An MP Died Suddenly of Heart Attack

A Singapore MP (Member of Parliament),
Dr ONG Chit Chung (1949-2008) just died.
Of unexpected heart attack, I understand.
The local news recorded comments that were
full of praise for him. He looked good and
well, many would say. He was a golfer.
Without any complaint of discomfort and
in very good spirits the day before he died,
he went through an 18-hole round of golf.
It was reported in the news that there were
no signs of any heart problem during the
events leading to his death on July 14 2008.

A loving and caring man, he did much for the
residents in his constituency and even for
the needy. An ex-History professor at the
University of Singapore, he was always very
helpful to everybody. He seemed to be in
the pink of health. He even talked about plans
he was making for his grassroots leaders
to visit the United States of America this
year.

His demise came most unexpectedly.

I was grieved by the news. I felt a sense
of loss that a really good man has passed
on. This post was written in memory of him.
My condolences to his wife and family!

There are a certain percentage of people,
who die of silent ischemic heart attack
every year. Though the percentage may be
small, there are still untold numbers who
die of such symptomless heart events.
According to American Heart Association,
as many as 3 to 4 million Americans may
have ischemic episodes without knowing it.

The survival statistics of a heart attack
that occurs outside of hospital is indeed
very, very grim--of the order of between
1 to less than 3 percent in Singapore,
as I understand it.

Fat and Fit? No Way!

I wrote in January 23 2006 about the untrue teachings of overweight or obese health gurus who continue to propound their doctrine that being fat but fit is okay.

But it’s not okay, according to a recent study of 39,000 women with an average age of 54 published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, April 28 2008. The study was conducted over an 11-year period on a number of health issues. At the end of this period, 948 of them were found to have heart problems.

Compared with active normal-weight individuals, the multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) were calculated by the researchers (I’ve listed the results in Table I for your convenience and clarity).


Table I: Relative Risk of Various Combinations of Body Weight-Physical Activity

Body Weight, Physical Activity, Risk Ratio
Trim (Normal), Active, 1.00 (Lowest)
Trim (Normal), Inactive, 1.08
Fat (overweight), Active, 1.54
Fat (overweight), Inactive, 1.88
Fat (obese), Active, 1.87
Fat (obese), Inactive, 2.53 (Highest)


The above results show that if you're overweight but active, you stand a 150 percent higher heart-disease risk than a normal-weight-active person, and if you are overweight-inactive or obese-active, your chance of getting heart disease is almost double that of a normal-weight and active person. Also, you're 2.5 times more prone to have the same problem if you're obese cum inactive. Interestingly enough, obese-active and overweight-inactive individuals carry similar risks.

In other words, the conclusions of the researchers were:

• Trim and active has the lowest risk of getting heart disease
• Trim but inactive has slightly higher risk
• Fat yet active has the next highest risk. ‘Obese’ carries higher risk than ‘overweight’ in the fat-active category.
• Fat and inactive has the highest risk of the four categories. Again, ‘Obese’ carries higher risk than ‘overweight’ in the fat-inactive category.


The following question might, hopefully, serve as a gentle nudge that action may be needful (it’s not meant to discourage you):


“Where do you stand at the moment?”


And perhaps, you might want to ask yourself this as well:


“Just what do I need to do from this moment?”


Please calm down here and think for a moment.


Despite the abovementioned study, certain proponents of the fat-and-fit-is-ok theory protested. They tried to pooh-pooh the study saying that it is limited since it relied on the candidates' self-reporting of their physical activity levels. Regardless of their adamance, this fact will never change:


The fatter and more physically inactive you are, the greater will be your risk of heart disease (and let me add, of other cardiovascular diseases as well). If you are fat but fit, that is good, but you only cut down on the risk of developing heart problems; it doesn’t cut out the risk entirely.

Therefore, it would be safest for you to trim up if you need to shed some pounds, and if you are unfit, to increase your physical activity as early as you can.


As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it’s not just increasing the risk of developing heart disease or diabetes type 2. Future research will prove my science-based conclusion, if it has not already been proven, that one who is fat or unfit carries with him or her great but avoidable risks of developing a vast number of diseases and ailments. One may not get all of them, but even getting one of these diseases/ ailments would be one too many, and will no doubt eventually become too much for him or her to bear, let alone getting a few of these complications, which is quite common!

If you have yet to be diagnosed of any physical disease or medical condition, remember the old adage, “Prevention is better than cure.”

But you say, “I’ve tried very hard for a long time, but fail.”

Well, seek the RIGHT help. Ask.

You can be trim and fit!


Till the next time, Happy trimming and exercising,
Ray Chee
E-mail me with comments or questions