Features

By Mariam Hakim

Relationships and Couples Therapist

Depression is an isolating experience that can leave both partners feeling lost and afraid as it can seem very hard to understand for a person who has not experienced it.

A person suffering through it may exhibit some or all of the following: 

• Feelings of sadness, hopelessness and fearfulness 

• Anxiety and agitation

• Changes in appetite and weight; weight gain or weight loss

• Loss of energy and constant fatigue; small everyday mundane tasks can seem difficult to accomplish

• Sleep disturbances; too much or too little sleep

• Feeling down, worthless or guilty

• Irritability and angry outbursts

• Social withdrawal and isolation

• Apathy and a lack of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyable activities

• Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions

• Thoughts of death and or suicide

• Unexplained physical symptoms such as muscle pain, headaches or stomach pain

Even when depression is not severe, it can be quite overwhelming and debilitating for the person who is depressed. Here are tips on how to best help and support a partner:

Not attempting to coax or persuade a partner out of depression

Saying things like “just cheer up,” “life is good; you have nothing to be depressed about”, “be grateful for what you have” or “you’re not making enough of an effort” will only invalidate a partner’s illness and feelings. 

Depression is not about the person being negative or not counting their blessings; it is a complex illness caused by a combination of biological, genetic and environmental factors. Similarly, one would not tell a partner to just snap out of it if they were suffering from diabetes; one needs to learn more about depression.

Not taking a partner’s negativity personally

A partner with depression will often look, act and talk in negative ways. 

This should not be taken personally as being positive is not a choice; negativity is a symptom of illness and not something one can control.

Being there

A supportive partner often feels the need to know all the answers and find a solution, but just being present is enough to help a partner not feel alone. 

Cues should come from the depressed partner, but one can ask what and how to help. 

Being overprotective and worried are counterproductive; this will only make them feel worse because they are making one feel sad and anxious.

Encouraging and helping with treatment

People who suffer from depression do not always understand their symptoms nor recognise that they are going through depression. 

They often think this is something they just need to endure, but depression seldom becomes better on its own. 

A discussion about the symptoms and encouraging discussion about feelings is a good idea. 

You can also show an article that explains depression and the symptoms and treatment options. 

A psychotherapist can evaluate and diagnose depression, and advise if medication is needed.

Taking baby steps

Depression can be debilitating where every small task feels like a considerable effort. A loved one is not being difficult, stubborn or lazy; they should not be shamed or made to feel inadequate. 

One can encourage a depressed partner to set small goals and support themin their efforts towards achieving them. 

Showing understanding is better than showing disappointment when things do not go as planned because people with depression can easily feel guilty as they might believe that they are a burden on the people around them.

Taking care of one’s self

Supporting a partner through any kind of physical or mental illness can take a massive toll on physical and psychological well-being. 

One cannot pour from an empty cup so self-care must also be made a priority.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Children who are exposed to tobacco smoke from their fathers while they are in the womb may be more likely than those who are not to develop asthma by age six, according to a study of chemical changes to DNA. 

While prenatal smoke exposure has long been linked to an increased risk of childhood asthma, the current study offers fresh evidence that it is not just a pregnant mother’s smoking that can cause harm. 

Researchers followed 756 babies for six years. Almost one in four were exposed to tobacco by fathers who smoked while the child was developing in the womb; only three mothers smoked. 

Overall, 31 per cent of kids with fathers who smoked during pregnancy developed asthma by age 6, compared with 23 per cent of kids without fathers who smoked, the study found. 

Asthma was also more common among kids whose fathers were heavier smokers, senior study author Dr Kuender Yang of the National Defence Medical Centre in Taipei said by e-mail. 

“Children with prenatal paternal tobacco smoke exposure corresponding to more than 20 cigarettes per day had a significantly higher risk of developing asthma than those with less than 20 cigarettes per day and those without prenatal paternal tobacco smoke exposure,” Yang said. 

About 35 per cent of the kids with fathers who were heavier smokers developed asthma, compared with 25 per cent of children with fathers who were lighter smokers and 23 per cent of kids with fathers who did not smoke at all during pregnancy. 

Smoking by fathers during pregnancy was also associated with changes in methylation — a chemical code along the DNA strand that influences gene activity — on portions of genes involved in immune system function and the development of asthma. 

Researchers extracted infants’ DNA from cord blood immediately after birth and examined methylation along the DNA strand. The more fathers smoked during pregnancy, the more methylation increased on stretches of three specific genes that play a role in immune function. 

