MyHealth Beijing

Who do you think are healthier: people born and raised in China, or in the USA? I used to generalize that the average person in China was healthier, mostly from observing Beijing’s lively street life, especially at night.  On every [...]

Did you know that only ten percent of teenage girls in the USA get enough calcium? Even here in China, the average calcium intake is less than half the recommended amounts. Most infants now have no problems with their calcium, thanks [...]

It’s cold and flu season yet again, and time to review the simple steps can we all take to avoid these inevitable illnesses. This year’s flu season is a bit more newsworthy than usual as H7N9 bird flu continues to [...]

How much screen time is too much for a child? I’m not worried so much about movie time as I am about the total amount of hours kids spend on TV shows, iPads, laptops and the rest. Most of us [...]

We parents worry about our children getting enough exercise — but what about ourselves? Are we all leading by example and also getting enough exercise? Surveys show that most adults both here in China and in countries like the USA [...]

The great team at BeijingKids magazine have assembled a super useful collection of health articles and advice in their new 2013-4 Health Guide. It’s available in print at all the usual Beijing outlets but is also available for free here at [...]

What’s the best air pollution mask for China? There are quite a few brands out there. But which ones really work?

What’s the best milk source for your baby after 12 months? Breast milk is still the preferred choices, and whole milk the next option — but many people in China prefer toddler formula. While milk safety in China is a legitimate [...]

Another holiday season is rapidly approaching, and most of you made flight and hotel reservations months ago — but have you spent equal efforts preparing for good health on your hard earned holiday? Each holiday season I see a massive [...]

What’s the best treatment if you or your child have a stomach infection and get  slightly dehydrated from a couple days of diarrhea and poor eating? I see a lot of such gastroenteritis in the summertime, mostly due to more [...]

After six and a half years here in Beijing, I can comfortably say that I have joined the ranks of the long term expats. What’s our secret?

My adorable son is now four months old, still a tiny bundle of joy. I look forward to us venturing outside for summer fun, but what if the pollution is bad that day? I desperately hope we don’t have another January-ish “airpocalypse” [...]

There’s a clever English language play on words, “assuming makes an ass out of you and me.” As an American expat straddling two cultures, I confess that it’s all too easy to make sweeping generalizations about differences, usually defaulting to [...]

I’m usually quite proud of my Irish ancestry, but one unfortunate vestige of that heritage is pasty white skin that sunburns quite easily. When my mother was pregnant with me and my twin brother, the doctors discovered a large melanoma [...]

“Maximum Results With Minimal Investment”. It sounds like a shady late night infomercial, but it’s actually the subtitle of a well publicized review article from the May-June issue of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal. Titled High Intensity [...]