Scientifically, a cheat meal or day may be beneficial to people who are on calorie deficit diet and their metabolism has hit a wall. Splurging for a meal or meals in a day can help spike your metabolism so that you can continue on your weight loss journey. Having cheat meals or days can also keep you physiologically sane to satisfy any cravings you may have and, if done properly, can even help you stay on track in the long run.

The catch is, most people don’t do cheat days properly and this can lead to yet another attempt to stay healthy.

The word “diet” has a negative connotation attached to it. Most people would automatically relate it to deprivation and restraint. What is the natural response when someone is being restrained? Of course, is to resist. It’s no different to when people are on a diet, the majority of the people would rest their focus on what they can’t eat and hence make them feel the urge to cheat.

Cheat day usually gives people the feeling similar to finally seeing your partner the first time in years from a long-distance relationship. It’s either all or nothing. You’ll most likely opt for a large double cheeseburger with a loaded fries on the side and to finish off with a big slice of banoffee pie. This mindset of eating is like trying to make the most of your time with your loved one before they set sail again. Most people do this because it’s cheat day! You do it because you can.

The real problem usually starts the next day after your cheat day. The tantalizing flavours of your cheat day still lingering in your mouth and igniting your taste buds. You start strong but towards the end of the day, the intention of being good is diminishing and the next minute you know it, you are munching on the left-over slice of banoffee pie from last night. A little more won’t hurt aye? Is the only voice you could hear in your mind. Your determination crippled and you’ve finally turned rogue. A cheat day eventually turns into a cheat week. Need I say more?

Some of you may ask me – how do we escape this downward spiral of infinity?

First of all, you need to re-establish a healthy relationship with food. For most of us, ever since we were a child, we ‘ve been planted by society and our parents an idea that food was either a reward or a punishment. You did your homework; you get to munch on some potato chips. You clean your room. You get a double chocolate cookie. You didn’t eat your greens, so no jelly tip for you!

When we adopt a healthier lifestyle, our “cheat day” automatically becomes our reward, and our diet is the punishment. This relationship with food is like walking on thin ice. You are ultimately motivated to stay on a diet because of the food that you could indulge or binge on when your cheat day is up. How ridiculous does this sound to you? The reason you are living a healthier life is that you can be ridiculously unhealthy on your cheat day. That just defeats the purpose of your initial intention. Might as well not commit to the journey in the first place, right? Look, I’m not saying cheat day is bad. In fact, the opposite because if done correctly, they can help you stay on track. I get my cheat day every now and then and I make the most of it. The reason why I can stay on track rather skew off track is that even though I love food so much, I recognise and understand that is mainly for fuelling my body. Indulgence is fine only when you are in control of that packet of potato chips and not the other way around.

Secondly, for a weight loss plan with a cheat day incorporated to be successful, you must be very straight with what you eat, and the portion size must be followed closely for the rest of the “diet” days. Resist the temptation of switching that olive oil and balsamic dressing to a high-calorie Cesar salad dressing is the least expected from your determination and will power. If you cannot do that and be straight with your daily diet plan, then don’t expect “cheat day” can support your weight loss journey. In fact, it can sabotage and undo all the hard work you’ve put in so far.

So, the bottom line is that only cheat if you have already established a good relationship with food. This means that you can pick yourself up with ease the very next day after your cheat day and allowing “cheating” behaviour only to your that day. If you can do that with minimal disturbance to your determination and will power, then congratulation cheat day might work in your favour. Otherwise, don’t cheat and find another strategy that better suit you.

To your health and dreams,

Chris

Pharmacist

The post Is “Cheat Days” okay to have, or should I stay away from it? appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

Going through Christmas and New Year is like a roller coaster ride. This heightened sense of excitement and ecstasy building up to Christmas only lasts for one day and next minute we are at the rock bottom of the aftermath – the Boxing Day sale.

After a fun-filled but chaotic holiday season, the majority of us would enter a phrase which I would normally call it a holiday blues period. This emotional stage often occurs because we either enjoyed our holiday so much that it became a way for us to escape from reality or our holidays fall short of expectations. Both will generally make us feel depressed, stressed and anxious when the holiday is over which can have a compromising effect on our health and immunity.

