Direct Sales Personnel Qualified?

I was talking to a friend last night and she told me she joined a direct sales company selling weight loss products. She told me the testimonial is very good and a man has successfully lost 52kg as a result of consuming the products which is high in vitamins and proteins. She is still studying in college and against her mother advice, she has invested all her savings into it.

She told me her "teacher" is very kind and taught her selling skills needed for selling the products. However, after asking her some basic questions, I found out that she was not trained on basic product knowledge. She don't even know the function of various vitamins and the maximum dosage a person can take per day. She also don't know the ingredient and nutritional facts of the products. She also don't have any idea how the products will work in the body or how the products help in loosing weight. All she know is that "the product is rich in vitamins and proteins; take it and it will help to loose weight".

This is the similar to a group of direct selling personnel trying to persuade me into selling their products; because my background in the medical line. Unfortunately, they did not do their homework properly. They told me their products can help to "cure" certain diseases like diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and etc. They also told me that all western medicines are harmful to the human body and that is what all the boxes is marked "Poison". They told me that once the patients started taking their products, they can stopped taking western medicines.

In fact, they are testing my patience. I immediately asked them some questions where they could not answer:

1. Do you know what is the causes of diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia?
2. Do you know how "western medicines" works on these diseases?
3. Do you know how your products work in helping to so called "cure" these diseases?
4. Do you really know the purpose, reason and meaning of the "poison" label on the box of so called "western medicines"?
5. Do you know the risks in telling a patients who are well controlled on their current treatment to stop taking their medications and switched to your health products.
6. Do your products have any big trials published in reputable journals?
7. Can you guarantee the patient will be well after switching to your products?
8. Have your products been approved my Ministry of Health for such indications?
9. Do you know it's against the law for such off-label claims?
10. Do you know it's unethical to sell this way?

None of them can answer and immediately showed me ugly faces. That's not very professional and gave me a bad impression on the company who only wanted sales and not making sure their sales personnel are qualified to sell.

Well, I agree that some direct selling products do have good studies and the ingredients are very good for health. However, I just hope that direct sales company can put in more efforts in training and guiding their sales personnel not only on their product knowledge and selling skills; but also the law and ethics; as well as disease management to prevent risking patients' life by misleading statement.

Should I Stop My Cholesterol Lowering Medication?

I always heard people asking: "Should I stop my cholesterol medication since my cholesterol is well controlled?" Well, it's all depends on your doctor's advice. There is always a risk of stopping a medication without doctor's advice; no matter what drugs you are taking. You should take your medication as prescribed by your doctor.

If you understand more about hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), you will might be able to answer yourself:

The are some diseases still cannot be cured by modern medicines like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and etc. When your doctor prescribed you medication for these conditions, they will never tell you that the medication will cure your condition. They are only able control it to target level. Which means that when you stopped the medication, your condition will become uncontrolled again, sooner or later.

Some anti-hypercholesterolemia medications not only lowers your cholesterol, is might provide you with cardiovascular protection benefits like plaque stabilisation, plaque regression and etc. By stopping your cholesterol lowering medication without doctor's advice, you might not only risk your cholesterol becoming uncontrolled, it might causes MI (Heart Attack) and stroke; which can caused by plaque formation and rupture of your unstable plaque core.

High cholesterol is a silent killer there are usually no symptoms. It is one of the leading causes of death from heart attack. Some patients might have higher risk especially diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure). This is because the blood vessel of a diabetes patient might be damaged easier and high blood pressure can damage the wall of the blood vessel. This is the starting point of plaque formation. Thus, these high risk patients should lower their cholesterol much lower compared to patients without these risk factors. For further explanation, please consult your doctor.

So, by now I believe you should have your answer. DON'T STOP YOUR CHOLESTEROL LOWERING MEDICATION WITHOUT DOCTOR'S ADVICE.

Some people might use the excuse of experiencing adverse drug reaction as a reason to stop the medication. I agree that some medications might give you some adverse drug reactions (side effects). Please be informed that there are various types of cholesterol lower medications available in the market. If you inform your doctor that you are experiencing side effects with your current medication, they will prescribe you with another type of cholesterol lowering medication which might suite you better. Remember "There are no one wonder drug (medication) that is suitable for all patients".

