Dr. Willie T. Ong, The Philippine STAR, May 15, 2012

Do you like to add seasonings on your food? Do you have the urge to drown your chicken in a pool of gravy sauce or add spoonfuls of Thousand Island dressing to your salad? If so, then you better watch out.

Knowing which foods to eat is only half the battle won. The other half is about choosing healthier sauces to dip your food into. Let’s check out the best seasonings for you.

Healthy Seasonings:

1. Tomato sauce and ketchup – Topping the list are tomato products like tomato sauce and ketchup. A study shows that eating tomato sauce leads to a longer life span for men with prostate cancer. In order to release its lycopene, tomatoes should be cooked with a little olive oil. Ideally, we should consume at least 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce a week or approximately 150 ml a week.
2. Vinegar – A daily intake of white vinegar or apple cider vinegar may help control blood glucose levels. In a study published in Diabetes Care, Dr. Carol Johnston from the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University, shows that vinegar slows down the usual rise of blood sugar after a meal. According to Dr. Johnston, “The acetic acid in vinegar may inhibit enzymes that digest starch so that carbohydrate molecules aren’t available for absorption and are eliminated as fecal matter.” The late Vermont country doctor, Dr. D. C. Jarvis maintained that an overweight person could lose weight gradually by taking two teaspoons of vinegar in a glass of water (with a little honey for taste) before each meal. Just a warning: Don’t take too much if you’re hyperacidic. The safest way to consume vinegar is to incorporate it in your diet, such as vinaigrette dressing for salads, and as a seasoning with fish and rice.
3. Calamansi or lemon – These citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C, which are known to help our immune system in fighting infections. Just be careful that you don’t take it on an empty stomach because it’s acidic. Mix it with food or water. In fact, some studies show that lemon juice may help relieve symptoms of asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and sore throat.
4. Curry and turmeric – Turmeric and yellow curry are seasonings that may help fight inflammation and prevent cancer. Curry contains a compound called curcumin, which preliminary studies show, may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. In the laboratory, these seasonings enhance the effect of chemotherapy and also reduce tumor growth.
5. Ginger – Ginger root has long been used in Chinese Medicine to treat nausea, vomiting, cough, colds, headache, stomach ache and arthritis. Its secret ingredient comes from gingerols. Aside from these benefits, ginger helps reduce inflammation and helps retard the creation of new blood vessels used by cancer cells.
6. Garlic, onions and leeks – According to cancer expert Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, garlic and leeks contain ally sulfides, which may help in cancers of the colon, breast, lung and prostate. To best release its anticancer ingredients, the garlic clove should be crushed and gently fried with a little olive oil. Garlic can also be eaten raw, and added to salads.

Seasonings To Be Used In Moderation:

1. Salt, soy sauce and fish sauce – For healthy individuals, there’s no problem in consuming these condiments in moderation. However, for people with a variety of conditions, particularly high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, heart failure, and leg swelling, these seasonings should be taken in limited amounts. Some cancer experts warn against taking too much of these salty seasoning as they might trigger the formation of cancer cells in the body.
2. Shrimp paste (Bagoong) – Just like soy sauce and fish sauce, shrimp paste is very salty. And it doesn’t matter even if you mix it with lots of rice. For as long as you consume the salt in these seasonings, it will still retain water in the body, thereby potentially increasing one’s blood pressure. For those with heart and kidney disease, I would advise you not to place added seasonings on your food anymore. Just take your food as it is.
3. Hot sauce and chili – For susceptible individuals, hot sauce and chili can lead to ulcers and hemorrhoids. The ingredients in hot sauce is actually irritating to the blood vessels in the rectum (anus) and can aggravate hemorrhoids. Too much spicy foods will also be released through our sweat pores, causing body odor.
4. Mayonnaise or Thousand Island dressing – The concern with mayonnaise-based dressings is its very high fat content. A teaspoonful of mayonnaise packs a whole lot of calories. As an alternative, you may choose vinegar-based sauces for your salads.
5. Rich gravy sauce and butter-based sauces – Some gravy sauce are made with the fat and oil drippings of pork and beef. These kinds of grave sauces are not friendly to your heart and blood vessels. Don’t risk it. However, there are some gravy preparations that are less rich and less fatty. You can actually tell by the not-so-buttery smell and taste of it. If you crave for gravy, just add a little dab on your food. As mentioned, ketchup for fried chicken is much healthier than gravy sauce.