We often put ourselves in such a state of mind during January that sets the wrong pace for the rest of the year. As a result, what do we do? We often resort to setting a New Year’s resolution for the all the wrong reasons – to make us feel better about ourselves, making an effort to improve things, and most importantly to spark our joy back because, at the end of the day, our minds are designed to be stimulated by change.

One thing I’ve noticed about New Year resolutions is that it is comparable to driving over the speed limit on the motorway. We tend to slow down when we see the cop car sneakily parked at the side and you start driving with two hands on the steering wheel and within the speed limit for about 2 minutes. Then you go back to being like a rage racer – that’s how people are living their lives and that’s how people are setting their New Year goals. The goals are always set but never followed through.

Based on years of setting myself New Year’s goals and failing to achieve them, I’ve come to realise the five things you need to do to make sure your new year resolution for 2020 is an attainable one.

To set yourself up for success, you need to choose your goals wisely. Many people often have goals like – I want to be healthy; I want to be able to live life on my terms, I want to lose weight etc. No wonder they cannot achieve them because first of all, they are too vague and secondly the majority of the goals are based on what we think others expect of us.

Also, I think many of us though we are setting our goals, in fact, we are just drawing a final picture of what our life should look like instead. Setting New Year goals is different from setting a life goal. New Year goals are designed to bring us one step closer to our ultimate dream. That’s why the key is to be very specific with what you want to achieve this year and set ones that are more realistic and that we deeply care about. What I mean by specific is instead of saying – I want 2020 be a healthier one. Say something like – I want to drop my waist circumference to less than 35 inches, I want to drop my blood pressure to less than 125/80 or I want to be able to do 50 burpees consecutively – you get the story. But at the same time, keep it real because you probably aren’t going to go to the gym seven days a week for the next 52 weeks, right?

The second key is to make yourself committed to your goals. The reason why many of us cannot follow through our goals is that we tend to slip back to our old habits because we depend too much on will power to maintain our progress. Two exercises that I think everyone should do to increase your chance of reaching your goals and serve you well in keeping you on track are to understanding “WHY” you want the change to happen and also spending some time to structure your lives in ways that will support your new behaviours. And trust me, both go hand in hand and you cannot accomplish your goals with only one of them.

For instance, if your New Year resolution was to quit smoking because you got a “wake-up” call recently from a close friend of yours who’ve just been diagnosed with lung cancer – you think that should be enough to sustain your goal right? Think again. Because quite frankly, most of the time, raw inspiration will only get you to the starting line, but it won’t carry you to the finish line. Real commitment comes from understanding that you don’t want to end up like your friend so that you can have more time to enjoy with your family and grandchildren and also structuring your life in a way that makes it easier for you to make the right decision, for instance avoiding going down to the pub because it is usually where you will have a packet or two or joining a local quit smoking class so your instructor and your fellow quitters will be expecting you.

Thirdly, we must practice the art of patience. I think patience is underrated these days. We are living in a society where everything mush happens at the instance. When we want food- we call Uber Eats. When we want an answer to a question – we ask Alexa (Google’s version of Siri). Everything we want, we want it now and fast. When it comes to achieving our New Year resolution, it’s the same. We somehow expect ourselves to have the ability to achieve greatness overnight.

Take losing weight as an example – people don’t realise that it is a lonely journey. Waking up 5:30 am to go to the gym is not easy, preparing your meals and eating the same kind of food every single day in boring, watching all your mates going out for drinks and barbeque is disturbing. What’s worse is that when you start seeing some results, your body’s metabolism decided to hibernate and you won’t be seeing any results despite doing a cardio workout for 60 minutes a day. The society has subconsciously forced his mentality down our throat whether we like it or not. This lack of patience is what killing our goals slowly and it is the reason why we always fall short.

Fourthly, we must think like and see ourselves as the person who does what we want to be doing. What I mean by this is not asking you to try to be something that you are not, but rather think and act like the person with the characteristic that you thrive on having. If you want to improve your fitness and health, then you must first think and act like you already have great health and fitness. At the end of the day, like attracts like and damaged always manages to find the damaged.