Hospital Contacts in Sabah

• Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Kota Kinabalu) : +6088 218166
• Likas Hospital (Kota Kinabalu) : +6088 522600
• Luyang Health Clinic (Kota Kinabalu) : +6088 715000
• Bukit Padang Hospital (Kota Kinabalu) : +6088 211333
• Sabah Medical Centre (Kota Kinabalu - Private) : +6088 211333
• Damai Specialist Centre (Kota Kinabalu - Private) : +6088 222922
• Rafflesia Medical Centre (Kota Kinabalu - Private) : +6088 272620
• Menggatal Dispensary (Menggatal) : +6088 491422
• Inanam Dispensary (Inanam) : +6088 421694
• Ranau Hospital (Ranau) : +6088 875266
• Tuaran Hospital (Tuaran) : +6088 787355
• Tamparuli Dispensary (Tamparuli) : +6088 782349
• Papar Hospital (Papar) : +6088 913333
• Kudat Hospital (Kudat) : +6088 612333
• Kota Belud Hospital (Kota Belud) : +6088 976333
• Kota Marudu Dispensary (Kota Marudu) : +6088 661233
• Pitas Dispensary (Pitas) : +6088 613100
• Kuala Penyu Dispensary (Kuala Penyu) : +6088 884333
• Tenom Hospital (Tenom) : +6087 735577
• Sipitang Hospital (Sipitang) : +6087 821533
• Tambunan Hospital (Tambunan) : +6087 774333
• Keningau Hospital (Keningau) : +6087 333355
• Beaufort Hospital (Beaufort) : +6087 212333
• Membakut Dispensary (Membakut) : +6087 887541
• Nabawan Dispensary (Nabawan) : +6087 335199
• Lahad Datu Hospital (Lahad Datu) : +6089 881522
• Duchess of Kent Hospital (Sandakan) : +6089 212111
• Tawau Hospital (Tawau) : +6089 773533
• Beluran Hospital (Beluran) : +6089 511233
• Telupid Dispensary (Telupid) : +6089 521733
• Semporna Hospital (Semporna) : +6089 781522
• Labuan Hospital (Labuan) : +6087 413333

Third Hand Smoke

All of us knew that smoking is not good for health. Second hand smoke is worse. Some studies shows that people exposed to second hand smoke have higher risk than the smoker themselves.

Recently, if was found that third hand smoke is as bad too. When a person smoke, the invisible and toxic brew of gases and particles clinging on smokers' hair, clothing, cushion, carpet and etc. According to Rabin 2009, the residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens, and even radioactive materials that young children get on their hands and ingest, especially if they are crawling or playing on the floor.

Some parents would open the windows, smoke outside the house and etc.. believing that the children are saved from second hand smoke. However, many of them are yet to realised the harm that third hand smoke might bring.

All of us are aware of the health risks of smoking like lung cancer, heart diseases and etc. Thus, please quit smoking not only for yourself, but for the benefit of your children's future too. I believe no one like to be guilty when our children diagnosed with cancer 10 years later because we smoke now. Remember, the effects of the cigarette might comes only after a while. May be that's why the cause of cancer to most patients are still unknown.

Source: Rabin, R.C. 2009, A New Cigarette Hazard: ‘Third-Hand Smoke’ , New York Times, 3 January 2009 [Online] Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smoke.html?_r=1

How low should be my cholesterol level?

Due to our changing lifestyles, there are more and more people suffering from high cholesterol. However, many still don't know what should be our cholesterol level be safer.

According to the NCEP ATP 3 guidelines, our LDL-C (bad cholesterol) level should be as follow:

Patients with CHD/CHD Risk Equivelents - <100mg/dl
(10 year risk > 20%)

Patients with more than 2 risk factors - <130mg/dL
(10 year risk =<20%)

Patients with 0-1 risk factor - 160mg/dL

Risk factors includes (other than elevated LDL-C):

• cigarette smoking
• Hypertension (Blood Pressure >= 140/90mmHg or on an antihypertensive medication)
• Low HDL-C (good cholesterol) <40mg/dl
• Family history of premature CHD
• Age (men >= 45 years; women >= 55 years)

Note: In ATP 3, diabetes is regarded as a CHD risk equivalent.

Source: http://www.benecolphysicians.com/usage/ncep.jhtml?id=usage/ncep

The optimal level is <100mg/dl>

In 2004, Grundy et al published the following:

Source: http://www.lipidsonline.org/slides/slide01.cfm?q=atp+iii&dpg=1

*Patient should consult their doctor for blood test result interpretation and proper treatment advice. Patient should visit their doctor regularly to monitor their condition.

What is Original Drugs and Generic Drugs

Many people are not aware of the differences between original drugs and generic drugs. Some even not aware of their existence.

When a new medication (we call it as drug in the industry) is introduced into the market, they usually protected by patent as a protection of their innovation. The affective of this patent is depends on the patency law of individual country where the drug are being marketed. Usually it for 10 years and may apply for extension when the initial patent expired.

After all the patency right has expired, its formulation can be copied by another pharmaceutical company and selling it with another brand name. For example, the original PCM is Panadol. After the patency expired, you can get many types of generic PCM in the market with other brand names like Milidon, Uphamol and etc..

What the generic company do is that they copy the ingredients and formulation and manufactured it under different brand name. However, the excepient and manufacturing processes are not copied.

The generic drugs are usually able to sell at lower price because they do not incur the cost of research (sometimes can be as long as over 20 years) and initial marketing stages to push the new drugs into the market.

Welcome to HealthPages@MY

Welcome to the first step of healthier life! This page will serve as a source of knowledge on better health.

I have been in the healthcare industry for more than 10 years. I found that in the community where I lived, there are still many people lacking on the understading of better health. With this blog, I hope that I can educate people on basic knowledge of better health as a way of giving back to the community.

The main content of HealthPages@MY is in the form of directory. You can easily surf through the blog to obtain information on the nearest health facilities like hospitals, clinics, pharmacies etc.. These includes their location, contact number and services.

The other part of the blog is providing information on better health like international gidelines, health products etc..

All comments are welcome. You may also leave a question for us and we will try our best in answering it.

So enjoy reading and hope to hear from you soon.