There Are More People Visiting GP Clinic During World Cup Season

By
Chew Ming Hui
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Last Updated on 2022-12-26 , 1:53 pm

Falling sick from staying up all night watching the World Cup? Perhaps you’re just sick of watching your favourite teams lose, or losing all your World Cup bets.

You’re not the only one.

More people are visiting GP clinics during this World Cup season. Here’s why.

Increase in Number Of People Falling Sick During World Cup Season

Several of the most electrifying matches played in the international football tournament, this year hosted by Qatar, have been played in the wee hours of the night.

That means that if you wanted to catch your favourite players in action in real time, you had to acquaint yourself with sleepless nights.

We’ve all been through it at least once—the heavy eyelids, big yawns, looking at the sky slowly getting brighter and thinking to yourself: “Oh no…”.

It’s the classic Singaporean experience, except this time you’re not staying up to rush a deadline from yesterday. You’re staying up to watch Portugal flush your money down the—I mean, to enjoy the wonders of football.

Dr Chua Guan Kiat from Chua Medical Clinic and Surgery, a clinic situated in Bukit Batok Town Centre, shared that there has been a rise in the number of patients at the clinic by approximately 10% this World Cup season.

Most of these patients had ailments arising from a lack of sleep, such as acid reflux or headaches.

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Dr Chua also shared that a lack of sleep weakens one’s immune system, meaning that these night owls are more prone to illnesses like the common cold.

Yet, this isn’t just a problem unique to the World Cup season.

Burning The Midnight Oil As A Norm in Singapore 

Even when it isn’t the World Cup season, Singaporeans still seem to fall sick frequently. This is often attributed to the highly stressful environment that we live and work in.

From never-ending assignments to tasks that miraculously “should have been done yesterday”, many Singaporeans stay up all the time to get their work done while under the impossible pressures of today’s working world.

Burning the midnight oil, however, only worsens one’s health. This is especially so for those with existing health conditions such as high blood pressure or high blood sugar.

Dr Chua added that with the World Cup coming to a close, football fans should start catching up on their sleep as soon as possible. This is to avoid any health problems arising from prolonged sleep deprivation.

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Ms Loo Xiao Pei from Ann Yu Li Medical Hall, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic in Bukit Gombak, also emphasised the importance of catching up on sleep.

Usually, sleeping in the following day helps one to catch up on their sleep. However, opportunities to sleep in rarely come by given that many have to get busy with work the next morning.

In such situations, Ms Loo urged football fans to watch match replays instead of staying up to watch the matches in real time.

General Rise in Flu Cases This December

This month has also seen a general rise in respiratory infection cases by up to 20 per cent.

Fullerton Health, which has more than 30 clinics spread across the island, has seen a substantial increase in patient visits while flu cases almost double. It’s the same story over at Healthway Medical.

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And don’t forget that we still have to deal with COVID-19 too. Another COVID-19 wave is imminent, given the large number of Singaporeans travelling this month and the upcoming festivities like Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

To cope with such hikes in respiratory infection cases, clinics are rushing to ensure sufficient medication is available.

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Featured Image: Facebook (Shin Min Daily News) + Google Maps (Chua Medical Clinic and Surgery)

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Chew Ming Hui
Email: [email protected]