Lastly but not the least, be mindful and show empathy to others is the final piece of the puzzle to a lasting change. Some of you might say – how is that going to help me in achieving my New Year goals? Helping people and showing care to others will help to tune your mindset and get you into the right perspective with life. Getting the right perspective will help you get things into context. When you have things into context, you’ll realise how lucky you are. Sequentially, gratitude all of a sudden becomes your fuel and the way you see the world become very different. You will start to set and achieve meaningful goals rather than goals which you don’t know why you set them in the first place.

Since all of you are like dear friends to me, I wanted to give you all one last thought to kick start your amazing year.

I believe we all need to find that one thing that makes us happy in 2020. Everybody is the happiest when they get to do what they wanted to do. So, if you going to live in 2020, then might as well play in 2020.

To your best year yet.

Chris

Pharmacist

The post New Year resolution or irresolution? appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

Last week, many of you came into the pharmacy and shared your weight loss journey with me. I couldn’t believe how many of you are on the same journey. It was truly a humbling experience to listen to your experiences and be able to help you on this journey of yours.

Last week I talked about the formula for weight loss success. This week I want to put the focus back on our mindsets and dive a little deeper to understand the things that could sabotage your weight loss goals.

Most people, when they go on a diet and see some results, usually feel great about the weight they’ve lost and eventually slack off. From working with many of my patients over the years in achieving their health goals, I came to realise the important reason why they eventually stop achieving their goals is that they do not deploy self-awareness. They do not know themselves enough to know what works for them.

Some people are process-driven, while some people are driven by the outcome. Everyone is different, and certainly, when it comes to achieving their health goals, there is no right or wrong answer or a perfect meal plan or exercise plan. If a dietician gave you a meal plan where the majority of your meals consisted of a selection of foods which you despise, would you expect yourself to follow the plan through? Everyone is so different in this world even with the kind of food that we like eating. So, don’t try to duplicate or follow someone else’s program, it is so important to find out what works for you and what doesn’t.

An analogy I always use is to imagine yourself working in a job that you hate, all you do daily is looking forward to “lunchtime,” “home time,” “Friday night” and “the weekends.” However, when you love what you do, you tend to feel the opposite because the worst day of the week is quite frankly Fridays as you will have to wait for two days before the best day of the week (Monday) arrives. That is the reason why only a small number of people can achieve their ultimate health goals.

Now some of you might ask me, Chris, how is it even possible to enjoy or love my weight loss process because I’m constantly hungry and eating the things that I don’t normally enjoy?

Well, that is a fantastic question. I never say that losing weight is easy. There is no free lunch in this world. To make some gains, you must put in the hard work. It ultimately comes down to how much you want it.

I think most people in society these days have got their priorities wrong. They focus on the things that don’t matter but ignore the things that matter the most. Being short-sighted is what’s causing our downfall. We tend to overestimate what we can achieve in a short period and underestimate what we can achieve in the long run. Because of this short slightness, most people cannot see their weight loss journey through to the end. Yes, it sounds brutal, but it is the truth. Sometimes there is simply no way to make the process more pleasant. That is the reason why I always, always stress the importance of finding you “Why”! Your “Why” and your ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel are the two seasonings that you need to make your weight loss journey more palatable.

When you have a tough day and things didn’t go your way when your weight plateaued, when the temptation of opening a packet of chips is so great, when it is so hard not to have a piece of the chocolate, what pushes you to keep moving forward? Is it looking good in my clothes? That’s not deep enough. You need to find the root of your “why.” Why are you trying to lose weight? Why fitting into the clothes that you love so important to you? What do you want to achieve great health? There is a deeper level of purpose that is driving you. And when you find it, you discover the driving force that will never allow you to get off track.

Listen, do you think I don’t have tough days during my diet and training? I absolutely do! We all do. But at the end of the day, my “why” guides and pushes me through difficult times. When I have a tough day or even think of quitting my diet, I remember my “whys” and know there is no way I could possibly give up. I know I’m always going to be in control of my life.

A bad habit I notice many people do when they are on a weight loss journey is focusing too much on making short and fast gains. Unless you are going to die soon, then you should play long term. The ultimate reason why 99% of people fail their weight loss goal is not the hard work they fail to put in but is their lack of patience.

The reason many of us lack patience and want to win right now, want to shed all the weight so fast is you want to show other people you won. It feels like you are doing it for other people and not for yourself. We’re worried too much about other people’s judgment. This is why credit cards screw up everyone. People are not willing to save up for something they want but rather want to spend the money they don’t even have in the first place to show people they’re winning versus actually winning.

