13th February 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
One of the great advantage of being a runner is that wherever you go, all you have to do is pack a pair of running shoes and the world is your oyster. During a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I went out running on the local streets. It was 6am and still pitch dark.…
13th February 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
The bulk of patients with depression is managed in primary care. A significant proportion of these patients do well with the usual anti-depressants. At some point in time, many will no longer need their medications and we usually wean them off their drugs. Why do we need to wean them off? How do we wean them off?…
13th February 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
Nasolacrimal duct obstruction in infants is not uncommon. Up to 10% of infants will present with watery, teary eyes which sometimes become purulent necessitating antibiotic drops. We know that “most” spontaneously resolve as the infant grows older. In the meantime, we generally recommend massaging of the duct and topical antibiotics when required. Up to 1 in 4 congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction (CNLDO) does not resolve spontaneously.…
13th February 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
It’s all too confusing. It used to be low fat diet. It’s now low carbohydrate (carb) diet. Some studies show that low carb diet loses more weight than low fat diet while others show the opposite. Yet, other studies show no significant difference between the diets. So, which is it then? Have you wondered that perhaps, we are looking at different patients responding to different diets.…
27th January 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
Energy consumption, regulation and storage vital for the survival of the organism. We have specialised cells that manages the above but often, the cells do a bit of each depending on the energy needs of the organism at the time. When you think about it, the most effective cell to do all of the above is actually the adipocyte.…
27th January 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
As GPs we often see little kids already carrying extra weight and we know that many of these will go on to become overweight or obese adults. Many overweight kids and overweight adults will go on to develop type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, some obese kids don’t go on to become diabetic. Which subsets of these overweight kids don’t go on to develop diabetes?…
27th January 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
It’s tempting to rely too much on HbA1c when managing our patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). It is not uncommon to come across patients with pretty optimal HbA1c (under 6.5-7.0%) and we pat them on the back with the message “well done”. Often, the fasting glucose levels is just glossed over. Should we even bother with the fasting glucose levels at all these days?…
9th January 2019, Dr John Goswell
According to a recent article in JAMA, in flight emergencies occur in about 1:600 flights. This comforting statistic should allow doctors to relax and enjoy their holidays. Not so for me. I have answered the call “Is there a doctor on the plane” twice now, even though I am not a “frequent flier”. …
5th January, 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
The incidence of ischaemic strokes in young adults is on the increase. Worldwide, it has risen up to 40% over the past decades. This contrasts with the decreasing incidence of stroke in older adults. It’s never a good time to have a stroke whatever the age of onset is but the socioeconomic costs are much higher in the younger.…
4th January 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
When you treat a medical condition with an agent with known intended effects, it is not uncommon that we come across some of the unintended effects of the agent. Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor antagonists (GLP1-RAs) are very useful agents which not only improve glucose control via its known effects on insulin and glucagon but it is associated with modest weight loss.…
4th January 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo
Huntington Disease (HD) was first described in 1872 by George Huntington, MD, in his paper “On Chorea”. HD is an autosomal-dominant, neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by expansion of a cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) triplet repeat in the huntingtin gene which is located on the short arm of chromosome 4 (1). The gene codes for the huntingtin protein.…
25th December 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
After the acute management of an ischaemic stroke, what follows is the diagnostic process to find the underlying cause and secondary prevention of further strokes. In younger patients and in patients whose atherosclerotic burden is low, the search for a cause can be challenging. Some of the rarer causes of stroke and cardioembolic causes (including atrial fibrillation) needs to be excluded.…