Finally, let me remind our readers that although the healthy seasonings listed here have some benefits, you must not overdo it, either. These preferred seasonings should not be used as a substitute for medical treatment, but only to assist you in eating better.

As always, the key word is moderation. Just take a bit more of the healthy sauces and less of the salty and fatty ones. Good luck!

Dr. Willie T. Ong, The Philippine STAR, May 8, 2012

For the past two years, I have been fortunate to be part of the Department Of Health (DOH) family. In 2010, I was invited by newly-appointed DOH Secretary, Dr. Enrique T. Ona to be a consultant to help in the agency’s advocacies. Thanks to Secretary Ona, I was able to see how the government is set up to care for the public’s health.

How DOH Does Its Job:

First, the agency has 72 DOH retained hospitals under its control, including the likes of East Avenue Medical Center, National Kidney Institute, Philippine Heart Center and many more. The DOH also has its Centers for Health and Development (CHD) in every region with a Regional Director as the head. These CHDs help the local government units perform its health programs.

The DOH also has a huge 2 billion peso program every year on free childhood immunizations called the Expanded Program of Immunization. This EPI program covers diseases like polio, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles. On top of this, the DOH has strong regulatory powers on the price of drugs, food and drug companies, among others.

Health Challenges:

In DOH, I found out about the top health problems the government must address. These include (1) improving health facilities, (2) employing more health workers, (3) increasing PhilHealth coverage, (4) reducing the number of mothers and children dying, (5) reducing non-communicable diseases, (6) lowering the cost of medicines, (7) controlling outbreaks like dengue, and (8) controlling the HIV-AIDS epidemic.

For each of these problems, the DOH has already mapped out their strategic plan. However, the implementation part is easier said than done. If the solutions to our health problems were easy, then these diseases should have been eradicated already.

After close to two years in office, here are some of the things Secretary Ona has done.

1. More people enrolled in PhilHealth – During Secretary Ona’s first interview with President Benigno Aquino, he was asked by the President how he would improve the health sector. Dr. Ona answered that after long years of study, he believes that the Filipinos’ health can be improved by getting everyone to enroll in PhilHealth. Only a government insurance can pay for emergency expenses incurred by poor families. Dr. Ona politely said that he would be happy to help in PhilHealth. To his surprise, the President did not appoint him to PhilHealth but rather gave him the bigger portfolio, which is DOH. As DOH secretary and chairman of PhilHealth, Secretary Ona has made his presence felt, even holding office in PhilHealth regularly. One survey shows that PhilHealth enrollment has increased to 80% from around 56% two years ago. This is on the strength of a multi-billion peso budget allocation for PhilHealth and two successful PhilHealth Sabados (enrollment campaigns).
2. Highest budget ever for DOH – Under Secretary Ona’s term, the DOH received the biggest budget increase and the highest budget ever for DOH, which is at 42 billion pesos for 2012. This figure is almost twice the DOH budget of 23 billion pesos in 2009. In our conversations, he had said, “As a surgeon, I know how much our people need hospital care and medicines. I want the DOH to get its needed budget. People are saying that I am thrifty. Yes, I am thrifty when it comes to unnecessary luxuries. But when it comes to helping the poor, I will need a substantial amount of money to rehabilitate our hospitals.”
3. He is one of the most-travelled DOH secretary in terms of visiting government hospitals, rural health units and birthing centers. He looks at the buildings, talks to the director, the architect and sometimes even the janitor to check the restrooms. The government hospitals must be “malinis and mabango” (clean and smelling fresh). But in the bureaucracy of bidding and building, it takes some time to get things going. Secretary Ona has already shuffled and reshuffled his people to find the best fit to get the Department going.
4. DOH has employed more nurses and health workers through the RN heals volunteer nurses program.  Batch 1 deployed 10,000 nurses, batch 2 had 11,500 nurses, and the latest batch 3 will recruit 10,000 nurses and 3,000 midwives.
5. Seeing how the poor cannot buy their medicines, DOH has also started a new program of giving free maintenance medicines for poor patients. Dubbed as the ComPack (complete treatment packs), this program has an initial budget of Php 500 million in a year.
6. Secretary Ona has implemented his own version of “doctors to the barrios” with his Community health teams or CHT. These teams of health workers travel house to house to teach the people about vaccination, cleanliness, maternal and child care, and common diseases.
7. With his increased budget for DOH, Secretary Ona has found extra funds to provide novel vaccines for the poor that will target diarrhea and pneumonia. These two diseases are the top causes of sickness in children. With this added free vaccination against Rotavirus (costing Php 560 million for 2012), the DOH hopes to see diarrhea cases being reduced afterwards.