My friend, we are in a deeply complicated place where we’ve always worried about impressing others. It only escalates the problem these days because we live complete public lives thanks to social media. Everybody’s going out dinner on the weekend for the Facebook or Instagram photo and not for the actual dinner. People are subconsciously doing this. How many of us are thinking about your holiday vacation predicated on the photos you take versus the vacation itself? We live in a world where people yearn for affirmation or complements, which makes them vulnerable to failure.

When you adapt on the weight loss journey, you are in no doubt bound to expect setbacks and hitting the wall sooner or later. Maybe your physiologically not in the right place that enables you to fight through, or your diet or training has reached a plateau. Most people would deal with these by jumping to another avenue searching for a quick fix or a short cut rather than follow through because they think they fear failure. But let me tell you, what you really fear is not failure but the judgment by others. If you were able to screen out what other people think of you and focus solely on your health goals, then I can guarantee you that you will live a life that builds on yourself rather than other people’s expectations. And that is the life each, and every one of us should strive to live by.

Guys, the bottom line is that – losing weight is merely a by-product of changing your mindset. If looking good is your priority for losing those kgs, then I strongly urge you to strip that mentality away and replace it with a deeper reason for doing what you are doing. Only by finding your ultimate “Why” and deploying self-awareness and surrounding yourself with people in the same wavelength as you, can you truly succeed in the journey of losing weight and adopting a healthy lifestyle that you truly deserve.

Again, I’m a strong believer in the right attitude and mindset. If any of you are on or thinking of entering the journey to a healthier life, please do not hesitate to talk to me as I’m always happy to share some of my thoughts and views with you if you need a little nudge or motivation for you to make your first step.

To your health and dreams,

Chris

Pharmacist

The post Why your lack of patience is sabotaging your weight loss goal? appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

When you go see a doctor about weight loss, they normally tell you to eat healthily and do regular exercise. If that doesn’t help, they will eventually prescribe medications that can help reduce your appetite or stop you from absorbing the fats from the food that you consume (those are probably the only two medications can assist in weight loss). From my perspective, such traditional ways of managing your weight with the focus only on diet and exercise are an outdated concept.

I personally believe that more health professionals who are in a position to help their patients achieve their weight loss goals should adopt a new method which involves:

1) Understanding the root cause of the gain in weight, 2) Help facilitate their patients to transform their mindset and 3) Assist them in identifying their “WHY”

As mentioned in my last email, having the right mindset plays an important role in determining whether a weight loss journey will end prematurely. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s a concept that’s not being openly discussed within the medical field. Being a pharmacist for many years, it fascinates me how some people can achieve their health goals with ease while many others fail miserably. What I’ve learned is that the answer lies not only in the way we think but also in the motivating factors that drive us to accomplish the goal.

Many people want to lose weight because they want to look like those people in the magazines. I’m not saying there’s a problem trying to look like someone else. But there is a problem using it as a motivating factor to lose weight. I found that many people are so insecure about themselves that they try to do all sorts of things to be someone they are not. People need to realise that looks and appearance are superficial, and generally have an expiry date. We all going to look wrinkly and old one day! People need to take things into perspective and realise that there is something bigger than just looking good on the outside. I believe nothing is more important than one’s health. People can take away your money, house, car and all of the superficial items. Your health is something you owe dearly and is dependent entirely on the decisions you’ve made in the past and actions you take today. Make today the day you get your priorities straight.

A regular patient of mine dropped by yesterday to ask me several interesting questions which I think may also be on your mind. The first question was – “Chris, can you shed some light and advise me of some quick strategies that could help me lose weight fast?”

In fact, this is the kind of question I always get asked by my patients who want to lose weight.
To be honest with you all, when someone asks me a question about how to lose weight fast, 99% of the time, I want to reply, saying – “Are you expecting a crazy meal plan or a magic pill? Because for me, if you are looking to play the short game, you know exactly what I’m going to say.”

Look, I’m not a nutritionist nor a personal trainer, and I can’t prescribe you with a strategic meal plan or an exercise program. But I know how to change people’s perspectives. I’ve been a pharmacist for more than ten years and been running my own business for four years now. The mindset and skills I’ve learned from both can be applied to losing weight and living a healthier life. The answer is simple. There is no short cut or a secret system to losing weight, my friend. If someone ever tells you that they have developed a fantastic system that can help lose weight fast – I can tell you that is a whole lot of rubbish.

