AFTNN — Reporter Sabrina Salas Matanane of Health Check, a program by KUAM News Extra in Guam presents the Guam Diabetes Control Coalition (GDCC) webinar with opening remarks from Dr. Keith Horinouchi, Chairperson of the GDCC.
The Diabetes Alert Day virtual conference on March 23rd also featured a presentation by keynote speaker Dr. Ann Pobutsky, PhD Territorial Epidemiologist / Department of Public Health and Social Services. Her research background includes chronic disease epimediology, social epimediology and community health needs assessment.
Dr. Pobutsky shared that data shows that Type 2 Diabetes or Insulin Resistance was in direct correlation with COVID-19 mortality, where the vast majority of COVID-19 cases on Guam (65.3%) were among those under age 45. The opposite is true of COVID-19 related deaths where 88% of the cases were among those older than 45 years. She highlights the following findings:
Three fourths of the COVID-19 related deaths were among those aged 55 years and above.
Diabetes was more common at older ages.
People with diabetes are also likely to have cardiovascular disease co-morbidities since diabetes interferes with the circulatory system.
There is a consistent pattern among Guam COVID-19 deaths from March 2020 to February 2021, whereby those with diagnosis of diabetes constitute about one-half of cases (49.6% – 56.3%).
What’s needed to move forward?
Establishment of a Diabetes Registry although this may not be feasible.
Continued health education on diabetes prevention, and management of diabetes mainly dietary changes to stem obesity.
Change the physical environment to make exercise more accessible.
More details of Dr. Pobutsky’s presentation can be seen in the video below.
The good thing that’s come out of working from home is that people are cooking more at home, planting their own bananas, green beans and sharing with others, bicycles are out of stock, people are walking outdoors with their kids and it’s an amazing change, commented Honorable Lourdes Leon Guerrero, Maga ‘hagan Guahan.
“Diabetes as we all know cause major problems like being blind, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, lower limb amputations and other ailments. The tragedy of all this is that diabetes can be prevented. A healthy diet, physical activity, avoiding tobacco, these actions can delay or even prevent Type 2 Diabetes. As a nurse, I know full well what diabetes can do to a person, and the toll it can take on a family if treatment is prolonged,”.
Honorable Lourdes Leon Guerrero, Maga ‘hagan Guahan.
The GDCC coalition has a mission to educate the community on healthy lifestyles, expansion of aquaculture and agriculture industries with a focus on children’s nutrition with local foods. They will be working closely with Guam Department of Education and establishing a school healthcare initiative with school health councillors. Outreach programs will identify families who are at high risk and under utilising health care and inviting them to the community health centres to benefit from the programs, said Honorable Joshua Tenorio, Segundo na Maga’lahen Guahan – Lt. Governor of Guam.
A message was read from the Office of the Speaker of the 36th Legislature and Chairperson for the Committee on Health, Land, Justice and Culture, Senator Therese M. Terlaje who shared these key points, “…we have been hearing that Guam’s diabetes rates have been at epidemic proportions for many years now and as far back as 2010, the Pacific Islands health officers association has declared a regional state of health emergency due to the epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the United States Affiliated Pacific Islands USAPI which included American Samoa, Guam, The Republic of Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, The Republic of Palau and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island…”
Her address was followed by a message from Arthur San Agustin, Director / Department of Public Health and Social Services, who shared a message from a personal angle as both his parents had diabetes and passed away from complications of diabetes – “It really is a lifestyle change”.
The full ADA Diabetes Alert Day Presentation sponsored by the Guam Diabetes Control Coalition is featured in full below:
#RunForChildren in 2021 is a 42-minute virtual run to raise awareness and advocate for the 42 rights of children.