Of course, there are perennial hard to solve problems like Dengue, HIV-AIDS and firecracker injuries. Dengue is tied up to a dirty environment, HIV-AIDS is connected to risky sexual behavior, and firecracker use is already part of the Filipino culture. Still, Secretary Ona has been very open to new strategies and ideas, like the study of tawa-tawa plant for dengue.

In our conversation, Secretary Ona always tells me that he is proud to be both a clinical doctor (a surgeon) and a public health man. He can see the problem from both angles.

How does he handle criticisms and complaints? What I found out is that Secretary Ona is a most forgiving man. Even if a person has wronged him before, he would still give the person another chance.

Early on during his term, some anti-smoking advocates have accused the Secretary of being “soft” on tobacco companies. But Secretary Ona just kept quiet because he believes there are always two sides to every issue. Then later on, to the surprise of his critics, Secretary Ona suddenly held a press conference giving his full support to the passage of “Sin Taxes.”

Did he change his stand on smoking? I believe he never did. “I need the money to rehabilitate our hospitals. There are so many poor people that need our help,” says the good DOH secretary.

Friday, April 27, 2012

THE nightmare started on March 20, 1902. At 2:30 p.m., two people were admitted at San Juan de Dios Hospital for treatment. The doctor who checked the patients was totally aghast by what he found.

Hospital physicians immediately notified the board of health. In just a matter of one hour, Dr. L.M. Maus, the health commissioner, arrived. He confirmed the diagnosis: cholera.

Just like what cholera had done in other countries, the disease was soon to wipe out thousands of Filipinos. In the first three days, thirty-seven were confirmed. It ballooned to 102 ten days later – with an astounding death rate of ninety percent!

Realizing the enormity of the situation, the health board (mostly Americans) carried a government order, which called for the burning of infected nipa huts – to the confusion of the natives. It also advocated cremation of bodies, outlawing of funerals, and land quarantine. All these conflicted with Filipino customs of funeral visits and visiting of the sick.

Despite these measures, the cholera epidemic continued to take its toll. People were not aware on how to prevent the disease from spreading. The contaminated water supply, rampant defecation in the rivers, and lack of hospitals contributed to the rapid spread of cholera.

All in all, 200,222 lives – including 66,000 children – perished. Three percent of the population was decimated in what touted to be “the worst epidemic in Philippine health history.”

New generations would never know this had it not been for the Co Tec Tai Medical Museum, which showcases the history of medical practice and health care in the Philippines.

Perhaps the first and only medical museum in the country, it has various collections of rare photographs, health artifacts, memorabilia, mementos, medical books and instruments, and paintings.

