With today’s fast-paced lifestyle, many of us rush down food and grab a coffee to keep us going through the day. However, it’s time to take stock and reconsider these choices. Smoking, eating fatty or fried food, and drinking coffee and alcohol are all risk factors for developing various illnesses, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
“Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, is a chronic condition that occurs when stomach acid rises to the oesophagus,” explains Dr Emad Fayyad, a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Medcare Hospital Al Safa. “Recurring acid reflux can progress to GERD. Many risk factors can trigger repetitive acid reflux, such as obesity, hiatus hernia, pregnancy, smoking, delayed stomach emptying, drinking coffee and alcohol, eating large meals, or eating late at night.”
As with any disease, prevention is key, and since a large proportion of residents in the UAE are estimated to suffer from GERD, it would be wise to re-evaluate any bad lifest
“The five-year survival rate of regional prostate cancer, meaning that it has not spread to other organs, is almost 100 per cent,” says Dr Amgad Farouk, Consultant Urology at Medcare Hospital Al Safa. When it has metastasized however, this rate plummets to 31 per cent, making early detection and treatment that much more important.
As Movember, or the month that focuses on men’s health, ticks on, Medcare Hospital Al Safa focuses on raising awareness of one of the most common cancers that plague men, of the prostate. It affects 5 in 1,000 Emirati men, show recent studies.
“The prostate is a small organ, the size of a ping pong ball, located deep inside the groin, in front of the rectum. It is an important reproductive organ in men,” explains Dr Farouk.
There may be a number of reasons for a man to shy away from checks, especially since the most common symptoms - frequent urination and a weak urine flow - mimic that of urinary tract infections, but it is imperative that men over
At Medcare Hospital Al Safa, we plan annual diabetes screening programmes and offer special packages to help people get checked for prediabetes and diabetes.
We also offer corporate packages so that companies can take better care of their employees and help them make their health a priority. Given the high prevalence of diabetes in the UAE, what are the three main things that people in the UAE should do to prevent diabetes?
Diabetes has both modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. It is important to tackle the modifiable risk factors to prevent diabetes. The three major risk factors for diabetes are obesity, sedentary lifestyle and poor diet.
With that in mind, the three main things that people in the UAE can do to prevent diabetes are lose weight and maintain a healthy, stable weight, exercise for at least 30 minutes every day, and eat a balanced diet with all the required nutrients and vitamins.
These will not only help prevent diabetes but will also keep other major health
With state-of-the-art diagnostic tools and expert specialists, Medcare’s Cardiology Department is fully equipped to provide an excellent and well-thought of service .
Every year, about 17.9 million people die as a result of cardiovascular diseases. According to the World Health Organisation, four out of five such deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes. On the occasion of World Heart Day, Reach by Gulf News sits down with cardiac experts at Medcare Hospital Al Safa to learn more about how to promote heart health and prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Here’re some excerpts from the interviews with the doctors.