The World Vision Virtual #RunforChildren is back! Author and World Vision Ambassador Marilee Pierce Dunker is daughter to American missionary Dr Robert Pierce who founded World Vision in 1950 when he returned to America after travelling to China and Korea. There, he encountered people living without food, clothing, shelter or medicine. Team AsiaFitnessToday.com spoke to Marilee Dunker in Kuala Lumpur in May 2019 at the launch.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), children have 42 rights. These rights are based on what a child needs to survive, grow, participate and develop their full potential. They apply equally to every child, regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion. Learn more here.
Proceeds from the World Vision annual #RunForChildren are channelled to child protection efforts in Malaysia and overseas to support children’s safety, to call out violence when it occurs, and to work with survivors to heal and recover so children can experience a safe and secure childhood that will advance their sense of well-being.
When you sign up for #RunForChildren, you’ll be running for the child on your bib – to ensure that their rights are protected! Your participation helps give children a safe and secure childhood 👧👦🧡 It Takes You & I
Click here to visit the World Vision Malaysia page to join.
Australia’s Dr. Hunter Fujak believes that the Australian Football League (AFL) is practically unassailable in its position at the centre of Australian football culture. Despite AFL’s supremacy, Code Wars does not attempt to say which football code is the ‘best’ or ‘worst’, but it looks at the uniqueness of the Australian sporting landscape and considers issues such as:
Why the Melbourne and Sydney sporting cultures are so different.
Why Wagga Wagga has produced so many elite athletes of multiple sports.
Will the AFL ultimately crush its competitors.
Whether concussion will one day wipe out contact football altogether.
Impacts of globalisation and technology on soccer
Unique sporting market in Australia
City and regional comparisons for Victoria and across Australia
How grassroots engagement is key to future success
Growth in women’s support of Rugby League
The top down approach of Rugby Union
Broadcasting rights and streaming war
Fujak says the book is for those whose interest in football and sport extends beyond what goes on on-the-field, and what shapes that which goes on off-the-field.
Based on data from Fujak’s PhD dissertation, Code Wars translates academic scholarly research into something tangible – and no doubt highly debatable – for the real world. Dr Hunter Fujak is a Lecturer in Sports Management at Deakin University in Melbourne. His PhD was awarded by UTS in Sydney and explored consumer behaviour in sport.
Code Wars is published by Fair Play Publishing and is available in direct from the publisher or from bookstores at A$34.99 or digitally as an ebook.
On 25 September 2020, the famous white exterior sails of the Sydney Opera House became an enormous movie screen, showing footage of Australian Catherine Freeman’s 400-metre gold medal win on the very same day, 20 years ago at the Sydney Olympic Games 2000.
In 49.11 seconds, Freeman crossed the historical finish as the first Aboriginal athlete to win gold in an individual event at the Olympic Games. The cinematic event celebrated not only Freeman’s historic achievement but also its audiovisual preservation for future generations on an innovative, sustainable, long-term storage technology called “synthetic DNA”.
This has been made possible thanks to a partnership between the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage (OFCH) and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA). The synthetic DNA project is a world first, and Freeman’s 400-metre gold medal win is the first Australian video to be encoded. The master recording of the historic race has been stored by the OFCH in Switzerland on magnetic tape, a technology commonly used 20 years ago. It is part of the 6.6 petabytes (1 petabyte = 1 million gigabytes) of the IOC’s audiovisual archives, a massive volume that could nonetheless triple in another 10 years. Thanks to this collective effort between the OFCH and NFAS, the one-gigabyte digitised file of Freeman’s gold-winning race will now be kept on microscopic synthetic DNA in a vial the size of a AAA battery. This innovative, sustainable storage technology can be preserved for thousands of years without maintenance. “As the custodian of large digital collections, and with the growing amount of images produced at every Games edition – more than 7,000 hours are planned for Tokyo 2020 – plus the evolution towards 4k and 8k, data storage will soon become an issue for the IOC. We are therefore always looking for ways to improve technologies and test innovations,” said Yasmin Meichtry, Head of Heritage at the OFCH.