One of the things that captivated me during the recent visit was the two paintings by Thomas Daquioag. One was titled “Barrio Doctors,” where physicians are depicted helping the needy barrio folks. The other one is “Panata Ko… Bayan Ko,” a reminder of their oath: to save lives.

Touring around the museum is like walking through times – starting from the Spanish era (when three great epidemics hit the country: cholera, smallpox and beri-beri) to present time (the photograph of Health Secretary Enrique Ona interviewed by broadcaster Joe Taruc at the DZRH radio station).

There are lots and lots of historic photographs. Each photo is arranged according to the time it was taken: epidemic years (1891-1909), American health initiatives (1910-1919), training Filipino leaders in research and public health (1920-1929), passing the torch (1930-1939), the war years (1940-1949), golden age (1950-1959), medical progress (1960-1969), and Martial law years (1970-1979).

The year 1980-1989 was considered the primary health care years, 1990-1999 as burden from infectious and lifestyle diseases, and 2000 to the present time as health in the New Millennium.

The museum also has complete photographs of health secretaries – starting from Dr. Jose Fabella (1941-1945) down to Dr. Enrique T. Ona (2010-present). Among the most popular health heads were Dr. Francisco Q. Duque, Dr. Jesus C. Azurin, Dr. Alfredo (who received a Ramon Magsaysay Award), Dr. Juan M. Flavier, and Dr. Manuel M. Dayrit. So far, only two women became health secretaries: Dr. Carmencita N. Reodica (1996-1998) and Dr. Esperanza I. Cabral (2010).

The medical museum is named in honor of Mr. Ong Yong – better known as Co Tec Tai in the Chinese community. He was born in Jinjiang, China but came to the Philippines in 1922. He had been very active in charity works and was president of several civic organizations. He died in 2009 after a lingering illness.

“My father gallantly fought alongside the guerrillas in World War II,” said daughter Julie Ong-Alonzo. “When the war was over, he did small businesses until he built his fortune in later years. He then though of sharing what he had to the Filipino people to show his gratitude to the Philippines which he considered his second home.”

The Co Tec Tai Medical Museum is the brainchild of her brother, Dr. Willie T. Ong. A cardiologist at Manila Doctors Hospital and Makati Medical Center, Willie graduated from De La Salle University College of Medicine in 1992 and completed his training in Adult Cardiology at the U.P.-Philippine General Hospital in 1999.

During his early years in medical school, Willie was in search of role model Filipino doctors that could serve as his inspiration. But he couldn’t find any. So, after graduating from school, he and his wife, Dr. Anna Liza R. Ong, went to the United States and studied History of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin.

“For months, we toiled through the icy winter of Madison, collecting anything and everything related to Philippine medicine,” Willie recalled. The couple also went to Washington, D.C., Maryland, Boston, and Wisconsin to gather “any scrap Filipino health workers had left behind.”

Almost daily, the two doctors searched various libraries and American government agencies until finally they brought home 19 boxes of pictures, journals and books about the “secret of our past.” Willie admitted, “Many of these historical sources were destroyed in the Philippines by the bombs of World War II.”

The couple also traveled to other countries in quest for other information. In Spain, they went to Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ministerio De Sanidad y Consumo, and Museo Nacional de Antropologia. In Japan, they went to Tokyo and visited the National Diet Library.

“Though this medical museum, all the good works and noble projects of our countrymen in the health sector can be safely stored and remembered,” said Willie, who writes a health column for a national daily and has a weekly television and radio show. “And as we look at the pictures and listen to their stories, it is our fervent hope to continue to tell and retell their stories for the younger generations to learn from.”

It took the Ongs twelve years to collect all what are now being displayed at the museum. First opened to the public in 2006, it is now located at the fifth and sixth floor of the Warner Building, 2540 Taft Avenue Pasay City (between Edsa Rotunda and Libertad Street). It is open from Mondays to Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm, with telephone number (632) 831-9842. Visitors are welcome to visit in large groups. Students in high schools and colleges, especially those interested in health sciences, are welcome to tour the museum. Admission is free.