Bfm :: Health & Living

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

Lung cancer is still one of the most common cancers in Malaysia and most of our lung cancer patients are still diagnosed in the late stages. In conjunction with World Lung Cancer Day, observed annually on 1st August, we explore how far we’ve come in treating lung cancer and, more importantly, how accessible these treatments are for lung cancer patients in Malaysia. Consultant urologist Dr George Lee is joined by consultant respiratory physician Emeritus Professor Dr Liam Chong Kin to find out more.Image Credit: Shutterstock

People with drug addiction or substance use disorder are often stigmatised and walk a long and lonely path towards recovery. We speak to Charles, Zam and Faisal (not their real names) from Narcotics Anonymous Malaysia, to find out how recovering addicts help each other to stay clean through peer support, one day at a time. Find out more about Narcotics Anonymous Malaysia on their website or call their helpline at +601115114022.Image Credit: Shutterstock

In 2017, Malaysia made headlines as the first country in the world to issue a government-use license to bypass the patent on a key hepatitis C drug—sofosbuvir. This bold move paved the way for Malaysia to develop and roll out an affordable hepatitis C treatment using ravidasvir, in partnership with Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi). In conjunction with World Hepatitis Day on 28 July, we’re exploring what we’ve achieved so far in making hepatitis C treatment more accessible and what it will take to eliminate this disease for good.Image credit: Shutterstock

Snoring is disruptive and often dismissed as a normal bodily function but it can be a sign of a more serious health problem. On this episode of Ask A Doctor, we speak to consultant respiratory physician Prof Dr Mohamed Faisal Abdul Hamid and consultant ENT surgeon Assoc Prof Dr Mawaddah Azman, both from Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz to break down what snoring tells us about that person’s health and when something needs to be done about it.Image Credit: Shutterstock