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 [...]

Summer can be a wonderfully enriching and memorable experience; I still fondly remember my summertime weeks at Boy Scout camp. While most kids will have a wonderful time, parents should be aware of the potential health issues at camp, which [...]

Parents in Beijing have many health questions, but one of the hottest topics is vaccinations. There are quite a few internationally standard vaccines, but there are also some Beijing-specific vaccines. For routine vaccines, which start during childhood, most countries cover [...]

Having a pet can be a wonderful experience for kids and families. I loved growing up with a series of cats and dogs, and my older brother also had an enormous Habitrail full of gerbils. I wouldn’t trade away any of these [...]

I must confess that I think airpocalypse is a wonderfully apt and evocative new word. It’s right up there in the expat zeitgeist along with crazy bad and gutter oil as definitive additions to our lexicon. Airpocalypse perfectly encapsulates those miserable, gray [...]

“Leaves of three, let them be.” Sounds familiar to many of us, yes? This quote refers to the dreaded poison oak and poison ivy, plants which line the hiking trails and woods of much of the world. To protect themselves from being [...]

Being a foreigner in China allows a certain amount of leeway to act a bit unusually in public and get away with it. One of my favorite eccentric activities has involved cruising around Beijing’s streets, suburbs and mountains to check out the [...]

Springtime is just starting to warm up in Beijing, and it feels great to be putting away those thick down coats and dusting off those pastel shirts and Easter finery. It also heralds an annual spring tradition in my clinic– [...]

I’m a bit sleep deprived these last few days, so please forgive me if I start to ramble. Everyone warned me that becoming a father would permanently destroy my eight hour sleep routine, and they were right. As a new parent [...]

In your never ending quest for safe foods for your family while here in China, have you ever considered buying only organic foods? How about becoming vegetarian? These options may have seemed unlikely before China for some of you, but many [...]