Good sleep, exercise vital for better health: Expert

While many are petrified to even think of ageing and some have indulged even in solving the process superficially, a medical specialist from Bangkok has offered five ways to do so.

“Good sleep. Rest is essential for health. Aim for eight hours of sleep each night. Personally, I am in bed at 10pm every day,” said Dr. Tanupol Virunhagarun.

He also said: “Eat healthily. Obesity and excess fat are harmful. Choose nutritious food for better health. Exercise regularly. Aim for 30 minutes five days a week. Avoid harmful substances. Stay away from pollution and do not smoke. Reduce alcohol in-take. These increase the risk for cancer. Think positive. Healthy mind equals healthy body. Overthinking and stress are unhealthy. Rest more. Worry less.”

Numerous times repeated by other healthcare workers and consultants as these have yet been so oftentimes ignored because it involves lifestyle change – at least in the past 10 years – Virunhagarun stressed the importance of these tips from the recent “Wellness Hub Thailand: The Future of Global Wellness.”

The forum, hosted by the Royal Thai Consulate General in Dubai and attended by healthcare networks across the UAE, is part of the government policy to raise international awareness on the Southeast Asian monarchy, as the place to go to for the holistic approach to over-all health by way of Preventive Medicine.

Interviewed ahead, government emissary Virunhagarun, the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services chief executive officer, clarified that Preventive Medicine is synonymous to Wellness/Lifestyle Medicine.

On why wellness matters – compared to those years when medical consultation was the course of action when one’s health is at its severest, Virunhagarun, replied: “Getting sick costs too much money. Obesity is high anywhere in the world. Diabetes is everywhere. We are now in the Ageing Society. We must keep our elderly healthy. Otherwise the world would go bankrupt. The most recent pandemic also taught us to give premium to our health. Or else, we may face the worst.”

Meanwhile on ageing, the United Nations, alongside other international bodies, such as the 38-country Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, into the formulation of policies towards continuous improvements on economic and social well-being around the world, have classified the sexagenarians as the elderly: “By the late 2070s, the 65-year-old and older are projected to reach 2.2 billion, surpassing the number of children under aged 18.”

A decade by now, there would be 265 million senior citizens, with the octogenarians outnumbering infants.

On his active participation in the Preventive/Wellness/Lifestyle Medicine campaign, Virunhagarun who had opted to be in this specialisation 20 years back, as an aftermath of the demise of his grandfather due to lung cancer, when he was a medical student, said: “Why did the family not learn of it earlier? There must have been early preventive measures.”

That led him to enroll at the American Board of Anti-Ageing and Regenerative Medicine in Illinois. Moreover, he studied sexual health, weight loss, bariatric procedures, music wellness for de-stressing and mental health, nutrition specialisation for the deceleration of the ageing process, as well as meditation.

Virunhagarun, famous in Thailand as Dr. Amp, the medical social media influencer with two million followers, said that with all the non-communicable diseases continually threatening the socio-economic fabric of practically all countries worldwide, the answer is going back to wise healthy living.

“Before the pandemic, while there were people who took care of their health, many did not care. Wellness Medicine has grown tremendously after COVID19. We now have the technology. We can check everything: memory cell, how much is your deep sleep, the age of your cells, the possibility of cancer,” said Virunhagarun, adding the health and wellness components of Thailand, namely nature and environment, cuisine, traditional medicine and massage, among others.

These, as the Florida-headquartered Global Wellness Institute, the leading non-profit research and educational entity for the wellness industry, noted that as Thailand “saw a contraction in 2020 due to the pandemic, declining by 31.6 per cent,” a 28.4 per cent rebound growth was noted between 2022 and 2023.

Main instigator is wellness tourism which generated $12.34 billion in 2023. Each international medical tourism guest spends $1,735 per trip. Local medical tourist shells out $367.