Children who had the greatest methylation increases at birth, affecting all three of these genes, had up to almost twice the risk of having asthma by age six as other kids in the study. 

While smoking by fathers during pregnancy was linked to childhood asthma, it did not appear to impact children’s sensitivity to allergens or total levels of IgE, an antibody associated with asthma. 

This suggests that the risk of asthma from tobacco exposure is unlike allergic asthma, which is driven by allergies or allergic sensitisation via IgE antibody, said Dr Avni Joshi, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic Children’s Centre in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved in the study.

The study was not designed to prove whether or how prenatal smoking exposure might directly cause so-called epigenetic changes, or how those changes cause asthma in children.

It is not yet clear how the alterations seen along the DNA strand where methylation increased might cause asthma, the study team notes in Frontiers in Genetics.

Still, the message to parents should be clear, Joshi said by e-mail.

 “Smoking is bad at ANY point in time: before the baby is born and after the baby is born,” Joshi said. “Many parents defer quitting until the baby is born, but this study stresses that the prenatal exposure to tobacco creates changes to the unborn child’s immune system, hence it is best to quit as a family decides to have children, even before the conception happens.”

More than three-quarters of antibiotic prescriptions written by dentists before dental procedures are unnecessary and might do more harm than good, a new US study found. 

Dentists write one of every ten antibiotic prescriptions in the United States, and despite national declines, antibiotic prescribing by dentists has held steady over the years, researchers wrote. 

Dentists need to be included in the public health conversation regarding appropriate antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance, lead author Katie Suda of the University of Illinois, Chicago, told Reuters Health by phone. 

Antibiotics before dental procedures are recommended for a small subset of patients with certain medical conditions, to prevent a serious heart infection that might arise from the release of oral bacteria into the bloodstream during the procedures. The infection, endocarditis, is an inflammation of the lining of the heart’s chambers and valves. 

To see if antibiotics are being prescribed for dental patients according to established guidelines, Suda and her team used an insurance database to analyse prescriptions written during 168,000 dental visits from 2011 to 2015. 

They found that 80.9 per cent of prescriptions for antibiotics to be taken before procedures were unnecessary. 

Among the 91,438 patients in the study, only 20.9 per cent had a cardiac condition that put them at the highest risk of developing endocarditis and warranted an antibiotic prescription. 

Patients with artificial joint implants had more than double the odds of receiving unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions compared with patients who did not have the implants. This is despite the fact that the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Dental Association now say people with prosthetic joint devices do not need antibiotics before dental procedures. 

In particular, the antibiotic clindamycin was highly likely to be unnecessarily prescribed. Clindamycin has been linked with a severe form of diarrhea known as Clostridium difficile (C. diff). A single dose of clindamycin carries the same risk of C. diff infection as a prolonged course of the antibiotic, the researchers wrote, making it all the more alarming that clindamycin was among the overused antibiotics. 

Misuse and overuse of antibiotics encourages bacteria to evolve and find ways to resist the medicines. The World Health Organisation has called antibiotic resistance a global health emergency. 

Why is there so much over-prescribing by dentists? Experts say dentists may face pressure from patients or patients’ cardiologists and orthopaedic surgeons, who insist on antibiotics. 

“Dentists feel like they are in a really tough position,” said Dr Emily Spivak of the University of Utah School of Medicine, who wrote an editorial that was published with the study. 

“They’re not physicians and they feel like they have to give [antibiotics] because they will be held accountable from the surgeon or the cardiologist if the patient gets an infection,” she told Reuters Health. 

Other factors driving unnecessary prescribing may include dentists’ lack of awareness of the most recent guidelines, lack of agreement with these guidelines and the practice of “defensive medicine”, experts said. 

Spivak, however, believes the current study may over-inflate the numbers as it includes only commercially insured patients. 

The “worried well” or those who suffer from health anxiety may be driving some of this prescribing, she added. 

Experts say patients should feel empowered to ask questions when their dentists prescribe antibiotics, and they should not pressure dentists to provide them with the drugs. 

 “An informed patient who asks questions can allow for a discussion between the dentist and the patient to truly understand whether they need an antibiotic,” Dr Salim Virani of the Baylor College of Medicine, told Reuters Health by e-mail.

WASHINGTON — Women who sleep with the television or a light on in the bedroom may be more likely to gain weight, according to a new study published on Monday.