“Synthetic DNA storage is the avant-garde technology that could lead to cost efficiencies and more sustainable and environmentally responsible ways to increase the capacity of our data storage,” Meichtry continued. “We are thus thrilled to partner with the NFSA in experimenting with that ground-breaking scientific knowledge, using one of our emblematic Olympic moments.” NFSA Chief Executive Officer Jan Müller said, “Catherine Freeman’s triumph at Sydney 2000 was a key moment in Australian sporting history. It brought Australians of all ages and backgrounds together in celebration, and it was viewed by billions of people around the world. We see this moment as part of ‘Australia’s DNA’, ideal to be preserved in actual DNA and become Australia’s first usage of this new technology.”
Source: PRNewsGIG/IOC Video Courtesy National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
We captured some curious questions from Malaysia’s “biggest” standup comedian and debut wrestler, Papi Zak (www.thepapizak.com), to Australia’s gastroenterologist and Instagram educator Dr. Pran Yoganathan (IG @dr_pran_yoganathan) – he spoke with us on Episode 3. Dr. Pran elaborates on the expensive tissue hypothesis (ETH) which relates brain and gut size in evolution (specifically in human evolution). Listen in to the trailer below for information on gout, uric acid on a high protein diet, our gut and metabolic health.
The full episode of Ep. 4 with Papi Zak – listen below.
TV host & celebrity entertainer
Introducing Papi Zak, well known in the comedy circuit in Malaysia and the “biggest” Malaysia has to offer, states his website. For over 12 years, he’s written and performed material for his shows, and has fast established his quirky brand of humour and witty observations on the absurdities of every-day life. Zak was a former LiteFM and REDFM radio broadcaster and his comfortable presence in front of a camera has landed him screen work as the host of two television lifestyle programs – ‘The Halal Foodie’ and ‘Happy Endings’. Zak is currently the brand ambassador for Mr. Potato.
In doing our research on Papi Zak’s The Halal Foodie show, we found this bootleggish version translated and dubbed in Thai!
Papi Zak speaks to co-hosts Jasmine Low and Nikki Yeo in Episode 4 about his fitness journey – how he shed over 30kg from his 160kg stature, his childhood as a third culture kid, his mother’s amazing cooking, his new foray into wrestling and his quest to inspire others on the path towards fitness – just as he has. He also indulges us in his relationships… with food!
In the tradition of AsiaFitnessToday.com’s methods of using rhythm and movement as therapy, we introduce a comedy skit by Papi Zak at a TimeOut Kuala Lumpur show to seal off the episode. Tune in to the podcast to listen now.
Gastroenterologist and hepatologist based in Sydney, Dr. Pran Yoganathan is an extremely passionate educator, a Mathematician-turned doctor who aims to empower his patients with data that can help them on a journey of self-healing using the philosophy of “let food be thy medicine”.
Dr. Pran who has innovatively harnessed creative technology and 14,400 followers on Instagram @dr_pran_yoganathan, stresses that his educational memes are not medical advice or recommendations, simply his opinions — and rather strong science-backed opinions they are too!
In the podcast interview, Dr. Pran speaks about his diet of choice, which comprises predominantly of grass-fed steak and eggs and why that has raised eyebrows and temperatures not just in the oven, but in conversation with peers as well. We ask him about butyrate and got him all fired up and excited! Now, are WE ready to absorb the fact that we’re meant to burn fat for energy and not glycogen? Let’s save that for perhaps another conversation.
Together, we pose our numerous curious questions to Dr. Pran and have a content-packed conversation that’s science-based yet entertaining and revealing at the same time! Dr. Pran’s message is to “eat a diet that is not rubbish, move your body”, and he shares science in between some of his Instagram posts.
We ask him why he got into gastroenterology, his inspiration behind the Hippocrates’ philosophy “let food be thy medicine” and his personal dietary habits.
On the table, we discuss hunter gatherer societies in our modern world where Dr. Pran shares about the Hazda ethnic group from Tanzania and how they forage for food today.
