Reclaiming sleep, and making wellness dreams come true
Guys, how are you sleeping lately?
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In our previous column, we talked about the importance of self-care to our physical, mental, and emotional wellness, an important practice that keeps us centered in both body and mind.
As the rainy season sweeps across the country and our children return to school, the importance of child immunization has never been more urgent. Only a couple of months ago we all endured the terrible heat of El Niño. Now, almost every day, we are greeted with dim skies and frequent rain showers. In a country where extreme weather patterns trigger the spread of various illnesses, we are reminded of the crucial role that vaccines play in protecting the health and future of our children.
Once in a while, we get a reminder of why we do what we do. For a media professional like yours truly, the simplest of these come in the form of messages or comments left by viewers. It could be a quick thank-you from a couple recently married, who shared how our family-focused segments helped them figure out the newest chapter of their lives, or our younger viewers telling us how they found inspiration to take their health seriously from our wellness content.
Have you heard of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)? Like most people, you may not have – ILDs are, after all, a group of lung disorders that are significantly rare compared to other pulmonary diseases. But as uncommon as it is, ILDs are usually severely life-threatening. Diagnosis of this group of diseases can take up to months and more, and there is no cure apart from the option of a lung transplant, as ILD treatments can only seek to improve your symptoms. How do we protect our lungs, and what can we do for our friends and family who may be afflicted with ILDs? There was a lot we found out during an insightful interview with Dr. Gilly May Santiago-Europa, a pulmonology expert from St. Luke’s Medical Center. We talked to Dr. Gilly for an episode of Okay, Doc that was dedicated to ILDs, just in time for the observance of Rare Disease Month in February.
Perhaps one of the most significant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among Filipinos is that a lot of us started becoming more conscious about our health. It made us mindful about the way we take care of our bodies: our diet, our physical activities, and even how our own environment affects us.
A few months ago, a senate inquiry was launched on an alleged breach of ethics involving a pharmaceutical firm that was allegedly offering lucrative incentives for doctors to prescribe its medicine, which could be unwittingly unnecessary or more expensive for patients. The company faced scrutiny as well after purported whistleblowers exposed a multi-level-marketing scheme it reportedly employed that also sought to recruit doctors.
As the Italian Parliament drafts its Indo-Pacific strategy, we may soon count another country among our closest allies in upholding our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.