The research, which was published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine, relied on a survey of almost 44,000 US women, with a follow-up five years later.

The women were classified according to their level of exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN), which came from a variety of sources, from small nightlights or clock radios to light shining in from the street to televisions or room lights.

One of the key findings was that women who slept with a television or a light on in the room were 17 per cent more likely to have gained 5 kilogrammes or more during the study period.

The correlation remained strong even after controlling for factors like sleep duration, diet, and physical activity.

Although the authors cautioned they could not definitely draw a causal link, they said their findings added to a growing body of evidence that supports sleeping in a dark room.

“Public health strategies to decrease obesity might consider interventions aimed at reducing ALAN while sleeping,” wrote Dale Sandler and Yong-Moon Mark Park of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina and coauthors.

They suggested that the light may be suppressing production of melatonin, thereby disruption circadian rhythm and eating patterns.

Other possibilities were that light acts as a “chronic stressor” disrupting the release of stress hormones such as glucocorticoids that play a part in regulating food intake, or that there may be another mechanism at work that affects metabolism directly.

The authors acknowledged several limitations including that the data was self-reported and they did not know how intense various light sources were.

High light exposure may also “reflect a constellation of measures of socioeconomic disadvantage and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, all of which could contribute to weight gain and obesity”.

Commenting on the paper, Malcolm von Schantz, a professor of Chronobiology at the University of Surrey in Britain said: “What is novel with this paper is that it is a longitudinal study comparing the weight of the same individuals at baseline and more than five years later.”

He added: “These new findings won’t change the advice to maintain good sleep hygiene, and avoid light and electronic distractions in the bedroom, but they add further strength to the case for this advice.”

To a company or an organisation, the IT (Information Technology) department is what the nervous system is to a human body. Nothing would function without it. This is hardly an exaggeration.

Ever since business has been structured in a modern manner, the accounting and the HR (the human resources, previously called “personnel administration”) departments, among others, have been found in virtually all companies, enterprises, organisations and corporations. At least once they reached a certain size.

For the last thirty years or so, another department has joined them, gaining more and more significance, to the point of exceeding all others with time. It is the IT department. Understanding its importance is easy. Everything goes through computers and networks these days, including the workflow of older departments such as accounting and HR. They just cannot operate anymore without proper, efficient and fast servers, networks and application software.

In other words, virtually all functions in an organisation would simply come to a full stop if the IT would fail. The fact that ever larger parts of work are done online since circa 2010 adds to the importance of the IT team. Think of online banking, shopping, airline reservations, and such. Would they work at all without top notch, reliable IT services?

And, yet, some organisations fail to understand this and take an outdated, rather conservative approach to their handling of the IT operations. In their mind information technology is needed alright, but only like a burden you cannot do without, like just another additional accessory, a department that costs a lot in the end, and whose significance, whose role is greatly exaggerated. Whereas it really should be sitting at the top of the organisational pyramid.

The fact is that IT does cost a lot. When you add up the price of the qualified human resources required to manage and to handle it properly, the cost of the equipment, of the software and the never-ending upgrades, the money and the effort it takes to replace server computers every six years or so, you get an alarming bill. And yet, it is more than worth it in terms of ROI (return on investment). This is not a department where you can cut corners, where you would skimp. Good managers know it all too well.

In business size matters. The larger the corporation and the readier it is to invest big amounts of money and effort in its IT services. Take Amazon for instance — probably the ultimate example. You can say that its success story is 75 per cent IT and 25 per cent good management, innovative, daring ideas and warehousing.

However, smaller businesses should realise that betting on IT from the very start is the way to ensure growth, profitability and sustainability. On the other hand, organisations that are not built for profit-making, such as government institutions for instance, face a different difficulty: they have to work on pre-defined, often tight budgets, while they still have to run efficient IT departments. Theirs certainly is quite a challenge.

Back to businesses, and to name only a few striking success stories of IT teams among Jordan’s large companies: we can cite the Arab Bank, Aramex, the Housing Bank and Hikma Pharmaceuticals. It is not an overstatement to say that the quality of their IT services directly helped them grow and become what they are and as profitable as they are, in addition to the great reputation they enjoy with the population.

Using consistent bedtime strategies such as allowing infants to fall asleep on their own can improve their sleep, New Zealand researchers say. 

