I was eating my favorite sisig in Almer’s canteen when I received a text message about Ely Buendia’s heart attack.
Buendia, 36, the former front man of the defunct ‘90’s band Eraserheads, was reportedly performing onstage with his present band Pupil, when he felt a sudden pain in the chest and a numbness in his left arm. He was rushed to the Asian Hospital in Alabang where he was given angioplasty to clear his blocked arteries. Tests made on him later revealed that two of his arteries were blocked.
Incidentally, former PBA and UST cager Guido Babilonia passed away last Jan. 14 due to heart failure. He was 40.
It seems that heart-related diseases are affecting the younger generations. Be it a rock artist or an athlete, no one is spared from heart diseases that remain to be the leading cause of death in the country. Hypertension, if left unchecked, can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, or blindness.
According to the Department of Health, around 8.6 million Filipinos are hypertensive and only 13.6 per cent of these are aware of their condition.
Of course, the risk of hypertension is greater for young people living a less than healthy lifestyle. If you smoke and drink alcohol excessively, weigh 10 per cent less than your ideal body weight, love to feast on salty, fried or greasy foods, live a stressful life, and hardly make the effort to burn yours fats and calories, do not be surprised if you see yourself one day lying in the hospital for heart attack.
Lifestyle modification is still the way to do it. This means less sisig for me.
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NEW Year spells new beginnings. In the case of the Varsitarian, it means a new home.
After months of waiting, the “V” has finally moved to its new and more spacious newsroom, which is, according to Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist and former V editor in chief Rina Jimenez-David, “far roomier than any of the office it had occupied before.”
Nearly twice the area of the old office in Rm. 112 of the Main Bldg., the new office has a reception area, an information counter, a kitchen and dining area, a rest room, a huge working area for the staff, and separate offices for the publications adviser, editor in chief and the managing and associate editors.
National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, a former literary editor, led the ribbon-cutting of the new office, while the blessing was conducted by the alumni priests of the Varsitarian—Fr. Ed Lleva, Fr. Sid Marinay and Fr. Nick Lalog. The event coincided with the opening at the UST Museum of the Varsitarian exhibit, which tells the rich history of the 79-year-old paper. Due to insistent public demand, the Museum has extended the run of the exhibit until Feb. 15. Catch it.
