On Health Matters

On health matters, here is an excerpt from the book I wrote, the final version of which is with Central Books for printing and sale:

I learned from my high school classmate, Myrla Almario-Jarasa (brother of National Artist for Filipino Literature Virgilio Almario or Rio Alma, from Camias, San Miguel, Bulacan), a retired nurse clinician in Houston, Texas, that we have to take seriously what doctors have been telling their clients matter-of-factly—that taking drugs against heart diseases, diabetes, etc. can eventually damage internal organs like the liver and kidney.

We have to keep ourselves healthy through the right kind of diet, exercise, and pollution-free environment. Senior citizens have to be extra careful about the food they eat and regularly monitor their health conditions. They should have regular laboratory tests, semi-annually or oftener, of at least the most basic diagnostic tests affordable to many, such as the following select tests with estimated rates:

Fasting blood sugar (₱80); HBA1C (₱420), uric acid (₱95); lipid profile (₱400); electrolytes: sodium (₱110), potassium ((₱110), magnesium (₱250); kidney profile: bun (₱95), creatinine (₱95); liver tests: SGPT (₱95), SGOT (₱95); complete blood count (₱220); complete urinalysis (₱75).

The test results should be shown to doctors during medical check-ups. The foods to eat or avoid should depend on test results within, above, or below the normal range. For results below normal, food supplements may be taken to have a concentration of the deficient nutrients found in small quantities in different foods, some of which should not be eaten because they contain other nutrients above normal in the test results.

A diabetic person is advised to eat less of foods with high carbohydrate that changes into sugar, so he should eat vegetables, fish, and meat. But, if his potassium is high, he should not eat vegetables rich in potassium. If his protein is also high, he should likewise minimize fish and meat. One can also be low in sodium without knowing it, so he may be avoiding sodium instead of taking more of it. Sadly, this kind of needed precautions is not generally known.

The Department of Health and DepEd should jointly prepare a book on Good Nutrition for different age groups as reference for life by Filipinos. Teaching basic nutrition is imperative to avoid the now usual maladies like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer partly caused by ignorance on nutrition. It should have a section on laboratory tests, diet, and food supplements. It should state the bad effects of test results below or above normal range.

written by M. L. Tecson