This is not a blog.
It is a record of thinking — clinical observations, questions worth asking, things the research says that rarely make it into a consultation room.
Written slowly. Published when ready.
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The Quiet Practice That Keeps Me Sane — And Helps Your Skin
I want to be careful about how I describe this, because the concept has been so thoroughly colonised by the wellness industry that it is now very hard to discuss without sounding like a brand campaign. But the practice is real, it is daily, and the effect on my functioning — and on the skin…
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Competing in Hyrox at 51: The Limits We Invent
I finished my last Hyrox event six minutes slower than I wanted to. I know exactly where the time went: the sled push in the second half, where my hips protested more than I’d anticipated and I had to reduce push pace to manage the load. I walked out of the event genuinely frustrated. Then…
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Why I Wake at 5:30am Every Day — And What It Does
The first thing I do after waking at 5:30 is nothing. I lie still for approximately two minutes. Not meditating — just allowing the transition from sleep to waking without immediately reaching for my phone or assembling the day’s agenda in my head. This is not instinct. It is deliberate, and it is the result…
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The Mental Shift That Changed How I Think About Ageing
I spent years in this profession thinking about ageing as a problem to be solved. Not consciously, and not in those terms — but in practice, that was the frame. Every patient who came in presented a version of the ageing problem, and my role was to identify the problem’s components and address them with…
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Decoding the “Tired” Face: 5 Surprising Biological Truths About Your Vitality and Appearance
Your face can reveal more than fatigue. Dr Low Chai Ling explores the biology behind the tired face, from sleep and cortisol to body geometry, regeneration and muscle health.
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Why ‘Listen to Your Body’ Is Bad Advice — And What Works
“Just listen to your body.” I hear this advice given constantly — by trainers, by wellness influencers, by well-meaning friends, occasionally by physicians who should know better. It sounds like wisdom. It sounds like the antidote to the over-medicalised, over-quantified approach to health. It is, in most situations, genuinely unhelpful. And in some situations, it…
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Retinol: Is It Really the Gold Standard? What I Prescribe
A patient came in last year having used retinol for six months with no visible results. She had faithfully applied it twice a week, as instructed, to her whole face. She had experienced some initial flakiness, which had settled. But the changes she’d hoped to see — better skin texture, reduced lines, improved tone —…
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Clean Beauty Trend: What the Science Actually Says
A patient came in recently having replaced her entire skincare routine over six months. Not because the products weren’t working — they were. She replaced them because she’d read extensively about “toxic” ingredients and had become concerned that her retinoid and her SPF contained things that were harmful. Her new routine contained none of those…
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Anti-Ageing Diet Myths — What the Science Actually Says
Every year or so, a new dietary framework arrives with complete confidence. For a while it’s intermittent fasting. Then it’s carnivore. Then it’s plant-based plus supplements. Then it’s some version of the Mediterranean diet, but specifically Mediterranean-from-before-industrialisation, and please mind the olive oil provenance. I read these things as they arrive. Professionally, I have to.…
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Why SPF 50 Isn’t Enough in Singapore
Singapore sits at 1.3 degrees north of the equator. We have no winter. No meaningful cloud cover that persists for more than a day. UV index above 6 — the level at which protective measures are recommended — is the norm here, not the exception. We reach UV index 12 and above on clear days,…
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