Losing weight is not rocket science; there’s no magic formula that can get you from your current weight to your ideal weight. There is only one way to do it.

“To lose weight for good, you have to consume fewer calories than what you actually need!”

It’s that simple! You need to understand this concept and put in the hard work and follow-through.

The second question was – “Shall I set realistic goals?”

I remember many conventional weight-loss experts always stress the importance of setting realistic and manageable goals when it comes to weight loss because you don’t want to set the bar too high to cripple your motivation. Hence it will seemingly lead to frustration and failure. However, this theory is only a myth because studies have shown that setting ambitious goals is associated with more weight loss. Conversely, switching to realistic goals doesn’t result in more weight loss.

That’s why I always say to my patients don’t let your doubts limit your ability to achieve great things. Always strive to aim for the weight that they would love to be at but feel like impossible to accomplish.

Remember guys – “Aim high and you will end up somewhere”

The third question he asked me was – “Shall I wait till I’m 100% ready before I start on this weight loss journey?” I believe that no one will ever be 100% certain about making a move until they have a taste of what they are about to do. That’s just human nature. People tend to take more risk when they are young. But when you have accumulated more grey hair, you tend to make sure each move is a calculated one to avoid failure. However, life doesn’t have to be like that. How will you know a goal cannot be achieved without giving it a go? Or on the other hand why waste your precious time on procrastinating when you could test out a strategy and receive feedback almost immediately whether it works or not? People need to quit overthinking and start doing.

The last question was in fact not a question but a comment he made – “I can’t wait to get to my dream weight so I can start enjoying life again.”

Look, a lot of people somehow have a perception that their weight loss journey ends on the day they achieved their weight loss goal. The way I see it is, it is only the beginning. The toughest part is to maintain your weight and to stop it from rebounding back to where it all began.

The reasons why maintaining your ideal weight is difficult because of 3 reasons: 1) Lack of self-awareness to follow your own weight loss journey 2) Not establishing a solid foundation of “Why.” 3) Adapting the same weight loss strategy throughout the entire weight loss journey

Next week, I will dive deeper into your mindset and explain why your lack of self-awareness and patience is sabotaging your weight loss goals.

Until next time.

Chris

Pharmacist

The post The formula for weight loss success! appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

Anyway, what I’ve learned over the past 2 years is that there could be some truth behind the saying “married life can go straight to your hips.” I certainly experienced it first-hand since getting married to the love of my life. To make things worse, she is a fantastic cook and an amazing baker. Those combinations are deemed to be deadly for someone who enjoys food a lot and explains why my marriage weight gain was an inevitable truth. Three reasons triggered my weight loss journey:

1) I have ripped my work pants several times the past year

2) Many of my mates are gaining a significant amount of weight since their marriage, and I don’t want to end up like them

3) I’ve noticed there is a disturbing trend of long-term conditions such as hypertension and diabetes happening in people of my age (30s).

As a result, I started on my weight loss journey approximately 2 months ago.

Over the years as a pharmacist, I’ve helped many of my patients achieve their weight loss or health goals, not by giving them a magic pill but rather helping them to change their mindset. I believe the first step in achieving anything in life regardless of health or personal success is to have the right mindset. By default, everyone tends to sabotage themselves by doubting their ability to achieve great things. The first thing I always ask my patients to do is to stop doubting and start believing in themselves. With the proper mindset, you are already halfway into achieving your goals.

Please understand that mindset is controllable in the same way all of our opinions are controllable. The key is to surround yourself with more people that have optimism or who are on similar vision-based goals as you and cut people with negativity. It is very simple.

The next step is usually a tricky one because most people would just set a goal like

“I want to lose 10kg.”

“I want to fit my skinny jeans.”

“I want to get 6 pack abs.”

There is no problem setting goals like these, but I can guarantee you that they won’t get you very far because they are not important enough to get you to where you want to be and stay there.

To set a goal that you can stay committed to, you must create a vision for your health.

