05/09/2019
- Doctor who helped 13-year-old girl recover says demands on her to do well at school induced condition
- Weibo poll reveals that 68 per cent of participants had hair loss in school
Studies and polls suggest stress leading to hair loss is a big health concern in China. Photo: Alamy
When the 13-year-old girl walked into the hospital in southern China around eight months ago, she was almost completely bald, and her eyebrows and eyelashes had gone.
“The patient came with a hat on and did not look very confident,” Shi Ge, a dermatologist at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, told the Pear Video news portal.
The girl had done well in primary school but her grades dropped in middle school, Shi said.
Under parental pressure to do well, the girl pushed herself harder, but the stress resulted in severe hair loss.
With time and medical treatment, the teen’s hair grew back but her story left a lasting impression, raising awareness of the increasing number of young people in China seeking treatment for stress-induced hair loss, according to Chinese media reports.
Jia Lijun, a doctor at Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, told state-run Xinhua News Agency in May that aside from genetics, factors such as stress in work, study and life would result in endocrine imbalances which affected the cycle of hair growth.
And in January, a survey of 1,900 people by China Youth Daily found that 64.1 per cent of people aged between 18 and 35 said they had hair loss resulting from long and irregular working hours, insomnia, and mental stress.
Hits and myths: stress and hair loss
Shi said that an increasing number of young people had come to her for treatment of hair loss in recent years, and those working in information technology and white-collar jobs were the two biggest groups.
“They usually could not sleep well at night due to high pressure or had an irregular diet because of frequent business trips,” Shi said.
A Weibo poll on Wednesday revealed that 68 per cent out of 47,000 respondents said they had had serious hair loss when they were in school. About 22 per cent said they noticed after starting their careers, while only 5 per cent said it happened after they entered middle age.
More than half of the Chinese students who took part in a China Youth Daily survey said they had hair loss. Photo Shutterstock
Research published in 2017 by AliHealth, the health and medical unit of the Alibaba Group, found that 36.1 per cent of Chinese people born in the 1990s had hair loss, compared to the 38.5 per cent born in the 1980s. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.
The teenager’s experience sparked a heated discussion on Weibo, with users recounting similar cases and some voicing their panic.
“My niece’s hair was gone while she was in high school and has not recovered, even after she graduated from university. This makes her feel more and more inferior,” one user said.
Hong Kong’s schoolchildren are stressed out – and their parents are making matters worse
Another said: “I lost a small portion of my hair during the high school entrance exam, but that is already scary enough for a girl in her adolescence.”
“I had to quit my job and seek treatment,” said a third, who adding that he also suffered from very serious hair loss a few months ago because of high pressure.
Source: SCMP
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27/06/2019
- Both individuals and businesses need to play their part in lowering carbon emissions, and increasing the city’s proportion of clean energy seems inevitable
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With two-thirds of Hong Kong’s carbon emissions coming from power generation, increasing the proportion of clean energy seems inevitable.
Switching off all air conditioning to achieve zero carbon emissions may sound a little extreme. But it underlines the challenges in fighting global warming, a common goal that involves behavioural and institutional changes from all stakeholders.
As the threats loom larger and the clock for action ticks faster, it is time we made tough choices. The options for Hong Kong have been mapped out in the public consultation on the long-term decarbonisation strategy, with the focus being drawn to importing more nuclear energy from across the border.
The idea strikes a raw nerve, not just because it touches on the issue of nuclear safety, but also resistance arising from the perceived higher reliance on the mainland. The lack of information about the actual impact on electricity tariffs also makes discussion difficult.
With two-thirds of the city’s carbon emissions coming from power generation, increasing the proportion of clean energy seems inevitable.
Currently, nuclear power from the mainland accounts for about a quarter of our energy supply. As long as safety is not an issue, there is no reason why we cannot develop on that basis, along with more use of solar and other renewable energies.
In addition to other institutional options such as phasing out polluting fuels for vehicles and introducing more incentives for green buildings, a great deal can be achieved at both individual and corporate levels.
For example, air conditioning will be just as comfortable when set at 24 degrees Celsius instead of 21. Cutting down on fashion and plastic consumption helps, as can replacing business trips by video conferencing.
How far are you willing to go to save planet from climate change?
These changes are simple and easy to do, but they go a long way in saving our planet.
To combat climate change, the Paris Agreement has set a carbon reduction target to keep the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
A small city like ours may seem too little to make an impact on climate change. But as a responsible global citizen and a heavily developed world city, we have a duty to help mitigate the impact.
The consultation has put the relevant issues into perspective in a timely manner. For the sake of sustainable development and the well-being of future generations, tough choices will have to be made.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Air conditioning, business trips, carbon emissions, carbon reduction target, climate change, electricity tariffs, fashion and plastic consumption, future generations, global warming, green buildings, Hong Kong, lie ahead, Nuclear power, Paris Agreement, power generation, Sustainable development, Tough choices, Uncategorized, video conferencing, zero carbon emissions |
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