CNA938 Rewind - Is going toothless a natural part of growing older?
Many adults lose anywhere from five to 10 teeth by the time they reach their late 60s or early 70s. But one doesn't have to go through their senior years with even fewer teeth if they start caring for their oral health now, reported by a CNA article. Andrea Heng and Hairianto Diman ask Dr Eunice Foo, Dentist, Q&M Dental Group if going toothless is inevitable as we get older, much like how our body slows down as we age.
8 mins
CNA938 Rewind - President Donald Trump visits the Middle East, eyeing more investment in the U.S.
With US President Donald Trump due to visit Gulf states this week, a key focus will be securing significant new investment for the US economy. The economic importance of the region is highlighted by the fact that the visit to Saudi Arabia was due to be the first overseas trip of his second term in the White House. Andrea Heng and Hairianto Diman find out more about the expected agenda of the business agreements with Jessica Genauer, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Flinders University
11 mins
CNA938 Rewind - A Letter to Myself: Dignity Kitchen's Koh Seng Choon supports the differently-abled with grit and gratitude
Koh Seng Choon is the founder of Project Dignity, a social enterprise that has been equipping vulnerable and differently-abled individuals with skills and employment since 2010. Seng Choon shares how his parents' example of selfless giving despite their own financial hardship, planted the seeds of compassion in him. He also shares how the tenacity he gained as a cash-strapped student in the UK continues to fuel his drive to create practical solutions for the challenges faced by the differently-abled people in his care.
34 mins
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Maybe you toss and turn before dozing off, or you wake up at 3am, drenched in sweat, and can't fall back asleep. These are common scenarios during perimenopause, the time of transition just before menopause when a woman's period becomes irregular and her oestrogen levels start to dip. Perimenopause typically begins during a woman's 40s, and having trouble sleeping is 'probably the most distressing symptom,' said Dr Karen Adams, director of the programme in menopause and healthy ageing at Stanford Medicine. But the good news, she added, is that perimenopause-related sleep issues are 'absolutely treatable.' Here is why they occur and how to mitigate them. WHY PERIMENOPAUSE AFFECTS SLEEP Hormonal shifts during perimenopause (and later, during menopause) disrupt the body's ability to regulate temperature, causing hot flashes and night sweats that can interfere with sleep, Dr Adams said. Anxiety and depression, which are also common during this stage, are big sleep sinkers, too, said Dr Stephanie Faubion, director of the Mayo Clinic's Center for Women's Health in Jacksonville, Florida. Women usually have a lot going on during the perimenopause years, Dr Faubion said, including caring for children or ageing parents and addressing work pressures and lengthy to-do lists. These problems alone may keep them up at night, and not sleeping can compound the issues, creating a vicious cycle, she said. Add in perimenopausal hormone shifts, and it can be even more difficult to get some rest. Another issue is that women are more likely to develop sleep disorders, such as sleep apnoea, insomnia and restless-leg syndrome, during the menopause transition, said Dr Suzanne Bertisch, a sleep physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. HOW TO SLEEP BETTER Perimenopause, and its treatments, can affect everyone differently, the experts said. Start by building healthy sleep habits, such as going to bed and waking up at the same times every day; avoiding alcohol and caffeine a few hours before bedtime; sleeping in a cool, dark room; and getting the recommended 150 minutes-per-week of moderate-intensity exercise, as well as two days of strength training. If these general sleep strategies don't help, you may need to enlist a specialist. Find a provider with expertise in menopause. Not all primary care providers (or even some obstetrian-gynaecologists) are trained in treating perimenopause and menopause symptoms, Dr Adams said. If yours isn't, she suggested seeking a practitioner who is. Treat your hot flashes. When your sleep is disrupted by hot flashes or night sweats, Dr Faubion said, the 'gold standard' treatment is hormone therapy, which involves replacing lost hormones, including oestrogen and progesterone, via pill, patch or gel. Hormone therapy once had a bad reputation after a 2002 study linked it to elevated risks of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. But many studies have since shown it to be safe and effective at relieving hot flashes, vaginal dryness and mood swings for healthy women under 60. Another option is the non-hormonal oral medication fezolinetant (Veozah), which helps treat hot flashes by binding to receptors in the brain that regulate body temperature. That may also help with sleep, Dr Faubion added. Address your mental health. Hormone therapy may reduce depression symptoms, which will usually help you sleep better, Dr Faubion said. But it isn't typically prescribed for sleep problems alone, Dr Adams said. It also doesn't solve everyone's sleep issues; some women still can't sleep even when they stop having hot flashes or night sweats, she said. In these instances, Dr Adams said that she may recommend talk therapy or antidepressants like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors if anxiety or depression seem to be the cause. See a sleep specialist. If hormone therapy hasn't worked for you, it may be tempting to take melatonin or an over-the-counter sleep aid. But Dr Bertisch doesn't recommend that strategy, as these substances won't address sleep disorders or hormonal changes, and they're not meant for long-term use. Instead, see a sleep physician, Dr Bertisch said. If you regularly struggle to fall or stay asleep, you might have insomnia disorder, which can be managed with a type of cognitive behavioural therapy called CBT-I. Prescription sleep medications like zolpidem (Ambien) are also sometimes used to treat insomnia. And Ambien may reduce hot flashes and night sweats, too, Dr Bertisch said. If you find that you snore, have mood swings and are sleepy during the day, it could mean that you have sleep apnoea, said Dr Faubion, who regularly recommends that her menopause patients get screened for the condition. Sleep apnoea is managed with a continuous positive airway pressure (or CPAP) device that you wear over your nose or mouth while sleeping to improve airflow. Weight loss and other lifestyle changes may also be recommended. If you're in perimenopause and never seem to feel rested, seek help, Dr Adams said. This stage of life may be unavoidable, she said, but not sleeping isn't. 'Suffering is not inevitable.'