I found that many of my patients know that they need to lose 10kg, but they never ask themselves the important question of why they want to do it. Always dig a little deeper and find out your ULTIMATE why – that’s my best advice to you all. What does losing that extra weight means to you? What will you be able to do that you could not do today? Is it you can finally try on new clothes that you would not have considered because of your weight? Will you finally have the confidence to ask the girl you like out on a date? Is it that you can finally have an amazing time with your kids playing soccer without feeling the struggle to keep up with your kids? Or maybe you want to live a healthier life so that you can be there for your grandkids?

By attaching a “Why” to your goal, you automatically transform your ordinary goal of simply getting rid of things to creating something – (a new life and a new you). Isn’t that already making you want to start the journey immediately?

However, when people start digging deeper in search for the “WHY,” they tend to realise that the goals they establish initially were purely created for others and not for themselves. I think many people are too tied up into other people’s opinions. It is remarkably scary how many of us are dictated by somebody else’s opinion, and much of our action is to show “somebody” else that you’ve achieved it or made it. If you find out that what motivates you to lose weight is based on other people, then I strongly urge you to stop fuelling into their opinions and start caring about your own. Because quite frankly, you can never satisfy other people!

Many people I know always set themselves a New Year resolution for their health. However, a majority of them fail every single year to live up to what they envision their health to be. Failure to take action because of your fear of the unknown or fear of trading comfort over hard work will always triumph if you never really understood your REAL reason for the change. If you have difficulty finding your real reason, always remember to ask yourself a question: What will your life be like if you never committed to the change. Would you like to live the old you and seeing your health deteriorating?

I understand that sometimes the healthier version of you may seem so far away, and at the time you may stumble on multiple hurdles, which makes you feel that what you envisioned for yourself seem un-attainable. However, it’s not until you start to realise why you are on this journey and why it matters to you that you can finally replace your fear and frustration by hope. I can 100% guarantee you that if you can do that then everything will fall into place.

One common observation that I’ve noticed when people enter their weight loss journey is that they somehow over time manage to gain all the weight back. Partly this phenomenon is due to not setting the right goals (as I’ve mentioned above) in the first place. But also, important because they have adopted a short-term diet plan that is not sustainable for them and then slacks off.

I always tell my patients to think of weight loss as the tension on a stretched rubber band. One end represents your current weight, and the other end represents where you want to be with your weight. The tension caused by stretching the rubber band signifies your journey and obstacles to get there. When people enter a weight journey, there usually lots of tension on the rubber band. When you’ve seen some results and losing some weight, the tension will drop because you feel great about the weight you’ve lost and you slack off. That’s just human nature. We all do it. Eventually, over time the tension on the rubber band slowly reduce and the weight returns with a vengeance. That is ultimately the reason why smokers who quit smoking for 3 months, and felt great about their accomplishment and think they deserve a puff for their effort and bang in a matter of seconds, all their nicotine receptors in their brain started firing again and guess what, they are back to their old self in no time.

We cannot change our basic human instinct of constantly feeling sorry for ourselves when we try to accomplish great things in life. Everyone is in a constant struggle between staying in the comfort zone or exposing our vulnerability in search of greatness. When we achieve some form of progress, our inner voice would always appear to tell us to take a break and cash in the rewards. The more we listen to our inner voice, the more likely that we will sabotage our plan and eventually come to a stage where we undo all the great things we’ve done for our health. From my many years of experience in helping my patients achieve their health goals, I believe the only way to break that cycle of falling back to our habits is by creating a big enough reason (as talked about above) for you not to fall back to your old self. This reason must be precise and specific for it to work. Once you’ve imprinted this reason in your mind, your brain is now rewired and hence can reboot your mind every time your inner voice appears to skew you off track.

So next time, when you decided to do something about your health, whether it is to lose weight, quit smoking or lower your cholesterol levels, make sure you have the right mindset and find your big “WHY.”

2019 is about to end, and 2020 is right at our doorstep. It’s that time of the year to review your health again. But the only difference this time around is that you now have a much better understanding of how your mind works and you are now equipped with the necessary tools to rewire your brain and correct your mindset to set yourself up to a good start on your New Year resolution.

As always, I’m always available if you want to have a chat with me about your health goals. I am more than happy to shed some light and point you to the path of success.

To your goals and dreams,

Chris

Pharmacist

The post My secret to lose weight for good! appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.