Children whose parents used these strategies were more likely to sleep longer and have fewer bedtime behavioural difficulties, the researchers wrote in the journal Sleep Health. 

“It’s really hard being a parent, and we we’d like to be able to tell them which strategies to implement that will actually help,” said lead study author Burt Hatch of the University of California at Davis MIND Institute in Sacramento. 

About a third of infants experience sleep difficulties, such as trouble falling asleep or repeatedly waking throughout the night, the study authors wrote. These sleep problems are often associated with difficulties during later development, including anxiety, aggression and impulsivity. 

“Although consistency around bedtime has always been thought to be important, there’s not much data around parents implementing it or the long-term effects,” he told Reuters Health by phone. 

Hatch and colleagues analysed data from a randomised controlled trial that was primarily designed to study ways to prevent infants from becoming overweight. As part of that study, parents were educated about appropriate ways to manage an infant’s sleep with minimal interference. Emphasis was placed on putting infants down to sleep when tired but still awake, allowing them to fall asleep on their own without touching or feeding, providing a consistent environment for infants to sleep in, and minimising parents sleeping with their infants on the same bed. 

The research team surveyed parents during the fourth and sixth months after birth to learn how often they followed the strategies. Then, three and a half years later, they asked parents to rate difficulties with bedtime resistance, sleep initiation and nighttime waking. 

About 15 per cent of parents used the four strategies consistently, with younger moms more likely to use more strategies. At the same time, moms who experienced maternal depression were less likely to use the bedtime strategies. 

Importantly, children were more likely to have sleep self-control by age three if more bedtime strategies were used and were more likely to have sleep difficulties if their mother had maternal depression. Consistent bedtime routines helped sleep duration as well. 

“The most important message here is that parents can make simple changes that have both an immediate impact and long-term impact,” Jodi Mindell of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told Reuters Health by phone. Mindell, who was not involved with this study, researches pediatric sleep disorders. 

A limitation of the study is that it lacked diversity, Hatch said. This intervention was focused on one maternity hospital in New Zealand that serves mostly Caucasian, college-educated parents. These programmes should be offered to higher risk groups, including different socioeconomic levels and those with a history of depression, he said. 

“We often find that expectant mothers are largely focused on the birth as opposed to the many challenges that come after that process,” said Liora Kempler of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia. Kempler, who was not involved with this study, researches maternal and infant sleep after childbirth, especially among first-time mothers. 

Although most perinatal programmes offer advice about pain relief, feeding and sleep after birth, the 

“I believe it’s useful for pregnant women to educate themselves about parenting over time and how their behaviour can impact their infant,” Kempler told Reuters Health by e-mail. “This not only helps them make informed decisions but gives them confidence in making those decisions, rather than being confused by the variable and often conflicting advice offered by Dr Google and well-meaning family and friends.” 

While many people can pick up on signs of postpartum depression in new mothers, the same signs are often mistaken for something else or missed entirely in fathers, a British study suggests. 

There needs to be greater awareness that the mental health disorder can occur in either parent for up to a year after the birth of a child, researchers say. 

New fathers, like mothers, can grapple with anxiety, depression and traumas and also struggle to bond with their babies, said Mark Williams, founder of Fathers Reaching Out, a UK-based charity that promotes mental health awareness. Williams was not involved in the new study. 

In fact, a previously published research review found that one in four fathers experienced postpartum depression within three to six months after a child was born. 

Study leader Viren Swami, a professor of social psychology at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, started researching the subject after he was diagnosed with the disorder after the birth of his son. 

“Once I was diagnosed, I wanted to do more research into it and find out why so many people, like myself, think that men can’t get postnatal depression,” Swami told Reuters Health via phone. 

Swami and his colleagues recruited 406 volunteers, ages 18 to 70, and had them read two vignettes describing almost identical situations where the subject suffered from postpartum depression, but one with a man and another with a woman. 

Participants were initially asked if they believed anything was wrong with the subjects. Almost everyone — 97 per cent — responded ‘yes’ for the vignette with the woman, and 79.5 per cent responded ‘yes’ for the male. 

Next, participants were asked what they thought was wrong. In the case of the mother, 90.1 per cent correctly listed postpartum depression, postnatal depression or depression, while only 46.4 per cent did so for the father. 

Answers listing “baby blues” as the reason were scored as incorrect because this kind of short-lived mood swing is different from postnatal or postpartum depression and usually resolves within a week after birth, Swami and his team write in the Journal of Mental Health. 