Dr. Pran sheds some light on high fibre diets – a push by the standard Western Diet and how excess fibre can slow down gut motility, cause reflux and bloating and fundamentally IBS.
“If you’re going to deal with fibre, you need the machinery. That is why you see our primate cousins, like the chimps and gorillas tend to have a thick hind gut, a very big belly, that’s not visceral fat, it’s simply machinery to deal with rough fibrous tissue. That’s not my theory, that is a scientific fact and it’s called the expensive tissue hypothesis. It’s what makes us special in terms of our species; our brains grew in response to a shrinking gut.
Dr. Pran Yoganathan, gastroenterologist
Incidentally, on a side track, if you’re interested to deep dive into the Expensitve Tissue Hypothesis by American paleoanthropologist and professor emeritus of the University College London Leslie Crum Aiello – click here. She co-authored the textbook, “An Introduction to Human Evolutionary Anatomy”, which uses the fossil record to predict the ways early hominids moved, ate, and looked.
We hope you’ve enjoyed these bite-sized pieces of information. Keep reading below for more about Dr. Pran’s credentials and to listen to the full podcast.
Graduating from medicine from the University of Otago in New Zealand, Dr. Pran is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physician (FRACP) and a member of Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA). He has accredited expertise in Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Colonoscopy as certified by the Conjoint Committee for the recognition of training in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Working across the public and private sectors in Greater Sydney, Dr. Pran has a strong interest in the field of human nutrition. He practices an approach to healthcare that assesses the lifestyle of the patient to see how it impacts on their gastrointestinal and metabolic health. Dr. Pran believes that the current day nutritional guidelines may not be based on perfect evidence and he passionately strives to provide the most up to date literature in healthcare and science to provide “Evidence-Based Medicine”.
Dr. Pran has a special interest in conditions such as Gastro-oesophageal Reflux (GORD), Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and abdominal bloating. He takes a very thorough approach to resolve these issues using dietary manipulation In conjunction with an accredited highly qualified dietician rather than resort to long-term medications.
Ready to digest the podcast episode with Dr. Pran? Listen here:
In this BONUS edition for Spotify Listeners only – In the tradition of AsiaFitnessToday.com’s methods of using rhythm and movement as therapy, we introduce a song to seal off this episode. We have selected a mash-up song made popular by Yohani De Silva – a Sri Lankan singer songwriter and rapper, a social media star herself. Yohani did her Masters in Accounting at a Queensland university.
AIA’s “Healthier Together” study reveals eight key ingredients that contribute to Healthier, Longer, Better Lives, with 54% of Malaysian respondents adopting at least four ingredients
Malaysians indicate that having an optimistic outlook is the most essential ingredient that makes up a healthier, longer and better life.
Malaysians look for the positives in everyday situations, and the power of gratitude goes a long way in helping Malaysians achieve this.
AIA Group Limited (“AIA” or the “Company”: stock code: 1299) has released findings from a ground-breaking research initiative, “Healthier Together”, revealing the eight key ingredients that go into living “Healthier, Longer, Better Lives”. The survey across six Asia-Pacific markets revealed Malaysians have an optimistic outlook on life while looking for the positives in everyday situations through gratitude.
The study was conducted by global data insights company Kantar Group and involved in-depth interviews with more than 80 experts from a broad spectrum of professional disciplines in Malaysia and across Asia-Pacific. Study findings were then validated through a survey of 6,000 consumers in the region, including 1,500 respondents in Malaysia, which not only identified tangible actions people can take to improve their health and wellness, but significantly, validated the hypothesis that people already taking these actions are at less risk of being negatively impacted by the uncertainties of COVID-19 and a post-COVID world.
In terms of how well Malaysians perform in living Healthier, Longer, Better Lives, just under a third reported high adoption of the eight ingredients with 29% rating themselves as adopting at least seven of the eight ingredients and over half (54%) saying they were achieving four or more.
