Breakthroughs Today

Breakthroughs , the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper column which brings breaking news in health research every Wednesday, took its existence in the local community of Cebu in the month of May some five years ago today. It started from a dream of bringing the hard technical language of medical research to the common people who considered technical terms in medical science and technology as archaic as well as strange and often unfathomable even while using the ordinary English dictionary. Our fifth year testifies that goal may have been achieved through the years, and its readers may have obtained some form of benefits after reading each article each week since then. And yet any child cannot claim existence without the mother who gave birth to it. And for Breakthroughs , no other mother can rightly assume that matriarchal honor than my retired Live section editor, Pura Kintanar, whose perception may have seen ahead of time the years that Breakthroughs will be serving the local community of Ceb

"THE reward for work well done," wrote researcher and virologist Jonas Salk, "is the opportunity to do more." And the reward for doing more, and longer hours of work, let me add, will impact on your health in ways you may not desire. Philippine working hours are considered worldwide as long working hours compared to the standard 40 hours per week [in other countries]. Even without overtime, Filipino workers regularly log excess hours each week. But that is also common worldwide. Studies found associations between long working hours and many risk factors such as... ( Read more. ) (This article appears in Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on 26 May 2010.)

PROLIFIC historical novelist Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet of Scotland, wrote: “A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.” In cancer medicine, a toenail rich in selenium, a purplish-gray element, may make an important difference in protecting us from bladder cancer... (Read more ) This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 19 May 2010.

FARMER and writer Ethan Allen wrote: “In those parts of the world where learning and science have prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue.” In medicine, syndromes are still in vogue. There is another clinical vogue coming up... ( Read more . ) This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 12 May 2010.

26 May 2010 The Long Hours Through Midlife 19 May 2010 Selenium Toenail Effect 12 May 2010 The Frailty of Age 5 May 2010 Uric Prelude to Obesity

"It's hard enough to go through puberty," Charmed witch Alyssa Milano once said. It could be harder later on, I may say, should insulin resistance syndrome (IRS) begins right here. IRS has been referred to as metabolic syndrom, a rather popular subject for research among health scientists lately, and we have partly covered in another research in a previous article. And researchers found out that uric acid level can be an indicator of this... Read more. This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 5 May 2010.