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“Then I started to feel ill and very tired. I stopped menstruating too,” the family office manager told the Post.
Lau is among Hong Kong millennials who have struggled against a variety of hidden health issues aggravated by the pandemic and the city’s stringent measures including lockdowns, social-distancing rules and the closure of various premises.
A survey of more than 500 Hongkongers aged 25 to 40 found that 86 per cent had physical issues such as shoulder, neck and back pain and sleeping problems, while 30 per cent had mental health problems, with 25 per cent suffering from anxiety and 16 per cent cent experiencing depression.
Hongkongers have battled to lead healthy lifestyles even as they were forced to work from home and gyms were closed. Photo: Shutterstock
More than half said they did not have enough time to maintain a healthy lifestyle, with 45 per cent saying they did physical exercise less than once a week.
Commissioned by medical insurance firm Bupa and held in July and August last year, the survey revealed that about 60 per cent of psychological counseling claims were made by millennials, more than three times higher than by any other age group.
Beauty queen Lau took part in the Miss Global 2019 contest in Mexico in early 2020, just before the pandemic struck.
Her bouts of “revenge eating” occurred during the lockdown that year, a big change from being careful with her diet.
She sought help from a counselor in December 2020, when she was alarmed by her weight gain and health issues.
It took a year to put her eating disorder behind her and she got back in shape sufficiently to take part in the Miss Supranational 2022 held in Poland last July.
Lau is sharing her story because she wants other millennials facing similar issues to care for their mental health. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
“I’ve learned to relax and leave my personal stress behind and move on. I started to feel good about myself again,” said Lau, who made the top 20 among the contestants.
Her experience inspired the #sheisrare campaign she created for last year’s beauty pageant, with the message that every woman should admire herself, regardless of being tall or short, fat or thin, young or old.
She agreed to speak to the Post about her eating disorder because she wanted other millennials facing similar issues to care for their mental health.
University administrator Daniel Chow*, 33, blamed the pandemic for his weight gain, saying it stopped him from exercising.
The 176cm tall father of one went from 77kg before the pandemic to over 90kg early last year. At his biggest, his waistline expanded from 84cm to 104cm.
“Before the pandemic, I used to swim or jog regularly. But I stopped exercising after we had to put on a mask and I started working from home,” he said.
“When I could no longer squeeze into my trousers, I knew the seriousness of my situation,” he said.
Chow finally had a thorough check-up and discovered he had high cholesterol, putting him at risk of having a heart attack and stroke.
He went on a diet, lost about 5kg, and started on medication to bring down and control his cholesterol level.
Dr Geoffrey Lau Yue-young, medical director of western medicine at Quality Healthcare Medical Services, said there was a growing trend of millennials having “the three highs” – high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood sugar.
Their hidden chronic conditions, including obesity and fatty liver disease, emerged after many young people had check-ups during the pandemic to confirm if they were fit to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Lau said Hong Kong’s strict pandemic curbs had discouraged people from going outdoors and exercising, while the battered economy had also triggered many cases of depression as people worried about dwindling income and pressure from work.
Quality Healthcare noted an increase in check-ups by millennials between 2020 and 2022, with a sharper rise among men than women.
Lau advised people to have a health screening as early as possible and undergo regular physical check-ups to find any hidden conditions and get appropriate treatment.
He said a 20-year-old patient found out early that she had a fatty liver and was able to rectify it by changing her diet and exercising outdoors.
“Identifying hidden conditions earlier allows people to improve their health or prevent chronic diseases by correcting bad habits,” he said.
*Name changed at the interviewee’s request
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