Malaysians also indicated the relative importance of “having an optimistic outlook” as the most important ingredient in contributing to Healthier, Longer, Better Lives, which aligned with the other five markets surveyed. However, Malaysians also identified “be active and engaged” and being “self-motivated” as the two ingredients most Malaysians need to adopt – indicating a need to remain social, physically and mentally active while improving their ability to find and define their own sense of progress and motivations in life.
Stuart A. Spencer, AIA Group Chief Marketing Officer, said: “The AIA purpose, which underpins everything we do, is to help people live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives. It’s therefore critical to gain a deep understanding of what people can actually do to achieve this, and how we can help them, beyond the obvious steps of exercising, eating healthily and getting sufficient sleep, particularly in the context of COVID-19.”
Ben Ng, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Bhd.echoed the same sentiments: “In today’s world, it is easy to access information that helps us understand what factors contribute to living a healthy life. However, there is an underlying gap between understanding what leads to a healthy life and knowing what actions help us elevate the way we approach our overall health and wellbeing.”
“Through the study, Malaysians now have a better understanding of what they need to do to live Healthier, Longer and Better and together with the support of our Total Health and Wealth Solutions and our unique behavioural change programme, AIA Vitality – we are fully committed to enabling a better quality of life for all Malaysians.” Ben added.
A significant body of new insights and data was gathered from interviews with academics, life-coaches, psychologists, mental health experts, influential authors, healthcare representatives and influencers from leading institutions, business and government.
The study produced eight specific ingredients that are most influential in helping people live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives. These were:
Have an optimistic outlook: Look for the positive things in everyday situations, not letting negative events of the past affect the present and finding enjoyment in work.
Be active and engaged: Be an active member of your wider community, remain socially active with friends and family, and remain physically and mentally active.
Self-motivate: Focus on your own personal goals, look for ways to make work/tasks/chores more engaging, and see setbacks as learning opportunities.
Understand yourself and your emotions: Understand what motivates you in life, understand what is important to you in life, and understand your limits/strengths/weaknesses.
Feel a sense of independence: Feel confident identifying what is right for you, focus time and energy on things you can control, and be capable of improving your mental health.
Maintain quality relationships: Focus on giving people your full attention, be open and honest with others, and seek out like-minded people who share similar interests.
Never stop learning or exploring: Explore new ideas and engage with new things, challenge your own thinking, and be open to change.
Make time to recharge: Create clear boundaries between work and personal time and find ways to recharge your energy levels.
The survey asked the 6,000 participants across Asia to rate their performance across these criteria. Key findings included:
Across the six markets surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region, an alarming 85% of respondents rated themselves as not sufficiently adopting all eight ingredients, leaving just 15% who believed they are. This group of “high performers” in living Healthier, Longer, Better Lives, reported that COVID-19 had less of a negative impact on their health and wellness efforts than the remaining 85%.
By far, the most important ingredient across all markets was “an optimistic outlook”, which was 2.3 times more common amongst the group of people that scored highest on the survey.
A pathway to improved health and wellness and one that is the easiest first step for people to take is “make time to recharge”.
46% of Malaysians only achieved three or fewer ingredients, indicating that there is a gap between being aware of what helps them live healthier, longer and better and the actual actions to achieving it.
By far the most powerful action to improve one’s optimism in Malaysia is to take time to reflect on things you are grateful for. Notably, Malaysia stands out against other markets where gratitude is more important in driving optimism compared to joy.
Only 41% of Malaysians state that they are adopting the ingredient “be active and engaged”, while 43% of Malaysians are “self-motivated”, which were the two least adopted among all eight ingredients for Malaysia.
Stuart A. Spencer added: “The findings of this unique piece of research now deliver to us a clear pathway to living Healthier, Longer, Better Lives. Healthier Together identifies real actions people can take to improve their physical and mental well-being, and real clarity about how to live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives, which has never been more important to us all than it is right now.”