For the woman, a clear majority of 92.9 per cent said depression was the problem. 

Among those who did feel something was off with the man in the case study, 61 per cent correctly thought it could be some form of depression. But 20.8 per cent thought the father’s symptoms could be stress, 11 per cent responded with tiredness and stress and a few others said it could be anxiety, feeling neglected or “baby blues”. 

The invisibility of their depression may force fathers to cope on their own instead of seeking professional help, the research team says. 

One shortcoming of the study is that participants were recruited online, so they may not represent all adults, the researchers note. 

“Because many people do not realise that men can get PND [postnatal depression], it is easier [to] minimise the symptoms, the severity of PND or the need to reach out and seek help,” said Brandon Eddy, an assistant professor from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who was not involved in the study. 

But some of the new results are encouraging, he said. 

“Although a much higher percentage of respondents recognised PND in women, there was still a substantial amount that recognised PND in father,” Eddy said via e-mail. 

“There are many fathers out there who suffer from PND who think they are alone and nobody sees their suffering. More people are beginning to recognise that paternal PND is real,” he added. 

Previous research has shown that educational programmes about maternal postnatal depression can improve awareness of the disease, the researchers wrote. 

“Similarly rigorous programmes to support new fathers and raise awareness of paternal postnatal depression are now urgently required,” they said. 

People who eat lots of ultra-processed foods are more likely to develop heart disease and to die sooner than those who stick with foods in their original form, two large studies conclude. 

Heavily processed foods are often high in sugar, fat and empty calories. Consuming lots of these foods has long been linked to an increased risk of a wide variety of health problems that can lead to heart disease or an early grave, such as obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, cancer and depression. 

Now, two studies published in The BMJ offer fresh evidence of the health risks of ultra-processed foods. One study linked eating more than four daily servings of ultra-processed foods to a 62 per cent higher risk of premature death compared with eating little or none of these foods. The other tied every 10 percentage-point increase in the share of the diet made up of ultra-processed foods to more than a 10 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. 

“In modern society the food environment is dominated by the ready availability of relatively cheap and accessible ultra-processed foods that are constantly marketed,” said Mark Lawrence, a public health and nutrition professor at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia and author of an editorial accompanying the studies. 

“It is difficult for anyone to avoid these social pressures to consume ultra-processed foods,” Lawrence said by e-mail. 

Neither study was designed to determine whether or how ultra-processed foods might directly cause health problems or premature death. 

It is possible, however, that chemical additives and industrial processing that alters the cellular structure of foods both play a role, Lawrence said. 

“In other words, it’s not just about the presence in these foods of so-called ‘risk’ nutrients such as sodium and saturated fat,” Lawrence said. 

The study of ultra-processed foods and mortality surveyed roughly 20,000 people primarily in Spain, ages 20 to 91, about their eating habits every two years from 1999 to 2014. During that period, 335 participants died. 

People who ate the most processed foods — averaging more than five servings a day — were also more likely to be obese, smokers, frequent snackers, regular television watchers and to have conditions like cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and depression. 

The study of ultra-processed foods and cardiovascular disease risk gave an average of six diet surveys to about 105,000 adults in France over two years. Researchers followed the participants for an average of around five years, starting when they were about 43 years old. 

During the study, a total of 1,409 first-time cardiovascular disease events like heart attacks and strokes occurred. 

Compared with people who consumed the least amount of processed foods, those who ate the most were 12 per cent more likely to have cardiovascular disease, 13 per cent more likely to have coronary heart disease and 11 per cent more likely to have cerebrovascular disease. 

“There is an association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, when all lifestyle factors were accounted for, and these associations are not fully explained by the nutritional quality of these ultra-processed foods,” lead study author Bernard Srour of the University of Paris said by e-mail. 

Both studies relied on participants to accurately recall what they ate, which can be unreliable. Another drawback is the potential for many factors that lead people to buy ultra-processed foods like poverty or limited education to independently contribute to heart disease and premature death. 

Still, people should try to avoid or limit heavily processed foods. 

“Frequent consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with poorer health, and more mortality,” said Maira Bes-Rastrollo of the University of Navarra, senior author of the mortality study. 

 “We do not know if some are worse than others,” Bes-Rastrollo said by e-mail.

