Health & Living

With a population that is ageing and increasingly burdened with non-communicable diseases, what happens when an older adult needs a full-time caregiver and that role is taken up by their spouse - also a senior themself?  We speak to Monica Voon, who found herself in that situation after her husband was diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome. She shares the challenges she faced in ensuring her husband’s needs and care were met, as well as how her own well-being was affected. We also hear from Professor Nathan Vytialingam, Honorary Fellow, World Federation of Occupational Therapists, about the support that older caregivers need in Malaysia. NCD Chronicles is a series about people living with NCDs, going beyond the diagnosis to explore their personal experiences, their challenges, as well as the impact of their health condition on their loved ones. These stories reveal the importance of understanding the unique struggles and needs of the individuals behind the disease, in our response to the NCD epidemic.

You’ve probably heard of “bubble boy” or “bubble baby” disease, where a child diagnosed with it has to live in a germ-free, sterile and contained environment, because they’re extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases. The more accurate name is severe combined immunodeficiency disease or SCID, and children born with it often don’t survive past their first few years, especially if they’re undiagnosed or untreated. Here’s where newborn screening can play a vital role in picking up these cases early and thus giving these babies a chance at life. We speak to Associate Professor Dr Adli Ali, consultant paediatric immunologist and Bruce Lim, President of Malaysian Patients' Organisation for Primary Immunodeficiencies (MYPOPI) to find out.Image Credit: Wikimedia / Creative Commons

If you have diabetes, high blood pressure or heart failure, some of the drugs you’re taking for treatment may have been tested right here in Malaysia. Our country plays an important role in international clinical trials, a pivotal step in drug research that determines whether a therapy is safe and effective when you use it. On the show, we explore a retrospective of how clinical trial research developed in Malaysia, and how the country positioned itself as a hub for international clinical trials.Image Credit: Clinical Research Malaysia / Clinical Investigation Centre University Malaya Medical Centre

The volunteers of Befrienders KL provide emotional support 24 hours, every day, for people who are lonely, in distress, in despair or having suicidal thoughts. But what goes into the role of being a Befriender and how do volunteers deal with the distress they hear every day? On this episode of ‘Because Feelings Matter’, Etta Chatterjee, the Chairperson of Befrienders KL, and Shyuan, a volunteer with the helpline, share how they journey with callers in their pain and loneliness. World Suicide Prevention Day is commemorated on 10th September. If you, or someone you know, needs emotional support, call 03-76272929 or email sam@befrienders.org.my, or reach out for help within your community. You can also call Talian HEAL at 15 555, or MIASA at 1-800-1800-66.Image Credit: Shutterstock

Good nutrition, especially in the first year of life, is especially important for a child to grow and develop healthily. So what happens when babies aren’t able to feed well and what if these problems continue into their early childhood? Joining us to dive into how parents can be supported through common paediatric feeding issues, is speech-language therapist, Tay Chia Yi.Image Credit: Shutterstock

China is currently seeing an outbreak of chikungunya - a mosquito-borne illness - in Guangdong province with more than 7,000 cases reported earlier this month. With high volumes of travel between China and Malaysia, how worried should we be about the virus spreading here? Consultant urologist Dr George Lee is joined by consultant infectious diseases physician Dr Anjanna Kukraja to find out more about this virus and whether Malaysia’s prepared for it.

The recently published National Health and Morbidity Survey 2024 focussing on nutrition revealed just how bad Malaysians’ diets are. Now that’s probably not a surprise to most of us but the question remains: what can we do about it? Here to help us break down how we can easily improve our diets and make sure we get all the nutrients we need is dietitian Prof Dr Winnie Chee.