The complete findings of the AIA Healthier Together study and survey can be viewed at: www.aia.com.my
As part of the insurer’s efforts to spur meaningful conversations about health and wellness during these challenging times, AIA recently launched the “Hoping & Coping Through the Pandemic” video series which features AIA’s Global Ambassador David Beckham together with 14 other AIA regional ambassadors including AIA Malaysia’s very own Nicol David – coming together to share their personal experiences and approach to practicing a healthy lifestyle during the pandemic. Check out their candid and heart to heart conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/AIABhdMalaysia/videos
Team AsiaFitnessToday.com speaks with medical lab scientist and founder of R3GenDr. Desmond Menon based in Perth, Western Australia. Dr. Menon consults on medical and sports medicine projects, but what’s most interesting was his early days as a researcher, where he was his own experiment. Growing up as a kid with asthma, Dr. Menon looked to science to get himself fit and healthy after a string of allergic reactions to prescribed medications. Today, he supports a number of University-based sports medicine projects, one of which looks at the effects of the menstrual cycle on the performance of elite female cyclists.
AsiaFitnessToday.com’s The Kurang Manis Podcast co-hosts Jasmine Low and Nikki Yeo met Desmond at The Fit Summit in 2019, and have been keeping in touch about DNA testing methods, genetics and our predisposition to diseases our parents had/have.
We asked Desmond to explain what his job entails, and he shared that his work in Medical Laboratory Science is an area specialising in ensuring that the appropriate biomarkers are collected and analysed the correct way to ensure that the results obtained are valid and provide accuracy. Nowadays, most medical/sports science projects, especially multidisciplinary projects have very complex agendas and hope to investigate multiple variables within the study. When there is blood work involved, often there is not enough understanding within the team or enough funding within the project to thoroughly consider the requirements to ensure that appropriate markers are taken and measured at the appropriate timeframe in an appropriate protocol to ensure validity of the results obtained from the analyses.
“I have seen projects where the principal investigator was essentially experimenting with varying centrifuging speeds to find out what would provide him with a ‘good sample’ to analyse for blood markers studied within his study.
There are procedures already established in medical laboratory science, such as the rotational speed and gravitational force required, depending on the analyte to be measured, when centrifuging blood collection tubes.
Additionally, when blood is collected for storage as well, there are variables that will also need to be considered to ensure the integrity of the sample is maintained throughout the storage period and how it is treated to ensure that results obtained from analyses thereafter are still valid.
In some studies, samples require immediate analyses as the results dictate the following steps for the participant within the project.
What I do at R3Gen, is to help to meet these requirements by ensuring that samples are analysed ‘STAT’ to accommodate the project protocols, organising the process from pre-analytical blood collection, all the way to post-analytical result provision and sample storage if required for future analyses, cost effectively.
What this does for projects is to help investigators dedicate their focus and time on the actual project instead, and freeing up their limited resource to ensure the proposed intent of the project is not short-changed.“
As the work of a Medical Lab Scientist can get technical with jargons, we asked him more questions from a ‘layman’ to gain more understanding into his work. This is what we discovered…
Understanding genetics and lifestyle
AFT: Can a couch potato be transformed, coached and guided into the fastest runner on the track and field?
DM: The intervention. As an experiment, one has a protocol requiring them to lay on the couch, eat whatever they want and be as sedentary as possible. The other has a protocol requiring them to have a regimented diet and planned intense activity during their day. Each therefore, as a result of their interventions, encourage very different genetic expressions to meet the demand set out.
It’s not that complicated if we wanted to encourage a positive/healthy change. It’s a issue of mind over matter, and thereafter, it’s really an endurance race to see how long you can keep your new intervention going.
Maximising performance is ultimately about a body’s propensity to enhancing its plasticity.With training, plasticity is attained.Looking at it simply, it’s about effecting an underlying lifestyle change.
Understanding your body’s physical baseline
AFT: So what you mean is we are able to increase and improve our baseline with the correct training and interventions in lifestyle and diet?
DM: Interventions – from a scientific perspective, it’s an intervention. For an everyday person, it’s a lifestyle habit.