Friday is already within sight and for most people, it usually means having a date night with your loved one, dinner with friends or even after-work drinks with your colleagues.

Being a pharmacist for more than 10 years, I know that getting sick mid-week can be a pain. You start off taking sick leave on the first day hoping that you will recover by Friday, only to find out that you do need to pay a visit to your family GP on Thursday as you’re not getting any better. To make things even worse, your doctor will somehow always manage to prescribe you with something that will clash with alcohol.

At this point, your mind starts to scream “I mean… come on!! It’s TGIF! Don’t I deserve some alcohol for getting through the week so swiftly?” I come across such tragedy every week and the worst part of being a pharmacist is that you’re always the person who bears the bad news to those looking forward to a tipple or two in the weekend.

It was no different for me today. I had to break the bad news to one of our regular patients.

I said to her: Look… brace yourself for impact. What I’m about to tell you might ruin your day or even for the rest of next week.

She said: Oh no…I’m having a feeling that I know what you’re about to tell me.

I replied: I’m sorry….yes you have to give up alcohol for the next 9 days….

She replied in disbelief: Why…..Why me?…. Why does it have to happen to me???????

I said: Yea…it is very unfortunate…. It’s just if you do drink while you are taking this antibiotic, you’ll feel very sick…

I further asked: I’m curious…how much do you drink?

She said: I try to have a glass of wine every night to “wind down” after work.

I then said: Let me guess, a bottle or 2 is usually mandatory for the weekend?

She said: Bingo!

I was quite concerned about the way she drinks. Based on my calculation, she probably drinks roughly around 22 stand drinks per week! That is quite a bit of alcohol considering the current recommended upper limits of drinking for females is 2 stand drinks daily and no more than 10 standard drinks per week and at least 2 days with no drinking.

For males, the upper limits are:

· 3 standard drinks daily, and

· No more than 15 standard drinks per week, and

· At lease 2 days with no drinking

The more I think about it, the more I understand why a lot of the people I come across drink quite a bit. It’s because drinking alcohol is an integral part of the social culture in New Zealand. All my friends who work in the corporate world have after-work drinks even on a work night. It is a way for them to socialise, mingle with each other and feel like they are part of the team.

According to the statistics, it’s estimated over half a million people in this country drink in a way that risk harming their health. The true number of people experiencing negative health issues due to drinking is likely to be higher than reported. Some studies have recently indicated that levels of alcohol consumption that were once considered by many to be relatively safe a few years ago are associated with an increased risk of cancer, heart and liver problems.

The problem is that many people in the community are likely to be unaware of this association.

This reminds me of a recent study I came across that compares the lifetime risk of developing cancer between alcohol and cigarettes.

The study indicates that for women, consuming 1 bottle of wine per week increased the absolute lifetime risk of cancer to the same extent as smoking 10 cigarettes a week.

Among men, drinking a bottle of wine per week lifted the absolute lifetime risk of cancer equivalent to smoking 5 cigarettes per week.

This is an interesting study because it is the only study to compare both cigarettes and alcohol and their respective cancer risk head to head.

However, it is important to bear in mind that this study aims to raise public awareness of the risk between alcohol and cancer. The association between alcohol and liver disease has long been established but the public is generally not aware that alcohol is the fifth leading cause of cancer.

Some of you might ask me – what is the safe level of drinking?

Quite frankly, there is no level of alcohol intake is completely without risk. It is important to keep in mind that all the guidelines are intended for the “average” person. Since many of us are not considered “average”, hence the best way to take this is to take a personalised approach to find the safe level of drinking. I would suggest that you speak to your GP to determine how much alcohol is too much for you.

There are some situations in which no level of drinking is considered the best approach. Here are some of the circumstances in which you are best to stop taking alcohol:

· You plan to drive

· You are pregnant or planning to become pregnant

· You have medical conditions such as liver disease or heart conditions

· You are taking certain medications that can interact with alcohol

If you are concerned about your alcohol consumption, please talk to me. We can sit down and carry out a simple assessment to see if you are drinking one too many.

To you and your family’s health,

Chris

Pharmacist

The post Cancer risk: 1 bottle of wine equals to 5 to 10 cigarettes weekly? appeared first on Eastmed Pharmacy.