BFM :: The Bigger Picture

Dr Chua Yeok Pin, Foot & Ankle Orthopaedic Surgeon and Zaifa Khatum Binti Abdul Mohamed Ibnu, Diabetes Nurse Educator of Sunway Medical Centre aim to improve the knowledge among the public on diabetes and to detect those with risk factors. Find out how you can take control of your disease for a better quality of life.

Most people tend to avoid worms and parasites, but researchers of helminths know that these little worms may have more positive roles than we’d like to imagine. A recently published work found that parasitic worms may promote growth of probiotic bacteria that might one day help treat inflammatory bowel diseases. Prof Yvonne Ai-Lian Lim from the Department of Parasitology, University of Malaya tells us more about her role in this study, and how worms may earn their keep in our guts.

The Solid Waste Corporation Management (SWCorp) revealed from a recent study that the average Malaysian household throws away more than one month’s salary on food they don’t eat. Besides being a waste of money, time and energy, unused food that ends up in landfills is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases. During this season of Ramadan, we discuss how we can collectively stop this morally and economically outrageous waste, with SWCorp's Agustina Fithri Kasmaruddin and MYSaveFood's Dr. Ainu Husna.

Associate Professor Dr. Wan Salwina Wan Ismail, a psychiatrist and lecturer, has conducted studies on adolescent bullying in Malaysian schools. She joins us to discuss the findings of her study, and looks at the factors associated with this behaviour, in particular factors distinctive to our local population. She will also discuss how she hopes her findings can facilitate in strategizing effective interventions for school bullying among young adolescents in Malaysian schools.

The actor and trainer, Oliver Senton, was in Kuala Lumpur, brought in by a performing group to train young would-be participants in musical theatre.  He gives a brief history of The School of Night and its manifestation in the 20th century under the guidance of Ken Campbell, who is described by The Guardian as “one of the most original and unclassifiable talents in the British theatre of the past half-century.” High praise. Oliver Senton also demonstrates some of the exercises used by this fraternity to train actors to quiet the nagging negative voice that impedes improvisation.

Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Stephen Jambunathan tells us a little bit more about our minds and the management of mental disorders. This month we uncover the obsessive compulsive spectrum. Most of us have a streak of it: It intersects with depression, anxiety and psychosis as well as the Asperger/Autistic spectrum.

Last year, the Ministry of Youth and Sports together with EPiC launched a programme called MYCorps. Modeled after the American Peace Corps, MYCorps is an initiative designed to inculcate the values of leadership, volunteerism and service in Malaysian youth. Clarissa Chang, the executive director of EPiC DNA and MYCorps' recruitment and experience coordinator Arina Rashid spoke to us about MYCorps' mission 

Hands give inspiration and birth to works by the artist Yau Bee Ling. She relates her growing up years and other  stories that gave her the inspiration to depict on canvas.  Hands, as appendages, are our natural extensions to touch and to connect with each other--other human beings with hands--and the surrounding physical world. Hands can create. Bee Ling illuminates further the spiritual aspect of hands through these new works which mirror her  journey, searching and exploring deeper and more meaningful connections.

The Soul of Malaya that masterful piece of work by the French author, planter and adventurer, Henri Fauconnier was recently translated for the first time into Bahasa Malaysia by Mohammad Haji Salleh and published by Institut Terjemahan dan Buku Malaysia. This colonial masterpiece does more than just take us into the planter’s world of British Malaya but instead conveys an incredibly picturesque impression of the land and its inhabitants.

This week, on Invisible Cities, Uma speaks to Debbie Chow about Fauconnier's place in the literature of colonial Malaya as well as the ins and outs of translating Malaisie into Nurani Tanah Melayu.

This is an edited recording of the panel discussion that was held at the BFM Health & Living Live 2016 on April 2nd. In Part 2 of 6, presenter/producer Umapagan Ampikaipakan spoke to Dr Zanariah Hussein, Consultant Endocrinologist, Mary Easaw-John, Chief Dietitian of Institut Jantung Negara (IJN), Dr Azani Daud, Consultant Cardiologist,and Dato' Dr Venugopal Balchand, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon to debunk the myths about heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. BFM Health & Living Live 2016 is presented by AIA, The Real Life Company.

You can find all the recordings from BFM Health & Living Live 2016 under the term 'bfmhealth' on bfm.my.