There was a study done on 70,000 nurses who were in the 40-65 years age range. They were selected to participate in a Nurses Health Study. They found that there was a huge correlation between chronic diseases and their movement patterns, there was a direct link on those who moved more and those who didn’t.
AFT: Do our genes alone predispose us to a particular health condition?
DM: Looking over a broad time frame, the Centre for Disease Control USA (CDC) reports that genes do not predispose us to the health condition. Therefore, while our genes provide us with a blue-print, a lot of what is expressed from our genes is actually quite plastic and is a reflection of the intervention that we provide.
AFT: In a recent conversation, we discussed habit and culture at home. Our health is not merely a physiological or gene makeup, it’s very much a cultural and habitual makeup too. Imagine a child growing up at home where his father imposes his eating beliefs, lifes and dislikes upon his child. It’s what the father brings home, what he eats, or snacks that the child will learn and adopt.
DM: Here’s some information I have found to be interesting. Grandparents have a big part to play in the grandchild, especially from the maternal side. Here’s the explanation from a physiological side. If a female child, whatever a grandmother goes through in her life, has an impact on her genetic expression (that’s her lifestyle intervention). These expressionsinvariably have an effect on her eggs she is carrying. If one of those eggs contribute to a conception of a female child, during the development of that fetus, the eggs in the fetus also start to develop 8 to 20 weeks after it has started to grow. As such, whatever the grandmother is exposed to in her lifestyle in essence has an impact on her future child, and that of her grandchild.
AFT: Tell us a little about the types of fitness interventions.
DM: Exercise movements can basically be split up into different modalities. Concentric moves for example a flex going up stairs or eccentric moves for example a controlled extension like when you’re going down stairs. These are antagonistic moves and give an idea how your muscles work.
It requires a certain amount of energy or resource from our bodies when applied. How much exactly we don’t know, but if we understood that, we could then prescribe it better. They found that participants going down the stairs had a more significant benefit seen in their health markers – insulin sensitivity increased, bone density increased and cholesterol decreased.
It provides some insight into how exercise could be prescriptive. So by understanding this kind of exercise, one could then prescribe more efficient options to patients.
AFT: Hypothetically, can we transform a couch potato into the fastest man on the planet? Imagine Usain Bolt or Nicol David, an athlete whose body is so efficient, and if we turn them into a couch potato with bad habits, what would then happen? Desmond suspects that scientific evidence suggest that we can definitely provide an intervention to transform the couch potato participant into something closer to an Usain Bolt.
DM: An elite swimmer expands less energy to swim across the pool as his body is fine tuned to it as compared to a less than healthy individual.
GLUTS 4 gene, expressed based on lifestyle
DM: GLUTS 4 gene is considered one example of a lifestyle gene. It’s expression is altered by the level of muscle contraction. Failure to be active enough, could lead to the body being predisposed to diabetes by storing a lot of insulin.
In the video above, I shared a photo from my school days – I was an avid distance runner weighing in at only 69kg in my competition weight. I injured my knee (torn ACL and partial torn meniscus) in the army, and had to change sport. I got addicted to lifting weights in the gym as a result of seeing gains from physiotherapy on my legs post knee surgery. I had to undergo surgery to reconstruct my ACL. In that short amount of time that I was off my feet or on crutches, the loss of quad muscle was very visible. It is almost like an intervention experiment on myself, where the intervention here is the removal of as much muscle activity in my left quad over that period. It was shocking to see how fast your body decides to remove that musculature as a form of conservation of energy and resource.
After a few years of weight lifting, I managed to weigh in at 110KG with 12% body fat. While Dr. Desmond considered it an improvement, his mom’s was of the opinion that he had ruined her good work by looking “buff” like that. What it was for him, was a science experiment. He diligently weighed what he ate and how he trained to better understand the correlation between the intervention and the epigenetic expression.