Hearing loss is often brought up as a risk factor for dementia, especially later on in life but what exactly explains that link? On this episode of Brain Waves, we dive into the changes that happen cognitively and physically due to hearing loss, and why it links to a dementia risk. We speak to neurogeneticist Dr Azlina Ahmad Annuar and neurophysiologist Dr Kumar Seluakumaran, both from Universiti Malaya.Image Credit: Shutterstock

Kids today use AI for homework, research, to answer their curious questions, and increasingly, for companionship. As we hear of extreme cases of children and teenagers devoting all their free time to conversations with AI chatbots, the question arises: how safe is this for young people? And how do parents and educators help kids understand the differences between artifice and reality? Find out how to get a copy of Makchic’s book ‘The Society of Online Superheroes: A Super Smart Guide to Internet Safety’ here.Image credit: Shutterstock

For people with disabilities or mobility issues, the world can be difficult to navigate, especially when our urban environment lacks accessibility. But underwater, things can be drastically different for these individuals. We speak to Prof Dr Julia Patrick Engkasan, rehabilitation physician from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre and Syed Abd Rahman, Diveheart Malaysia Ambassador, to find out how diving can open up a whole new world for people with disabilities and how it can help with rehabilitation.Image Credit: Diveheart

Recently, Keith McAllister, a 61 year-old man in the US, died after being sucked in by an MRI machine’s magnetic force. We explore the safety of using MRI machines, and why screening measures are important to ensure that objects like the chain McAllister had been wearing are removed to prevent accidents.

Budget 2026 will be tabled in October, and if the discourse around healthcare financing and medical costs are anything to go by, all eyes will be on the healthcare allocations. Amid calls to increase percentage of GDP for healthcare spending, we explore the economics of healthcare and ask: how much do we need to invest? Where should the money come from? And how does it save us increased expenditure in years to come?

Urinary incontinence may seem common among older adults, but is it a normal part of ageing? On this episode of Healthy Ageing, we speak to consultant geriatrician Dr Edward Chong to help us understand this condition among older adults and why addressing it early matters. He also specialises in continence care.Image Credit: Shutterstock

Most of us would remember being called names at least once in school. While many may think this is just kids being kids, it doesn’t feel great to be called names and it can affect the child’s emotional and psychological well-being. So how can parents teach their kids to speak up but also talk to their kids who are name-calling their peers? On this episode of Mind Matters, we find out from consultant child psychiatrist, Dr Anita Codati.

Autoimmune diseases don’t always arrive with a dramatic entrance. More often, they creep in with vague fatigue, nagging joint pain, or an unexplained rash — symptoms many young adults chalk up to stress, poor sleep, or just “getting older.” But what if these signs point to an undiagnosed autoimmune disease? Consultant rheumatologist Dr Anindita Santosa shares more about how AI could be combined with GP education and public awareness to speed up early detection of autoimmune diseases and reduce the burden on patients.Image Credit: Shutterstock

We’ve talked about the unchecked vaping crisis among kids and teenagers, and the need to put an end to it. But for those who are already addicted to it, how are we helping them kick the addiction? We speak to Assoc Prof Dr Amer Siddiq bin Amer Nordin, consultant psychiatrist at University Malaya Medical Centre and Professor Chris Bullen, professor of public health at the University of Auckland.

Licensed counsellor Heeran Kaur steps into the studio for Counsellor’s Corner, to answer questions from parents about the do’s and don’ts of parenting today: tiger mom or helicopter parenting? How do we raise less-entitled children? Should parents be their kids’ friends?Image Credit: Shutterstock

Malaysia’s most recent death statistics from 2023 showed that ischaemic heart disease was the second leading cause of death. Unfortunately, we cannot keep dealing with ever-increasing rates of heart disease and its complications. Could integrative cardiology provide better approaches to tackle the root causes of heart disease? We speak to integrative cardiologist Dr Ross Walker.Image Credit: Shutterstock

Malaysians are often told that we don’t eat very healthy - and this is where nutritionists come in to help guide the population and policies towards better eating habits within the community. In this episode of Humans of Healthcare, we dive into the work of a nutritionist - in particular one who works in a teaching and research capacity - with Dr Wong Jyh Eiin, Head of the Nutrition Science Programme at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Primary care can play an important role in picking up cases of family or domestic violence early, but are our healthcare workers trained to do so and handle these cases sensitively? We speak to Prof Dr Sajaratulnisah Othman, family medicine specialist at University Malaya Medical Centre, to discuss how healthcare workers at the primary care level can play their part.Image Credit: Shutterstock