Category: Health

About the Smog in Santiago

On By AndréIn Chile, expat, Health, SmogLeave a comment

I have lived in Chile for over a year now and if you remember back my biggest fear was the smog.

Here are my words on this topic from May 2009:

As Smog was one of my main concerns about living in Santiago I will be reporting about it throughout the winter

Since I do receive a fair bit of traffic from people searching for Smog combined with Santiago I wanted to give my impression: The smog in Santiago was not a big problem for me!! Yes it is easy to produce pictures that look awful and disgusting (usually from the top of Cerro Saint Cristobal) but if you are down there on the street in Las Condes then it is not that bad or at least it does not feel it for me. I cannot tell you about the center of Santiago because I did not go there this winter.

In May I started a poll.  Here is the result of the Poll:

The question was: What about the smog in Santiago

 

There is one important point to bear in mind: Continue reading “About the Smog in Santiago” →

Biking – skating on Sundays (roads are closed)

On By AndréIn Chile, expat, HealthLeave a comment

I have not done much sport lately because I never really found good paths for roller blading (inline skating) here in Santiago.

Today I found out about that there are streets closed for cars in La Reina just for cyclists every sunday. The even better news is that this will be extended to La Florida, Lo Prado, Providencia, and Santiago. I will let you know once I have done it. I will be back in Chile beginning of June. More info on the CicloRecreoVía here. 

There is more info on the Spanish version on the site including a map. Looks like Las Condes also closes a street on Sundays. http://www.ciclorecreovia.cl/ciclorecreovia-las-condes/

Diet and Teeth 12 Caries (ouch)

On By AndréIn Diet, Health5 Comments

Image from Wikipedia - thanks When I was in Mexico I decided to go to the Dentist as I had not been in three years. I am 32 and usually went to the Dentist once per year. All I ever heard from a Dentist was: “You have good teeth and there is nothing we need to do. No Caries. Well done.

In Mexico this changed. I went to a doctor Liz and her mum knew very well and they trusted him. I asked him for a deep clean and went there to hear “You have good teeth and there is nothing we need to do. No Caries. Well done. But it came different:

He counted a total of 9 Caries. I did not want to believe him. Liz and her mum told me that he is trusted but I just could not believe it. I had not changed the way I clean my teeth nothing. So I decided not to have them fixed since he wanted around USD 1,500 for the fix. It was good I did not fix them because the price is a lot higher then I have now been quoted in Chile.

A month after the surprising diagnosis I went to a Columbian Dentist which my friends Victor and Carola recommended. She is Columbian and has started working here in Chile in a Dental Practice three years ago. She made 4 radiographs explained to me that…

…she found 12 Caries !?!

 

She also gave me a very reasonable quotation. It will be 400 000 CLP which is about USD 675.00. A lot of money but considering 12 Caries and no use of Amalgam

 

Now I asked both the dentist in Mexico WHY?? What changed? How can that be possible. But they both did not give me a good answer. I changed my diet three years ago because I was getting fat. I discovered to have an intolerance against Fructose and Gluten and at the same time decided I don’t like the taste of Milk anymore. I think the culprit was Calcium. I did not take enough Calcium. See this article as a great reference but I will surely be doing more research on that.