Coming from an active family, Dr. Desmond’s mother was a runner for the state of Perak, Malaysia. His maternal great grandmother lived up to 100 and his maternal grandmother will be turning 100 soon. It seems health & fitness is a natural state of being for his family.
At one point, he collected data of his own blood work to determine the impact of his training and diet on his health markers and was able to see how his body was responding to what he was doing. It took a good number of years, but progressively trained the body to accept 8 meals a day from 3 to 4 meals before, while still maintaining an average 12% body fat. (At that point he was eating 8 meals a day like a gym fanatic. Also knew what he was doing with exercise.) In pathology, he learnt about the association between high CK and CK-MB (proteins present in heart muscle, also in skeletal muscles) with cardiovascular episodes. He found that the intense gym training produced abnormally high levels of CK and CKMB in his blood that looked like he was having small little cardiac episodes, but were actually attributed to the high amount of skeletal muscle tearing (hypertrophy) from his intense gym sessions.
AFT: How do we then measure a person’s baseline, or maximum exercise intervention before the body shows a high or overly high CK/CKMD level. Is there a sweet spot between exercise and too much exercise?
DM: Essentially, we need to understand that our baseline changes according to our lifestyle (intervention protocols).
In many professional athletes, part of their routine is having blood test done to identify how well their body is coping with their interventions and ensure that their body is showing signs of being in optimum performance. There are a whole barrage of markers that can be capitalised on if need be. For the everday athlete, perhaps these are not necessary or available but there are more basic markers readily available that can be capitalised on by anyone concerned about their health to ensure that their body is performing well to their lifestyle interventions. When monitored over time, these can provide a good indication over time of how we’re coping.
Listen across all platforms:
Special Bonus Edition on Spotify Only features “Lorna’s Kitchen” by Singapore’s Jazz Great, Jeremy Monteiro
We are pleased to feature a song written by Singapore’s great Jazz muso Jeremy Monteiro, dedicated to his aunt Lorna. Titled Lorna’s Kitchen, we know for a fact that her Debal curry is divine. This episode is dedicated to Lorna – an amazing person whose fiery curry speaks volumes for her passion for life. We love you, Lorna!
AFT TV selects this Chinese New Year story, Nian – a legend reimagined as a contemporary coming-of-age story. Shot on an iPhone 12 Pro Max, this short film was directed by Lulu Wang and created by the team behind the Golden Globe nominated film, The Farewell which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2019, with the original score by Alex Weston.
The making of…
https://youtu.be/9pHO5hpgj7k
This heart warming story by award-winning producer/director – Lulu Wang reminds us of the reunion dinner to welcome in the Chinese Lunar New Year. 2021 welcomes the Year of the Ox.
We’ve also selected another heartwarming film surrouding reunion dinners. This one’s from Singapore, it’s short and sweet.
Livestreamed Interview with Datuk Nicol David, World No. 1 Squash Champion, named The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time.
The Malaysian retired professional squash player is currently in her second base Colombia, South America and met with Asia Fitness Today co-hosts Nikki Yeo in Kuala Lumpur and Jasmine Low at the studio in Sydney on 5th February 2021.
With a huge total number of votes, 318,943, Nicol David 🇲🇾 was voted as the greatest of the 24 sports legends that started the race on 8th January 2021. Tug of war legend James Kehoe 🇮🇪 is the first runner-up with 113,120 votes, and Larysa Soloviova 🇺🇦, The World Games Champion in powerlifting 2005-2017, second, with her 80,790 votes. Marcel Hassemeier 🇩🇪, victorious lifesaver, with 79,760 votes got very close to 3rd place. All in all, 1,204,637 votes were cast in the poll. Read full article about The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time here: https://www.asiafitnesstoday.com/?p=8952.
Visual Highlights
The Kurang Manis Podcast, Season 1, Episode 1 (9/2/21): Datuk Nicol David
Listen to the interview with Datuk Nicol David, World No.1 Squash Champion voted The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time | Listen All Platforms
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