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What is tapping, and can it really improve mental health?
It looks a little goofy. A self-help method called ' tapping,' which involves using the fingertips to perform acupressure while countering negative emotions with breathing exercises and positive affirmations, has elicited eye-rolls from some mental health professionals. 'I'm safe in my car,' a woman on TikTok says as she practises the technique, using a finger to tap the top of her head, then the side of her eyebrow and the middle of her chin. 'I am my safe space.' In the video, she explains that driving by herself is a struggle, but tapping has helped lower her anxiety and refocus her thoughts. Anecdotes like this are easy to find on social media. Over the last 15 years or so, tapping has also popped up on wellness podcasts, TV shows and even the best-seller list. As a result, the practice, also known as the Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT, has attracted a devoted following and become a big business. But many experts remain skeptical. WHERE DID TAPPING COME FROM? Tapping, which falls under the umbrella of energy psychology, originated from a technique called Thought Field Therapy developed by the psychologist Roger Callahan in the 1980s. He conceived of it while working with a patient who had a severe phobia of water, which Dr Callahan tried treating in various ways, including exposure therapy by the pool. One day, when the patient complained that just looking at the water gave her a stomachache, Dr Callahan told her to tap firmly under her eye, an area he knew to be associated with the ' stomach meridian ' in traditional Chinese medicine. According to Dr Callahan, after two minutes of tapping, the patient declared her stomachache had disappeared, along with her fear of the water. Dr Callahan developed Thought Field Therapy from there, contending that some patients required a series of acupressure points to be touched in a specific order. Thought Field Therapy was discredited by psychology experts, in part because there isn't a way to measure energy meridians, nor any evidence that proves they exist. But in the 1990s, Gary Craig, a Stanford graduate who later became an ordained minister, rebranded the technique, creating a simplified version called EFT. Proponents suggest that tapping not only relieves stress and anxiety but can also improve symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and chronic pain, among other maladies. Practitioners now pay hundreds of dollars to take EFT courses or pursue an official certification. DOES IT WORK? Even though there are more than 200 studies that examine meridian tapping, this body of work is not as robust as it might sound. Research that claims to highlight the effectiveness of EFT has been riddled by conflicts of interest, small sample sizes, statistical errors and a lack of rigour. For these reasons, prominent members of the American Psychological Association have said that the push to popularise EFT is based on pseudoscience. 'When you really look at the evidence, it falls apart,' said Cassandra L Boness, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico and the lead author of a peer-reviewed commentary published in 2024 that raised concerns about the quality of EFT research and questioned the effectiveness of the technique. But that isn't to say that EFT is useless, experts said. Those who try the technique are instructed to think about or do activities they may find scary or uncomfortable – a form of exposure therapy, which is a powerful way of regulating emotions. Tapping also involves taking a moment to explore one's thoughts, which therapists say can help people understand their behavior. In essence, tapping is 'a hodgepodge of interventions, some of which are, I'm sure, quite effective,' said David F Tolin, the director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. But there isn't high-quality research to show that tapping itself is the active ingredient, he added. WHAT'S THE HARM? Despite the lacklustre evidence, some patients and therapists insist tapping truly helps. 'It doesn't replace existing best practises for treating PTSD, depression, addictions or other serious conditions,' said David Feinstein, who offers classes and certifications in energy medicine, along with his wife. But, in his opinion, it can make those treatments more effective. Melissa Lester, a psychotherapist in Sandy Springs, Georgia, said she found tapping could provide quick benefits, including a calmer, clearer mind. She decided to become certified in the technique because she wanted to give her clients an alternative when methods offered by other therapists, like cognitive behavioural therapy, didn't produce the desired results. Providing an alternative treatment can indeed be useful to patients, Dr Boness said, but she questioned whether it was ethical to do so in the absence of rigorous scientific evidence. Her 'biggest fear,' she added, was that vulnerable people would turn to tapping, and then find that it doesn't work. 'It's not actually a psychological treatment,' she said.