Designed specifically for electrification rather than adapted from a regular combustion engine model, the Hyundai Ioniq is offered in three guises including hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric, as driven. An efficient, quiet and smooth commuter with decent range and re-charge times, the Ioniq Electric is well-engineered, well-executed and competitively priced with EV rivals like the Chevrolet Bolt and Renault Zoe. Particularly adept for commuting, it also competes well against similarly sized combustion engine cars, including its own Hyundai Elantra saloon sister, with which it shares certain basic and aesthetic similarities.

Smooth style

Incorporating lightweight components including its bonnet and tailgate, to keep its weight somewhat restrained next to some similarly sized EVs to reduce energy consumption and improve driving characteristics, the Ioniq Electric’s Lithium-ion batteries are also some 20 per cent lighter than many competitors. 

In terms of design, it is a low-slung and arcing fastback-like five-door hatchback with smooth flowing surfacing, squinting headlights and aerodynamically optimised design. Its batteries are meanwhile positioned under the boot for a lower driving position and profile, rather than under the cabin, as some other taller and specifically designed EVs.

Most noticeably different in aesthetic with a smooth grey enclosed cover in place in place of Ioniq Hybrid versions’ broad hexagonal grille, the Ionic Electric only features slim lower and small gill-like vertical side air inlets. Combined with its smooth shape and extensive underbody coverings, the Ioniq Electric achieves excellent aerodynamic efficiency for reduced wind resistance and noise. Meanwhile, behind its encased fascia, the Ionic Electric is powered by a permanent magnet synchronous electric motor driving the front wheels through a single-speed automatic gearbox for seamlessly uninterrupted power delivery.

Torque and traction

A quicker and more versatile drive than its maximum 118BHP power output figure suggests, the Ioniq Electric instead relies on and rides on a continuously abundant and broad wave of torque, peaking at 217lb/ft. Muscualr and flexible on the move and willingly responsive at highway speeds, the Hyundai Electric dashes through the 0-100km/h benchmark in a reasonably brisk 9.9-seconds and onto a 165km/h top speed, which is noticeable high than many EV competitors, yet still limited by motor revs and its single gear ratio, so less than comparable with combustion engine models. 

Rich in torque, the Ionic Electric overtakes with confidence, climbs inclines with ease and is responsive from standstill. However, with so much torque going through the front wheels and their efficient low rolling resistance 205/55R16 tyres, the Ioniq Electric does have to claw away to find traction on steep inclines with overly smooth low traction tarmac, as its electronic traction control cuts power to avoid wheelspin. Similarly, through hard driven corners and switchbacks, one also needs to very gently ease in the accelerator by a corner’s apex to avoid provoking torque steer and understeer.

Refined ride

However, one suspects that changing to grippier tyres would be better suited to Jordanian roads, even if at a slight cost to energy efficiency and range. That said, one found the Ioniq Electric’s trip computer more accurately predicted range than many others, while driving range itself may not be the best in the segment at 280km under ideal conditions, but is sufficient in real world driving conditions for typical commuter driving, while the upside is that the Ioniq’s smaller, lighter batteries less adversely affect driving dynamic, efficiency and braking than other EVs with heavier batteries. 

A smooth, refined and comfortable ride on highway and in town, the Ioniq Electric feels alert, responsive and manoeuvrable in the city, with its quick 2.66-turn steering. Driven hard through brisk switchbacks the Ioniq Electric remains reassuring, agile and comfortably capable, despite its use of a lighter more compact rear torsion beam suspension in place of the Hybrid version’s more sophisticated multi-link set-up. However, being more comfort-oriented, it is not quite in its element driven like a hot hatch, and feels slightly aloof, with its electronic stability controls diligently helping out.

Well-equipped 

and efficient

Absorbent and stable at speed with its relatively long wheelbase, the Ioniq Electric could benefit from slightly firmer damping for a tauter more grounded feel over rouger patches of tarmac. Inside, it is quiet and comfortable with well-adjustable front seating and a partially open centre console adding more space, width and an airier ambiance, compared with Hybrid versions. Fit, finish, materials and layouts are pretty good and rear legroom generous, but its rakish roofline reduces rear headroom for tall passengers. Boot space is meanwhile slightly less than Hybrid versions owing to bigger potteries, but its usefully flat 350-litres expands to 1,410-litres with rear seats folded

Well-equipped, the Ioniq Electric’s usefully features a reversing camera, parking sensors and blindspot warnings to compensate for side and rear visibility. Offered at JD22,500 on the road from the official local dealership the Ioniq Electric is compelling choice in the EV segment, and comes with free six month access to Hyundai’s fast charge dealership facility, with conveniently quick 30-minute zero-80 per cent charging. Using a home wall charger unit, charge time increases to four hours 25 minutes, while plugging into a regular wall socket increases the charge time to 12-hours.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Permanent magnet synchronous motor

Gearbox: 1-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Gear ratio: 7.412:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 118 (120) [88]

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 217 (295)

Battery type, capacity/voltage: Lithium-ion polymer, 28kwh/360v

0-100km/h: 9.9-seconds

Top speed: 165km/h

Charging time, mains charging, 240v/7kw wallbox: 12-/4-hours, 25-minutes

Charging time, 50kw fast charger, 0-80 per cent: approximately 30-minutes

Energy consumption: 11.5kWh/100km

Maximum range: 280km

Length: 4,470mm

Width: 1,820mm

Height: 1,450mm

Wheelbase: 2,700mm

Track, F/R: 1,555/1,564mm

Headroom, F/R: 994/950mm

Legroom, F/R: 1073/906mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1425/1396mm

Cargo volume, min/max: 350-/1,410-litres

Payload: 405-460kg

Kerb weight: 1,420-1,475kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Steering: Electric-assisted, rack and pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.66-turns

Steering ratio: 13.9:1

Turning circle: 10.6-metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 279mm/discs, 284mm, regenerative braking

Tyres: 205/55R16

Price, starting from: JD22,500 (on-the-road, comprehensive insurance)

By Dina Halaseh

Educational Psychologist

We talk about keeping our body healthy but what about our brain? Let us embark on a journey into the brain! Here are the four ingredients for a healthy brain. 

Step 1: Exercise

One of the advantages of exercising is increasing the flow of blood throughout the body, including the brain. This increases the oxygen in the brain and helps improve mental sharpness. Comparing elderly people who exercise to those who do not, we see a massive influence from exercise on their cognitive functions. Skills such as response time were higher amongst active persons.

It is never too late though; you can get the benefit of exercise if you start today! Exercise helps build neural connection and increases the neurons’ ability to withstand stress and resist damage. Starting a new sport or working out in any way will enhance cognitive skills.

Step 2: Sleep

Who does not enjoy sleeping? We spend such a huge part of our lives doing so, but is it actually important?

Sleep is a vital component to our health in general and to our brain in specific. This is a missed point among many parents. Sleepdeprived students tend to have trouble with impulsivity and motivation, as well as lower brain function in general.

For younger students, just having them sleep well and exercise will instantly improve their academic performance. Not getting enough sleep not only makes us cranky, but it also affects our attention, executive function, reasoning ability and overall skills.

The exact amount of sleep needed is different from one person to another. It changes with time due to many factors including age, pregnancy and gender.

Step 3: Diet

No need to think twice to understand that eating habits impact the central nervous system. We all know how it feels after a huge meal; no one can function well. Imagine doing so regularly; what will that do to your brain?

Science shows us that even if overeating does not cause obesity, it will still impair brain function.

We always worry about how overeating may cause diabetes, heart disease or obesity, but in reality, it also results in weaker brain function. To maintain a healthy functioning brain, our food should be filled with leafy greens, Omega-3 fatty acids, raw walnuts, fish, avocado, broccoli, oranges and berries, all of which actually boost brain power. Staying away from sugar seems like an impossible task, but once the addiction is broken, it becomes much easier.

Step 4: Brain training

Use it or lose it! Brain exercises are just as important as physical exercises. If you want to keep your brain sharp and healthy, you need to ensure you allow your brain to build new brain cells and neural connection. Continuous learning and trying new things will enable you to develop new skills and help your brain adapt and respond to challenge in a much better and improved way. Here are a few tips on how you can do this:

• Learning new things and going back to studying helps you stay sharp and fight mental decline.

• Pursuing a new hobby — learning a new language, music or even art improves your brain ability. The more you challenge yourself, the better it is for you in the long run!

• Solving crosswords, sudoku, chess and online brain training games. These games help increase mental skills. This needs commitment and perseverance from your end, and just like physical exercising, to improve, you need to do this continuously.

We always ensure that we are medically healthy, that is a given. When we are sick, we aim to get better. Yet we forget that being healthy is not as simple as not getting sick. By merely striving to stick to exercising more, eating better, sleeper longer and training our brain, we ensure that our brain gets what it needs to stay healthy.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine